The Steelers have lacked consistency and productivity on offense through two games, but the players remain accountable to their coaches and to each other.
"There's a very clear answer, 'This didn't work because of this, this is why,'" offensive coordinator Matt Canada explained today at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. "Sometimes, I'm saying it. Sometimes, a coach is saying it. But probably more times than not the player that didn't maybe do it quite like he wanted to is saying it before we get to him."
Two offensive touchdowns through two games isn't what anyone had envisioned.
But the offense's resolve, individually and collectively, hasn't been shaken.
Canada's, in particular.
"We've just been misfiring a little bit and it's compounded," he said. "We've got to play fast and loose and get back to those things we're doing. We've got the players to do it. We feel like we're in the right spot. I think our coaches are awesome and we're working really hard. We just have to find it.
"And until we do that, there's no magic thing to say. There's nothing for me to tell you that's different, we gotta put it on tape. But the biggest thing I would point to is our players coming back in, and it's a shot week and they're working hard and ready to go."
Ironing out the "popcorn" miscues and mistakes, a turnover here, a penalty there, would go a long way toward allowing the Steelers to possess the ball more, put more pressure on defenses and begin to resemble the offense they thought they'd become all along, the one they were in the preseason.
If there was a simple fix or a quick one, they'd have fixed it already.
But the players staying with it and remaining committed to finding the answers has left an impression on Canada.
"We're not executing well enough," he said. "If a play doesn't work, it's all of us, we gotta fix it. We're gonna keep going and we'll continue to fight and see if we can get those completions better, the runs better, all of it.
"Every facet of our game could be a little bit better. There's no magical answer to this, I don't believe, other than I'm very proud and excited about where our players are at with it. There's nobody pointing fingers. There's nobody throwing in the towel.
"We're 1-1, we're fortunate to be there, great job by a lot of components but we won a game against a really good team (on Monday night against Cleveland). We're gonna just keep fighting until we get it the way we had it in the summer, the way we had it in camp. We gotta get ourselves back to that and it's a challenge for all of us and we're working really hard to find what that is."
