Steelers offensive line
Steelers offensive line
There is no better way for an NFL offense to shoot itself in the foot than to have pre-snap penalties. It’s completely self-inflicted. That’s why coaching staffs drill it into their players’ heads to pay attention and focus on the snap count. The Pittsburgh Steelers are no different.
Unfortunately, that’s not happening right now. Head coach Mike McCarthy shared on Tuesday that the offense is having issues pre-snap. It’s bothering him enough that he brought it up multiple times, even in seemingly unconnected discussions.
Beat writer Ray Fittipaldo shed some further light on the issues Wednesday morning when he joined The Fan Morning Show on 93.7 The Fan. He recalled when the Steelers’ offensive line had issues in previous years, and just how severe the punishment would be for this current line under that system.
“A couple years ago when the offensive lineman would have an illegal procedure penalty, they would have to run a lap,” Fittipaldo said. “These guys would be running marathons this year. It’s every day that they’re going through this. Practice has been indoors, walkthroughs the last couple of days, so we haven’t really seen it as much.
“But I understand why he’s concerned about it. He kind of passed it off yesterday about still in the installation phase, and I think new coaching staff, new offense. But better get this stuff out of the way now because if they start doing this stuff in the regular season, they’re gonna be in that exact same place where they’ve been the last couple years. You don’t wanna be in second and third and long in the NFL. That’s not a way to have a good offense.”
Yes, the Steelers are running a very different offense under Mike McCarthy than in previous years. So, with almost every offensive lineman having no experience in McCarthy’s system, there are going to be growing pains. No one, not even McCarthy, expects the offensive line to be close to perfect at this stage of things.
However, there’s a lot of space between perfect and where the line seemingly is right now. Yes, as Fittipaldo said, this is the time to be ironing out these issues. This is the learning and installation phase, not the competitive phase that counts in the standings. Yet the Steelers and McCarthy don’t have a whole lot of time before these mistakes have a very real cost.
The Steelers hiring Mike McCarthy signalled an organizational shift. For the last five decades, the focus was on the defense first. Mike McCarthy still wants a great defense, make no mistake. However, his background is in offense, and quarterbacks specifically. So, self-inflicted wounds like pre-snap penalties fly in the face of everything he’s doing.
Perhaps running a 5K around Saint Vincent College could instill some new discipline in the offensive line. Regardless of how McCarthy and company get this fixed, they’ve only got a month before the snaps are for real.
And no one wants to start Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons with consistent pre-snap penalties.