Another day, more calls come in for the Steelers to eliminate Matt Canada. This time, it comes from sports talk show pundit Colin Cowherd, who has often compared the Steelers to a well-run restaurant with little upside. A lot of that belief is that Canada does not bring enough.
He thinks the Steelers spend too much on defense, but he likes their roster and even called them stacked at one point before the season. Yet, Pittsburgh is still treading water this year, with one dominant defensive performance marred by questions across the offense. Cowherd places most of those issues at the feet of Canada.
“There’s one suspect. There’s a dumpster fire and he’s holding a match and a can of gasoline — it’s Matt Canada. Get rid of him,” Cowherd said. “The receivers, the tight ends, the running backs, really good players. The defense is expensive, it’s Mike Tomlin’s, it’s fantastic. The GM, the culture, and Mike Tomlin’s never had a losing season—all checks in a good box. But you have the offensive line growth stymied for four years, quarterback Kenny Pickett has regressed, the running game more often inept than dynamic. It’s not a whodunnit. It’s a hedunnit. Matt Canada screwed this offense up. Move on. Stop looking for suspects, everyone in the room knows who it is.”
The boo birds rained down from the Acrisure Stadium stands after an abysmal 3rd and one call from Matt Canada. It came due, and Canada was in rare form on Monday. He did nothing to help his young, struggling quarterback. More than that, Canada’s 3rd and one call would be the talk of the town if the Steelers had not won, for good reason.
The play’s premise has Darnell Washington kicking out the read end, allowing Pickett to scramble around him and have open grass. But the linebacker walked down. As a result of that, Allen Robinson II had to dig out that linebacker. But because that linebacker squeezed toward the line and blitzed, the play ended on arrival.
Canada’s play calling continues to fall short and has, for now, three seasons. It is questionable that he even came back following last season. But so far this season, Canada is falling short of the equation. Pickett is not helping the box score by missing layups, but make no mistake, Canada is falling short of the mark here, too.