Kovacevic: The Steelers' offense, free of Canada, finally lets it all fly

CINCINNATI -- No, it wasn’t part of some nefarious plan.

But man, it might as well have been, huh?

Here's how one veteran member of the offense recalled for me the Steelers' first snap from scrimmage Sunday at Paycor Stadium: "First play ... are you kidding me? Play-action? Check. Throw to the tight end? Check. Throw across the middle? Check. What am I missing?"

Well, it also was a throw rather than a predictable first-down run, I remarked back, referring to Kenny Pickett's 24-yard strike for Pat Freiermuth to the midfield stripe ...

... a slice of sweetness that'd set the stage for beating the Bengals, 16-10, and ... maybe a bit of a bonus?

"Crazy, right?" this veteran would continue before unveiling the wryest of grins. "You think he was watching?"

Matt Canada?

The coordinator so uncoordinated he couldn't call a play-action pass, or a pass to the tight end, or a pass across the middle, or a pass on first down ... to save his coaching life?

Oh, I replied, I'd take that bet.

The veteran leaned way back lounge-style in his stall and smiled, not speaking another syllable.

____________________

That's how it was, all across the most buoyant postgame setting of this 7-4 season by such a broad margin that there's no close second, with video evidence courtesy of Keeanu Benton's Instagram account:

That was before the doors were open to reporters. But I can attest from being just outside those doors, they were dancing right off their hinges, as well.

And why not, right?

The Steelers' offense, operating for the first time under Canada's replacements, Mike Sullivan and Eddie Faulkner, amassed 421 yards, a figure so striking in full context that it requires buckling up for a double-digit barrage of bullets:

• It was their first 400-yard game since Week 2 of the 2020 season, a span of 58 games that includes all 44 of Canada's games as coordinator.

• In that same span, every other NFL franchise had at least four 400-yard games.

• The 421 yards were the most since Week 16 of 2018.

• The Bengals were held to 222 yards, meaning the Steelers finally outgained an opponent this season ... and almost by 200 yards.

• Pickett completed 24 of 37 passes for 278 yards, the second-highest yardage of his career, trailing only the 327 he put up last season against the Bill due to attempting 52 passes in a blowout loss.

• Freiermuth made nine catches on 11 targets for 120 yards, tripling his season total, which had been 60.

• Eight different receivers caught a pass, and this without Najee Harris being targeted once. Four different wide receivers and three different tight ends caught at least one pass.

• George Pickens and Diontae Johnson, who'd appeared to be taking targets from each other beforehand, split work smoothly enough that Pickens had three catches for 58 yards, Johnson four catches for 50 yards.

• In all, there were a season-high six plays that produced 20-plus yards, two of those being runs by Harris.

• The running game, which had already been surging for a month, still was superb with 153 yards: 99 from Harris, 49 from Jaylen Warren. Which meant nothing had to be sacrificed for all else to occur.

Coincidence?

LOL, as the cool kids say.

Look, I'm not about to join anyone's dance on Canada's coaching carcass, if only because it's all been said. And to be blunt, there was a lot less of that from these players than I'd anticipated. I mean, including the anecdote shared above, there wouldn't turn out to be anything more inflammatory than the soft-spoken Warren observing that the big before/after differences for the offense were "more communication and more ... I don’t know how to say this without being too explicit ... but more willingness to take shots. Taking more risks.”

A real zinger there, huh?

No, what wound up happening here would be so much more satisfying for all concerned than anything anyone could've said. Because it came through action and, to the best of my ability to gauge such stuff, it brought affirmation of what they'd all felt about the talent at hand.

 “I think we came together as a unit," Pickett would say. "Huge shoutout to Coach Sully and Coach Faulk. I think those guys did a great job preparing us this week. I think we did a great job of coming together and staying together in a time of adversity, coming on the road and getting the really big-time hits in a win that we needed. It feels good.”

Big-time hits should feel good. Maybe more for him than anyone, especially after that excremental showing a week earlier in Cleveland, arguably the low point of his still-natal NFL career.

Remember all those passing charts of his that looked like pancakes?

Check out this one:

NFL NEXT GEN STATS

Mm-hm. Those two green dots atop the middle of the field were both to Freiermuth, for 24 and 29 yards. That region had been football Sahara for the Steelers under Canada, with almost no exceptions in recent weeks for whatever reason.

But honestly, my favorite thing about those two plays was that, in my view, they made the other two even higher green dots possible, those being the deep sideline connections with Johnson, then Pickens:

That's how it goes. It's hand in hand.

"We did everything together, everybody involved, everybody as one," Calvin Austin told me. "It's all in our hands. We believe in ourselves. We believe in each other. So let's go, you know?"

I know because this is part of it, too:

My goodness. Don't bypass that one. And once play's been pressed, let it run to the end.

I've criticized Harris at times this season, but give it up for this dude for talking the talk in Cleveland, then for carrying the Cincinnati franchise for 20 whole yards on the above sequence, the likes of which I'm not sure I'd witnessed.

Harris didn't make himself available to reporters after this one, just as he hasn't since Canada's firing, but Tomlin had already spoken plenty on Harris' behalf, saying when asked about that specific run, "He’s our down-in and down-out ball-toter. He doesn’t get a lot of credit because of the nature of how he plays and the style we play. But that attrition component is significant, and we’re always appreciative of his efforts.”

Hand in hand. Just like the inside/outside routes. Just like the running back tandem.

But here's the headline on the day, and here's where I boomerang back to Canada: Someone's gotta make it make sense.

___________________

So no, as much fun as it'd be to think otherwise, that opening play wasn't scripted to put forth any message to anyone, internally or now externally. Rather, as everyone from Tomlin down would affirm, it was aimed at pouncing on the two-high safety shells they'd expected to see from the Cincinnati secondary. And did.

As Tomlin would acknowledge, "We attacked down the field early when they were in split safeties. We weren’t going to let them sit in that comfortably all day.”

The two principal participants on this play were on that same page, as well.

“Yeah, it was playing off of what they were showing defensively," Pickett would say. "It felt like they were showing a lot of middle field open coverages where we need Pat to step up and be big for us, which he was, having some one-on-one routes to move the chains. I think Pat had an unbelievable game."

Which isn't bad fresh off missing six weeks to a hamstring strain, then being targeted once a week ago in Cleveland.

I asked if he'd anticipated being so busy:

“Not to this extent. But I thought going into the game, if they gave us two-high like they’ve been doing a lot in the past, that I could have a big game, for sure.”

See, my friends, this is scheming. Strategizing.

Now, do I know that Canada couldn't have conceived something akin to this on his own?

Of course not. But I've got three years of overwhelming evidence as precedent, and I'll stand safely behind that.

I've also got this: The Steelers knew what the Bengals' defense hoped to achieve against them -- stop the run, go hard at Pickett, knife off the sidelines -- and, rather than simply avoiding it, they attacked it. They regularly, borderline religiously had three tight ends on the field, with Connor Heyward and Darnell Washington joining Freiermuth, hoping to keep the Bengals in their base formation for as many snaps as possible. Although that'd obviously make it harder for Harris and Warren to run, that wasn't a worry, since those two had just trampled the Browns' run defense in Cleveland, and the Bengals are infinitely inferior in this facet. So, from there, they'd be able to run and, ideally, pass. Including deep.

If they weren't afraid. And if they were using all available weapons.

Check and check on those, too.

“Flow of the game," was what Johnson had to say of the feeling on the field. "The calls were just coming in, and everybody was doing their job. Just seeing the energy was different. We were moving the ball, playing our part, and we were able to get the job done.”

More seizing upon strengths. More usage of more players. More route options for the receivers and the quarterback.

More points?

Eh, maybe next time, but Johnson had a touchdown nullified that undeniably could've been challenged and overturned by Tomlin -- and I know this because he didn't deny it when I asked -- that would've brought a welcome-for-this-group 23 offensive points. That's not nothing.

More from the opponent?

No question. The Bengals aren't good at anything right about now. There've been better. There'll be better. But the reason I'm not about to make a big deal over this is that, for all their flaws, they still were effective on the pass rush, still held the Steelers to three points at halftime, still showed quality coverage on all of these deep balls I've described. Plays still had to be made. And were.

More from the Steelers' offense?

Uh, let's just say this ain't it. And don't make me dig into Dan Moore's dismal day as Exhibit A. If Tomlin and his staff aren't already weighing ways to get Chuks Okorafor back onto the line, they should. Moore can quash all of this before it even gets going.

Pickett was asked if anything about this event had brought relief.

“Yeah, I wouldn't say we're relieved," he'd reply without hesitation. "I would say we always knew what we're capable of doing. It’s just putting it together. And we still haven’t 100 percent put it together. We were driving really good today, but it felt like we left points out there. But you’ve got to take the positives and continue to march forward, which is what we plan on doing."

Tomlin took it further, wanting nothing to do with a question I'd put forth about the circumstances that'd been overcome this week by the coaches and players.

“I’m not worried about the circumstances," he came back. "That’s our job, and we did it.”

Almost as if there was an actual plan.

TAYLOR OLLASON / STEELERS

Pat Freiermuth bursts through the Bengals' secondary Sunday in Cincinnati.

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THE IN-GAME INJURIES

• Steelers: George Pickens, wide receiver, had the wind knocked out of him up attempting a deep catch but returned and afterward told me he's fine. Calvin Austin, wide receiver, had his ankle twisted on a late punt return, but he, too, told me he's fine. Those were the only two injuries cited by Tomlin.

• Bengals: Logan Wilson, linebacker, hurt his ankle in the fourth quarter and didn't return. Zac Taylor had no further word.

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE SCHEDULE

Here come two in a row at Acrisure Stadium, next Sunday against the Cardinals and the following Thursday against the Patriots.

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