Halicke: Offense's systemic issues painfully plain to see in the details

With a December collapse in full swing, Mike Tomlin is under a lot of fire for the 'losing football' his team's playing. And there's valid reason for concern here. 

Sure, the players aren't without blame. Mitch Trubisky can't apparently keep Mason Rudolph -- a quarterback no other team wanted in free agency -- as a distant third quarterback on the depth chart. George Pickens, in spite of all his freakish talent and athleticism, can't get out of his own way and make a simple run block downfield in favor of bunny-hopping over a grounded defender. 

However, the coaching deserves a lot of blame for what is happening, especially on offense. On defense, at least injuries are a legitimate reason for their failures. The middle of the defense has been decimated time and time again by injuries. 

On offense, the proof of their failure lies in the details, which are absolutely atrocious. It really doesn't matter whether Matt Canada's the offensive coordinator or since Eddie Faulkner and Mike Sullivan took over. Any attention to detail is not translating to stadiums, and it's on a consistent basis, week after week.

When you hear the players and coordinators speak throughout the week, "details" are mentioned pretty frequently. Some might not know exactly what is meant by it, so I'm going to use the offensive woes to show multiple examples of what to look for and why a lack of details makes for an anemic, sloppy offense in which even basic plays or concepts seem so difficult to execute. And, I'm going to use examples from games both before and after Canada was fired.

Without players being buttoned up on their details, game planning and play calling almost don't matter. It compounds every single issue on offense.

First, let's start with a pivotal miss on third down in the Steelers' 30-13 loss to the Colts:

This should be a simple completion for a first down. Pat Freiermuth's route typically calls for one of two things: Sit down against zone coverage or run away from man coverage. The Colts are in zone coverage, so Freiermuth goes to sit in the soft spot. However, he doesn't really sit. He turns to sit, then kind of keeps drifting to his left (Trubisky's right). Because of that, Trubisky fires his throw well behind Freiermuth.

I've slowed down the play so you can better see where Freiermuth is when Trubisky begins to throw the ball. His throw goes right to the spot where Freiermuth turned around to sit down in the coverage. That's why after the play, you can see Trubisky telling Freiermuth, "Pat! Sit down. Sit down."

Detail in route-running is everything. It's something that can help transcend speed and quickness for a lot of receivers and tight ends. This is sloppy route running. There's no reason to keep drifting when the coverage dictates to sit down.

Plays like these should be slam dunks. And those are few and far between in this offense. When you hear people such as myself or anyone else who breaks down this offense say this system isn't friendly for quarterbacks, it's because it lacks easy answers for the defense far too often. Sometimes, the opposing defense just wins. They call a coverage that matches up well against the concepts that are called. However, there should still be easy alternatives for quarterbacks more often.

One way to do that is to have checkdowns. On a lot of plays, running backs are these easiest options for these. Tight ends are, as well. But, when it comes to the running backs, having them work as checkdowns, simply put, is a mess.

Here's a play from Saturday in which Trubisky takes a sack:

Now, you could argue Connor Heyward is open on the drag route, but only when he comes out of his break. He's got a linebacker on him quickly after that. But, the problem is Jaylen Warren is so late in getting out as a checkdown. From the snap to the time Trubisky begins to be sacked, just a bit more than three seconds goes by. 

Why is there not a checkdown available after three seconds? It's a four-man rush. Warren's gotta recognize that and get out of the backfield. If the Steelers did their homework, they should know that the Colts are seeing opposing quarterbacks get rid of the ball in an average of 2.49 seconds, the third-fastest average in the NFL. Trubisky and the offense needed to have an internal clock of when the ball has to come out, regardless of how many Colts defenders were rushing.

The thing is, this checkdown issue is not just a Warren thing. The same thing is happening with Najee Harris, too:

This one from the loss to the Patriots is even more baffling. Harris doesn't even go out to be a checkdown. That puts the Steelers in max protection against a four-man rush. Why is this not being coached to the running backs? Get out there and be a checkdown for the quarterback. Look at all of that space underneath the Dagger concept at the top of the screen. If Harris goes out to be a checkdown, you get easy yards there. Yes, Trubisky gets a first down with his legs, but that is not always guaranteed. It's always easier to gain yards by throwing the ball than tucking and running. It's also a good way to put your quarterback at risk.

This is simple stuff that's lacking from the offense. Easy solutions for yards. The Steelers don't have nearly enough. If it were just one running back not doing it, that's on the player. It's both of them. And, it happens a lot.

If you don't take my word for it, how about former Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley, who tweeted about this while watching the loss to the Colts:

I'm not necessarily vouching for Haley to be the next offensive coordinator for this team. But, it sure is something when someone who's had success as a coordinator in this league points it out.

It's also worth pointing out that this was the Steelers' first offensive play of the game. Running Dagger out of play-action is cool, but staying in max protection against a four-man rush with no checkdown is a bad, bad look.

Here's another play from that loss to the Patriots, one that makes very little sense to me:

This run gets blown up by the cornerback coming off the edge. Now, notice where he is before Warren moves in motion to try and sell the jet sweep. With the Steelers stacking Warren behind Miles Boykin, you're keeping the cornerback away from the edge. But, as soon as Warren moves in motion, that brings another defender up on the line, where there's already five defenders, and it brings him into the play side. At that point, it's simply a numbers game in the defense's favor.

This is more of a scheme issue than a detail issue, but I want to point it out anyway. Motion should either help dictate what coverage the defense is in or stress the defense into choosing one thing or the other. This is motion for the sake of doing motion. It should always favor the offense and never the defense. The Patriots, nor any other team in the league is going to be fooled by this. Even if they do hand off to Warren, there are defenders there to swallow it up. Teams know how to defend jet sweeps nowadays. It's outdated football.

There's been a lot of talk about pass protection issues, and the details there are all over the place, as well. Here's an example from yet another first offensive play of the game, this one from Canada's coup de grace in Cleveland:

I don't know if you guys and gals know this, but Myles Garrett is a game wrecker. The Steelers know this and have it lined up for Freiermuth to help chip Garrett inside to make life a lot easier for Dan Moore. After all, if there's somewhere offensive linemen know they can't get beat in pass protection, it's inside. Yet, when Moore goes to get set up in pass protection, he steps to the outside. Look at Freiermuth. He waits to chip Garrett. When he sees Garrett rush inside, he then goes out for his route. Moore has to know this. Even if Garrett drove him backward, it still would have given Kenny Pickett a chance to find something before getting planted. 

Details in pass protection are all over the place. Really, it's all over the offensive line. Whether it's Mason Cole and James Daniels letting this happen ...

... or the number of illegal formation penalties the Steelers have taken, this team's details up front are a gigantic cluster-, well, I won't use that word. It's just bad. Really bad.

Even for plays that are called well and even executed well enough, the level of detail is still lacking. Here's the offense running a Drive concept against the Browns on third down:

NFL.COM

There's a lot I like with this iteration of the Drive concept. I like the switch release with Allen Robinson and Freiermuth as the second and third reads, respectively. I like the way the corner route by Pickens is used as a clear on Diontae Johnson's out route, and how Johnson trails behind him to use any potential rub to gain leverage. I like this quite a bit:

However, notice how quickly Pickens breaks on his corner route. It's about six or seven yards from the line of scrimmage. That's awfully shallow for this route. With the Browns showing one high, this could either be Cover 1 or Cover 3. Either way, a corner route should stress the defense more than it does. If it's Cover 1, the safety's gotta book it to get over and help. If it's Cover 3, the cornerback should be stretched out way more between the depth of Johnson's out route and Pickens' corner route. And, he would have been if it looked more like this (correction in red):

NFL.COM

Go back and watch the play and notice how cluttered the four players are when Johnson breaks out of his route. Now, imagine it if Pickens runs a deeper route. That would put way more stress on the cornerback. And, with a well-timed throw, even give Johnson time and space for a few extra yards after the catch.

It's these finer details that help diagnose why things seem so much harder than they need to be on this offense. Windows for throws could be more open with better spaced route running. Here, in Week 15, there's still miscommunication and crappy route running with something as simple as sitting down on a quick hitch in zone coverage. Running backs either don't go out for checkdowns enough or they are insanely late with getting out there. Pass protection and standard procedure up front is still a gigantic mess.

If it's one or two issues, it's easier to pinpoint this on a player or two. But, this is a widely systemic issue. There are issues all across the board here. All of this compounds an uninspired, outdated playbook. It compounds shoddy play calling and game planning. And, it's an easy and logical answer to why just about everybody on this offense has regressed in 2023, regardless of their NFL experience.

When you watch these issues play out week after week, it's all the more reason to blow everything up. Regardless of what Art Rooney II decides regarding his head coach, the offensive staff has to be completely overhauled and rebuilt from the ground up. It might painfully waste a year of a lot of young players on this offense. But, it's something that must be done.

Tomlin had the best description of this team's play a couple weeks ago when he called it "J.V. football." That's because it's exactly what it is. This is Saturday or Friday night stuff. It definitely isn't made to do anything competitive on Sundays. That's for damn sure.