Dan Orlovsky Torches Steelers Offensive Playcalling: ‘They Don’t Call Plays to Win’
The Steelers’ offense is not impressing anyone, and they have little idea how to fix the mess. That all comes on the heels of Pittsburgh actually taking strides in one key area of the offense – the run game.
That makes their struggles through the air even more curious. Teams are still dictating looks despite Pittsburgh running the ball in the passing game. And Pittsburgh can run the ball against good defenses with single-high looks and has punished two-high with great success. But teams don’t care, mainly because Pittsburgh may boast the worst passing offense in football now. When asked how to fix it, Mike Tomlin sidestepped the question entirely.
But Matt Canada’s job on Sunday against the Browns appeared to be yet another substandard effort from the group. Canada’s inherent scheme is flawed, hurting Pittsburgh each week they play on the field. But the group has really struggled to get anything going through the air for the past month.
On ESPN’s Get Up, former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky had plenty of thoughts on Canada and what the group was doing, and he had no idea what the team was thinking or doing on most of their plays. He does not believe they call games to win but to lose.
“This offense just calls plays, they don’t call an offense,” Orlovsky said. “They’re just taking plays and seeing if it works. First of all, they’re not good enough to live in 11 personnel, that’s one back and one tight end, and they’re not good enough. You got to the end of this game and George Pickens is their best player on offense and he doesn’t get the ball. Pickens doesn’t get a ball thrown to him? There’s three straight balls thrown to Diontae Johnson. Now, Johnson is a good player, but we don’t get 14 the ball. There’s multiple moments between the quarterback and wide receivers, and with the game on the line, with a chance, we don’t throw that guy the ball? There’s no way that you can watch that game and tell me that the Steelers call an offense trying to win the game. They call an offense hoping they don’t lose the game. Kenny Pickett, all that stuff, this offense is as boring, standstill, if you’re a Steelers fan you know the play before they even snap the ball. It’s a complete failure with how great this defense is to move forward with what you are presenting on the field on a daily basis.”
Pittsburgh has made mistake after mistake each week on offense. Now, it has led them to where they are now at a crossroads. Something has to improve, and if it does not, Pittsburgh will likely continue to tumble down the rankings. Orlovksy is correct on all of this, and the playcalling sets them back from the very beginning of the game.
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