Steelers offense not good enough: ‘That starts with me’

This article originally appeared on SteelersNOW.com.

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy put the blame on himself for Sunday’s 20-3 loss to the New England Patriots.

“Offensively, clearly not good enough. That starts with me,” McCarthy said in his postgame interview. “Felt it in practice frankly, coming off of last week. As I stated, I felt we were real herky-jerky trying to get in the run and pass. The extra time that you put forth, what you’re expecting in a game and you don’t deliver, it just tells you you need to spend more time on it. What I’m referring to is we put a lot of time and energy into the protection component of how we felt today’s game was going to go. Expected pressure, got pressure. As an offensive coach, I always welcome the opportunity to play against pressure defense. I think it’s clearly an opportunity for big play potential. That was not the case today. We didn’t answer the bell. Our protections weren’t clean. We had opportunities, whether it was communication and breakdowns, clearly in the first half that took away some opportunities for big plays.”