PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Matt Canada echoed, almost to the word, what Mike Tomlin said Tuesday that he has no problem with George Pickens wanting the ball. It's about him expressing it the right way.
So, all are on the same page with George Pickens, now the question 'how do they get him the ball more'?
Canada's initial response was 'good question'. Not exactly the start to the answer that would encourage Pickens or the fans of more action coming for the Steelers second-round pick. The Steelers offensive coordinator then explained.
"I'm not sure everybody is going to get the ball as much as they want every week," Canada said. "We've got Pat (Freiermuth) we've got Tae (Diontae Johnson), we got George. We have some other guys in there-Gentry, Steve (Sims), Gunner, Boykin, plus the backs out of the backfield. Plus, we want to run the ball."
"I know it probably looks really, really easy, but to do that all the time and get everybody the ball and having a running game. It's dictated by the game. Some games it's different than others."
Canada said part of it is Pickens typically runs deeper routes and you will not get as many opportunities deep. Although he admitted, they have to find a way to get him more than just two targets and one catch for a pair of yards.
"I don't have a great answer," Canada said. "We have plays to get him involved, we had a couple of them last week that didn't fall to get him going. I'm not minimizing that we need to get him touches, sometimes those things occur. It happened to him last week, it's happened to other guys in other weeks."
"It's football when you have that many weapons. If we continue to evolve and slowly grow as we are hoping we will, that may happen at times. They may decide to take a guy a way or lean a safety or give us an opportunity to run the ball more. All of those things are a part of it."
Canada said it's not on Pickett. There is a lot going on during plays and the reality is you don't want him staring down a receiver if you want to keep his interception-less streak alive. He's got to find the open man and often recently that hasn't been Pickens.
"I think it's very easy to play quarterback with a clicker and say 'what about this, 'what about this'? Canada said. "There is a reason there are only 32 guys starting in the National Football League this weekend."
2nd halves
Canada doesn't believe a lack of adjustment as to the reason why they've struggled during second halves of the last couple of games, managing only 11 points total against the Falcons and Colts.
"I feel like we look at it pretty closely," Canada said. "I think we just have to continue to execute. I don't have a thing to point to. We just have to be better. When we get in the red zone we can't have penalties. We can't have mistakes. We have to score touchdowns."
To the last point, Canada is emphasizing finishing with the offense this week. He believes they are still growing and the trajectory is pointing up. As that continues, he says they will stop leaving points on the board.
More plays?
It would be logical to think as the offense progresses and succeeds and Kenny Pickett gets more experience, the playbook has been expanded. You might believe that, but when asked how much it's changed on Thursday.
"Probably not what you want to hear, but not much," Canada said. "We've had a lot in."
"I think you want an identity, right? You're fighting to get that and when you're young, maybe you don't see that as well if you're not inside the building and understanding where we are. So obviously, each week you try to find some wrinkles, each week you try to find those matchups."
"But I don't think there's been a dramatic increase at all in what we're doing now. We're just executing better."
