The One Big Change New Steelers OC Eddie Faulkner Will Make
PITTSBURGH — New Steelers interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner admitted that Rome can’t be built in one day. Will the scheme suddenly look vastly different? Probably not. It’s Week 12, and some tweaks will be made to maximize the talent on the offense; not everything can suddenly be flipped. But there is one area where Faulkner thinks he can make a difference: in the details.
Faulkner, even in the running back room, is someone who has preached the details. That comes down to communication and little areas that change the macro view of the play. Those can be fixed, and it seemed they were severely lacking under Matt Canada and his vision. Even if schematic changes are not wholesale, those detailed adjustments can be enough to spark the offense.
“Just me in general, I’m a detailed guy,” Faulkner said. “That’s how I operate. That’s how I operated the running back room, so that’s how I’m operating anything that has to do with the offense or staff. To make sure we’re squeezing down, being tightening up, closing all the space so when we go into a game the guys can execute and play fast. That’s the focus, and I feel like I can bring somebody to the table in that regard.”
Faulkner expressed bittersweet feelings about the opportunity he was granted at Canada’s expense. But this is the time for the Steelers to kick it into high gear for their playoff push. If the offense can even be an average group, that would greatly raise the floor for the team and allow them to compete with some of the better teams in the conference.
Faulkner understands the opportunity at hand, both for the team’s offense to right its play with a 6-4 start built it, and for his career. But he doesn’t exactly have time to wax rhapsodic about it. The Steelers made the change on Tuesday, and then got right back to practice on Wednesday as they prepare to face the Cincinnati Bengals in a crucial AFC North game this week.
Those details need to be sharp. The communication between everyone must be sharp. If those baseline things can at least improve, Pittsburgh’s offense, which is one of the worst units in football, can improve to one that has an average all-around showing week in and week out.
FULL COVERAGE of the Steelers Firing of Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada
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