What?! Is Steelers Offense Trending Upward under Matt Canada?

There’s more to the story than meets the eye, Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada said of his unit’s shaky play.

On its face, the attack didn’t do well enough in the second half last Sunday against Cincinnati to leave with a victory. Most notably, it wasn’t able to take advantage of a T.J. Watt pick that set the Steelers up on the doorstep of the red zone with just over five minutes to go in the third frame.

“There’s all those things that you can add up and go through,” Canada said. “We didn’t score enough points to win the game. That’s just the way it is.”

There were some promising signs, however. After going three and out on their first possession, the Steelers put up points on each of their next four marches. 

“There’s a lot to be happy about with that,” Canada said. “Ultimately, winning is important and scoring is important.”

Despite averaging the sixth-fewest yards (312.2) and fifth-fewest points (17.0) per game, Canada expressed his confidence in his fellow staff members and his personnel.

“We’ve got a lot of good ideas, a lot of good plays, we’ve got really good players,” Canada said. “At times we’re executing well, at times we’re not. Some of that is, it doesn’t matter whose mistake it is. Until it’s all clean, it doesn’t work. That’s the beauty of offensive football.”

Because of that, opening up or adding to the playbook seems unlikely.

“You can’t do more if you’re having missed assignments,” Canada said. “That’s something we all talked about after … the bye. We had to minimize missed assignments, minimize those things, and try to execute at a higher level. You have to do enough to be competitive.”

On Monday night, the Steelers will match up with an offense that has had just as much — if not more — trouble than they have. Indianapolis ranks second-to-last in scoring, posting a meager 15.7 points per game.