The Pittsburgh Steelers have just about wrapped up their second week of training camp. Head coach Mike McCarthy addressed the team's red-zone shortcomings from the first week to start the new week. His detailed approach and practice tempo are something the Steelers are still adjusting to, but McCarthy continues to push his team in every aspect. Now, he has voiced his displeasure over a new development this week. As training camp has progressed into padded practices, the Steelers have experienced a number of pre-snap penalties and communication breakdowns. McCarthy addressed the issues with the media this week and outlined a plan to correct them.
Nick Farabaugh of PennLive reported that McCarthy provided a count of the team's pre-snap penalties and emphasized that the Steelers must do better.
“Mike McCarthy says yesterday was 'not our best practice' between the miscommunications and pre-snap penalties. McCarthy says they counted seven total pre-snap penalties.” Farabaugh reported on X.
Training camp is the time to work these issues out
The good news is that training camp is the setting to work through these issues. McCarthy has made a point of addressing specific areas of the team's shortcomings each week. Early in the week, the focus was on the red zone. Now, the Steelers are tightening up the smaller fundamentals that can make a significant difference.
Pre-snap penalties are an easy way to kill offensive drives or give the opposition an opportunity to sustain one with defensive penalties. Make no mistake, these types of issues cannot bleed over into the regular season.
The Steelers have a preseason game in less than a week. If the coaching staff wants to get an in-depth evaluation of the team's progress, penalties and miscommunications could prevent that. These mistakes are inevitable during camp, but reducing them to a minimum, or eliminating them altogether, is crucial to McCarthy's vision for the team.
After all, McCarthy has repeatedly emphasized the importance of details. These errors represent an area where the Steelers must become more consistent as they move through camp.
McCarthy wants Steelers to win with execution and details
The Steelers are being challenged to be sharper in every phase of their preparation. That starts with eliminating avoidable mistakes.
McCarthy knows the Steelers will not play perfect football during training camp. That is not the expectation. However, he does expect his players to recognize mistakes, correct them and avoid repeating them. Seven pre-snap penalties in a single practice are not necessarily a sign of a larger problem, but they are exactly the type of issue McCarthy wants to identify and eliminate before the games start to count. With the preseason approaching, the Steelers have a limited amount of time to clean up these details. The competition for roster spots will receive plenty of attention, but the team's ability to execute consistently could ultimately matter more.
For McCarthy, it appears the message is simple: The Steelers need to win in the details before they can expect to win on Sundays.
