Mike Tomlin isn’t immune to the chorus of boos that chased the Pittsburgh Steelers to the locker room after a blowout loss to Buffalo on Sunday.
If anything, the longest-tenured coach in the NFL felt the same way after watching his team get pushed around while losing for the fifth time in seven games.
“In general, I agree with them, from this perspective: Football is our game, we’re in a sport entertainment business,” Tomlin said Tuesday. “And so if you root for the Steelers, entertaining them is winning. And so when you’re not winning, it’s not entertaining.”
And it hasn’t been entertaining lately for Pittsburgh, which has looked like a first-place team only in the standings for the better part of the past two months. The angst inside Acrisure Stadium boiled over in the fourth quarter, when the crowd booed as the song “Renegade” by Styx — long a late-game staple designed to fire up the defense — began to play.
“If you’ve been in this business, you understand that, and so I respect it,” Tomlin said. “I share frustrations, I understand what makes this thing go, and winning is what makes this thing go.”
Tomlin wasn’t the only one on the Steelers sideline whose frustrations bubbled over as the Bills piled up 249 yards rushing and held the ball for nearly 42 minutes.
Longtime defensive captain Cam Heyward drew a flag for taunting Bills quarterback Josh Allen after a third-quarter touchdown pass to Keon Coleman put Buffalo up 16-7, though Heyward later said he was responding to an incident earlier in the game in which Heyward claimed Allen intentionally kneed him in the groin.
Pittsburgh backup defensive lineman Esezi Otomewo drew an unnecessary roughness call in the final minutes to help extend a game-sealing drive.
“I own the responsibility of making sure that these guys understand a component of being a tough team to beat is not beating ourselves,” Tomlin said. “We had some penalties and certainly you’re gonna have penalties when you play. But penalties of the 15-yard variety, loss of composure and things of that nature hadn’t been us. And so that needs to be corrected immediately.”
It does if the Steelers want to have any chance of breaking out of a swoon that has robbed them of the good vibes produced during a 4-1 start. Three of Pittsburgh’s past five losses have been by at least 10 points, all three to teams with designs on the playoffs themselves.
Tomlin remains bullish on his team’s prospects even with not much to go on of late.
“Certainly our last performance wasn’t up to snuff, but I don’t know that it lessens our belief in self or our ability to deliver individually and collectively moving forward,” he said.
Asked if he feels his team has an identity three months into the season, Tomlin laughed.
“Yeah, 6-6, and I don’t like it,” he said.
Pittsburgh is 6-11 in its past 17 games going back to the end of last season, when a 10-3 start morphed into a free fall punctuated by a lopsided defeat in Baltimore in the opening round of the playoffs.
While Tomlin likes to point out that one season does not necessarily correlate to the next, the issues that troubled the Steelers down the stretch in 2024 — namely, an inability to stop the run — have continued deep into 2025.
Pittsburgh drafted defensive lineman Derrick Harmon and Yahya Black and brought in Daniel Ekuale to join a group that includes Heyward, Keeanu Benton and Dean Lowry. Lowry was injured in training camp, Ekuale was lost for the season in a loss to Green Bay in October and Harmon has been forced to sit twice because of knee problems.
“You can’t run out of bigs,” Tomlin said. “If you run out of bigs in AFC North ball, you’re running on the beach, certainly.”
The Steelers are a middling 17th against the run this season, and now face a Ravens team that smashed them for 299 yards on the ground the most recent time the rivals met 11 months ago.
“Certainly at different times in this journey, I felt really good about (our physicality),” Tomlin said. “And so I think that could describe a lot of conversations, as I mentioned earlier when you’re sitting at 6-6. For us it’s about absorbing that and understanding that and plotting a course to move forward.”
NOTES: While Harmon will miss a second straight game, everyone else could be available against the Ravens. … Tomlin said quarterback Aaron Rodgers and his broken left wrist were fine after he struggled against Buffalo. Rodgers, who turned 42 on Tuesday, could be limited in practice this week but is expected to start.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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