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‘Preseason records don't go on your permanent records’
By Mark Kaboly/Steelers Correspondent
For The @PatMcAfeeShow
PITTSBURGH — Over a span of about 10 minutes during his weekly chat with the media, Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith used the word “context” close to a half dozen times.
Now, nobody who even remotely follows the Pittsburgh Steelers regularly wants to hear a word about “context” when it is used in correlation with an offense that hasn’t even been remotely good in six seasons.
Their context is that even though the Steelers’ offense was totally revamped during the offseason saw the addition of a new offensive coordinator, a new quarterback coach, a new receivers coach and a complete swap-out of the quarterback room, the results remain the same.
Different faces, same results and the fan base is frustrated with it, and rightfully so.
Through two preseason games, the Steelers’ first team — either led by Russell Wilson or Justin Fields — has scored no points, punted seven times, managed fewer than three yards per play, averaged less than one first down per drive with four of the seven drives resulting in three-and-outs.
And somehow, it looked uglier than the stats even suggest. But, you know what, not everything is as it seems. That’s the way Smith is approaching the putrid results so far.
Smith put his spin on the situation Tuesday when the Steelers returned to the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex for the first time since training camp broke in Latrobe last week and made somewhat of a believable argument about what the first two preseason games mean in the grand scheme of things.
“Preseason records don't go on your permanent records,” Smith said. “I mean, the old joke where Indy went ‘0-for’ every year, and they won 13 games almost automatically with Peyton [Manning], and I think there's two teams that have gone ‘0-for’ that went undefeated in the preseason.”
Now nobody is expecting the Steelers to win 13 games but the point was well taken. That very well could explain, despite how poorly the offense has looked, nobody is panicking quite yet because, well, it’s the preseason.
“There is no concern, that’s for sure,” tight end Pat Freiermuth said. “We want to go out there and compete and win but at the end of the day, we have to get into our routine. We will be just fine.”
Still, it hasn’t been exactly the new-and-improved offense that was expected from the Steelers. That in itself has created both a local and national firestorm of yet another failed attempt to rebuild an offense that was not that long ago considered to be one of the best in the NFL with the likes of Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown leading the way.
Smith — a successful offensive coordinator in Tennessee before being the head coach in Atlanta the last three years — finds himself in an awkward position of wanting his offense to play better while not losing sight of what the preseason is really about and that’s evaluating players over a short period they are on the field as a first unit.
“I always say that the preseason can distort reality, good or bad,” Smith said. “We've all seen it. I go back to my own experiences in [2019] – I didn't think we were great in the preseason. Then, come opening day, we scored 40-something points against the Browns (43-13). Not saying we're going to do that in Atlanta, but you hope to, but it's just you’ve got to have context.”
Incidentally, the Titans lost four of their next five games before finishing 9-7.
The Steelers don’t have to look far to be reminded of how meaningless preseason games are as they were on the flip side of that last year. Kenny Pickett had one of the best preseasons ever by a quarterback and it got him nowhere. He went 13 or 15 for 199 yards, two touchdowns and a 158.3 passer rating. All five of his drives resulted in touchdowns.
When Week 1 of the preseason came, Pickett threw two interceptions in a 30-7 whipping by the 49ers. It got progressively worse throughout the season until Mason Rudolph rescued the season with three wins at the end of the year.
The fans might have forgotten how much a preseason can lie about a team. The Steelers haven’t.
“With my experience looking back on last year and how productive our offense was, it is about putting everything into perspective,” receiver Calvin Austin III said. “In the regular season, nothing is going to be the same. Everything is going to be different. Nothing carries over. It is about looking at the bigger picture. You would like to play better but it means nothing.”
The big picture for the Steelers is doing the little things right — especially in the preseason finale in Detroit on Saturday afternoon — so they are ready when the season opens in Atlanta on Sept. 8.
Those little things are: “Do we have the right depth on our routes? Are we in the right alignment? Did we have the right block?. Did we do the right assignment? We are looking at the bigger picture, just not wins and losses,” Austin said.
Austin pointed at a key false start penalty on him early in the game, making a 3rd-and-5 a 3rd-and-10 and eventually a failed conversion. Buffalo cornerback Rasul Douglas walked up on Austin pre-snap to jam him at the line. Austin’s thought process was to get off the line quickly so he could prevent the jam. He was a tad early and was called for a penalty.
“That’s something I will learn from and it won’t happen again,” Austin said.
The biggest concern, however, has been the play of their quarterbacks. What was supposed to be a significant upgrade from last year’s room of Pickett, Mitch Trubisky and Rudolph has yet to come to fruition.
Instead, it looks much worse.
In five drives with the first unit, Wilson has led the offense to 49 yards and no points. In three drives for Fields, he has 71 yards and no points. It’s led to a debate locally and nationally about who should start for the season come opening week.
Wilson practiced only a handful of times before playing on Saturday (and didn’t get much help from his offensive line) thus providing an excuse for his struggles. He is expected to start Saturday against the Lions.
"I give Russ a lot of credit for going out there,” Smith said. “I think a lot of guys in this situation may have tapped out. He hadn't had enough reps. He wanted to go out there. Internally, we limited him to some of the schemes we were trying to do. It didn't go clearly the way we wanted it to. So, there are some things that I didn't call for him that I did call for Justin. We have to be better but there is context to it all.”
That context is: Relax, it’s the preseason.
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@notthefakeSVP @ConnorJohnsonUT The blue and yellow ones with the rope that would strangle you!
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@ConnorJohnsonUT I edited out a thing about chafed nipples. Nobody needed to think about that.
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100 Foot Wave is so good. Beautiful to look at and a fascinating glimpse into the mind of big wave riders. I believe Nazare was this week and someone rode a 115 foot wave.
I used to ride a raft in Bethany on 3 footers.
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