The Pittsburgh Steelers entered Sunday already missing one of the receivers they expected to build the offense around. By the middle of the afternoon, two more pass-catchers had disappeared into the locker room, the depth chart was being rewritten between possessions and young players were suddenly handling jobs nobody planned to give them that morning. Pittsburgh's response gave Mike McCarthy a strangely familiar phrase to describe it.
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Pittsburgh Steelers’ DK Metcalf reacts at Huntington Bank Field in 2026.
After Pittsburgh's 34-22 victory over the Indianapolis Colts, McCarthy praised the offense for surviving the loss of Michael Pittman Jr., Roman Wilson and Ben Skowronek without allowing the game plan to unravel.
“I mean it’s a real credit to the young guys, because we didn’t blink,” McCarthy said.
Steelers fans have heard those final three words before.
Former Head Coach Mike Tomlin made “we didn't blink” one of the recurring phrases of his Pittsburgh tenure, repeatedly using it to describe teams that survived injuries, deficits and the assorted weekly nonsense an NFL season provides. He famously used the line after the Steelers rallied past Baltimore in 2020, praising their ability to remain together while circumstances around them deteriorated.
McCarthy probably was not standing at the podium intentionally borrowing from his predecessor's greatest hits. That almost makes it better.
Pittsburgh actually earned the phrase Sunday.
Pittman never had a chance to play after his foot injury landed him on injured reserve Saturday. That already pushed rookie Germie Bernard into a larger offensive role. Then Wilson dislocated a finger before halftime, and Skowronek suffered a calf injury. Both were ruled out for the remainder of the game, leaving Pittsburgh with only four available wide receivers for the final portion of the afternoon.
That is usually where an offense starts shrinking.
Coaches trim packages because certain players no longer know every responsibility. Personnel groupings become predictable. One healthy star starts getting force-fed targets because the alternatives are emergency options who spent the week practicing for completely different workloads.
Pittsburgh somehow went the other direction.
Bernard delivered the best game of his young career, catching six passes for 80 yards after entering Sunday with seven catches for 60 yards through the first four games. The second-round rookie did not merely survive additional work. He gave Aaron Rodgers another legitimate answer while the receiver room was losing bodies around him.
That performance continued a development Pittsburgh had already been watching. Bernard's early push for more snaps began when Pittman's first foot issue created an opportunity against New England. Sunday raised the stakes considerably. There was no veteran waiting to reclaim the missing work in the second half. Bernard had to function like somebody Pittsburgh trusted.
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Steelers' Germie Bernard catches a pass during Phase Two of offseason workouts in 2026.
The offense also leaned into the rest of its available weapons. Jaylen Warren turned a short Rodgers pass into an 80-yard touchdown and later ripped off a 50-yard rushing score. Pat Freiermuth caught two touchdowns. Rodgers finished with three scoring passes while Pittsburgh hung 34 points on Indianapolis despite watching the receiver depth chart lose another name seemingly every time the camera returned from commercial.
That is exactly where McCarthy's Tomlin-esque phrase fits.
“We didn't blink” became a Pittsburgh cliché because Tomlin used it so often, but clichés tend to survive because occasionally they describe the situation perfectly. Sunday was one of those afternoons. The Steelers did not have the luxury of mourning each injury for three possessions. Someone got hurt, the next player entered and the offense kept moving.
That deserves more credit than simply calling the injuries unfortunate. Pittsburgh has spent years talking about receiver depth and then discovering how shallow the room really was once one starter disappeared. Sunday was the first real evidence that this version might actually survive attrition instead of merely looking deep on a preseason roster sheet.
Steelers Finally Got The Kind Of Depth That They Kept Claiming To Have
One game does not solve the receiver situation. Pittman will miss multiple weeks, Wilson's finger now requires evaluation and Skowronek's calf adds another question before Tampa Bay. Pittsburgh could enter Week 6 needing another roster move simply to have enough healthy bodies available.
That makes what happened against Indianapolis more encouraging, not less.
Bernard was drafted to eventually become part of the solution. Sunday suggested “eventually” may have arrived early. The offense also proved it can redirect touches toward Warren and the tight ends without becoming predictable or abandoning its identity.
McCarthy inherited plenty from Pittsburgh's previous era, whether he wanted to or not. Expectations, terminology comparisons and every stylistic difference from Tomlin were always going to be dissected.
He probably did not expect to inherit one of Tomlin's favorite quotes.
After Sunday, nobody in Pittsburgh should complain about the plagiarism.
The receiver room kept losing players, the young guys kept answering and McCarthy walked to the microphone with the most Pittsburgh explanation possible.
They didn't blink.
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