How Long Will Steelers Woes Continue?

Story by Yinzer Crazy Contributor Ryan Fiore

It is truly painful to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers right now.

The Steelers fell to the Browns, 29-17, Thursday night in what was presumably Mitch Trubisky’s “best” game of the season so far. Trubisky rushed for seven yards, resulting in a touchdown and threw for 207 yards: the most he has thrown for this season.

My takeaway from these games is that nothing has changed from last season besides the quarterback. Sure, the Steelers are adjusting to a new quarterback, but the offensive line and play calling frustrations remain the same. The offense sits at 30th place for yards per game, as well as 21st in points in the league. 

Sorry, not sorry but Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada’s gotta go. The plays he calls are not designed for an NFL team, at least not one this elite. His plays are designed for a mobile quarterback, which Trubisky is not as much as we'd like to think, as he has rushed for 23 yards over the first three games. He doesn’t want Trubisky to throw down the middle of the field either. Instead, he designs thesese 2-3 yard screens that get you nowhere. As a result, Trubisky has only thrown for two touchdowns over the last three games. That’s a problem. 

I had high hopes for Trubisky, I really did. And I hate to say it but he’s not the guy. Sure, he was convincing in preseason but he’s just not the guy. I partially blame the play calling for that but he also has issues.

He also doesn’t trust his quarterback to audible on certain plays. I understand Trubisky is new to the Steelers, but he has been in the league six years. This isn’t his first rodeo. He should be allowed to change a play if he doesn’t feel it will have a high success rate. Canada didn’t even want Roethlisberger to audible last season. 

Roethlisberger spoke out on Canada’s play calling in his Footbahlin’ podcast, stating, “If you call a wide receiver screen, you’re throwing the wide receiver screen. If it goes for minus-two yards, that’s not in the quarterback. That’s not his fault that the screen goes for minus-two yards.”

It’s time for the Steelers to face it and realize that their team will not succeed with Matt Canada as their offensive coordinator. Honestly, Canada should’ve been gone at the end of last season. I know I am not the only one who is fed up with him. It is rumored that members of the team and Steelers organization are growing frustrated and are less than thrilled with Canada’s decisions on the field. And why shouldn’t they be? This is a team that wants to succeed, but they’re stuck with an offensive coordinator that doesn’t know how to design plays for a highly skilled football team.

It just doesn’t make sense to me how they beat the Bengals (barely) but fell to the Patriots and the Browns. I realize they are without their star outside linebacker TJ Watt, but with all that talent on the defense, I am not convinced that they can’t function without Watt. Sure, they had two sacks on Brissett, but they had a hard time stopping Browns running back Nick Chubb from gaining yardage. 

It just feels like they’ll do anything to better the defense but when it comes to offense, they’re not blinking an eye. The most I’ve seen them do for the offense is mark center Kendrick Green as inactive for the first three games, as they should. But that’s it. You cannot honestly be satisfied with what you’re seeing from your offensive line week in and week out and you certainly can’t expect different results without changing anything. 

So what changes do you make for week 4? Do you fire Matt Canada mid-season and try to find someone better? Do you give Kenny Pickett a shot? Or do you roll with what you have and hope the problem will fix itself? Surely, the problem won’t fix itself, for offensive line woes began last season.

At some point, something’s gotta give and it comes back to Head Coach Mike Tomlin, who I’ve defended through and through. If Tomlin wants to win, he needs to do the right thing and make the changes necessary for this team.



So, start preparing yourselves to watch the Steelers’ drive themselves into their first losing season since 2003. All at the mercy of Matt Canada and Mitch Trubisky in the driver’s seat.