Coach disappointed in points production

Wednesday after the team’s final practice of the off week. “Guys need to understand they need to do what they’re supposed to do. When we’ve gotten into trouble around here, it’s been guys trying to do too much or guys not executing the details of their job. It’s would have, could have, should have, but a number of plays made everyone feel even worse about the outcome.”

For the Steelers, especially their young players who have been forced into action due to injuries, the devil is in the details. And for Haley, those details have to be executed more thoroughly.

The lineup against the Patriots was dotted with youth and inexperience. Jones and Hubbard made their third NFL starts. Receiver Cobi Hamilton made his first NFL start and the young tight ends — Jesse James and Xavier Grimble — continue to learn on the job.

At some point Sunday afternoon against the best team in the NFL, Haley must have looked around and wondered what happened to the offense he had in the summer.

Receiver Markus Wheaton did not play again, the fourth time in the first seven games he did not play because of a shoulder injury.

Receiver Eli Rogers did not play because of a disciplinary issue.

Receiver Sammie Coates has been limited in recent weeks because of a fractured finger and running back DeAngelo Williams missed the game due to a knee injury.

Not to mention how some of those red zone possessions might have turned out if Ben Roethlisberger had not been out with a knee injury.

“That can’t be an excuse for us,” Haley said. “Whoever is in there has to execute their job on a down-in down-out basis because we’re not looking for excuses.

“We had every opportunity to put ourselves in position to win Sunday and it was the little details why we didn’t get it done.

“It’s guys doing what they’re supposed to do. That would have been plenty good enough to give ourselves a chance to win.”

Last season, even with Roethlisberger sitting out four games and missing parts of four others, the Steelers finished the season among the top five teams in the NFL in scoring, total yards and passing yards per game.

Through seven games this season, they’re not a top five team in any of those categories and they’re barely top 10 in two of them. The team with the goal of scoring 30 points per game is a middling offensive unit at nearly the midway point of the season.

The Steelers are 10th in yards (372 per game), 9th in passing yards (267), 20th in rush yards (104) and tied for 11th in scoring (24.3 points).

“It’s pretty obvious we need to be more consistent game-in and game-out,” Haley said. “We’ve shown we’re capable of putting up a lot of points when we execute run and pass. In the games we haven’t we haven’t executed the finer details of the game plan. We just need to have more consistency across the board. If we do that, we’ll make good things happen.”

Haley is particularly perturbed with his team’s inconsistent scoring. They’re averaging a little more than two fewer points per game, but they’ve been held to 16 points or fewer three times in the first seven games while scoring 31 or more on three other occasions.

“We have to score more points,” he said. “We’ve done it in games. When we score points the way we’re supposed to, and the way we should in my opinion, we’ve come out on top. That’s the name of the game. We have to do the little things, execute across the board. When we do that we’re good enough to score enough points most of the time.”