In his time as Steelers head coach, Mike Tomlin became notorious for his ability to earn victories in tightly fought contests. Tomlin finished his 19 years at the helm with a 111-62-2 record in one score games, with his .615 winning percentage in such games the best in the history of the league among coaches with at least 100 games coached.

The shift to Mike McCarthy more offensive and analytical approach for 2026 provided hope that the Steelers might not be forced to win so many close games, but also came with question marks about whether they would be able to if they needed to.

In the early going, the Steelers have provided plenty of their own adversity. McCarthy’s offense, held down by a trio of injuries at the wide receiver position, enters Week 8 ranked 20th in the league in scoring and 17th in yards. They’ve had one two-score victory — a 34-22 victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Week 6. Instead, they’ve played plenty of closely fought contests.

That’s the bad news. The good news? They’ve done quite well in those one-score games. In the early going of the 2026 season, McCarthy’s Steelers are 4-1 in one-score games — a winning percentage that would dominate even Tomlin’s NFL-best long-term mark.

“It’s great,” McCarthy said upon returning to Pittsburgh on Monday afternoon .”We need these games, frankly. Trust me, I’d love to win by 21 points every week, but you need these games. I’ve had an experience of being 15-1 and not having really any close games, and then you get to the playoffs, and whoa, here you go, now you’re in one.

“So, I’ve danced those dances, had those memories. I think it’s all part of your journey and what you can help try to emulate for your team. But close games are critical. … Everybody talks about being comfortable in those moments. Everybody trains game management. Everybody trains those situations week in and week out, going all the way back to the OTAs. But to have it in live action, the Thunder — the rush-on field goal for us right at the end of the half — I don’t know how many times we practiced that, and our guys, bang, they nailed it. It was perfect. You have to have those moments in live action. With that, I do, I feel like we’re building confidence, we’re stacking it. I think there’s a tremendous amount that comes off of that win, especially on the road.

“The travel stress — stress is additive, whether it’s physical, emotional, mental. That’s the reality of life. It’s a reality of how I feel you need to train the team. I love the vibe of our guys. I like the card-playing, I like the interaction. I like everything about the trip because it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy for anybody. There’s a lot of good that comes out of it. Most importantly, we won, and that’s where you can put the stamp on it.”

McCarthy will need his offense to come around in order for his tenure as Steelers head coach to be considered a success, but it’s a very good sign that they’re continuing their winning ways in close games in the meantime.

GOOD: PATRICK GRAHAM PICKING HIS SPOTS’

Everyone wants to rush the quarterback. That’s a near universal constant when it comes to defenses and defensive coordinators.

But for new Steelers quarterback Patrick Graham, his tenure so far has been about an exercise in patience in that regard.

The Pittsburgh secondary, which was expecting to have Joey Porter Jr. and never got him, and then had to deal with injuries to starters DeShon Elliott and Jamel Dean in the early part of the season, has been the biggest weakness on the squad in the early part of the 2026 season, with rookies Daylen Everette and Robert Spears-Jennings getting an unexpected amount of early playing time.

The Steelers defense has had to be conservative in how frequently they’ve exposed that group to a lot of one-on-one coverage, and that has resulted in the Pittsburgh blitz rate being down in the bottom third of the league at 27%.

But just because they aren’t blitzing often doesn’t mean they aren’t blitzing effectively. In each of the Steelers’ last two games, when the team needed a big stop from the defense, Graham dialed up a successful blitz at exactly the right time.

Against the Buccaneers, it was Jalen Ramsey screaming off the edge to sack quarterback Jalon Daniels on fourth down in overtime. In Paris against the Saints, it was Patrick Queen up the middle of the field.

Those blitzes aren’t just calls that happen in that moment, but plays that Graham has been setting up over the course of the game, waiting to pick his spot to unload.

“You’ve seen the flow of the game, one, but also you’re throwing out looks,” he said. “If you go back through the tape, you’re throwing out looks to see how they’re protecting it. Then you’re like, OK, what formations are they giving us?

“You go back to the Tampa one, we gave that look before, dropped out of it,” Graham said. “There were three or four times during the game the bunch was tight, so the disguise element. I was like he’s not going to be able to get to them from there, and you put the back in a bind. So sometimes the ebb and flow of the game, you’re throwing out certain looks.”

It was nearly the same blitz against the Saints, but instead of showing it early, this time, Graham waited until the game’s most impactful moment to let it fly.

“I always keep something in my back pocket,” Graham said. “Talking to Ike [Taylor], talking to Coach [Bill] Cowher, talking to all those guys. Hey, Pat, keep something in your back pocket. I’ve got a few things back there. So just sending out some feelers sometimes to see how they’re blocking.”

BAD: JALEN RAMSEY’S TOUGH DAY

Another reason that the Steelers have hesitant to blitz a ton is that slot cornerback Jalen Ramsey has had some tough matchup in one-on-one coverage. The 31-year-old is simply not as sticky as he was in his younger days, and even when it looked like the Steelers might have a strong secondary with Porter, Ramsey’s ability to be a man-cover option in the slot was always a big question mark.

Ramsey was targeted a whopping 11 times in this contest, according to charting by Pro Football Focus, allowing 10 catches for 127 yards and a touchdown.

In the early going, the Steelers gave a man-coverage look on 3rd and 7, with Ramsey matched up against Saints No. 1 receiver Chris Olave in the slot. Ramsey gave a big cushion, and Tyler Shough completed an easy 10-yard pass for a first down underneath the soft man coverage.

That precipitated a whole lot more zone from the Steelers the rest of the way. The Saints finished a very high 50% on third downs throughout the game.

BAD: SO THROW IT TO THE OTHER GUYS, THEN

Top Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf had a very inefficient day, catching just two of his six targets. Unlike some games earlier this year, though, it’s hard to blame Metcalf.

He was interfered with in the end zone on one pass attempt that went uncalled, and the rest, Aaron Rodgers had a hard time delivering on-target as the Steelers attempted several sideline shot plays that just did not work out in this game.

When Rodgers escaped the pocket and Metcalf was working on the interior, the two hooked up for a huge play on a 51-yard gain, which saved Metcalf’s day statistically. But it’s tough to have a good offense when you’re only completing 33% of your passes to your top receiving option.

I asked offensive coordinator Brian Angelichio about that, and he seemed to suggest that the solution is to just throw it to the other guys if Metcalf is going to be that well-covered.

Certainly, you’re always striving to be efficient with the targets. It’s just some of the credit to New Orleans, what they did to take it away. With that being the case, spread the ball around. You saw the backs were very involved. They were going to try to — and that’s the beauty of it. “Hey, if they’re leaning the coverage or doing things to take away other components of the pass game, now we’ve got the luxury. Let’s get it to Rico, let’s get it to Jaylen, ” and I think you saw that Sunday.

UGLY: INEFFICIENT RED ZONE OFFENSE

The Steelers did not have a good offense last year, finishing 15th in points and 25th in yards. As you can surmise by that combinations, the one thing they were pretty good at was being efficient in the red zone.

Last year’s Steelers scored 30 touchdowns in 51 red-zone attempts, for a 58.8% mark that was 11th-best in the league.

This year, despite a lot of the personnel being the same, the results have been nowhere near as good. In 19 trips to the red zone, they have nine touchdowns — 27th in the league.

At halftime against the Saints, the Steelers were out-gaining their opponents, 250-156, but lead by just three points. While the Steelers are not an overall great offense, they could earn a few more of those multi-score wins if they were able to recapture some of that red-zone success from last year.