Matt Canada was elevated to offensive coordinator to bring some imagination and modern concepts to the Steelers offense.
Right now, the only imagination that can be connected to the Steelers offense is that nobody can imagine this thing turning around anytime soon.
That popgun offense was again on display Sunday at Heinz Field against the Bengals, as the Steelers scored just one touchdown in a 24-10 loss to Cincinnati that dropped them to 1-2 and into the AFC North basement.
It's a long season -- one made even longer this year by the addition of a 17th game. But if this is going to be the continued result, it could turn into one of the longest seasons in franchise history. Heck, the Mason Rudolph/Duck Hodges offense of 2019 was better than this -- at least until everyone figured it out in the final three weeks of the season when the wheels came off.
"We're not playing well enough or coaching well enough," Mike Tomlin said when asked how he would characterize the transition to the pro game for Canada, a former college coordinator until being hired by the Steelers as quarterback coach in 2020 and then elevated in the offseason.
"You can frame that however the hell you want to frame it."
How about we let this piece of imagination frame it?
That was on fourth-and-goal and trailing, 24-10, with just over three minutes remaining after the Bengals had called a timeout. Canada had additional time to think about that one, and that's what he came out with.
"We had fired all of our bullets at that juncture in terms of some of our play selection," said Tomlin. "It just wasn't a good enough play to get in there. They had a picket fence, if you will ... They're going to allow you to probably throw and catch the ball in front of them, but you've got to do some things after that. They had a bunch of guys running along the goal-line."
So, instead of, oh I don't know, throwing the ball up high for Chase Claypool, Pat Freiermuth or Eric Ebron -- all of whom are 6-foot-4 or taller -- the plan was for Ben Roethlisberger to throw the ball to Harris behind the line of scrimmage and allow him to try to pinball his way into the end zone?
"We anticipated that," Roethlisberger said of that defense. "That's what they showed, so we were going to try to get it to him to get guys out in front to block for him, see what we could do. You're a little limited from that far out on what you can do except throw a ball up, or, you know, in hindsight, we wish we could have taken a shot in the end zone. I wish we would have done that."
Here's the thing, if you're going to try that, shouldn't the quarterback not simply just stand up and throw the ball to the back in the flat. Let the receivers at least occupy some people downfield. Give your offensive line a chance to get over in front of Harris.
Anything but what the Steelers actually did.
Harris caught 14 passes (on 19 targets) in this game -- the most in team history for a running back -- and produced just 102 yards. Even if he got his average -- 7.3 yards on that catch -- he wasn't going to get into the end zone.
"(They were) taking away a lot of deep stuff, so he's going to be open underneath," Roethlisberger said of Harris. "He's learning and growing on the urgency out of the backfield and how fast the ball can get to him, and then how fast they close on him when he gets the ball."
Apparently, so is the guy who called that play.
Then again, he's also the guy who drew this up:
That's the Steelers running max protection in the first half with eight blockers and Harris and Freiermuth then leaking out of the backfield. So there are three eligible receivers.
The Steelers have the five Cincinnati pass rushers blocked -- until they don't. And Roethlisberger doesn't trust what he sees. He at least has Harris to his left for a quick few yards. Same with Freiermuth on the other side.
He chose neither as he waited for Ebron or Claypool to uncover down the field as the Bengals got one of their four sacks.
And therein lies the problem with the Steelers' offense right now. Roethlisberger doesn't know it inside and out as he did previously. And he's not trusting what he sees.
All too many times in this game we saw him pump -- not to open someone up -- but because he was unsure of what he was seeing.
It led to some sacks and it also led to a very costly interception in the second quarter:
Roethlisberger looks like a quarterback who doesn't trust his line. He doesn't trust his receivers. And, more importantly, it appears he doesn't trust his coordinator to put guys in the right place to make things work.
The Bengals brought six pass rushers on that play. The Steelers had six pass blockers. That means they had four receivers to try to get open against five Cincinnati defenders. It didn't happen -- at least in Roethlisberger's eyes.
He's just unsure of what he's seeing.
"If we had the answers, we do everything we could to fix it," Roethlisberger said. "But right now, I think it's lack of execution, for whatever reason."
Roethlisberger can still make throws. He can still be a winning quarterback in the NFL. The Steelers went 12-3 in the regular season with him at the helm in 2020.
But he also needs some help. The Steelers dropped at least six passes in this game. Right now, he's getting none of that from the people around him.

JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY
The Bengals' JaMarr Chase catches a 34-yard touchdown in front of James Pierre in the second quarter.
• Roethlisberger obviously is having some issues of his own.
He's been prone to some gambler-type mistakes throughout his career. That's what he is. But he needs to realize he can no longer run around and make plays the way he did when he was 29 let alone 39.
It used to be when he started scrambling around, he became the most dangerous quarterback in the league. Now, when he scrambles around, things like this happen:
That interception came in the third quarter after the Bengals (2-1) had just scored a field goal to go ahead 17-7. The Steelers needed an answer midway through the third quarter.
Instead, Logan Wilson got his second interception of the game on a pass on which he looked like the intended receiver.
"I thought he was going in the other direction," said Roethlisberger, who was 38 of 58 for 318 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
"(I) saw JuJu (Smith-Schuster). The defender was kind of moving to his right, my left. (It was) just an awful play by me."
Even if Wilson doesn't pick that off, one of the other two defenders covering Smith-Schuster either knocks it down or intercepts it. What wasn't going to happen was a completion.
• Prior to this game, I advocated for the Steelers to run their offense through Harris. But if they're going to make it 19 dumpoff passes into the teeth of the defense, he's not going to survive the season.
Harris was limping noticeably after this game as he made his way to the podium. He gained 40 yards on 14 carries despite having a long run of 20 yards.
"The game plan was to win ultimately. How we did it, I wouldn’t say was just to give me the ball," Harris said. "It just so happened that I caught a lot of check downs. That’s really what it was. There wasn’t a design pass for me, just check downs."
There was only really one play that wasn't a check down. The Steelers split Harris wide on third down and he ran a slant, catching it to covert.
More of that and less of allowing him to catch the ball and then try to bully his way through 11 defenders would go a long way.
• That said, Harris' stat line -- and perhaps this game -- would have been a lot different had he not had a 10-yard run and a 12-yard catch negated in the first quarter by penalties.
Clete Blakeman's crew had called eight holding penalties in the first two weeks of this season. It added seven more to its total in this game -- though one was declined. Nobody should have been surprised by that, even though the Bengals hadn't been called for a hold in their first two games, while the Steelers had just one.
What was worse were the pre-snap penalties, false starts and illegal formation calls, that plagued the Steelers in this game.
"The penalties kill you," Roethlisberger said. "There were some drive killers in there. So, yeah, it's huge. Can't have them."
Tomlin was asked about offensive line changes last week. But given that the issues have come all across his line, it's not as simple as just pulling one guy and inserting someone else.
• Tomlin said last week that because of the injuries with which the Steelers were dealing, it would be a big week for the coaching staff.
And all of this is what they came up with.
Make no mistake, the players are largely to blame here. They've just not been good enough. And they're not coming together quickly enough to win games.
"Certainly," Tomlin said when asked if he still has optimism regarding his offensive line coming together and getting better.
"(It's not) reflected in today's performance, but if you're asking me my level of optimism, sure, I believe in these guys."
• The Bengals are taking steps in the right direction. Joe Burrow might soon be the best quarterback in the AFC North -- if he already isn't there. And that's saying something in a division in which former NFL MVP Lamar Jackson also plays.
Burrow wasn't asked to do much in this game -- he finished 14 of 18 for 172 yards -- but he had three touchdown passes to go along with his one interception.
Two of the touchdown passes went to rookie Ja'Marr Chase, including a backbreaker at the end of the half after the Steelers had scored to tie the game at 7-7 on Freiermuth's first career touchdown catch.
The touchdown pass was set up in part by a questionable roughing the passer penalty by Melvin Ingram, but Chase's 34-yard touchdown catch was as good as you'll see.
He accelerated past James Pierre when the ball was in the air and caught the back of the football for a score as Cincinnati answered in just 27 seconds to take a 14-7 lead into the half.
"You can't give up deep balls or big plays," Tomlin said. "I think that's two weeks in a row on third-down-and-10 -- we gave up a deep ball in a significant moment. We're in two-minute ball and we gave up another one."
That can't happen. But you also have to acknowledge how good the throw was from Burrow and how good of a catch it was by Chase.
Now, imagine a Steelers receiver making that catch.
• Spare me the angst over Tomlin calling a timeout prior to the Freiermuth touchdown following an 18-yard catch and run to the 4.
The Steelers have scored four offensive touchdowns in three games. There was no guarantee that inside flip to Freiermuth was going to get into the end zone.
And the Steelers had just gone 82 yards on the previous 14 plays using the hurry-up offense. They needed to re-set themselves down inside the 5.
The defense can't give up a touchdown drive in 27 seconds. Heck, even if the Steelers had not called timeout and just tossed the pass to Freiermuth, there's a good chance there would have been more than 30 seconds on the clock after they scored.
That still would have been plenty of time for the Bengals to get their touchdown.
You want to blame Tomlin for that. Have at it. But you've got to make sure you get the ball into the end zone first. The defense is allowed to get a stop there.
• Roethlisberger is not playing well. But once again, he's getting absolutely no help from his receivers. Too many dropped passes and blown assignments are still haunting this group.
I asked Tomlin at his press conference last week if Roethlisberger and the receivers have been on the same page.
"Largely, yes," was his reply.
Boy does it look bad when they aren't, such as Claypool going one way and the ball the other in the end zone on third-and-goal in the third quarter.
• How bad was this game? Chris Boswell missed a 42-yard field goal in the third quarter that would have made it 24-10 right after the Roethlisberger-Claypool mixup.
Boswell has been great, but when you're struggling to score as this team is, those are ones you have to have.
Because of that, when Tomlin decided to kick a field goal with 8:12 remaining from the Cincinnati 8, it was the right call to make. It cut the Cincinnati lead to two scores at 24-10.
Had Boswell made the earlier field goal, it already would have been 24-10. A field goal wouldn't have made sense.
Of course, neither did a checkdown to Harris on fourth-and-goal from the 11.
• Not only did the Steelers not sack Burrow -- seeing their NFL-record streak of 75 consecutive games with a sack come to an end -- they didn't record a single hit on the quarterback, at least not without being penalized.
This against a Cincinnati offensive line that had allowed 10 sacks coming into this game.
Tell me again how they shouldn't have paid T.J. Watt.