The Pittsburgh Steelers are reeling after a tough loss to the Cleveland Browns in Week 4 in front of a national audience. Pittsburgh just has not been able to find a groove in 2026 as the team is 2-2 and has alternated wins and losses throughout the first four games of the season. The fan base is hoping for a bounce back game in Week 5 against the Indianapolis Colts at home, but there doesn't seem to be a ton of optimism around either the offense or the defense at the moment, and kicker Chris Boswell has even been struggling as he has already missed three field goals this year.
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Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike McCarthy stands on the field and looks into the distance with his play sheet in hand as the team works out during a 2026 training camp practice at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA.
Head Coach Mike McCarthy is, of course, going to be under a ton of scrutiny as he attempts to fill the void that was left when Mike Tomlin announced that he would be stepping down as head coach. He is going to face criticism after every loss, especially if the offense is not playing well as he is the play-caller in addition to being the head coach. He addressed the media on Monday after losing to the Browns the previous Thursday, and he made a comment that caught the attention of the national media when he mentioned something about cleaning house, which is typically the term for making wholesale changes.
Tight end Pat Freiermuth was asked about this when speaking to the media on Tuesday, and he made it clear that the coach's comments were not as big of a deal as the media might have made them seem.
"Yeah, I think people got that, you know, not accurate from what I've seen," Freiermuth said. "It was more so of us going over the first four weeks, what we can get better at, getting on the same page going into these next four weeks before the bye week. Everything is good in the locker room. We are working to win, I mean we're 2-2, we wish we were obviously better, but there's some stuff on film that is correctable that we will be able to fix coming up. We'll be fine."
Many people in the media took McCarthy's quote about cleaning house too literally. The head coach did not mean the franchise was looking to trade everyone away or anything like that. There are just some other changes that need to be made in order for the best product to be out on the field.
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Steelers' Pat Freiermuth scores a touchdown against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 1 of the 2026 season.
Freiermuth sounds confident that the team has identified the problems that have contributed to the two losses the Steelers have on the season, at least on the offensive side of the ball. The team is taking on the Colts on Sunday, and they have fielded one of the worst defenses in the NFL through the first four games of the season. The offense has to look good against this team, if it doesn't even more criticism is going to rain down on McCarthy.
Steelers Have Arguably Only Played One Complete Game On Offense Thus Far
The defense struggled in Week 4 for Pittsburgh, but there is no question that the offense has been the bigger concern in 2026. In Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons, the offense did not look great, and the group went on to score just three points in Week 2. In Week 3 against the Cincinnati Bengals, the offense looked fantastic and really put together a complete game.
The offense came alive against Cleveland in the second half, but there was too much time in the game where the unit was just completely dormant. An offense can't go dead for an entire quarter and then expect to win, so that is something for fans to look for when Indianapolis comes to town in Week 5.
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