Pittsburgh Steelers OC Matt Canada on offensive woes: 'I need to do better'

The Pittsburgh Steelers offense has had a slow start to the 2021 campaign and offensive coordinator Matt Canada is taking responsibility.

After the Steelers 26-17 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders last Sunday, Canada was candid about the necessary improvement.

“I think I need to be better,” Canada said after the loss. “We lost the game. The plan was what it was. We thought we had matchups. We thought we had things right.

“I told the offense, ‘We didn’t win, I’ve gotta, we’ve gotta do better.’ We gotta win, that’s all that matters is winning.”

Roethlisberger takes ownership of Pittsburgh Steelers woes

Though the offense posted 331 yards on the day, there were plenty of areas that lacked efficiency. The Steelers finished with only 39 rushing yards and were 5-of-12 on third down. They failed in their only fourth-down attempt.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger took ownership for the offensive struggles after Sunday’s loss.

“The best way to figure out an identity is for the quarterback to play better, so that’s what I need to do,” Roethlisberger said. “I’ll work on me getting myself ready to go and making better reads, better throws and trying to put us in a situation to win a football game.

“I’ll take it, I gotta be better. It starts with the quarterback, I have to be better.”

Canada acknowledged Roethlisberger’s sentiment, but again reiterated it was his job to fix the unit as a whole.

“Ben said that, and that was great, but we’ve gotta put our players in position to make plays,” Canada said. “We thought we did that, but we didn’t win so we didn’t do that.”

Canada is in his first season as the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator after joining the staff as the quarterbacks coach in 2020.

“We both really, really hate to lose, I know that,” Canada said.

“We’re similar in that regard. I mean, Ben’s a Hall-of-Fame quarterback. I wouldn’t want to even kinda compare myself to him. But I think he and I are on the same page with how much we want to win and the way we work to win and the disappointment and the frustration when we don’t do it.

“We’ve obviously done both now, we’re 1-1. Ben’s the one that’s playing so we’re trying to put him in position to make plays and do what he can do well. And I’m trying to do my job, which is put everybody in that position to help him.

“I didn’t do that last week ’cause we didn’t win, and that’s always going to be the way it is.”

The Pittsburgh Steelers offense will have a chance to bounce back on Sunday in a division test vs. the Cincinnati Bengals.