**Patriots pressure**: Rodgers was blitzed on 39% of his dropbacks, his highest rate with the Steelers. Overall, he was sacked four times, fumbled twice, and threw an interception. The Patriots blitzed on 18 total dropbacks, their most since Week 10 of 2024. On those blitzes, the Steelers gained only 43 passing yards.
"Good pressure plan," said McCarthy. "I think the biggest thing is the pressure and the challenging of our routes, man-to-man. We expected that this week. That's the way we prepped to come into the game. We did not execute, so you've got to give them credit."
The Steelers have one of the youngest offensive lines in the NFL and McCarthy was asked if changes are possible.
"If you're making the same mistakes, whether you're young or a veteran, that's what we have to address," he said.
**Turn down the volume**: McCarthy said he felt his team struggling in practice during the middle of last week, and felt he should've reacted with less in the playbook.
"If it's not clean, you cut the volume down, and we're not clean on offense," he said. "So, the volume is getting cut down. That's the first starting point, and that's my fault. I felt it earlier in the week. We've got a quarterback that could play at any volume of game plan, but at the end of the day, it's a team game."
McCarthy, for the second week, pointed to one of his former mentors, Marty Schottenheimer, as a teacher of the term "volume."
"When the volume is up, you know when you're pushing the envelope, too," McCarthy explained. "You want to push your players, but end of the day, you've got to do it to win a game. We came here to win a football game, fully expected to win a game, were in the game, even, for as many things as we didn't do right on offense. Just the basics weren't there, too, with the ball on the ground a number of times. When the detail is not right, that starts with the coaching, and we have to get that cleaned up."
**Without Pittman**: In the opener, Michael Pittman Jr. led the Steelers with 58 receiving yards. But he missed Sunday's loss with a foot injury and the Patriots matched their best cover cornerback, Christian Gonzalez, against the Steelers' other Week 1 starting wide receiver, DK Metcalf.
Gonzalez was isolated on Metcalf a career-high 34 times and limited him to 3 receptions for 11 yards. Overall, Metcalf finished the game with 4 receptions for 27 yards. In two games, Metcalf has 8 receptions for 67 yards.
"I'm not worried about it," said Rodgers. "We're going to get it sorted out. We've been on the same page since I came back. I'll talk with DK like I always do, and we'll be fine."
"All this really leads to one thing, and that's your players being confident," said McCarthy. "When you're not having success, when things aren't rolling, flow is important. We talk about getting up-tempo and playing out of the huddle and putting our players in position through rhythm, timing, execution, and when it's not there, that's what happens."