Steelers' offensive showing vs. 49ers caught OC Matt Canada by surprise

Before he took any questions from the media Thursday at his scheduled availability, Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada offered a blunt assessment of his unit’s performance Sunday in a 30-7 loss to San Francisco.

“It was not what we expected,” Canada said. “Not how we practiced, not how our guys have played.”

Then, he added: “We have no concern that that is going to continue.”

After the first-team offense scored on all five of its possessions in the preseason, the Steelers were unable to get a first down and had just 1 yard of offense after the same number of drives in the season opener.

That contributed to a 20-0 deficit that was too great for the Steelers to overcome. They will get a chance to rebound Monday night against Cleveland.

“That game got away so fast, and it’s completely because of how we went at the start,” Canada said. “If that’s not the case … we didn’t get to run the plays we wanted to run and do the plays we wanted to do.”

Aside from the slow start, Canada pointed to the offense’s inability to score a touchdown late in the third quarter as a pivotal point. The Steelers faced a first-and-10 from the 49ers’ 14 with 3 minutes, 38 seconds left.

Facing a fourth-and-4 from the 8, Kenny Pickett and Pat Freiermuth couldn’t connect on a pass into the end zone. That kept the 27-7 deficit intact with 17 minutes left in the game.

“We have to score a touchdown there,” Canada said. “We put a lot of time into that. We do that, and it’s a two-score game, and we have a chance to get back to some of the things we wanted to do. When you’re down three scores, it doesn’t allow that.”

Pickett had his worst performance since the first half of his rookie season. He completed 31 of 46 passes for 232 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.

Canada said the second-year quarterback wasn’t solely at fault.

“I was surprised by the performance of everybody,” he said. “I’m not going to single out one guy.”