Matt Canada Was Easy to Blame. Who is The Steelers Next Scapegoat?
Bo Marchionte
Host · Writer
The Names Change. The Steelers Offense Doesn’t.
Matt Canada was the easy answer.
For a while, he was probably the correct answer, too.
The Pittsburgh Steelers spent nearly three seasons operating an offense that often looked like it was being played inside a phone booth.
Canada became the face of every three-and-out, every sideways pass and every Sunday when Pittsburgh’s defense was asked to drag the offense across the finish line.
Then Canada disappeared.
The problem didn’t.
Quarterbacks have changed. Coordinators have changed. Receivers have changed. Offensive linemen have changed.
Mike Tomlin is gone.
Now Mike McCarthy a coach whose resume is built largely upon offense and quarterbacks is calling the plays.
And two games into 2026, the Steelers are 30th in the NFL in both scoring and total offense, averaging 11.5 points and 249.5 yards.
At some point, this stopped being a Matt Canada story.
It became a Pittsburgh Steelers story.
Here is the offensive scoring trail dating to Ben Roethlisberger’s final season:
- 2021: 343 points, 20.2 per game, Ranked 21st
- 2022: 308 points, 18.1 per game, Ranked 26th
- 2023: 304 points, 17.9 per game, Ranked 28th
- 2024: 380 points, 22.4 per game, Ranked 16th
- 2025: 397 points, 23.4 per game, Ranked 15th
- 2026: 23 points, 11.5 per game, Rank 30th through two games
There was progress under Arthur Smith.
Pittsburgh climbed from 28th in scoring in 2023 to 16th and then 15th. But even last season’s improvement came with a rather ugly footnote. The Steelers finished 25th in total yards, and their season ended with six points in a 30-6 playoff loss to Houston.
That was supposed to change under McCarthy.
Instead, the first eight quarters produced something even more troubling.
The 2026 Breakdown
- Week 1: Atlanta: W, 20-13: 264 total yards. Pittsburgh won but managed only 58 rushing yards. Aaron Rodgers threw for 221 yards and one touchdown.
- Week 2: New England: L, 20-3: 235 total yards and zero touchdowns.
- Two-game total: 499 yards, 249.5 per game.
- Record: 1-1.
- Points: 23, or 11.5 per game.
- Third down: 5-for-25.
- Yards per play: 3.8.
- Touchdowns: Two. (One on offense)
And here is perhaps the nastiest number of all.
The 499 yards are the fewest through the first two games of any season in Rodgers’ career and any season in McCarthy’s coaching career.
So, what exactly are we looking at?
It is difficult to blame one quarterback when Pittsburgh has cycled through Ben Roethlisberger, Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph, Russell Wilson and Rodgers. It is increasingly difficult to blame one coordinator when Canada gave way to Eddie Faulkner, then Smith and now McCarthy’s offense.
Personnel hasn’t been static, either.
Yet the symptoms keep surviving the changes: too few explosive plays, uncomfortable third downs, inconsistent protection, stretches without touchdowns and an offense perpetually searching for rhythm.
McCarthy didn’t duck it after New England.
“Offensively, clearly not good enough. And that starts with me,” he said, later acknowledging that Pittsburgh needs better detail and cleaner protection and indicating the offense will be simplified.
That’s noteworthy because McCarthy was supposed to be part of the solution, not the next man standing at the podium explaining the same problem.
Canada has been gone for nearly three years.
Arthur Smith is gone. Tomlin is gone. The quarterbacks are different. The receivers are different.
And somehow, on Sunday afternoon in New England, the Steelers offense still looked hauntingly familiar.
Bad offensively.
Someone is to blame. That’s the way this NFL business works.
Who’s the target in Pittsburgh?
