Mike McCarthy's Plan Backfires After Steelers O-Line Disaster

PITTSBURGH — Credit to Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy for recognizing his errors. Maybe it’s the wisdom acquired after 30-plus years in the NFL. Or maybe the Steelers’ head coach watched his offensive line’s performance in Week 2 and couldn’t find a better way to spin things.

However he got there, McCarthy’s comments during his weekly press conference made it clear that he made a mistake during his first training camp with the Steelers. Looking for different combinations that worked along the offensive line, he sacrificed the continuity he is now searching for heading into Week 3.

Lots of things go wrong during an NFL season, and a head coach must react accordingly. That’s not a problem. What is becoming a problem, however, is McCarthy’s unwavering belief in his own wisdom.

”In hindsight, you go back and look, how many days did we line up with the same offensive linemen? We worked a lot of different combinations,” he admitted. “No excuses, but they need continuity. They need reps, they need consistency.”

McCarthy’s Own Plan to Blame for Steelers’ Issues

When the Steelers began training camp, McCarthy didn’t care one bit for continuity, consistency or reps. It was quite the opposite, in fact.

On the opening day of training camp, McCarthy stated that it was less about watching what five offensive linemen were out there, and better to focus on the combinations of players. His goal was to establish positional flexibility and figure out who would fill out the roster in the linemen room.

And that’s what happened. Players mixed and matched, but there was little cohesion. The starting five for the opening two weeks of the regular season played minimal reps together in camp, and even fewer in the preseason.

Now, two games into the season, the group is wondering how they can get up to speed quickly, as if the answer wasn’t already staring them in the face.