After Randy Fichtner and Matt Canada, Steelers fans have been craving a real offensive coordinator. After 14-plus minutes spent with reporters Thursday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, there's no doubt this team has one.
The weekly meeting with the coordinators can feel very obligatory for reporters, especially with the recent coordinators. Trying to get answers for whatever's happening on the field, good or bad, felt like a gargantuan task. It not only makes our job more difficult, but we're still conjuring up answers for what's really left unknown.
Smith's meeting with reporters Thursday was a breath of fresh air, for a number of reasons. Not only did he provide quality answers on the questions asked, but you saw the passion with which he cares about the job, with which he cares about this offense getting everything right. Praising the good, but also delving into where the unit needs to improve. Explaining the minutiae without sounding too technical or using a bunch of football jargon that can confuse fans.
Easily my favorite answer in the whole press conference was when I asked him about the performance of his offensive line and where they still have to grow. No, it wasn't my favorite just because it was my question. Just a great answer that shows his passion for good offensive line play:
"We're always a work in progress. The best teams, obviously you want to grow as you're stacking wins and the improvement, but we want to be playing our best football going into the postseason. And that's what the good teams do historically, year after year, you're always a work in progress," Smith said. "For those guys, two and a half rookies, however you want to categorize Broderick [Jones]. A new line, especially the new center on the road, against a veteran defense. Somebody asked me the question, how do you protect them? You don't want to give them any strategy, but we wanted to control the line of scrimmage. A little blunt force trauma. Made it ugly, or pretty at times, depending on your perspective. And I thought, as a game wore on, we were able to possess the ball. I think 36 minutes, 11 in the fourth quarter. The one thing that I wish we had handled that long drive we had, we really could have gone for the kill shot there, and credit to them. They out-executed us on third-and-2 and fourth and one, but that took a lot of clock, and we were rolling them off the ball. So, as a coach, maybe I'm sick in the head, but that was beautiful to me."
Man, that's good stuff.
One thing that really stood out today was Smith's transparency on multiple topics. There are ways to be transparent and fair, but without overly praising guys or throwing them completely under the bus.
The way he lamented over not finishing the long drive in the fourth quarter is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Smith talked about wanting to go for the "kill shot," ending a drive that wound up taking more than seven minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter. The Steelers were up 15-10, pounding on the door and had a very manageable third-and-2 at the Atlanta 7-yard line. Should they have scored a touchdown, they would have gone up 22-10 with only seven minutes left in regulation.
Instead, a screen pass to Van Jefferson was held to one yard, then Nate Landman, as Smith put it, did his best Troy Polamalu impression and jumped over the top of the line on fourth down to stop Justin Fields from getting the first down, turning the ball over on downs. While the decision to go for it on fourth down was criticized by fans, Smith was more upset about the lack of execution on the third-down play.
Here's the play, an SRO (screen/run option):
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) September 12, 2024
In this type of a play, Fields reads the defense and either decides to hand the ball off for the run or throw the screen pass. These are great for stressing defenses horizontally.
But, to break it down, here is the coordinator himself:
"This game comes down to details. This isn't taking anything way, because I’ve got so much respect for the guys on the side and Jessie [Bates] and A.J. [Terrell]. They one-upped you, which we anticipated. They had shown it in the preseason. We're in 11 [personnel]. They go base. They brought the double backers, the double backer blast right in there. So you build in a run alert. So, Justin sees it. You've got what you wanted. The problem is, it's such a small margin. I don't want to sound like I'm taking anything away from Atlanta, but where that ball was caught, and the timing of that, that's the stuff you’ve got to clean up week-to-week. If you want to be a great offense, it's the small details. That play, when you’re looking on TV or from the common guy in the bar, it looks bad. And I said, I'm not taking anything from Atlanta, but you got to give yourself a better chance. You catch that thing earlier, you have better angles on that block, and you're one-on-one in the open-field tackling with a guy eight yards off and you see what happens. So, they out-executed us there."
That, my friends, is coaching. It's always a good thing to hear the offensive coordinator heavily emphasize details (that was unheard of when Canada was here). I spend a lot of time on here breaking down plays for everyone. But one thing I, nor anyone else, can say is what they're coaching for each specific play. Smith's transparency cuts through that. You can't argue with the man who designed and called the play.
Another thing that stood out was Smith's coaching decisions, which came in two different examples. First, he admitted a desire to want to pull out all the stops and try to score after the offense got back inside the 10-yard line following Donte Jackson's interception. Same as it was the last time they were inside the 10, the Steelers were up 15-10 and could have really put the game on ice with a touchdown.
But, after converting a third-and-5 with a 7-yard gain on a designed quarterback run and forcing the Falcons to burn their final timeout with just 2:16 remaining, it made all the sense in the world to run three straight plays and take as much time off the clock as possible. That's what they did, and Chris Boswell nailed the chip-shot field goal to take an eight-point lead with only 28 seconds left.
"Once he converted on that quarterback counter, that thing was over," Smith said. "We just bled the clock down. You know they're going to have to do something standard NFL 101 to zero [time left]. We didn't need to pick the ball up (and pass), although there was part of me that wanted to, but the game was over. That's how you lose the games. If they bring a whole, full team meeting in there and get a tip, something like that. So game was basically over."
Also, Smith confirmed the game plan was to avoid the middle of the field. He coached Jessie Bates III in Atlanta and knew exactly what Bates was capable of. He called him a game-wrecker and refused to let him do that.
"That was my respect to Jessie Bates. Again, don't let their best player wreck the game," Smith said. "I don't know why more people don't know about him, but he's arguably one of the top players in the league, and he wrecked Week 1 if you watched Week 1 last year. He damn near won it by himself. Two picks, almost got a third, forced a fumble late. And the way the game was going, we were able to stay ahead, and it allowed us to not try to let him affect it."
That, my friends, is coaching. Criticizing the man for not throwing to the middle of the field is easy fodder for anyone who wants to think this offense isn't capable of scoring points. Canada didn't do it, so since Smith didn't do it in Week 1, it's an easy -- and lazy -- argument to say "nothing's changed" or it's "the same old offense."
But, if Bill Belichick schemes up a game plan to neutralize the opposing team's best player, he's a football genius.
Bates had six tackles, but no splash plays, no takeaways and got lulled to sleep by Smith as the second half was coming to a close when Fields connected with Pickens on a momentum-flipping play just before half time to get a field goal before the break. I broke down the play in my most recent Chalk Talk, and Smith confirmed what I broke down in it: That Pickens was the primary read and it was trying to manipulate and attack Bates for a chunk play.
"We had a couple things for Jessie," Smith said. "He texted me and said, 'You caught me sleeping right at the half.' I said, 'Yeah, we wanted to lull you to sleep.' Get disinterested, and we set him up on that situationally. But he's a great player. Sometimes it's just very practical."
That, my friends, is coaching. Smith neutralized Bates by not using the middle of the field and found other ways to take chunks out of their defense. And, despite not using the middle of the field, Fields tallied three big-time throws, as defined by Pro Football Focus, the second-most in Week 1.
Smith put the success of the game plan more succinctly:
"Our Jason Bourne -- T.J. Watt -- wrecked the game. Theirs didn’t," Smith said. "That’s what the story of the game really was."
Enjoy this guy while he's the offensive coordinator here. Smith's a real one.
