Will Canada improve ?

haters gonna hate.

 

I don’t think he has a choice.

1. I think the offense will improve simply because of better players. Canada will get credit.

2. If he stays the course or the offense gets worse he’ll be fired. Canada will be blamed.

 

It's a new year so...Hope springs eternal!

I am new to this forum, but at my long time message board I was very hard on Canada at the beginning of last season. I thought he was a disaster in terms of his play design, his play calling, the lack of audibles or the ability for the quarterback to make adjustments at the LOS, the route trees of receivers, etc..etc... I didn't see much of anything that looked good. Then halfway through the season, the offensive line really started to improve. Kenny Pickett started to look more comfortable. They team started to consistently put long drives together. Things got a little better. Some was strictly better performance from the players on the field, but Canada also made a few adjustments and slipped in some better play calling in certain instances.

With the new season upon us, I still have doubts about what Canada is capable of, but I am hopeful that there are schematic changes to the offense to help open things up.

First off...Kenny Pickett needs to have the freedom to audible out of bad plays, call protections, and make any other adjustments pre-snap at the LOS. After watching all last season, it became apparent that Pickett wasn't able to audible. Pat Freiermuth even said in an interview that there were no audibles built into the system. I'm sure the organization wasn't happy with that, but I doubt Muth would have said that without reason. Either they didn't trust Pickett's knowledge of the offense to make those calls, or Pickett was fully capable, but Canada/Tomlin would not allow it to happen. Far too many plays were dead before the snap because the defensive call was set up to stop the offensive play the Steelers were running. It doesn't matter how well you execute. If the defense makes the proper call against an offensive play....it can't work. Far too often they were stuck in a play that had no chance.

Canada's offense was very rudimentary and defenses were able to get a pretty good read on what plays were coming. I believe the offense needs to run more plays out of the same formations. If the offense is in the same sets with the same personnel on the field and runs different plays out of the same formations and personnel, it makes it much more difficult for defenses to know what play the offense is running. Just something as simple as that can help give the offense an edge.

The routes in Canada's playbook that he showed are far too conservative. Far too many routes are run within a few yards of the LOS. Defenses are able to compress the field as they move closer and closer to the LOS and play downhill because the offense doesn't stretch the defense or threaten all parts of the field. IMO many of the route trees need to change. They clearly want to run the ball, so WR's are expected to block. I get that, but they also need to be put in a position to catch the ball on the run, and need to threaten to get behind the LB's to make them pay when they are playing close to the LOS to stop the run. Running simple 2 yard hooks and curls doesn't threaten a defense. There is little chance for yards after the catch. I think there needs to be a philosophical change in how they attack defenses with routes in the passing game, particularly in the middle of the field.

The vertical passing game will need to be a big part of any offense that relies heavily on the running game. Pickens will hopefully be a bigger part of the offense this year, and I hope he has worked on improving his route running. He and DJ will be the primary WR outside threats. When they get man coverage on the outside, they need to attack the defense with the deep ball. Last season, teams seemed to use a lot of Cover 2 in obvious passing situations to take away the big plays of both outside receivers as that coverage protects from the deep ball. When they see that coverage this year, I would like to see them attack the seams more. That is the weak spot in that defensive coverage and it creates opportunities to attack the defense vertically even when they are trying to take away the deep ball. If defenses are going to keep more linebackers on the field to stop the run, make them pay by making them cover and punish them with splash plays. This will also open up the running game as it would keep the defenses guessing and playing on their heels rather than playing downhill and attacking the ball. We have tight ends that can block and get down the field. Allen Robinson is a tremendous blocker in the slot, and is a terrific route runner. The combination of physical play and great route running with explosive speed sprinkled in from Calvin Austin could make this a very difficult team to defend.

I want more play action. If you run the ball effectively, the play fake will make defenders bite on the fake and allow for plays behind the linebackers if the offense is designed to take advantage of that.

I'm hoping that these things are incorporated into this year's offense. I remain hopeful that this offense will be much better this season and be able to score a lot more points.

We will see.

 

Lol

 

Welcome

Don’t let the curmudgeons get you down

 

I prefer the term positive attitude impaired. That way I'm a member of a protected class

 

Says the leading curmudgeon. LoL

 

He is 100%...This offense have no layup in fact!

 

'Something Missing': NFL Analyst Burns Steelers OC Matt Canada (steelersnow.com)

 

I believe this is low hanging fruit.

 

This is spot on. MC will clearly be the biggest issue for this offense to take the next step in becoming more dynamic. I’m honestly shocked they kept him another season.

 

He had a year on his contract and wanted continuity with KP

Notice they did not extend him

 

Matt Canada says he’s only doing what he’s been told.

Steelers have no plans to open up the offense for Kenny Pickett (usatoday.com)

 

As he should

“We want to run the football,” Canada said. “We want to be physical. We want to be a good team that throws the ball down the field and takes advantage of what the defense gives us. I think our identity is well known. We will stay where we are at.”

 

The problem, the Steelers don't throw down the field very often... I'm not talking about passes of 40 yards or more when the success rate is very low, but passes attempts of 10 yards or more, it's too few.....

The other problem, the QB has to change the play if the play has no chance of working from the start....Like running the ball in front of a stacked box is just a horrible idea, but it's on Tomlin who has to give at Kenny the right to change the play

 

Yes and yes

It’s just some people love to take anything a coach or player says twist it around and then make something out of it that doesn’t exist

This thought is not aimed at you

 

It was not always Canada's fault ...players have to do their job & execute better

 

You see those wildfires and air quality??? It was always Canadas fault.

 

no worries.

 

How many Kennies are on the team?

 

yup
been usin jet sweeps to pootem oot

 

sorry,the english is not my first language

 

No apologies needed mate
Mine either.
We are all just one giant family who pokes and pricks one another til no end.

 

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