McCarthy: Steelers Need To "Clean Our Own House"

PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – The Steelers have moved on from the Browns game, but they aren’t yet working on preparing for Indianapolis. That’s because head coach Mike McCarthy wants to hold a self-scout on where they are after four games.

Typically, Tuesday is a day off, but with the long weekend following the Browns game, McCarthy gave players Monday off and on Tuesday they will spent an entire practice on themselves and where they can and must improve.

“We need to clean our own house,” McCarthy said. “Our house is not clean right now.”

McCarthy said he spent the weekend breaking down what they need to work on and then getting together with the coaching staff to fix themselves before worrying about an opponent. He said he’s always done that after four games into a season, but he said the intensity this time has increased.

“It's important to work on ourselves, which is frankly always the most important,” McCarthy said.

One of the bigger issues are the number of missed tackles. Pro Football Focus had the number at 17 against Cleveland and so many happened in the second quarter.

“I think just like a lot of things when it comes to the fundamentals of football, it starts with the footwork,” McCarthy said. “I think it's why you have to train that and it has to be part of your daily fundamental coaching menu, which we do. So we start every beginning of that segment of practice with team fundamentals and tackling is involved in that, you know different types of drills that we have.”

Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham said they will address it with the group in terms on better angles, techniques and wrapping up. Then it’s on him to drill it properly without live tackling. Graham also said it’s on himself and the coaches to evaluate the schematics and if they can be better on that end.

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Offensive coordinator Brian Angelichio looks at a couple of areas.

“I think it's just the consistency, the communication, everybody being on the same page,” Angelichio said. “All those things that go into playing a clean football game. We know it's never going to be perfect, but we're striving to get better, to work on the details. Anything we can do to improve is what we're looking at, and that's something we have to do.

“It's not acceptable (recent play) everybody knows that (and) I think players have been very accountable in the conversation with the coaches so most important, we need to be accountable,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said a lot comes down to mental conditioning and detail—it all needs to improve. That’s why he’s doing this at practice.

“When it doesn't look right, I prepare more of this,” McCarthy said. “That's the way I'm wired, that's why always done it, and that's what I'll continue to do. And we're gonna be a better football team because of it.”