2023 GDT Steelers vs. 49'ers

[3rivers]

41 minutes ago, DR43 said:

Claypool blamed the Steelers for his lack of success.  

Yesterday he had 0 receptions for 0.0 yards.

 

and a dropped pass

 

31 minutes ago, warfelg said:

We’re getting at least 3 of those in FA. Next years class is really good. 

who will be available that you want them to sign?

[warfelg]

https://x.com/theponiexpress/status/1701365171023745271?s=46&t=xd5QJpZuXv2k7qD0xqd6aA

yea I wouldn’t be too shocked if this hit did something. 
 

Also seems the Ben rule of taking hits applies to Kenny. 

[Dcash4]

Kaiir Elam being a healthy scratch in Buffalo is noteworthy..

[warfelg]

14 minutes ago, Dcash4 said:

Kaiir Elam being a healthy scratch in Buffalo is noteworthy..

Are you thinking like he’s be available to trade for?

[JustPlainNasty]

5 hours ago, Dcash4 said:

Not sure it's worth doing a larger offensive review as I don't think you guys wanna stare at a wall of text, but these four plays (which, happen in the FIRST DRIVE) fully encompass why I hate Canada and am lower than most on Kenny. 

- Second play of the game, it's just Alert City. Tendency of running out of bigger sets in the past two years? Check. Removed your top two pass catching receivers? Check. Put in a plus running blocking receiver and a guy currently known as a gadget player? Check. Run a jet motion which is a tell for your team over the last two years that you are running at an absurd rate? Check!

This is the stuff that drives me crazy about Canada, man. Even more so than his trash drop back game (see below). You did everything you could to alert the defense to a run. Everything. And what did you do?.....run. 

These coaches sat down during the week to script out the start of the game. And ON PLAY TWO....this is what they decided good looked like. Funny part is, this play might even work to a positive degree if Muth can just hold the edge. But the moral is just that I hate the thought process. Everyone in the stadium knows what they are about to do. You need a pivot. Maybe he was setting up the pivot? But this was play 2 by design. Frustrating. 

- Third play of the game and I have no clue what Pickett is trying to do after his first read. Canada, though, does him no favors IMO. Kenny seems to want Freiermuth sitting over the ball, but Calvin Austin's route ends up triangling Muth. Someone smarter than me (not hard) could probably better explain Austin's drag in this play, but IMO it just gets in the way. If they catch man, sure, he is running away but it junked up the zone read (hi, Canada!). I think Kenny might trigger this to Muth regardless of tight coverage, but when he should be releasing Austin is gearing down in the throwing lane because it's zone not man. It's poor concept and it's THE FIRST READ ON A SCRIPTED PLAY. 

So while I don't think Canada helped him, I don't understand Kenny's thought process either. The ball should be triggered and he is just....staring....until he bails. Usually you have your progressions based on coverage; If man than... if zone than...Maybe Kenny just doesn't register what it is and freezes, but he has multiple options and chooses none. 

First option, which IMO he should have immediately went to after Muth/Austin since it's built into the read: Pickens on a post. The S drops to Muth. We should be celebrating the continued success of the pre-season and an explosive play on drive one, but...no ball. 

Okay, maybe you don't like that? Then turn this into a hank read. Muth/Austin pull the MLB to the offenses right and opens up DJ on a hitch for the first down. Don't love this one unless you are reading it true hank, but it's not the same read so this would be choice 3 and he likely doesn't have time to swing his shoulders after the Muth/Pickens part. 

Another negative aspect is that they decided to move faster between play 2 and 3, but they subbed out (move from 2 TE to 3 WR) which negated the speed & limited the ability to run a motion that could have helped diagnose coverage for Kenny to know where to go faster. 

If it's not on his 1 or a quick if/then read, Kenny can be slow. That's not helped by an offensive scheme that rarely is assisting in creating a 1, but just letting the QB go out there and figure it out. I think a better QB or, at least a more established one, completes this play successfully....but Kenny doesn't. 

- Down 10-0, first play of the drive and 12 personnel with DJ and Allen Robinson. PA to open the drive, good! PA that is read low to high, bad! Now, Kenny has someone in his face, but his eyes immediately go low then to check high. I don't know. I was never taught that way. This kinda goes to what TJ from QB schools hates about hank...theres' better ways to get 2 yards. We hit Robinson 2 instead of checking for DJ for 8-10. That's the taught way Canada has this offenes. Bonkers to me that it's been going on for 3 years. 

- Next play, 2nd and 8...stop me when you know what we are going to do. Two TE's on second and long. Austin and Robinson package. Jet motion (have you figured it out yet?). AND A SECOND JET MOTION BACK ACROSS!..... we run into a wall of LBers and S's.  Just dumb. It's 3rd and 8 and Kenny misses a wide open DJ across the field. 

------

Moral of the story, it's 4 plays across 3 possessions that scream that nothing changed. Canada is who he is. There are plays that can have success inside of there, but it's not because he creates it or is beating the other team conceptually. It's rinse and repeat of the last two years. Poor dropback game. Running plays instead of an offense. Taking short gains over big ones. Being freaking obvious in your personnel and tells. Just so frustrating watching Matt Canada offenses. 

Two other quick things:

- I'm not a great OL evaluator, but I'm not worried there. I think it was 49ers > Steelers and that checks out based on their dudes and how on our butts they were conceptually. Couple times you just gotta tip your hat to their talent. 

- Don't know if Pickens needs to get his conditioning up or what, but I got a good feeling that dude got chewed out today. Lazy off the line way to often. 

 

I'm just checking in quick during work. I wouldn't judge too much on specific plays for Kenny yesterday more so than the entirety of the game and his demeanor. It really just seemed like he didn't show up. Judging anything beyond that as material seems kind of worthless. Not even disrespecting your effort, but its almost like evaluating players in snow games or lousy weather conditions, a lot of it wont apply to the 99% other situations, other than his attitude and effort, and those are the things that concerned me with yesterday. He really just seemed to play without any desire, like he was elsewhere or would've rather been and thats disheartening, especially on opening day of the season.

Edited September 11, 2023 by JustPlainNasty

[warfelg]

A lot of frowning theory out there that Kenny did get concussed on the 3rd play of the game. 

[warfelg]

2 minutes ago, JustPlainNasty said:

I didn't read all of what you typed, I'm just checking in quick during work. I wouldn't judge too much on specific plays for Kenny yesterday more so than the entirety of the game and his demeanor. It really just seemed like he didn't show up. Judging anything beyond that as material seems kind of worthless. Not even disrespecting your effort, but its almost like evaluating players in snow games or lousy weather conditions, a lot of it wont apply to the 99% other situations, other than his attitude and effort, and those are the things that concerned me with yesterday. 

I look at that second play @Dcash4 highlighted and reading Pickens quotes it counts like a lot of guys ran wrong routes all day. 
 

https://x.com/steelersdepot/status/1701306265727803894?s=46&t=xd5QJpZuXv2k7qD0xqd6aA

 

https://x.com/blitz_burgh/status/1701310590025633898?s=46&t=xd5QJpZuXv2k7qD0xqd6aA
 

They ran an offense they hadn’t practiced and no one knew what to do. It’s all the coaching, especially Canada to not figure that out and help the offense settle. Instead he made Kenny throw that ball 46 times for a defensive look he was not prepared for. Pathetic that the second year possibly concussed QB can recognize that and call plays to lead the only scoring drive yet the (presumably) well paid coach cannot. I think that’s what the guy I was watching the game with was saying when he was reading Tomlins lips. Yea at this pace Canada needs to go in the bye week. Hell I’d be for Tomlin calling the offensive plays at this rate. 

[AFF]

49 minutes ago, warfelg said:

I look at that second play @Dcash4 highlighted and reading Pickens quotes it counts like a lot of guys ran wrong routes all day. 
 

https://x.com/steelersdepot/status/1701306265727803894?s=46&t=xd5QJpZuXv2k7qD0xqd6aA

 

https://x.com/blitz_burgh/status/1701310590025633898?s=46&t=xd5QJpZuXv2k7qD0xqd6aA
 

They ran an offense they hadn’t practiced and no one knew what to do. It’s all the coaching, especially Canada to not figure that out and help the offense settle. Instead he made Kenny throw that ball 46 times for a defensive look he was not prepared for. Pathetic that the second year possibly concussed QB can recognize that and call plays to lead the only scoring drive yet the (presumably) well paid coach cannot. I think that’s what the guy I was watching the game with was saying when he was reading Tomlins lips. Yea at this pace Canada needs to go in the bye week. Hell I’d be for Tomlin calling the offensive plays at this rate. 

The fact that this can be said by you(again not giving you crap personally) shows how terrible it was for Tomlin to let Canada keep his job.

People can call this reactionary…and maybe it is….I want Tomlin gone and I want Lions OC Ben Johnson to replace him.

I hope I get proven wrong by Tomlin.

[3rivers]

1 hour ago, warfelg said:

A lot of frowning theory out there that Kenny did get concussed on the 3rd play of the game. 

maybe thats why he didn't play as good?  still doesn't make up for no run game or defence though

 

14 minutes ago, AFF said:

I want Tomlin gone and I want Lions OC Ben Johnson to replace him.

I hope I get proven wrong by Tomlin.

Johnson will be in high demand.  Maybe he stays with the Lions since they appear to have something champ worthy going on. 

[warfelg]

21 minutes ago, AFF said:

The fact that this can be said by you(again not giving you crap personally) shows how terrible it was for Tomlin to let Canada keep his job.

People can call this reactionary…and maybe it is….I want Tomlin gone and I want Lions OC Ben Johnson to replace him.

I hope I get proven wrong by Tomlin.

Incredibly reactionary. 

I know I’m a broken record on this but only  reason Tomlin takes the blame like this is because he allows it. But it’s not solely his decision. Art has always been able to overrule him, and Khan has the power to as well. 
 

Given Canada’s contract ends after the season I think it’s far more likely to see movement now. 

Fun fact: I think yesterday was the only time every HC in their 1st year with a team lost. Gannon, Schtein, Richt, Peyton, Ryans all lost. 
 

FWIW the Lions offense looked kinda terrible Thursday for what they are capable of. 

Edited September 12, 2023 by warfelg

[AFF]

10 minutes ago, warfelg said:

Incredibly reactionary. 

I know I’m a broken record on this but only  reason Tomlin takes the blame like this is because he allows it. But it’s not solely his decision. Art has always been able to overrule him, and Khan has the power to as well. 
 

Given Canada’s contract ends after the season I think it’s far more likely to see movement now. 

Fun fact: I think yesterday was the only time every HC in their 1st year with a team lost. Gannon, Schtein, Richt, Peyton, Ryans all lost. 
 

FWIW the Lions offense looked kinda terrible Thursday for what they are capable of. 

You’re going to say with a straight face that Tomlin of all HCs in the NFL, doesn’t have control of who is coordinators are?

The same HC who has a huge say in scouting, drafting etc etc doesn’t have the ability to control his own coordinators?

Fun fact: The Steelers haven’t been relevant for over 6 years…

You yourself just said yesterday that people think he could be an OC…he’s so smart but he can’t control his own team.

I may be reactionary but I also know the status quo isn’t working and that fact is clear as day.

I honestly hope Tomlin proves me wrong but history shows he won’t.

[warfelg]

9 minutes ago, AFF said:

You’re going to say with a straight face that Tomlin of all HCs in the NFL, doesn’t have control of who is coordinators are?

The same HC who has a huge say in scouting, drafting etc etc doesn’t have the ability to control his own coordinators?

Fun fact: The Steelers haven’t been relevant for over 6 years…

You yourself just said yesterday that people think he could be an OC…he’s so smart but he can’t control his own team.

I may be reactionary but I also know the status quo isn’t working and that fact is clear as day.

I honestly hope Tomlin proves me wrong but history shows he won’t.

He doesn’t have the autonomy you assume he has and yes I’m saying that with a straight face. 

[JustPlainNasty]

Check out that first third down in the 1st series of the game. He did hit his head pretty hard. This game/performance was unlike anything hes shown in all the games Ive watched of his, both at Pitt and with the Steelers. It didn't have anything to do with who he was playing or what they were showing. It was all on what he did. It was very odd. 

Lets cross our fingers and see what happens, what we get from him next week.

 

[43M]

3 hours ago, warfelg said:

He doesn’t have the autonomy you assume he has and yes I’m saying that with a straight face. 

What is this based on, exactly?

I get he doesn't have Bill Belichick carte blanche to do whatever he pleases, but if he doesnt have a major say in staff personnel decisions at this point in his coaching tenure, Id be very surprised.

And if it really is the case, I guess that means Tomlin isnt as responsible for our failures as we think.   However, it also means he isn't nearly as vital to this teams success as we are led to believe,  either.  

Cant have it both ways.

[JustPlainNasty]

11 hours ago, Dcash4 said:

Not sure it's worth doing a larger offensive review as I don't think you guys wanna stare at a wall of text, but these four plays (which, happen in the FIRST DRIVE) fully encompass why I hate Canada and am lower than most on Kenny. 

- Second play of the game, it's just Alert City. Tendency of running out of bigger sets in the past two years? Check. Removed your top two pass catching receivers? Check. Put in a plus running blocking receiver and a guy currently known as a gadget player? Check. Run a jet motion which is a tell for your team over the last two years that you are running at an absurd rate? Check!

This is the stuff that drives me crazy about Canada, man. Even more so than his trash drop back game (see below). You did everything you could to alert the defense to a run. Everything. And what did you do?.....run. 

These coaches sat down during the week to script out the start of the game. And ON PLAY TWO....this is what they decided good looked like. Funny part is, this play might even work to a positive degree if Muth can just hold the edge. But the moral is just that I hate the thought process. Everyone in the stadium knows what they are about to do. You need a pivot. Maybe he was setting up the pivot? But this was play 2 by design. Frustrating. 

- Third play of the game and I have no clue what Pickett is trying to do after his first read. Canada, though, does him no favors IMO. Kenny seems to want Freiermuth sitting over the ball, but Calvin Austin's route ends up triangling Muth. Someone smarter than me (not hard) could probably better explain Austin's drag in this play, but IMO it just gets in the way. If they catch man, sure, he is running away but it junked up the zone read (hi, Canada!). I think Kenny might trigger this to Muth regardless of tight coverage, but when he should be releasing Austin is gearing down in the throwing lane because it's zone not man. It's poor concept and it's THE FIRST READ ON A SCRIPTED PLAY. 

So while I don't think Canada helped him, I don't understand Kenny's thought process either. The ball should be triggered and he is just....staring....until he bails. Usually you have your progressions based on coverage; If man than... if zone than...Maybe Kenny just doesn't register what it is and freezes, but he has multiple options and chooses none. 

First option, which IMO he should have immediately went to after Muth/Austin since it's built into the read: Pickens on a post. The S drops to Muth. We should be celebrating the continued success of the pre-season and an explosive play on drive one, but...no ball. 

Okay, maybe you don't like that? Then turn this into a hank read. Muth/Austin pull the MLB to the offenses right and opens up DJ on a hitch for the first down. Don't love this one unless you are reading it true hank, but it's not the same read so this would be choice 3 and he likely doesn't have time to swing his shoulders after the Muth/Pickens part. 

Another negative aspect is that they decided to move faster between play 2 and 3, but they subbed out (move from 2 TE to 3 WR) which negated the speed & limited the ability to run a motion that could have helped diagnose coverage for Kenny to know where to go faster. 

If it's not on his 1 or a quick if/then read, Kenny can be slow. That's not helped by an offensive scheme that rarely is assisting in creating a 1, but just letting the QB go out there and figure it out. I think a better QB or, at least a more established one, completes this play successfully....but Kenny doesn't. 

- Down 10-0, first play of the drive and 12 personnel with DJ and Allen Robinson. PA to open the drive, good! PA that is read low to high, bad! Now, Kenny has someone in his face, but his eyes immediately go low then to check high. I don't know. I was never taught that way. This kinda goes to what TJ from QB schools hates about hank...theres' better ways to get 2 yards. We hit Robinson 2 instead of checking for DJ for 8-10. That's the taught way Canada has this offenes. Bonkers to me that it's been going on for 3 years. 

- Next play, 2nd and 8...stop me when you know what we are going to do. Two TE's on second and long. Austin and Robinson package. Jet motion (have you figured it out yet?). AND A SECOND JET MOTION BACK ACROSS!..... we run into a wall of LBers and S's.  Just dumb. It's 3rd and 8 and Kenny misses a wide open DJ across the field. 

------

Moral of the story, it's 4 plays across 3 possessions that scream that nothing changed. Canada is who he is. There are plays that can have success inside of there, but it's not because he creates it or is beating the other team conceptually. It's rinse and repeat of the last two years. Poor dropback game. Running plays instead of an offense. Taking short gains over big ones. Being freaking obvious in your personnel and tells. Just so frustrating watching Matt Canada offenses. 

Two other quick things:

- I'm not a great OL evaluator, but I'm not worried there. I think it was 49ers > Steelers and that checks out based on their dudes and how on our butts they were conceptually. Couple times you just gotta tip your hat to their talent. 

- Don't know if Pickens needs to get his conditioning up or what, but I got a good feeling that dude got chewed out today. Lazy off the line way to often. 

 

On the third play of the game Im pretty sure he wanted George deep on that play and seemed like he was "committed to" making a big play statement there. George ran a deep post vs single coverage with no safety in sight and I think he just wanted it. When it finally opened up Cole was getting beat at that exact moment he was going to step into that throw. The safe read to move the chains should've been Meuth early without hesitation then the drag by Austin which he might've lost him for a moment but it was there the whole time, again I think he just wanted George deep. I would say he was just too greedy to pass up that opportunity for him and George to make the highlight reel. It was a 100% TD ball if he is able to step into that throw and he was just about to load up and pull that trigger. The only person out there that was covering him was the back judge.  The design actually seemed to do what you wanted, that one on one outside just had Kenny salivating and he couldn't let it go. It was kind of like a risky trap that San Fran put out there for the young QB. 

 

Im not certain of the progression there but Kenny's interest started on the right side and stayed on the right side because of George's 1on1 he looked under to Meuth momentarily but it was late for the good window then he seemed to look back for George and never really even looked for Austin under and definitely didn't look left or start on that side in any fashion. He knew what he had out there and he wanted it. Its kind of like don't ever leave your wingman and Viper got him. Great Balls of Fire...

Meuth was out at about 8-10 yds and was open momentarily, but half the team was focused on him. Austin was crossing at about 4-4.5 yds on a 3rd and 5, you are correct though in I have no idea why you would have a little man stop there a yard before the sticks with a LB right behind him, maybe a more mature/experienced receiver reads the coverage and continues crossing, I mean how is that LB keeping up with him, theres no chance. Hell that could've been a big gain itself. 

Edited September 12, 2023 by JustPlainNasty