State of the Steelers

[Dcash4]

 

I like to call this "the Canada"...max protecting a 3/4 man rush. 

Matt Canada concepts are good. It's all the who, when, why, where that he sucks at. This type of thing happened so often with his calls last year. Dude's a call on a playsheet not an artist understanding the levers he has available to make the calls work. 

[bigben07MVP]

2 hours ago, Dcash4 said:

 

I like to call this "the Canada"...max protecting a 3/4 man rush. 

Matt Canada concepts are good. It's all the who, when, why, where that he sucks at. This type of thing happened so often with his calls last year. Dude's a call on a playsheet not an artist understanding the levers he has available to make the calls work. 

Well said.

59 is drawn out of the play and Diontae is probably open if Warren runs a little check down route here 

[43M]

2 hours ago, Dcash4 said:

 

I like to call this "the Canada"...max protecting a 3/4 man rush. 

Matt Canada concepts are good. It's all the who, when, why, where that he sucks at. This type of thing happened so often with his calls last year. Dude's a call on a playsheet not an artist understanding the levers he has available to make the calls work. 

Exactly why Canada shouldve never been retained.    So many simple concepts he fails to grasp that even novice armchair coaches can see.  

I just worry that we will show "just enough" improvement this year for them to retain him.

[Dcash4]

44 minutes ago, bigben07MVP said:

59 is drawn out of the play and Diontae is probably open if Warren runs a little check down route here 

Absolutely. Or you even just get a check down in route and Warren catches a dump off with room ro run instead of your QB needing do something. Just little things. But those little things in the NFL are what separates good ideas from good play calling. 

37 minutes ago, 43M said:

Exactly why Canada shouldve never been retained.    So many simple concepts he fails to grasp that even novice armchair coaches can see.  

I just worry that we will show "just enough" improvement this year for them to retain him.

I am fearful of that too. I get the idea of "let kenny worry about the opposition this season vs worrying about his own offense", but I just can't help thinking about ....what if it was just someone better?

There isn't one play from last year that you watch and go damn Canada got em! We are constantly behind the DC's of this league or just shooting ourselves in the foot because of lack of understanding. I just don't see the things that Canada struggled with getting better. Can they play better? Yes. But his issues IMO will still be very present. 

[MOSteelers56]

And it seems like we never have anyone schemed wide open. I know most teams don’t have a lot of plays where someone is completely wide open, but we have basically 0. Or schemed into a spot that they can get a ton of YAC. Seems like we have 2 TE screens that work for a 15 yard YAC but almost nothing else. Just a lack of creativity.

[jebrick]

If you watched the QB School break down this exact game last year, you would see a different take.  He was more of the opinion that KP was missing his reads.

[Dcash4]

3 hours ago, jebrick said:

If you watched the QB School break down this exact game last year, you would see a different take.  He was more of the opinion that KP was missing his reads.

It's a little bit of A, little bit of B. Canada's concepts are normal. They are plays that work, but they just don't work against everything nor do they have the options and detail available to defeat NFL defenses. I wouldn't say he can "scheme" guys open, but rather the basic schemes can work when things fall right. Kenny's big struggles though are timing & processing. So when we do catch things right and get open receivers, Kenny isn't always on time and right. 

JT O'Sullivan (QB School) was in Nate Tices comments last night talking about the Hank concept -- something the Steelers absolutely love/spam. But while it's good for zone, it's tough against man (I'll take reasons why DJ is highly targeted for 100, Alex). Canada doesn't split fields (man beater one side, zone concept on the other). What you see is what you get. If we catch zone - boom, "schemed" open. If we catch man, there's no out. Players gotta win and Kenny's gotta be pinpoint and quick. 

I just am not excited about our QB/OC pairing. In order for both to get better they have to improve at things they have NEVER been good at or did in the past. Canada has to go from a guy who has a high school level passing attack to a far more detail oriented plan. Wanna run hank? Cool -- now you need to figure out how to motion/shift a defense into auto checking to zone or build in a backdoor split field look with a man beater in case of trouble. Love Yankee? Awesome. You need checks into/out of max protect and to understand the levers of outlets and what they do to your prime concept by attracting defenders. He needs to understand hard/soft play action and the differences those cause to defenders which requires a different timing of pass concept. 

Canada gets owned by DC's because he doesn't play a complicated enough game to be continually putting defenders at odds. I just don't see that changing. 

[jebrick]

Against man coverage it is always beat your man to get open or make the contested catch.  At best you are hoping to confuse teams with pre-snap motion so they make a mistake or stack WR to cause confusion.

 

How much did they cut out of the playbook last year for KP?  Everyone of the offensive players kept saying they were simplifying the offense every week.  This season we hope to see a lot more of the playbook as KP has had time to work on it.

[Dcash4]

31 minutes ago, jebrick said:

Against man coverage it is always beat your man to get open or make the contested catch.

Eh, kind of an oversimplification. Yes, self-separation is king, but you there are schemes and routes that help to create that separation naturally. Even adding a wheel concept onto the RB side of the hank scheme would add a man-beating tendency to the play call. Kenny knows he has man, you see if Pickens/Johnson can sell and beat their guy on the curl, but if not, you have a guy like Warren running away from a LBer who is busting to cover the out. 

But more simply, you don't run curls on the outside to beat man. You can do it, but it requires tight windows and your receivers being damn good route sellers. It's not that you can't win, but there are far easier ways to win against man. 

38 minutes ago, jebrick said:

How much did they cut out of the playbook last year for KP?

If that offense was hiding some of these concepts we are in big trouble. Split field calls are things high school guys can handle. It's not difficult to have a zone call on one side and an option route on the backside. Adding a 4th receiving option as an outlet in some structures shouldn't be overloading a QB who started 50 college games. 

I came from an offense with two calls in the huddle to be decided by cadence and availability of multiple checks at the line. I can understand if they are being more basic by relaying a single call and giving fewer options to keep things easy...I can't see them holding back basic route concept design in order to be more simple. 

[jebrick]

And yet all of the players kept saying that they were cutting the playbook way down.

 

Part of it might be a new Oline plus a new QB plus newish WR with a new scheme.  Again, I will judge this year tougher than last year.

[Dcash4]

1 hour ago, jebrick said:

And yet all of the players kept saying that they were cutting the playbook way down.

Part of it might be a new Oline plus a new QB plus newish WR with a new scheme.  Again, I will judge this year tougher than last year.

I don’t doubt that they cut down on things but I would bet it was more about the options and autos at a QBs disposal Vs actually going more basic on a playcall. 

There is a big difference between removing all the “extras” to focus on execution vs thinking someone’s brain will break by having a split field concept. 

I think we will unlock some of those extras, but I’m not sure why we think concepts will just become NFL level. 

[bigben07MVP]

I don’t really understand this one. I get that Tomlin loves Chase Young but where does he fit. Unless the plan on extended Young over Highsmith, but even then where are you playing him this year?

[MOSteelers56]

42 minutes ago, bigben07MVP said:

I don’t really understand this one. I get that Tomlin loves Chase Young but where does he fit. Unless the plan on extended Young over Highsmith, but even then where are you playing him this year?

He’s pretty injury prone isn’t he? He’s also going to be crazy expensive.

[August4th]

Tomlin was drooling over young when we played Washington during his rookie yr. 

[MOSteelers56]

1 hour ago, August4th said:

Tomlin was drooling over young when we played Washington during his rookie yr. 

I think this is the only reason this is a “story.” I wonder how many sources are just a sports writer making something up?