Outside Perspective

Many in Steelers Nation believe that the Kenny Pickett-led offense under Matt Canada to be the pinnacle of awfulness - but what do other outside fan bases think?

Well, after last Sunday's games - and finding myself admittedly surprised by how bad the NE Patriots have been so far this year - I decided to skim the team's SB Nation "Pats Pulpit" game day open thread fresh off of Patriot's latest embarassing (shutout) loss (mostly out of morbid curiosity) when, lo and behold, I unexpectedly happened upon an found interesting conversation regarding a Steelers offense that many of us in Steelers Nation regard as being perhaps the very worst in the entire league:



Yeah, I know, it's a very small sample size - but, I thought it was interesting, since the opinions and perspectives given were not only from the outside: they arose organically / not because a Steelers fan asked them what they thought.

The takeaway I got: Although even some NE fans agree that the Steelers offense sucks, their opinion seems to differ on just how badly we suck, at least when relative to their own team's current offense and its struggles.

In fact, despite having Matt Canada (a man who many here would argue is the worst of any OC in the league) and despite being saddled with a QB that some Steelers fans are already writing off as a pedestrian-at-best, potential 1st round bust - there's at least some percentage of NE's fanbase who actually think that we here in Steelers Nation have it pretty good, at least compared to they think they've got with Mac Jones and a washed up, Brady-less Bill Bellichick.

I suppose this might just be a case of "the grass is always greener on the other side" - but, what do you think of their assessment? And are the Steelers, in your opinion, better or worse than the Patriots right now?

 

Haven’t watched a single play of the patriots this season. With that being said the patriots are 1-4 and last in the division while tbe steelers are 3-2 and in first. Steeler fans whine way too much. It could be so much worse. If the Steelers went 3-14 or so for a couple seasons I’m positive a fair number of current fans would jump ship with a quickness.

 

New England's situation however isn't comparable with Pittsburghs at all; for many reasons. However, let us break down these many reasons to three. They are as follows;


1.) Mike Tomlin is not Bill Belichick and vise versa. Tomlin has his shortcomings but he is not even close to the level of sheer arrogance that Bill is at this stage in their careers.


2.) Mac Jones may be busted beyond repair at this point. Not replacing Mike McDaniel was a colossal mistake. Even though Bill O Brien is back, the damage has been done already. Kenny is regressing but he still has an OC who has been an OC before (though clearly not a great one).


3.) Pittsburgh does have very good weapons. Cannot say the same for New England. Hell, George Pickens alone far exceeds any Offensive Weapon New England has had since Julian Edleman.



In short?!


Bill sought to it that New England would be in the state it is in currently post Tom Brady. Tomlin is still working on getting Pittsburgh back into the Playoff Hunt post Big Ben. While both Offenses are Offensively Offensive to look at, at least there is something with Pittsburghs to build upon. New England literally has nothing going for it....


and I mean NOTHING..

 

The NE fans are correct, when Pickett isn’t throwing interceptions. But there have been games already this season that Picket/Canada have put the Steelers in an insurmountable hole due to turnovers.

But, yes, the Steelers are not the worst offense in the NFL. Carolina is pretty bad as well. The Packers may not have much in Jordan Love who is very inconsistent, and the Raiders are pretty bad, just to name a few.

 

A few things here.

1.) There is a timing issue. NE fans haven't had as long to get used to a "non championship" environment as long as Pgh fans have. They are still in a shell shocked mode. Many of us Steeler fans have been warning of how bad Tomlin was gonna be exposed after Ben retired. And, unfortunately, if has gone the way many of us predicted, with the Steelers not even being close to contending for a Super Bowl. But a lot of us were mentally prepared for these days. We've had 6 years of not winning a single playoff game. NE fans are just now facing the fact that their "best coach ever" isn't really all that sans Brady. They are solidly facing that this season where as before, they didn't really have to face it.

2.) As hard as it is to believe, the Pats are actually worse than the Steelers. True, we had the two games where we got beat on worse than a red-headed step child - one by the mighty 49ers, one by the seemingly inferior Texans. But the Pats' last two games they were destroyed collectively, 72-3. Ouch.

I remember my brother-in-law, who lives up in Patriot land, a few years ago said, "Oh, we don't really have to watch Patriot games, we just know they are going to win." Yea, OK, there hot shot, not so much now.

 

I have waited YEARS for this. Billy B, the evil emperor, is defrocked. The Patsies are irrelevant.

Now his failure is complete. LOL.

 

The biggest difference, as ASKQuestions put it in point #3 is: The Steelers actually have talent. Mac Jones is no different from AJ McCarron or Greg McElroy: Alabama QBs carried to championships with 5 star talent all around them, the difference being the team was geared to pass first instead of run first. There is nothing special about him and he does not have half the natural ability of Kenny. Pickens, DJ, Calvin, Pat, Darnell, Najee, Jaylen, even old man Robinson has value. This offense is overflowing with talent at the skill positions yet struggles to get first downs. O line is still a concern but even that handicap can not explain the ineptitude.

Kenny completed nearly 72.73% of his passes against the Dolphins last year and had 5.84 yards per attempt. That should be virtually impossible and is down to the design of the offense. Small ball BS with short throws primarily to the outside, all in the name of avoiding turnovers and dumbing down reads. It creates an offense that struggles to move down the field until we look up, trailing in the fourth quarter, and say, "Holy sh*t we actually need to score!" then suddenly the ball starts moving. This offensive philosophy started in 2020 but even then Fichner's concepts completely outshine Canada's. He IS the primary issue.