SCB Steelers Quick Hitters: the ‘Short Week Pain’ Edition

Good Wednesday to you Steelers fans.

You’ll find few people in the National Football League who “like” Thursday Night games. From players to coaches to public relations guys, very few actually enjoy them. The exception to this however is when you ask them after the Thursday night game is over. That’s when the same group of people will largely tell you that they enjoy the ‘mini-bye’ that comes afterwards. For players, it typically means a couple of days off before resuming the normal routine on Monday. For coaches, it likely means an opportunity to get some self-scouting and scouting for your next opponent done. You want my opinion (of course you do)? I despise these games. I think for a league that claims to value ‘player safety’ as Roger Goodell and the owners claim to, making these guys play so soon after a Sunday game is down-right barbaric. I remember Jerome Bettis talking about his experiences each week following a game. He talked about not being able to get down the stairs in his own house for a good 24 hours after a game. He talked about the pain and body aches that wouldn’t even start to depart until Thursday. I know he’s just one guy and one example but it’s safe to assume most players feel the same way. The quality of football is typically poor as well. Thursday night games often resemble bad college football games but they make money for the League and that’s what matters. For the Steelers, they get to do this all over again in December when New England comes to town.

Blame Canada? Not So Fast

Should Matt Canada have been brought back as the Offensive Coordinator? No. Should he have been fired at the BYE week? Yes. Will he be gone at the end of this season? Yes. Is the offense’s complete and utter lack of production all on him? Ye… Not so fast. The old saying is that players play and coaches coach. Well, when the players don’t perform what the coach is coaching then how can it all be on the coach? Sunday was a perfect example. Several times we saw opportunities for big plays yet a complete lack of execution doomed them. That’s not on Matt Canada. There are myriad things we can blame on Canada for sure but not everything.

Injury Report (courtesy steelers.com)

In Between

The last two weeks have seen relatively pedestrian play from T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. I could easily go into how badly and how often each is being held but but that’s low hanging fruit. The bigger issue is that the interior line is not taking heat off of these guys. In other words, teams are willing to double on Watt which leaves everyone else one-on-one. If the guys on the D-Line aren’t getting to the QB then there’s no reason to move away from doubling on Watt. In other words, we need the guys in the middle to make more plays in the pass rush.

Staying Put at the Deadline

As all of you are aware the Steelers did not make an moves at the trade deadline. I can only guess but I tend to think had they won Sunday then maybe Omar Khan would have been a little more proactive in terms of trying to upgrade a position or two. At 4-3 and a tough schedule remaining, I tend to think the Steelers wanted to hang on to as many of their draft picks as possible heading into 2024.