Matt Canada has a two-pronged issue on his hands, for which he has to find a solution before the start of the regular season.
No, it’s not deciding which quarterback will replace Ben Roethlisberger as the starter. That’s a big enough problem.
His biggest problem as the Steelers’ offensive coordinator is finding a way to have the NFL’s slowest-starting offense come out of the gates like Usain Bolt.
Compounding matters is the player who helped them recover in the fourth quarter from those notorious slow starts is retired.
“We know that,” Canada said Wednesday at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe. “It’s certainly a focal point for us. It’s certainly something we’ve got to get better at.”
No team in the NFL started slower than 2021 Steelers. They scored just 37 points in the first quarter all season — tied for fewest in the league — and it didn’t get much better in the second quarter. In the final eight games, at a time when most offenses would be finding some type of rhythm, the Steelers scored just 22 points in the first half.
It’s the biggest reason they finished 21st in the league in scoring in 2021, averaging 19.6 points, six fewer than the previous season.
“Winning games is really important,” Canada said. “If you start fast, it’s easier to win games.”
But that didn’t happen too often last season. What did happen, especially in seven of their nine victories, is Roethlisberger brought them back with one of the 41 fourth-quarter comeback drives of his 18-year career — third-most in NFL history behind Peyton Manning (43) and Tom Brady (42).
Unlike their slow starts in the first quarter, the Steelers scored more than half their points — 175 of 343 — in the fourth quarter, tied for most in the NFL.
Canada doesn’t have the luxury of having Roethlisberger around to do what he has done more often than all but two quarterbacks in NFL history. But Mitch Trubisky showed a little of that at the end of Wednesday’s practice, running the two-minute offense with 1:19 remaining and throwing a touchdown to rookie George Pickens in the back of the end zone.
“I’m not going to say it doesn’t matter; it matters,” Canada said about the slow starts. “Last year is last year. I have no problems with how we tried. We didn’t get our ultimate goal, but it’s a new year, a new time. There are a lot of different things. We’ll work and try to be better this year. We have to play better. We know that.”
The question then becomes: Who will be the quarterback to help change their early lethargic ways? Or, as Canada said, “trying to build to Sept. 11 and beyond.”
For now, all signs point to Trubisky. He has taken every snap with the first-team offense since the beginning of offseason training activities, a process that has continued right through Wednesday’s afternoon practice. The intention is to get him comfortable with Canada’s offense and prepared to start the season opener.
Trubisky has not been overly sharp the past couple days, but it should be noted he has been working without running back Najee Harris, tight end Pat Freiermuth and receivers Diontae Johnson and Chase Claypool since the Steelers put on pads on Monday.
“He’s come in with a real good demeanor, and he’s earned the trust and respect of his teammates, which is unbelievably important,” Canada said. “It is the position that is the focal point. We know he has the ability. We know he is a first-round talent. But the way he’s come in here and done that, his great knowledge of the game, he’s done a great job of not only grasping the system but getting involved with what he likes and things we can do.”
Now, if they can only start fast.
