Steelers firing Matt Canada reminds Chargers fans of painful Brandon Staley memory
By Jason Reed
While Chargers fans are petitioning for the team to move on from Brandon Staley to no avail, other teams in the NFL are making justified coaching changes to improve their chances of winning in 2023.
This includes the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have a better record than the Chargers and a much higher chance of making the playoffs. Pittsburgh didn't need to scramble and make a coaching change but the team did as it became far too obvious that Matt Canada was holding the offense back. As a result, the Steelers made a change at the offensive coordinator position.
Seeing another team be proactive about its issues was frustrating for Chargers fans, especially when that team is already having more success than the Bolts. But the frustration did not stop there, as Canada's dismissal also brought back a painful memory that perfectly encapsulates Brandon Staley's tenure as Chargers head coach.
Matt Canada's best-ever game was against Brandon Staley's Chargers defense
Matt Canada will go down as one of the worst offensive coordinators in recent NFL history so it is only fitting that he had his best-ever offensive game against Brandon Staley's defense and did so with Big Ben on his last legs with perhaps the worst arm we have seen out of a starting quarterback in recent years.
Pittsburgh did all of this while only picking up 300 yards of offense. Granted, a big reason why the Steelers scored so much (and why they scored 24 in the fourth quarter) was because the Chargers' offense sputtered and gave them a short field. But it is still a testament to just how poor Brandon Staley's defense is.
Canada coached 44 games as the offensive coordinator of the Steelers. In that 44-game span, the Steelers only scored 30 points one other time. The Steelers averaged 18.6 points per game in Canada's offense, meaning that Staley's defense allowed Canada's offense to double its average back in 2021.
This has unfortunately become a trend for the Chargers under Staley. If a quarterback or an offense needs to bust out of a slump then the Chargers are the perfect team to face. Heck, just last week Jordan Love set a career-high in passing yards against Staley's defense.
That will continue to be a trend as long as Staley is the head coach. It does not matter how confident he tries to be in his press conferences, the results speak for themselves.