PITTSBURGH -- Moments before calling for the snap at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers surveyed the defense, paused and walked a couple of yards toward his line, quickly adjusting his protections as the play clock wound down.
Left guard Mason McCormick craned his neck back to Rodgers, engaging with the quarterback before gesturing at center Zach Frazier to his left. McCormick then pointed to running back Rico Dowdle, directing his attention to inside linebacker Robert Spillane on the other side of the line. As he walked back to the shotgun, Rodgers crossed his arms and made a shivering motion, one of his many cues to adjust the play.
Then, confusion led to a collision.
Dowdle ran to his right, preparing to throw a block in the gap between right guard Spencer Anderson and right tackle Dylan Cook.
But the pressure was coming from Rodgers' left. Completely unblocked, linebacker Christian Elliss came off the edge and smoked Rodgers, sandwiching him in the backfield with Spillane. The pair knocked the ball loose, and it bounced backwards for 36 yards as both teams struggled to secure it. Finally, left tackle Troy Fautanu jumped on the ball at the Steelers' 42-yard line to bring up fourth-and-43.
That was a microcosm of the Steelers' 20-3 loss to the New England Patriots.
"It's frustrating, just all around as an offense," Fautanu said after the game. "We couldn't really get anything going, and when we did, we just couldn't convert, we just couldn't score."
Rodgers, who took a total of four sacks Sunday, was also strip-sacked one more time in the loss. That time defensive tackle Christian Barmore muscled through Anderson to knock the ball loose and Elijah Ponder scooped it up for the defensive touchdown.
"They were giving us different looks, different pressures, different stunts," Fautanu said. "Obviously, the coaches go over it during the week. We've got to be able to go out there and execute and block our men regardless of if we're one-on-one. We've just got to do a better job."
Things won't get any easier for the group on Sunday as the team hosts the Cincinnati Bengals (1 p.m. ET, CBS), who are tied atop the league's leaderboard with eight sacks through two weeks.
Steelers coach Mike McCarthy on Sunday shouldered the blame, pointing to a need to refine details, improve communication and reduce volume in the game plan until the young team can get the basics down.
"Our protections weren't clean," McCarthy said. "We had opportunities, whether it was communication and breakdowns, clearly in the first half that took away some opportunities for big plays. ... The consistency of winning in the trenches, we need to be better there. But the reality of it is the detail is not there, and that's on coaching. It starts with me."
Though every part of the offense has been flawed through two weeks of the McCarthy era, the problems on the offensive line run deeper than fine-tuning the little things. And with a 42-year-old quarterback, establishing a strong offensive line is the foundation for a successful offense. The unit is still salvageable, but McCarthy's preseason priority of creating an interchangeable line has created significant regular-season growing pains.
"In hindsight you go back and you look how many days did we line up with the same offensive line? We worked a lot of different combinations," McCarthy said Monday. "No excuses, but they need continuity. They need reps, they need consistency. So the consistency will come through the common concepts. ... our consistency starting up front, we need to give our guys more laps, more time on task and make sure we're asking them to do things that they got plenty of reps in."
Through two weeks, the Steelers offensive line has a pass block win rate of 52.5%, ranked 13th highest in the NFL, according to ESPN Analytics and NFL Next Gen Stats. Its run block win rate, however, is just 68.4%, the second lowest in the league. The Steelers are averaging 74.5 rushing yards per game (29th) and are averaging just .89 rushing yards before first contact (31st).
"Something's got to change," Fautanu said. "I don't know if it's that we're not working hard enough as an offense or we're not working hard enough as an O-line. Just not connecting well with each other."
Though McCarthy didn't overhaul the offensive line's personnel, he did significantly rearrange the group.
During organized team activities, the Steelers coach elected to move Fautanu and guard Mason McCormick from the right side of the line to the left. The pair already had chemistry from working together throughout the 2025 season, and the move solidified the left side of the line as 2023 first-round pick Broderick Jones worked back from injury.
Anderson, the team's top in-house replacement option for Isaac Seumalo, moved to right guard, while Cook, who finished the 2025 season at left tackle after Jones' injury, moved to right tackle.
Rather than emphasizing cohesion among the presumed starting five offensive linemen -- none of whom have more than four years of NFL experience -- McCarthy played a number of line combinations this preseason.
Prior to being traded, Jones got reps at right and left tackle. Rookie first-round pick Max Iheanachor, who missed a chunk of the preseason with an injury, rotated in at right tackle when healthy. Veteran interior offensive linemen Brock Hoffman and Ryan McCollum also got a lot of reps at a number of positions throughout training camp.
The starting O-line played 19 snaps together in each of the first two preseason games, and none of them were with the entire starting offense as Rodgers didn't play in the preseason. Cook was the only starter to play in the third game, and even then, he started out of position at left tackle.
Through two weeks of the regular season, Anderson and McCormick have each allowed nine pressures, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, tied for 20th most in the NFL. Fautanu has allowed eight pressures, while Dylan Cook five and center Zach Frazier four.
Cook has also allowed two sacks, tied for third most in the NFL through two weeks, and Anderson and Fautanu have allowed one apiece.
"We need more consistency," Steelers offensive coordinator Brian Angelichio said Monday. "I don't know if there's one particular thing to point to, just seems like it moved around a little bit, but I think communication's got to be better and just consistency of what we're trying to get done."
There are, however, a couple things that could improve the unit. Not only will more time together help the group work through some of the communication kinks, but intentionally changing how they practice -- with more reps together and a lower volume of plays -- should also help.
"Certainly the reps, the looks, the guys starting to settle in," Angelichio said. "As we go into the third week of the season, I think that stuff should start to play itself out certainly in the next couple of weeks and that's what we're hoping for."
McCarthy could also opt to replace Cook with Iheanachor. The first-round pick missed two preseason games, but he showed promise once he returned and made his debut in the third game. And when Fautanu missed one snap with an ankle injury against the Atlanta Falcons, the Steelers slid Cook to left tackle, and Iheanachor made a brief appearance at right tackle.
"Max has taken a step each and every week," McCarthy said. "I thought he had a really good day Thursday in the padded work, the individual work. He's definitely making big steps. So it's getting better."
Though he's a more raw prospect with just five years of organized football under his belt, Iheanachor earned rave reviews from coaches and teammates throughout the preseason. McCarthy could also consider replacing Anderson with Hoffman. The Steelers drafted guard Gennings Dunker in the third round earlier this year, but he has been inactive each of the first two weeks.
Despite the group's rocky start, Angelichio said the unit is resilient.
"I'm not worried about their confidence," he said Monday. "I think it's a confident group. We're going to get better from the tape, make the corrections and certainly put a good week of practice ahead of us."