It's only Week 6, but the Pittsburgh Steelers already hold pole position in the AFC standings and a comfortable division lead in the AFC North. Mike Tomlin's team is 3-1 coming out of their early Week 5 bye with a chance to pull away from their rivals with back-to-back games looming against the Browns and the Bengals.
But while the Steelers' record and their roster on paper might fool you into believing that this team is ready to contend, one ugly stat tells a much different story.
Entering Week 6, the Steelers have a negative point differential of -2, per ESPN stats. This ugly stat ranks 19th in the NFL and 9th among AFC opponents.
The added context doesn't make Pittsburgh's negative point differential look any better. In Week 1, the Steelers narrowly escaped with a two-point win over the now 0-5 New York Jets. The following week, Tomlin's team was embarrassed by the Seahawks in a 31-17 loss in Pittsburgh's home opener.
Their recent sample of play isn't much better. In Week 3, it required five defensive takeaways to put up 21 points and beat the Patriots by one score, and in Week 4, the Steelers nearly gifted the game back to the Vikings on the final drive in what proved to be only a three-point victory.
The Pittsburgh Steelers must show that they are capable of blowing teams out
There's usually a strong correlation between point differential and who the best teams actually are in the NFL. Fortunately, we're still early in the 2025 season and there's more than enough time for this to change... but it needs to come with a shift in philosophy.
Whenever the Steelers get a lead, they tend to take their foot off the gas and let their opponent hang around until the final seconds tick off the clock. Though playing ball-control and clock-control football might work against bad and even average NFL teams, we've seen time and again that this is not a recipe for success in the playoffs.
Considering the Steelers are looking to snap an eight-year drought without a playoff win, Tomlin might want to consider getting more aggressive.
Pittsburgh's defense should improve throughout the season as players get healthy, return to the field, develop chemistry, and clean up mental coverage lapses. But that only accounts for happening on one side of the football. Offensively, the Steelers can't take the next step forward if they're not out to embarrass their opponents in blowout fashion.
To put Pittsburgh's -2 point differential into perspective, the Indianapolis Colts currently have a point differential of +74. Meanwhile, even the 2-3 Houston Texans have been playing like the better team through two weeks. They have a point differential of +47.
Thankfully, there's hope. With the early bye, the Steelers have one fewer bye than most of the league, and another game played means the potential to get into positive point differential. It's also worth noting that the Steelers played their best football in Week 4 before the bye (though it only resulted in a three-point win). There's reason to believe Pittsburgh's point differential will improve as the season marches on.
The Pittsburgh Steelers could keep on going with business as usual, and honestly, this might be enough to claim the AFC North crown this year. But if Mike Tomlin wants to get serious about finding playoff success, they can't be a team that finishes with a negative point differential by the end of the season.