Halicke: Better offense begins with Smith's dedication to accountability

LATROBE, Pa. -- Friday night's loss to the Texans isn't being swept under the rug. Numerous fundamental issues have been a point of emphasis in practice ever since the first-team offense not only failed to score points in the preseason opener, but had crucial errors such as two center-quarterback exchanges that were fumbled.

Other than that, there was enough from the offense that provided a sliver of optimism that things will be different under Arthur Smith. Not only in terms of production, which is what ultimately matters, but the process that goes into building an offense that is capable of producing. 

The first thing is how he and the coaching staff would respond to these issues in practice. And, when Smith addressed reporters after Monday's practice at Saint Vincent College, his answer was loud and clear.

"Yeah, I mean, nobody's happy with the snap issues. Those are the things at any level, that’s the stuff that gets you beat," Smith said. "We had an urgency about it, and we have to be more detailed. Those are the things that can’t happen, to have a positive drive and chunk plays and then have self-inflicting (wounds). And to say that in total respect to Houston, we just don't want to beat ourselves."

You want to know what really stands out from that quote? Yes, the reckoning for mistakes shouldn't be overlooked. Mike Tomlin harped on that, too.

"I cannot remove that fundamental component of the eval," Tomlin said after Monday's practice. "We’ve got to be 1,000 percent on C-Q exchange. That’s just the standard for professional ball."

However, the part that stands out to me was Smith saying, "We have to be more detailed." After having studied Matt Canada's offense all last season -- Chalk Talk was pretty much dedicated to a weekly edition of how the offense sucked once again -- that is music to my ears. And, it should be music to anyone's ears that hope for a better offense in 2024 and beyond.

Coaching details could make or break an offense. Let me take you back to an edition of Chalk Talk I wrote last season in the wake of the loss to the Colts, looking back at the lack of details that had jumped out on film throughout the season. There were fundamental flaws throughout the offense, all the way down to how the concepts were coached.

This was a Drive concept that moved the chains on third down against the Browns, but still showed symptoms of the lack of details in Canada's offense:

NFL.COM

Notice how quickly George Pickens breaks on his corner route. It's about six or seven yards from the line of scrimmage. That's awfully shallow for this route. With the Browns showing one high, this could either be Cover 1 or Cover 3. Either way, a corner route should stress the defense more than it does. If it's Cover 1, the safety's gotta book it to get over and help. If it's Cover 3, the cornerback should be stretched out way more between the depth of Diontae Johnson's out route and Pickens' corner route. And, he would have been if it looked more like this (correction in red):

NFL.COM

Go back and watch the play again and notice how cluttered the four players are when Johnson breaks out of his route. Now, imagine it if Pickens runs a deeper route. That would put way more stress on the cornerback. And, with a well-timed throw, even give Johnson time and space for a few extra yards after the catch.

These lack of details plagued the offense into having to execute everything to near perfection. Any lack of execution by even the smallest of margins, and the whole play could get blown up. There was no room for error, and actually stressing defenders into tough decisions came few and far between.

Now, here's a snippet of what Smith had to say when asked about Justin Fields' performance and what he liked from it.

"Yeah, I thought he was decisive. He was able to get ball to hand. There were some things, regardless of whoever gets online and tries to break down what is what, the one thing is shared accountability," Smith said. "With the protections, route depths, winning versus man, there’s a lot of things that can be true in one play and we got to continue to improve, but I thought we got in our own way."

Notice how very little was said about the quarterback and it quickly turned on a dime to the overall offense. And, yeah, you betcha that a gigantic light bulb went off in my head when I heard him say "route depths," and went all the way back to when I wrote that Chalk Talk last December. 

It also led me to re-watch some of the film from Friday night's loss to the Texans and find anything good or bad regarding these type of details.

First, I love this Pivot-Sail concept ran to near perfection:

Just about everything is great here. I'd like to see some better anticipation from Fields. He hitches and then throws, but a pretty slick route by Van Jefferson gets more than enough separation to not truly matter (receivers who know how to attack leverage stand a better chance of gaining separation). And, Pickens' corner route is run deep enough here to clear plenty of space for Jefferson's out route.

But, not everything was perfect. Far from it, actually:

This is supposed to be a Double Stick concept in which both Pat Freiermuth and Pickens work from the inside out while Jefferson runs a go route to clear space for them. This is up against man coverage across the board, so a quick hit to either Freiermuth or Pickens should work here.

However, Pickens runs the wrong route. I'm not sure exactly what he was trying to do, but his move inside absolutely interferes with Freiermuth. And, it looks as if Fields was anticipating a quick throw to Freiermuth. But, something clearly caused him to hitch and find his check down, but it was too late as Troy Fautanu was beaten off the edge and Fields went down for a sack.

No matter how you put it, the details here were way off and it caused a negative play.

No team is going to be perfect. And this is a new offense, so I expect there to be growing pains. This is the time to work through all of these issues. That's what training camp and the preseason is for. 

But reason for solace is knowing how much Smith takes these sort of things to heart, whether it's a center-quarterback exchange or missed details in a concept. Everyone's accountable for correcting these issues, starting with Smith himself:

"Yeah, it's all of us. But yeah, certainly I bear the responsibility," Smith said. "That's the part of being accountable. I've always thought this and learned it from a great quarterback: If you're a head coach, or play-caller, or quarterback in this league, you've got to stand in there during the good and bad, and you better be accountable. For better and for worse, I take that personal. Again, we have great coaches, and the players are, too. We talk about shared accountability. It’s not about pointing the finger or saying, 'It's his fault,' or whatever. We've got to get it fixed, and all we want to find are solutions and not let that stuff happen."

That's not how things were before. Now, it doesn't mean that this offense is going to go out and become a top-10 unit this season. But, the process of becoming a better offense starts with coaching. That's why, despite a goose egg from the first-teamers in the preseason opener, there are already encouraging signs of better things to come in 2024.