PITTSBURGH — Like most NFL quarterbacks, Mitch Trubisky said it's "deep in his heart" to want to throw the ball down the field and make plays with his wide receivers.
And, as a six-year veteran who has grown to understand NFL defenses, he probably would like to call more audibles at the line of scrimmage to get the offense into a better play. But, in Matt Canada's offense, he doesn't have the freedom to do so on a lot of plays.
"We're still figuring out when is a good time for me to audible and if, within each play, I have the option to do so," Trubisky said.
After two games of the offense failing to sustain drives and produce points, it is difficult to fully pinpoint if Trubisky is failing to take advantage of opportunities for big plays or if he is being limited with what he is allowed to do within the framework of Canada's offense.
Coach Mike Tomlin said the other day both Trubisky and the coaching staff need to be more aggressive in their approach in an attempt to generate some production from an offense that has produced 510 yards, 29 first downs and two touchdowns in two games.
"There are opportunities down the field we've got to make," Canada said on Tuesday. "I'm not going to stand up here and go through play by play what happened. We're going to keep getting Mitch in position to make plays, and we'll continue to do that until we win."
Trubisky said he would have liked to call an audible on a third-and-8 play in the fourth quarter on Sunday when he saw the New England Patriots in zero coverage, meaning no safety help in the deep portions of the field. However, the Patriots were showing a three-man blitz on the weak side, and Trubisky had to dump the ball to running back Najee Harris for a 2-yard gain rather than take a sack or, worse, fumble.
"I'd like to get into a different play at the line of scrimmage," Trubisky said. "I've seen that look before. I wish I would have got us into a better play at the time."
Canada said it's different having a new quarterback with a bunch of young players as opposed to having Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback, though Roethlisberger was restricted in how much he could audible, too. However, Roethlisberger would dump those restrictions when he got to the fourth quarter and needed to score points in seven of their comeback victories.
"We're evolving to that, too," Canada said. "[You have] a guy who played 18 years and a guy who just got here with a bunch of young players. We're slowly building to that. We're not where we want to be and we're building to that."
Trubisky said he wants to target rookie receiver George Pickens more in an attempt to make more big plays, beginning Thursday night in Cleveland. Pickens has two catches and been targeted just six times in two games.
For his part, Pickens said he's been open "90 percent of the time." But all NFL receivers think that. They're like Sheetz — they think they're open all the time.
"I like to throw the ball down the field," Trubisky said. "Why I haven't, given certain looks, I can't say exactly why. But we're looking for that. I'm looking for that. Every quarterback deep in his heart likes to throw it as far as they can down the field and watch their playmakers go up and get it. We're looking for that. We've got to look for the right opportunity, the right timing."
