The Pittsburgh Steelers stole victory from the grasp of defeat on Sunday with their 17-10 win over the Baltimore Ravens.
I have no idea how the Steelers won. The offense was terrible. It was yet again extremely predictable and basic. Curl routes and runs out of the shotgun formation were all too common and rarely amounted to success.
The overwhelming demand from Steelers’ fans has been to fire offensive coordinator Matt Canada. Despite the constant complaining, Canada is still calling plays and it’s not pretty.
The offensive scheme is stale, boring and way too predictable. Every run is up the middle. Every pass is on the sideline. There’s absolutely no creativity in the playbook.
At this point, I’m not sure what needs to happen for Canada to lose his job. The offense has been one of the league’s worst in every statistic. Until their touchdown in the fourth quarter, they hadn’t scored a touchdown for eight quarters. Despite every sign pointing towards Matt Canada being undeserving of a job, it seems that he’ll continue to bore Steelers fans for the weeks to come.
Despite picking up what looked to be a serious injury in the previous week’s loss to the Texans, quarterback Kenny Pickett went out and grinded through a tough game against Baltimore. Pickett threw for 224 yards despite the poor play calling.
With just over a minute remaining in the game, Pickett lobbed a pass down the sideline to George Pickens, who reeled it in for the eventual game-winning touchdown.
George Pickens was borderline elite, hauling in six catches for 130 yards and the score. Though the offense scored the game winner, it certainly wasn’t the main reason why the Steelers escaped with the win.
Pittsburgh clicked on the defensive front, forcing three turnovers and a safety. The Steelers made the Ravens offense look just plain bad. Baltimore’s quarterback Lamar Jackson has never truly had success in Pittsburgh and that continued to be true on Sunday.
With a two point lead with just a few minutes remaining in the game, the Ravens had the ball inside the Steelers’ 10-yard line. The only reason Baltimore was in such a favorable position was due to a fumble from Steelers’ punt returner Gunner Olszewski.
With a chance to pad the lead, Jackson threw an interception to rookie Joey Porter Jr. Porter had rarely seen the field up to that point, despite being arguably the best cornerback on the squad. Porter may have earned himself some more playing time with the clutch turnover.
Pittsburgh will have time to recover from the hard fought win thanks to the upcoming bye week. After the rest, the Steelers will travel to Los Angeles to take on the feisty Rams.
