The Pittsburgh Steelers have an offense problem. For fans, the culprit is as clear as their "Fire Canada" chants on the Monday Night Football broadcast against the Browns.
So offensive coordinator Matt Canada is walking on thin ice. Everything he says is going to be picked apart because nothing he says can actually make the offense better. His words are only ever going to make Steelers fans hate him more.
It doesn't help that he's not exactly being careful about the way he phrases things.
On Thursday, Canada was asked about quarterback Kenny Pickett and whether he has the ability to change calls at the line of scrimmage. Without prompting, he turned his answer into an insistence that the offensive struggles aren't on Pickett. Which only sounded a whole lot like blaming Pickett.
Matt Canada sounds like he's blaming Kenny Pickett when defending him
"Kenny's got quite a bit of freedom to do things and get us where he wants to go. You know, Kenny's been very involved in the offense and what we're doing, but at no point has this fallen on Kenny," Canada said. "It falls on all of us and we, as a staff, we've gotta put him in a position to make plays. We've got to make him feel good about making plays. We've got to get players around him to help him make plays. Quarterback gets all the credit and all the blame and neither one is right and neither one is fair."
Canada is sounding a bit defensive there. The question was about whether Pickett has the ability to change plays at the line, not whether Pickett deserves blame for what's going on with the Steelers' offense.
Besides, few in Pittsburgh are blaming Pickett. There were no "Bench Pickett" chants going around Acrisure Stadium on Monday night.
Pickett is a second-year quarterback. He hasn't played to the best of his ability this year but no one is saying it falls on him to fix the offense. He's young and still developing. His offensive coordinator, on the other hand, has had three seasons, including one with a Hall of Fame quarterback, to get things going and he hasn't.