PITTSBURGH — Matt Canada coached practice on Tuesday and remains the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator as the team enters its idle week, without an apparent move on the horizon.
Canada said after practice on Tuesday that he has not been given any specific assurances about his future, but that he anticipated remaining in his role despite a miserable start to the 2022 season for the Pittsburgh offense, including a No. 32 ranking in several statistical categories.
“I’m just working every day,” Canada said. “I feel pretty good about doing my job, getting this thing to where we want it to be and getting it fixed. That’s what I’m doing. I’m not privy to those [conversations.] …
“I’m not naive. My job is I call the plays, and if they don’t work, everybody can talk about why they don’t work. That’s all. I’m focusing on my players. We’ve got to win some games.”
The Steelers have only put up four offensive touchdowns in as many games. The team is limping into its bye week with a 2-6 record and outside noise is ramping up.
Rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett stressed that the unit has to be more in tune with the playbook after Sunday’s 35-13 loss to undefeated Philadelphia. Canada just wants miscues to be learned from and corrected.
“We’ve got to play better,” Canada said. “Whatever we have to do to do that. We cannot continue to make the mistakes that we’ve made and hurt ourselves. I’ve continued to say, ‘Until it’s fixed, it’s me.’ … We’ve got to get things off tape. We can’t make the same mistakes over and over.”
Some of the problems stem from players lining up incorrectly, penalties, and other self-inflicted troubles.
“There’s no excuse,” Canada said. “It’s unacceptable. We’ve got to address it more … Those are things that shouldn’t be happening at any point, let alone this point in the season.”
Schematically, the unit needs polishing before any extra wrinkles can be added.
“We’re keeping things fairly simple so we get things right,” Canada said. “We can’t build more until we get the mistakes gone.”