Aaron Rodgers, Mike McCarthy see the issues with the Pittsburgh offense

When he’s complaining about Anthony Fauci, ESPN, and/or Shailene Woodley, Aaron Rodgers is not subtle. When he has concerns about his football team, his criticisms are harder to pinpoint.

But they’re still there.

After Sunday’s loss to the Patriots, Rodgers dropped a hint or two regarding coach Mike McCarthy’s offense. And Rodgers did it in a way that will give him plausible deniability if someone else spots it and points it out.

“In a game like today where there wasn’t a lot of flow to it, we need to be better,” Rodgers told reporters after the 20-6 loss. “And that starts with me at like making sure Mike knows what’s working, what’s not working, our coaches know, and — so we can call stuff that we feel like has a better chance.”

In other words, some of the “stuff” McCarthy was calling didn’t have a very good chance.

When asked later about things that are “working” and “not working,” Rodgers said, “The plays were fine.” But he then suggested that perhaps the offense was overloaded with plays.

“If there’s too much stuff in the plan, we’ve got to cut it back,” Rodgers said. “I’m always liking to push the envelope, and if I see guys doing it the right way in practice, then I feel good about it, but we’ve got to transfer the practice to the game obviously and the details gotta come with it.”

The hidden criticisms aren’t off-base; McCarthy himself made similar comments about the size of the game plan.

“We’ve got to look at the volume,” he told reporters after the game. “That’s Marty Schottenheimer, that was his thing. It was a great lesson for a young coach to learn, and here I am some old bastard that didn’t do it this week. If it’s not clean, you cut the volume down, and we’re not clean on offense.

“So the volume is getting cut down. That’s the first starting point, and that’s my fault. I felt it earlier in the week. We’ve got a quarterback that could play at any volume of game plan, but at the end of the day, it’s a team game. We’ve got to give Aaron better platforms to throw off of and have the opportunities because I don’t want to dink and dunk and play all day and play keep-away football.”

McCarthy’s remarks on the volume of the game plan came after he attributed the offensive struggles to things he had observed during the week.

“Felt it in practice frankly, coming off of last week,” McCarthy said. “As I stated, I felt we were real herky-jerky trying to get in the run and pass. . . . The run game was a little bit herky-jerky. . . . But the reality of it is the detail is not there, and that’s on coaching. It starts with me. I’m calling the offense. I have to get the detail better. . . . I felt it on Wednesday and Thursday. I’m a veteran coach. I know better. I didn’t do a good job.”

McCarthy was asked to clarify his comment about “feeling it” during the week.

“Just volume,” McCarthy said. “We’ve done this a long time. You know when the volume is up, and you know when you’re pushing the envelope too. It’s also the first year of the staff and players working together. So you want to push your players, but end of the day, you’ve got to do it to win a game.”

Rodgers has faith McCarthy will make the fixes that need to be made.

“I’ve seen Mike for 14 years. So, Mike is going to take accountability, sometimes when it’s not his fault, doesn’t need to do that,” Rodgers said. “But Mike loves the guys, and he wants us to have some urgency and to bounce back with this, and I know we will.”

They need to. The offense has engineered one touchdown drive in two full games, and it covered only 31 yards. The Steelers easily could have lost to the Falcons in Week 1, and the Falcons looked horrible in Week 2.

In six days, the 2-0 Bengals come to Pittsburgh. And while the Steelers tend to find a way to win certain key games, it becomes a much taller task if the offense isn’t delivering.

At some point, Rodgers himself has to deliver. He’s completing fewer than 60 percent of his passes (his career average is 65.1), he’s averaging only 5.2 yards per attempt (down from 6.7 in 2025), and his passer rating is a very sluggish 72.1. Rodgers has never had a full-season rating below 90.5, and that happened during his 5-12 final year with the Jets.