Halicke: Yet another fatal flaw in this putrid offense

The Steelers are in perhaps the roughest spot they've been in under Mike Tomlin. Back-to-back losses to two-win teams might be rock bottom for his 17 seasons as head coach. And despite his efforts to find some sort of identity of offense, highlighted by his decision to fire Matt Canada, this offense is still handcuffed beyond belief.

Anyone who's followed along and read these Chalk Talk pieces or heard what I've had to say on The South Side Beat knows that I've said over and over that this offense had a ceiling. Even if everyone executed what's called at a high clip (they don't, and that's on the players and the coaching staff), this offense -- by its very nature and design -- was going to have a low ceiling.

One of the biggest reasons why is something Pat Freiermuth openly and publicly admitted as a guest on Ben Roethlisberger's podcast during the offseason: No hot routes.

"It's so different because we didn't have hots," Freiermuth told Roethlisberger. "With you, how many times did we have a concept, and you looked (at Diontae Johnson) and gave a signal, and it'd be a 12-yard completion. We didn't have that this year."

To be fair, that was last season. Nobody's stated on record that there aren't any hot routes in the 2023 edition of Canada's offense. And if there aren't, that's not something Eddie Faulkner and Mike Sullivan can just throw into the mix in the middle of the season. That's stuff that's gotta be coached up when the foundation of the offense is laid in the spring.

But, as I've watched this offense this season, it sure doesn't look like Canada implemented hot routes into this year's offense either. And if there are, they are very few and far between. There have been examples of built-in checks for game- and opponent-specific plays, stuff worked out in practice, such as this game-winning touchdown to George Pickens against the Ravens where Kenny Pickett checked the route and protection based on the Ravens going with Cover 0:

However, that might be one of the few tangible built-in checks we've seen. But, that's not going with full-blown hot routes, something we saw Roethlisberger do time and time again during his tenure under center. It's one of the ways he got the reputation of playing "backyard football." And, to Freiermuth's point, it worked quite often.

Hot routes are one of the best ways to counter blitzes by the opposing defense. Obviously, a blitz means more players are rushing the quarterback than normal. In turn, there is a void left from where those extra guys are coming from. When a quarterback can read where the blitz is coming from before the snap, he can call a hot route with a specific receiver or tight end to get the ball out immediately into that void.

It's common for offenses with younger quarterbacks to not have hot routes built into the system. Typically, veteran quarterbacks are best equipped to execute these, given their experience and ability to read defenses prior to the snap. Most rookie and second-year quarterbacks have enough on their plate with the complicated nature of an NFL offense. So, Canada opting to not build hot routes into the offense was an effort to simplify the system as much as possible for a developing quarterback such as Pickett.

Thus, the Steelers are inherently handcuffed on offense. When teams bring pressure, they're asking more of their offensive line, tight ends and/or running backs to execute perfectly in pass protection. And, because of a lack of hot routes, the only way the Steelers can truly thwart blitzes is going to six-man or max protection and calling concepts on downs that can get the ball out quickly. However, as we've seen plenty of times this season, that makes the Steelers' play calling very predictable on these downs, making it easier for defenses to diagnose what's coming, especially when the Steelers face well-coached teams.

A great example for how this can handicap the Steelers is on their last effort to try and complete the comeback from an 18-point deficit in Thursday night's 21-18 loss to the Patriots.

On fourth-and-2, the Steelers simply need two yards to move the chains. Do or die time. They don't need to worry about the clock at all because with 2:01 on the clock, it will stop after the play is over because of the two-minute warning. And, down by only three points, the Steelers are only 11-12 yards away from getting into Chris Boswell's range.

All of that being said, this is the play call:

Full disclosure and brutal honesty: I hate this play call. Absolutely hate it. If I'm the quarterback and that's the play that I hear in my helmet, I'm immediately groaning. And, if that's the call I get and get the look the Patriots give here, which is Cover 1 and showing pressure, I'm changing my first read from either Johnson or Pickens on Go routes to Allen Robinson on the Drive route.

Freiermuth serves as a clear for Robinson, and that is helped even more by the defender playing a few yards off the line of scrimmage. If I'm the quarterback, I peak that defender, wait that split second for the clear and fire a missile between the numbers. First down. 

Going with a Go route as the No. 1 solution on this play is, at best, a low-percentage throw, even though the Patriots are in Cover 1, which is a favorable coverage for hitting the Go routes on either side.

There are times to be aggressive. No doubt. The Steelers weren't aggressive enough in this game. But, this is being aggressive without purpose. Second down is a good down to take a shot. In four-down territory, third down is not ideal but it's at least acceptable against favorable coverages. After all, there's still one more chance to stay alive.

All of this is one gigantic issue I have with this offense. There's no room for improvisation. Even if you take hot routes out of the equation, just going with what's called, regardless of what the defense shows is a great way to lose on possession downs more often than not. And, as the season progresses and teams get more and more tape on how the offense operates on possession downs, the more predictable the offense becomes.

The way I'd coach this kind of situational football, I'd build in wiggle room for hot routes. It's difficult to move the chains when there's two or three yards to gain. It's too far to simply run the ball more often than not. And, if the defense knows your tendencies in the passing game, you're screwed. There has to be room for reading the coverage and being the one who dictates what transpires on the field, not just taking what the defense gives you. How often have we heard Pickett, Trubisky or Canada say that over the past couple seasons?

If you notice the Patriots' coverage on this play, the defender moves in motion with Robinson and both outside cornerbacks are in press coverage. That's man across the board with one high safety and at least five coming on a blitz, possibly even six. The sixth man plays as a spy to prevent Trubisky from tucking and running. But, as soon as I see that the defender covering Robinson is lined up beyond the sticks, that's gotta become the primary target. You need two yards. With him playing that far off the ball, that becomes the highest-percentage target.

Before anyone argues that the Steelers don't have players that can be coached up for these type of situations, here's an example from Thursday night of Freiermuth reading the defense's coverage, knowing exactly how to run his route and finding exactly what he needs to move the chains:

There are smart players on this offense. Instead of coaching them to play to their instincts within a system, the players are asked to just execute the system. No improvisation. No instincts. No creativity. Here's the play, run it.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the epitome of uninspired football. It really doesn't matter whether it's Pickett, Trubisky, Mason Rudolph or Trace McSorely at quarterback. Not having hot routes is just a minor symptom of why this offense lacks so much life. There aren't enough ways for this offense to tip the scales back in their favor if the defense has a pre-snap advantage.

With that fourth-and-2 call, the Steelers had one -- ONE -- option that stood a decent chance of moving the sticks. That's coaching. That's play calling. But, the players not having the ability to alter anything, anything at all, just further handcuffs them.

In this offense, everything is just going through the motions, which makes just about any game plan dead on arrival.