Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. A method may include obtaining a first channel quality indicator (CQI) backoff value based on a first set of acknowledgment messages associated with a first subframe of a first interval; setting a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of a first subframe of a second interval using the first CQI backoff value; obtaining a second CQI backoff value based on a second set of acknowledgment messages associated with a second subframe of the first interval; and setting a MCS of the second subframe of the second interval using the second CQI backoff value.