LATROBE, Pa. — Maybe it was an instant reaction to the win in the preseason opener on Thursday night against the Green Bay Packers at Acrisure Stadium. Maybe a reflection of the calendar telling us back-to-school is just around the corner. Or maybe it had to do with the build-up of curiosity over what the inaugural season of the Mike McCarthy era is going to look like.
Whatever factor or set of factors were at play on Saturday, it combined to produce a large crowd at Saint Vincent College for the first of the final 3 training camp practices scheduled to be open to the public.
Some attendees reported traffic slowdowns starting all the way back to the Irwin exit off the Pennsylvania Turnpike, some 14 miles from the entrance to the Saint Vincent College campus. By 9 a.m. lines of cars had formed for people waiting to park their cars, with another line of people waiting to clear security to be admitted to the area around Chuck Noll Field.
And with Mother Nature cooperating with sunny skies and temperatures climbing through the 70s for a practice that was scheduled to start at 10:15 a.m., campus and the surrounding area were buzzing on Saturday morning.
Sharkey's Café, located close to campus and known for being a favorite of Steelers fans during the team's summers in Latrobe, reported the wait time for tables caused by the training camp crowd reached 1 hour, and then it remained a 1-hour wait for 2 hours, an indication that the people who made the trip on Saturday then decided to stay in the area and enjoy the day.
What they actually saw on the field was a workout of approximately 60 minutes done in what could be described as a walk-through pace. But that was by design.
"Frankly, today's work was a little bit of a reflection of our health report or where we are medically," said McCarthy. "So hopefully this gives these guys, all the guys who have something (coming) out of the game an extra day to get their legs back. But we do want to go, not a full two-and-a-half hours Sunday and Monday, but about two hours and 20 minutes is what we have scheduled. So, we want to have two really good practices.
"Sunday will be install eight. It'll be the last install. We're only having seven installs next year. Then we'll start working, on Monday, on a little bit of the New York Jets. But I do want to see a lot of competitive offense vs. defense, and vice versa. I think that's always our best work."
OBSERVATIONS
• Max Iheanachor did not play Thursday night in the preseason opener and he did not practice on Saturday. With him not in the mix, Broderick Jones took repetitions at both left tackle behind Troy Fautanu and right tackle behind Dylan Cook. Against the Packers, Jones played 49 snaps, the most of any Steelers player on offense or defense.
• Aaron Rodgers is now in his second training camp with the Steelers, but his displays of arm talent rarely fail to impress when seen in person. On one 11-on-11 play, it looked as though he was simply flicking the ball down the sideline, but it turned into a perfect rainbow that RB Jaylen Warren caught in stride. In the same period, Rodgers made similarly effortless flicks of his wrist that turned into perfect throws deep to rookie WR Levi Wentz and then over the middle in a tight window to Wentz.
• Among the players who stayed after practice to sign autographs for a large group of kids included Will Howard, Jaylen Warren, Eli Heidenreich, Nick Herbig, and Jamin Davis.
