Who's to Blame for Steelers' Offensive Struggles?

Story by Yinzer Crazy Contributor Anthony DiCerbo. Follow him on Twitter @SnarfVenom

It is no secret that through two games the Steelers' offense is not performing well, and that is putting it nicely. In those two games, they have scored a total of two touchdowns, with the rest of the points either coming off the leg of Boswell or via the defense. 

With the offense struggling, and a rookie quarterback waiting in the wings, it shouldn’t be a surprise that, at least amongst fans, the finger-pointing has already started. The offensive side of the ball has several question marks, so that begs the question, is there really one thing that is to blame for the offensive struggles?

The most obvious answer to the previous question, and the one that you’ll probably be hearing the most, is Mitch Trubisky. I’ll be the first person to admit it, two games into the Trubisky experiment and I’m not feeling great, but I also don’t think he is entirely to blame either. 

There is obvious room for improvement with his game. His receivers are clearly frustrated with how things are going, and his passing chart shows why. Over two games Trubisky is very rarely going over the middle, only doing so three times in the loss to New England. One of those was the interception, another was the touchdown, and the other was incomplete.

12 of his 21 completions were within five yards of the line of scrimmage. The most frustrating thing is that the Steelers have weapons at the receiver position. Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, and George Pickens are more than capable, but the ball isn’t getting to them in the right situations. 

The next suspect is offensive coordinator Matt Canada. This was supposed to be the year where his entire offensive scheme was unleashed, and well… the Steelers have two touchdowns through two games. 

Opposing teams seem more than ready to deal with Canada’s motion-based offense that still relies on short and quick passes to try and move down the field. His offense struggles to move the chains, and while all the blame can’t go on him, after all, he isn’t the one executing it, the two games the Steelers have played don’t feel like theft were well called by Canada. 

One group that people are forgetting about is the Steelers offensive line. Credit where credit is due, through two games, their play is about as good as one could hope for after a really poor preseason. With that being said, they aren’t making this offense particularly easy to run. 

Coming into the season people thought that this would be a team that utilizes a solid ground game with Najee Harris to kill clock and then let the defense do the rest of the heavy lifting. So far the Steelers have 166 rushing yards. Najee has 72 yards on 25 carries for a rough 2.9 YPC. 

That forces the Steelers into longer third downs, which is definitely not where this team wants to be, and that is where another issue comes out. Despite what the players might say, on the field, it looks like Trubisky is still struggling to trust his offensive line. When he needs to sit back and make a throw Trubisky seems to rush things. Even when the line is doing an alright job, that trust isn’t quite there. 

The big takeaway here is that there isn’t one issue that is plaguing the offense. Swapping out one problem for another won’t magically solve the issues. Though the team may eventually decide to make a swap to Pickett, fixing this offense will take improvement from all areas, and it isn’t going to happen overnight.