Each of the three losses the Pittsburgh Steelers have on the year have been frustrating. However, their 35-25 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday might be the most demoralizing of them all. To Mike Tomlin, the reason for that is because some of these issues are starting to get repetitive.
“We all have to own it,” Tomlin said after the game via Steelers.com. “Certainly, you start with the schematics of it, man, because that’s the leadership component. Certainly, we’ll be looking at everything that we’re doing. Because some of these problems are somewhat repetitive. We’re not getting better fast enough.”
It’s an interesting quote from Tomlin, who is obviously growing more frustrated with his defense. As the year started and issues presented themselves, it felt like they just needed more time to jell. And the Steelers talked about the issues as if they weren’t the same ones that plagued them toward the end of the 2024 season.
But they are. They’re still having miscommunications against the pass at an alarmingly high rate. And while they started strong against the run, even that started to fade as well. It was an ugly performance and the second half version of the Steelers looked like the team at the end of last season, despite all the new additions.
At that point, some of the blame has to point back to coaching. Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin simply are not getting anything close to the most out of this defense. The Steelers made additions at all three levels of the unit, and yet they’ve given up 30+ points and 300 passing yards in back-to-back weeks now.
This feels like the first time Tomlin has sounded this frustrated about the schematic aspect of the defense. He’s remained optimistic throughout the season but clearly doesn’t feel as if the unit is progressing fast enough. That fault seems to lie on both the coaching and execution. Neither are in a good place at the moment.
It doesn’t get any easier next week, either. The Indianapolis Colts, the top seed in the AFC, roll into town. They have two NFL MVP candidates in Daniel Jones and Jonathan Taylor, so the Steelers are going to need to find some solutions quickly.
