The Pittsburgh Steelers have been fortunate to secure as many wins as they have, considering how dismal their offense has performed. Thus, a change was inevitable, and in the critical realm of coaching in the NFL, the Steelers made a surprising move by firing a coach. Matt Canada has been ousted as the offensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
This action is unprecedented for the Steelers, as they seldom dismiss coaches; typically, coaches with the Pittsburgh Steelers either retire or conveniently allow their contracts to expire. Remember Joey Porter, who managed to hold a coaching job despite the bar incident? Even Keith Butler, who struggled as a defensive coordinator in the latter part of his tenure with the team.
Regarding Canada’s dismissal, I can only say two things: It’s about time and good riddance. He was arguably the worst offensive coordinator in the league by a significant margin. Frequently, he favored less-talented players over superior ones, and his play-calling was so predictable that it made Nathanial Hackett of the Jets envious.
Many attribute Canada’s fate to the game against the Browns, but for me, it was Kenny Pickett’s regression that ultimately cost Canada his job. Ironically, Pickett operated a no-huddle offense much better than when Canada was calling the plays. Even Ben Roethlisberger, whose retirement should have happened when he suffered the elbow injury, struggled in Canada’s offense, which certainly didn’t help matters.
In fact this is the first time that the Steelers have fired a coach midseason since 1941. That is how bad Canada was as the offensive coordinator. I guarantee that the locker room had a celebration when they found out about that news as nobody liked Canada. Remember when Chris Boswell talked negative about Canada in front of everybody after a win.
Hopefully the Steelers have seen the light and have gotten rid of “The Steelers Way.” They have been screwed so many times by maintaining “The Steelers Way,’’ that it needs to stop now. Hopefully this Canada saga is a wakeup call, but only time will tell.
As for who will take over the duties, the Steelers have decided to promote running backs coach Eddie Faulkner to interim offensive coordinator and quarterback coach Mike Sullivan will handle play call duties. With this massive change, the Steelers offense should improve a ton for the rest of the season.
