Many people were skeptical when the Pittsburgh Steelers announced that Mike McCarthy was going to be their next head coach. The former Packers and Cowboys coach wasn’t exactly a hot commodity, and this feels like his last chance as a head coach.
After the dust settled, it felt like fans warmed up to the hire. This hiring class was weak overall, so taking a veteran coach wasn’t the worst move. McCarthy had also fielded strong offenses in the past and had a good history of developing young quarterbacks.
The questions continued to pile on after Aaron Rodgers came back. Despite a struggling and aging roster, this team was going to try once again to pretend that they were competitors even though they clearly weren’t. That said, expecting the Steelers to be above average felt like the consensus.
Through two weeks, this hasn’t even been close to the case.
Pittsburgh has split its first two games, but that doesn’t tell the entire picture. They struggled to do much of anything against a Cooper Rush-led Falcons team and required a defensive touchdown to ultimately win.
What McCarthy was brought in for has already slumped. Given the state of this offense, I’m not sure how much better it will get.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are already showing cracks with Mike McCarthy
Let’s clear the air: the defense has not been the problem. While you would like a little more consistency from such a highly paid unit, they have more than held their own.
The offense has been putrid. The running game has had zero space. While Jaylen Warren has continued to run hard and provide value in a multitude of ways, Rico Dowdle has been a non-factor.
The offensive line has been a big reason for this. Defenses are playing closer to the line of scrimmage, which makes running the ball harder; the line is generating zero push. 142 yards on 42 carries doesn’t look bad for the running backs, but Dowdle is killing the group with a paltry 2.5 yards per carry.
That isn’t even the worst part of the offense, though. Rodgers looks like a shell of himself from a year ago. Considering how mediocre his play was last year, that isn’t a good thing. The passing game, as a result, has looked horrible.
McCarthy was brought in to develop a young quarterback, improve quarterback play overall, and to make this offense competent. The latter two assignments are already looking like failures.
Will things get better? I’d assume so, but considering the Steelers once again went all in this year to build a competitor, it feels like we are running on the same hamster wheel we were stuck on with Mike Tomlin.
The team had the chance to see what they had in their young quarterbacks this year, had they not brought back Rodgers. Instead, you trot out the veteran, who looks frightened and lackluster, and the results have been as expected.
It has been about as bad a start to the season as you could have had. While the win matters in week one, the Falcons played a horrible brand of football against the Steelers. There was little to be excited about against the Patriots.
Things will get better in time, and I still expect this team to settle in around the average mark. That said, two of McCarthy’s three goals already seem to have failed, and it will cost the Steelers in the long run.
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