What was the most exciting date in recent Steelers history?

I’ll tell you what that date was: It was Tuesday, November 21, 2023. It is better known as the day Pittsburgh fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada.

Steelers fans all around the globe celebrated. The local media covered it like the moon landing.

Canada’s dismissal would be the change that the Steelers needed to make. His departure was going to be the elixir for an offense that had averaged 16.6 points a game through 10 weeks of action.

More great news came just days later, when the Steelers defeated Cincinnati, 16-10, at Paycor Stadium. No, the offense didn’t put up a lot of points, but it did gain a ton of yards (for the Steelers, anyway). That’s right, the Steelers produced over 400 yards of offense (421, to be exact) for the first time since Canada was promoted to offensive coordinator before the 2021 campaign. Ben Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph, Mitch Trubisky and Kenny Pickett. What did they all have in common? They were quarterbacks who failed to lead the offense to a 400-yard day with Canada as their OC. However, after just one game with Eddie Faulkner as the OC and Mike Sullivan as the play-caller, Pickett guided the offense to a 421-yard performance and looked good doing it. If not for a dropped pass here and a penalty there, the Steelers may have even scored more than 20 points that day at Paycor Stadium.

Things were looking up. The change was good. The change was necessary.

Yeah, about that.

The Steelers offense averaged 290.5 yards and 14 points per game in back-to-back losses at home to the pathetic Cardinals and Patriots. In fact, Pittsburgh’s average points per game has gone down since Canada’s dismissal. What was 16.6 points on November 21 is now 16.2.

Pittsburgh hasn’t eclipsed the 18-point mark since Canada left.

Awkward.

I know what you’re going to say. Yes, Faulkner and Sullivan are hamstrung by Canada’s playbook, and that explains the lack of production. OK, then why fire Canada? What was the point? Don’t get me wrong, I think the guy was bad at his job, but maybe he wasn’t the only issue.

Perhaps it was the players, too. Maybe these Steelers’ weapons aren’t as dangerous as we’d like to think. Then again, maybe they are, but they can’t do any damage because of the quarterback(s). Perhaps the weapons and the quarterback are fine, but the offensive line is still crappy even after three offseasons of rebuilding.

Wow, that’s a lot of potential problems, problems that may not be fixed by a guru (unless it’s a spiritual guru).

Let’s face it, Canada was fired because the fans and the media wanted a pound of flesh. They got it, along with some red meat to devour for a week or so. But we’re all starving again. The 14.6 points per game the Steelers’ offense has averaged sans Canada is not the new meal plan we were hoping for.

It’s like we’ve gone from everything flavored rice cakes to plain old rice cakes. It’s like we’ve gone from oatmeal with a little cinnamon to just plain oatmeal. It’s like we’ve gone from toast with a little jam to just toast.

You get the idea.

#FireSulkner.