Through two games, the Pittsburgh Steelers have one of the worst offenses in the NFL.
They rank 30th out of 32 teams with 249.5 yards per game and 30th with 23 total points. Pittsburgh’s defense accounts for seven of those points thanks to a pick 6 by T.J. Watt in Week 1’s 20-13 win over the Atlanta Falcons.
Pittsburgh’s offensive woes took center stage on Sunday in a listless 20-3 loss to the New England Patriots. The Steelers managed just 235 yards on 3.5 yards per play. They advanced to the red zone just once in the game’s final minutes and turned the ball over when they got there.
Aaron Rodgers threw one interception and fumbled twice; one was recovered by the Patriots for a scoop-and-score touchdown that iced New England’s win.
Rodgers was under pressure throughout the game and frequently resorted to check downs and short passes when he was able to get rid of the ball while averaging 4.8 yards per attempt. He was sacked four times and hit seven others.
Pittsburgh’s running backs were repeatedly met by Patriots defenders at or near the line of scrimmage.
McCarthy: ‘Our quarterback was hit too much’
On Monday, head coach Mike McCarthy was asked repeatedly about Pittsburgh’s offensive struggles during his weekly news conference. Two topics came up repeatedly: Pittsburgh’s offensive line and Rodgers.
McCarthy remained steadfast in his support of Rodgers and the value he believes the 42-year-old former four-time MVP brings to the team.
“We have a quarterback that has an incredible wealth of experience,” McCarthy said. “And we’ve built this offense based on his experiences and to play to his strengths. He’s knows that, and I’m committed to it.”
McCarthy instead pointed to Pittsburgh’s offensive line as the primary source of the Steelers’ offensive struggles.
“We’re a protection-first unit, and that wasn’t the case yesterday,” McCarthy said. “Our quarterback was hit too much yesterday.”
McCarthy took some of the blame of the unit’s struggles upon himself due to his preseason strategy of rotating players in and out of spots on the offensive line. He believes that the line will improve with more reps together as the season progresses.
“I think in hindsight you go back and you look: how many days did we line up with the same offensive line?” McCarthy said. “We worked a lot of different combinations. No excuses, but they need continuity.
“They need reps, they need consistency. So the consistency will come through the common concepts.”
In an ideal football world, an NFL unit isn’t going into Week 3 of the regular season without enough reps to have cohesion. Pittsburgh’s offensive line struggles are real and playing a significant impact on the unit’s slow start.
Will McCarthy hold Rodgers accountable for poor play?
But that doesn’t address the questions around Rodgers. At 42 years old with an Achilles tendon that’s been repaired, Rodgers isn’t remotely close to the form that led him to four MVPs and a Super Bowl title with the Green Bay Packers. He hasn’t been for years.
Rodgers won that Super Bowl with McCarthy as his head coach, and the two have a relationship built in those objectively better times. For now, McCarthy remains firmly in Rodgers’ corner in his first year as Pittsburgh’s head coach.
But as long as Pittsburgh’s offense remains toothless, McCarthy will continue to field questions about his starting quarterback. At some point, if this continues, pointing to the offensive line won’t be a satisfactory answer.
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