To say the Pittsburgh Steelers offense has been disappointing would be an understatement, as Pittsburgh was held to just three points against the New England Patriots on Sunday in Foxborough.
The Steelers offense wasn’t much better against the Atlanta Falcons the prior week, scoring just 20 points against a below-average Falcons team.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers really hasn’t looked great, and that’s concerning considering his history with McCarthy.
However, the soon-to-be 43-year-old, whose birthday is in December, is certainly in the later stage of his career, with the expectation that he’s going to retire after this year, barring something drastic happening.
As we look at the Steelers’ offense, there’s been a lot to be concerned about, and it’s something McCarthy understands at this point.
“Offensively, clearly not good enough. That starts with me. Felt it in practice frankly, coming off of last week.
“As I stated, I felt we were real herky-jerky trying to get in the run and pass. The extra time that you put forth, what you're expecting in a game and you don't deliver, it just tells you you need to spend more time on it. What I'm referring to is we put a lot of time and energy into the protection component of how we felt today's game was going to go. Expected pressure, got pressure. As an offensive coach, I always welcome the opportunity to play against pressure defense.
“I think it's clearly an opportunity for big play potential. That was not the case today. We didn't answer the bell. Our protections weren't clean. We had opportunities, whether it was communication and breakdowns, clearly in the first half that took away some opportunities for big plays. The run game was a little bit herky-jerky,” Mike McCarthy said, per the Patriots official website.
McCarthy has been around the game long enough to understand that his offense just hasn’t done enough.
He isn’t somebody who’s going to beat around the bush and say the offense has done enough when he knows it hasn’t. I’m curious to see how things change and whether that can even happen with some of the guys in this offense.
