Matt Canada won’t rule out no-huddle as change-of-pace offense for Steelers
Speaking for the first time since his quarterback twice said he has no option to operate a no-huddle offense, Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada indicated that won’t necessarily remain the case as the season goes on.
“Ben (Roethlisberger) and I talk all the time,” Canada said Thursday. “If he wants to go (no-huddle), we find ways to do that.”
Roethlisberger has frequently in the past spoke of his affection for a quick-tempo attack in which he has had latitude to call plays on the fly. Outside of when it’s necessary because of time running out at the end of a half (Roethlisberger acknowledged the no-huddle, of course, still exists in that scenario), under previous coordinators the Steelers sometimes would go hurry-up to jumpstart a sluggish offense during a game.
In the first season with Canada in charge of calling the plays, though, Roethlisberger said that is no longer an option.
“We don’t have it in the sense of what we’ve had in years past where we’ve got this whole menu of plays that I can go to and call,” the 18-year veteran quarterback said Wednesday, echoing what he’d said after Sunday’s loss to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Canada implied the lack of no-huddle is more the result of a gameplan pending the opponent.
“It’s a week-to-week deal,” Canada said. “Week-to-week, we have different things we want to do. There’s a million things we’re trying to get done with our offense with new pieces and young guys and all those things. We’ll use that.
“We obviously know Ben’s strengths and certainly try to lean on him between series and do what he wants to do, what he sees, what we see.”
According to the NFL’s official play-by-play rundowns for the first two games, the Steelers have run 11 plays with no huddle outside of late-game desperation Sunday. However, never have the Steelers executed a possession in which the tempo and flow was in no-huddle throughout the entire series.
The Steelers have the 20th-slowest offensive pace in the NFL as measured by seconds per play (27.27), according to footballoutsiders.com.
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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