PITTSBURGH — The Steelers are 1-2 and the season is young enough that they can recover and still make a playoff run. But in order for that to happen, a few things have to change because what they are doing, especially on offense, is not working.
One thing that will help dramatically is beyond anyone’s control, and that is the defense needs to get healthy. I am sure if the Steelers defense can get to full strength, it will be a unit that is good enough to win games. The defense hasn’t been dominant, but it also hasn’t been the reason the Steelers aren’t winning.
The largest issue is the offense cannot possibly survive in its current state. And I am not talking about an offensive line that is struggling, an old, aging quarterback who can’t make the plays he used to, or receivers who are inconsistent catching passes.
Those things can all improve, but it won’t matter if the offense doesn’t identify what it is and then commit to being that.
This offense has no identity because it is trying to serve two masters with different agendas — Ben Roethlisberger and Matt Canada. And while Roethlisberger is the Hall of Famer who has done great things, the only way this works is if the Steelers stop trying to appease him and force him to run the offense they hired Canada to run.
I thought the hire of Canada was a bad one and said as much at the time. He had never run an NFL offense, but more importantly, his offensive philosophy is completely the opposite of Roethlisberger. So it was the ultimate example of a square peg trying to be fit into a round hole.
One guy wants to develop a dominant running game, the other guy still thinks he is capable of being the focal point of the offense and throwing the ball 50 times a game. He can’t, and it is clear the time has come for the Steelers to start treating him as if he is a game manager.
The only way this season can be a success is if Roethlisberger checks his ego at the door and begins to allow Canada to install his run-centric offense. He needs to channel his inner Peyton Manning of 2015 and get the hell out of the way.
Canada was hired to fix the run game, to install an offense centered on the run game and to make sure the focus of the offense was first-round pick Najee Harris. The Steelers' top priority was to fix a run game that was clearly broken and stop having an offense centered around a broken-down, 39-year-old, gimpy-armed quarterback.
Art Rooney II, Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin all said it during the offseason. They also made all of the necessary moves to try and fix it.
The only person who hasn’t signed off on it is Roethlisberger, who is clearly resistant to Canada’s offense. The offense is centered around running the ball out of a variety of formations, the use of motion and jet sweeps. It works best with a running — or at least mobile — quarterback, but at the very least it needs a quarterback willing to stick with it.
We have seen almost none of that to this point, and instead we have seen the offense asking Ben to throw the ball 58 times in a game. The problem is about 55 of those 58 pass attempts are dinks and dunks that don’t move the chains.
Every single offensive coach I have talked to over 25-plus years in this business have said the same thing — you cannot be good at running the ball unless you are actively working on getting better. It may require some patience, and it is possible even if you don’t have an offensive line full of road graders.
Roethlisberger is a Hall of Famer. I get that, and there should be some deferring to his experience. But at this point, Tomlin needs to step in and say, “You will run Canada’s offense as called or you won’t play.”
Enough is enough. The run game could be developed if the Steelers actually did what they said they were going to do and made it a priority. I’m not talking about being balanced and “run to win” and all those nonsensical football cliches. I am talking about the Steelers doing what they said they were going to do and prioritize fixing the run game — and de-emphasizing the quarterback — even if it means they upset the sensitivities of Roethlisberger.
The Steelers could find a winning formula with Roethlisberger. I firmly believe that. He still makes some big-time throws, he is gutsy and he is smart and experienced enough to play as a game manager and lead the offense to success. But he can’t be the focal point any more, and he can’t call his own number nearly every play any more.
And most of all, he can’t scrap the parts of the Canada’s offense — like motion, jet sweeps, playing under center, play action — that he doesn’t like. The Steelers offense isn’t beyond repair, but it is never going to be fixed until the coaching staff either gets Roethlisberger to fully buy in or finds some other quarterback who will.
