The Challenge Of “Changes” In Pittsburgh
Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
“Hell yeah, there’s going to be changes” a frustrated Mike Tomlin told reporters after his team’s embarrassing loss on Sunday afternoon.
If the Houston game was a test, the Pittsburgh Steelers got an F on all fronts. From a lack of readiness to an ineffective game plan on both sides of the ball, the Black and Gold were thoroughly outplayed by the up-and-coming Texans. All the momentum from the previous week’s performance was obliterated by a regression of epic preportions. Even the day’s lone bright spot, Broderick Jones seeing his most significant playing time of the young season, was marred by the reason behind it — an injury to Dan Moore Jr. If ever there was an organizational loss, this was it.
With Tomlin promising the aforementioned changes, it’s hard to sort out exactly where those alterations should begin and how far they should go. When a team has been thoroughly embarrassed in two of their first four contests and has looked average at best in their other two, conceptualizing a road map to redemption is challenging. Both sides of the ball have chicken-and-egg situations with both schemes and players failing.
The NFL is a week-to-week league and there’s technically still plenty of time, but Tomlin and Co. have their work cut out for them if they intend to prove they aren’t a full offseason away from righting the ship. And if they are, that’s when the changes become far more drastic.
Let’s look at some of the trouble spots from Sunday that led to Tomlin’s quote.
Stroud Faced Zero Resistance
One of the keys to the game was whether or not the Texans’ makeshift offensive line could block the menacing Steelers pass rush. While the unit got some pressure on rookie C.J. Stroud from time to time, they weren’t able to generate any sacks. Houston was able to extend the rush lanes of T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith by formation, having either a tight end or a receiver set up next to the tackle. It’s nothing Pittsburgh hasn’t seen before, but the Texans tackles were just able to hold up and win these battles all game long.
Stroud had a field day dissecting the Pittsburgh secondary for 302 yards and two touchdowns. Whenever the Texans needed a big play, Stroud was seemingly able to find Nico Collins, who had a career day with seven catches for 168 yards and two touchdowns. Collins seemingly ran free as there was no rerouting by Pittsburgh’s secondary. Nor were there any big hits after the catch to make the WR think twice about going over the middle.
Collins’ primary victim was Levi Wallace. As good as he was last week against Las Vegas, he was just as bad versus Houston. Collins seemed to run away from him at will. Wallace has struggled mightily in three of the first four games. If this is all Pittsburgh is going to get out of Wallace, they have to insert Joey Porter Jr into the lineup right now.
Same Old Matt Canada
When Tomlin says “changes,” Steelers fans think Matt Canada.
It’s almost like Canada didn’t watch the film from last week. He immediately went back to the outside zone run-blocking schemes that this offensive line can’t execute. Predictably, the early run game went nowhere, causing several third and long situations.
After being completely shut down in the first half, Canada returned to the downhill, in between the tackles running that was so successful versus the Raiders. The offense sprung to life and Najee Harris got going for his most successful game of the season. But why did it take so long?
Canada went haywire on two crucial plays that, for all intensive purposes, ended any chance the Steelers had to win the game.
On a key third-and-one in the third quarter, he tried to outsmart himself by lining up below average blocker Pat Freiermuth to cut off an in-line defensive end. It doesn’t matter if they it would’ve signaled run, put 270 lb. Darnell Washington, an outstanding run blocker, in the game to make that block. The play was open on the front side and could have extended the drive. Instead, Freiermuth was blown up and Pittsburgh settled for a field goal.
Why would Pat Freiermuth be the blocking TE on 3rd & 1 instead of Washington? Seriously? Pat can't block. At all. #Steelers
— David Todd (@DavidMTodd) October 1, 2023
The real killer came on the very next drive. The Steelers seemed to have solved their rushing woes and were mashing the Texans running downhill. While in field goal range, Pittsburgh had momentum and made the correct decision to go for it on fourth-and-one. Canada seemingly spooked from his previous blunder decided to spread things out and throw the ball.
Kenny Pickett sack that he was injured on #Steelers #NFL pic.twitter.com/lXnknZXOI2
— Steelers Depot 7⃣ (@Steelersdepot) October 1, 2023
Refusing to run the ball was the first mistake. But the entire play concept was completely wrong. No short routes were called. No roll out and flooding the zone with receivers. Just a dropback pass as if the Steelers needed 10 yards instead of one.
To make things worse, the disaster sent Kenny Pickett into his unnecessary “patented” spin move as he ran himself into a sack rather than staying in the pocket and delivering the ball to an open Connor Heyward. Pickett was injured and an already bleak game was over. The rumblings about Canada’s job will be in full force throughout the week and heading into the bye.
Mike Tomlin Himself
Pittsburgh was not ready to play. Over the past four to five seasons, the Steelers have unfortunately developed a knack for playing down to inferior competition on the road. For all the catchy sound bites, Tomlin has the Steelers losing too many of these winnable games. The first-half performance against the Texans on both sides of the ball looked like a team that was completely unprepared.
After games like this, people will wonder what is the direction of the team. Is this a rebuild? If so, why aren’t Jones and Porter in the starting lineup, taking their lumps and learning valuable lessons? At the very least, they both need to be splitting time. It’s not often you see the No. 14 and No. 32 draft picks not hit the field. If it’s not a rebuild, who is responsible and how do you rectify the situation? This isn’t a team expected to go to the Super Bowl, but it’s absolutely a team that is expected to improve from last season. To this point, they have not.
As goes the ship, so goes the captain. All roads lead back to Tomlin. With Baltimore coming to town next week, and then the bye, it’s time for Tomlin to dig deep and prove his “changes” will make a difference. That’s not an easy thing to do at this point in a season, but if he intends to prove he’s still inarguably one of the best coaches in the league he will have to do it. If he can’t, it’s only a matter of time before the calls for the organization to make somme changes start to grow.
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