Despite winning last week, it was clear there were problems with the Pittsburgh Steelers offense. And boy howdy, did we see them on Sunday when the Steelers fell 20-3 to the New England Patriots. The loss drops the Steelers to 1-1 but, more importantly, puts head coach Mike McCarthy on notice that this isn't good enough and being a hometown guy doesn't matter when your team gets embarrassed.
Here are the big takeaways from the loss.
The offensive line is a wreck
The Steelers spent two draft picks on offensive linemen in the 2026 NFL draft but neither of them are seeing the field. When your line cannot block, the rest doesn't matter and if the Steelers want to salvage this season, a radical fix for the offensive line is the only option.
DK Metcalf needs to get himself together
It feels like all these drops by DK Metcalf
are getting in his head and that's a bad thing. Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez completely shut Metcalf down and his inability to create any separation only made his drops worse.
Germie Bernard the only option in the passing game
The rookie might be the only skill player on the roster who can create for themselves and get any separation on his routes. After hauling in four passes in one drive, the offense completely went away from him, which falls right in line with how poorly the offense performed.
Mike McCarthy looking like Arthur Smith
Execution aside, the Steelers offense looks very vanilla. We didn't expect an old-school coach like Mike McCarthy would reinvent the wheel but we did hope for something more modern than what we saw from the last two decades in Pittsburgh.
Tackling is a problem
The Steelers defense had its moments but ultimately gave up far too many big plays on defense. This was due in large part to poor tackling that allowed the Patriots to get six plays of more than 20 yards.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Steelers takeaways from their blowout loss to the Patriots
