The first two weeks of the season proved to become a showcase of low-quality offensive line play for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Over those first two games, Aaron Rodgers was pressured 37 times – the fourth-most in the NFL. Mike McCarthy clearly saw enough of that and made sweeping changes up front by pulling Spencer Anderson and Dylan Cook in favor of Brock Hoffman and rookie Max Iheanachor. The early results? Rodgers had an average of 3.19 seconds to throw – his highest mark as a Steeler, per Ben Solak
of ESPN. Additionally, the extra time allowed Rodgers to launch 15 passes of 10+ yards downfield, the most he’s ever had in a Steelers uniform, as well, as Pittsburgh defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 30-27.
In recent years, this wouldn’t have happened. The Steelers would have trudged through mud for at least the first month of the season, trying to solve problems with the same solutions and wondering why things wouldn’t get better while the offense continued to struggle. Mike McCarthy is showing he is not Mike Tomlin, though, and became proactive, making changes when it was clear they needed to be made.
On top of Rodgers having an efficient day, the Steelers finally found some semblance of a rushing attack. After a combined 149 rushing yards over the first two games, Pittsburgh rushed for 138 against the Bengals, including 127 from Jaylen Warren. The Steelers entered Week 3 ranking 27th in EPA per rush and 31st in rush success rate, per Sumer Sports. In Week 3 thus far, however, Pittsburgh ranks fourth in EPA per rush and jumped up to 11th in success rate. Had an 87-yard carry not been wiped out by a questionable holding call, those numbers would be even higher. And when Warren rushed to the right side, he totaled 39 yards on eight carries – just shy of five yards a pop.
It wasn’t just offensive changes that were made, either. As Chris Carter of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette pointed out, the Steelers took Samuel off the field in favor of rookie third-round pick Daylen Everette after Samuel was struggling to slow down Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
Would we have seen a veteran benched mid-game for a rookie under the previous regime? It’s hard to remember many examples of that taking place. Credit to McCarthy for a high-quality coaching job in Week 3. He could have sat on his hands and continued throwing the same thing at the wall, hoping it stuck. Instead, he got rid of what wasn’t working and tried something new. It could have failed, but what they were doing was already failing, and he knew that. His decision-making was the difference in Pittsburgh being 2-1 rather than 1-2. Now, they have a chance to leave Week 4 at 3-1 and in sole possession of first place in the AFC North.
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