Steelers Play Sloppy and Angry with Practices Set to Close in Latrobe

Latrobe, PA – Only a few days remain for training camp at Saint Vincent College.

Mike McCarthy isn’t quite ready to pack up just yet.

With the Steelers preparing to leave Latrobe and return to the South Side, McCarthy still sees value in final days of being on campus.

On Sunday, everything certainly wasn’t perfect.

McCarthy began the day emphasizing cleaner football after Pittsburgh’s 28-9 preseason win over Green Bay. By the end of practice, he had plenty more tape to reinforce the message.

For a coach preaching the difference between playing with an edge and allowing that edge to become self-destructive, practice almost provided the perfect laboratory.

That might be the best description of what McCarthy wants from these final days of camp.

Tough, not stupid.

The Steelers showed plenty of the former against Green Bay. McCarthy liked Pittsburgh’s physicality and felt the team established the style it wants, particularly along the offensive and defensive lines.

What he didn’t like were the personal fouls.

“The number was outrageous,” McCarthy said.

Ugly Plays from Sunday

• Kaden Wetjen jumped early for a false start.
• Germie Bernard had a false start.
• Lew Nichols III put the football on the ground.
• Jaylen Warren followed with a fumble of his own.
• A bad exchange between Zach Frazier and Mason Rudolph added another unforced error.

Then sloppy became spicy.

Safety Robert Spears-Jennings delivered an extra tap on receiver Max Hurleman after the play, and within seconds offensive and defensive players came rushing to defend their own. What began between two players briefly became everybody’s business as a brawl broke out.

Sunday offered a continuation of that conversation. The Spears-Jennings/Hurleman flare-up showed the competitiveness McCarthy wants, but the false starts, fumbles and bad exchange represented exactly the kind of football he is trying to scrub from the operation before the games begin to count.

These final padded practices aren’t ceremonial farewells to Latrobe.

McCarthy wants Pittsburgh playing angry without playing careless.

Sunday included the final installation of camp, a competitive red-zone period and another “call-up” period designed to sharpen substitutions and game-day operation. Monday shifts even more heavily toward competition between offense and defense.

McCarthy also plans to shuffle personnel combinations, continuing to learn which pieces work together before camp gives way to the regular-season rhythm of the South Side.

“I think the pads have started to come down,” McCarthy said. “I felt that a little bit at the end of last week. I was glad it showed up in the game too.”

There are only so many padded practices left. Only so many chances to experiment. Only so many August afternoons where a false start, a fumble, a bad snap or even a sideline-clearing dust-up can become tomorrow morning’s correction instead of Sunday afternoon’s loss.

That is why McCarthy isn’t rushing to leave Latrobe.

Rain? Good.

Mistakes? Correct them.

Tempers? Control them.

The energy between offense and defense was on full display Sunday and McCarthy want’s another strong practice before camps wraps up.

Now the seriousness of the season has turned up a notch.

Week two of the preseason is upon us for the Steelers.