It’s no question that the offensive playcalling has been abysmal. But as a fan that’s only started watching football actively quite recently, do these recent calls make any sense?
Against CLE 2nd & 1 - RB screen(!?!) after 9 yard run: Shouldn’t the two best plays be either 1) play action and throw deep and try get chunk yards? 2) run it with Najee or Jaylen to get first down and possibly more?
Against TEN 1st & 10 (@opp 20yd line) - 3rd straight Inside Zone run after two chunk run plays that got you in the red zone: Wouldn’t a play action catch the defense off guard? Instead of running the ball again into a stacked box?
I don’t wanna seem like a couch coach but man Canada seems to disrupt his offense just because he thinks he’ll succeed with reverse psychology. “This play’s success rate is too high, so I’m gonna call a Jet Sweep”. In reality, it just falls right into the defense’s hands. This IS living in your fears.
I’ve come to the conclusion starting last season that Canada’s offensive game plan is to do the bare minimum to try come away with the victory. I love Tomlin and I firmly believe that if there’s anyone in the NFL that can pull this off, it’s Tomlin, but even he accepts this and said at the post game presser that they were “a play or two short” from a win. It’s just not a great place to start to achieve victory. We’re gonna either win not feeling victorious or lose tragically. Gonna be a rough season y’all.
I saw someone comment on a preview for this game that we basically ran the same two running plays against the Packers all game.
I remember when we played Baltimore where we gave it to Warren until he got stuffed in the backfield instead of calling play action pass.
All our play action passes right now are basically roll outs to the right that gives us nothing. Instead going with a deep pass off play action like when Austin scored the toachdown against the Raiders.
On another note The QB school has called Canadas scheme for not making routes build off each other. To scheme people open and making it easier for the QB. Not excusing Picketts horrible play here.
Your faith in Tomlin is your mistake. He hires these coordinators. We constantly hire 50+ year old retread can’t-be coaches who run unsophisticated and uninventive schemes ultimately just relying on the players’ talents to make results, both on offense and on defense. Tomlin has never brought in a young innovative mind on either side of the ball, probably because he wants “culture fits,” guys who won’t question his style or take the shine off him by shining themselves. They play not to lose, hope for splash on offense, and net out with mediocre results - like a streak of non-losing seasons as impressive as the streak of non-playoff-win seasons.
This fish has rotted from the top. Canada sucks, but it’s not all his fault.