The Pittsburgh Steelers are the embodiment of taking one step forward and two steps back early in the 2025 season.
Sure, the Steelers' win over New England saw both teams struggle with consistency as the game devolved into a low-scoring rock fight after Pittsburgh jumped out to an early lead. Early in the season, there’s still time to resolve them, but so far, it’s hard for anyone backing the black and gold to feel confident in the season ahead.
Of course, everything about these inconsistent performances rests at the feet of Mike Tomlin and his coaching staff, who still have a lot to clean up.
Missed opportunities show exactly why Pittsburgh Steelers fans remain frustrated
Coming out of Week 3, a lot of attention will be paid to the offense, which struggled in every facet after the first quarter. While Rodgers went unsacked for the first time this season, he was under constant pressure and took several hits throughout the contest. Rodgers’ lone interception came as he had two Patriots sandwiching him in the pocket.
The lack of balance provided by the run game continues to haunt Arthur Smith’s playcalling, too. While Jaylen Warren certainly had a better performance than his stats in the box score would indicate, it’s not a reliable tool for the offense to build from in the passing game. It’s hard to be successful when the offense averages just 2.7 yards per carry.
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Of course, the Steelers’ defense had the type of performance that Tomlin can live with. Yards and time of possession, luckily, don’t win football games. The bend but don’t break approach, while leaning on game-changing turnovers, paid off, but not perfectly.
In reality, the offensive struggles this week are only compounded by the effort of the defense, which forced five turnovers. Pittsburgh didn’t capitalize enough on those opportunities to put New England away, though. They scored points off of two of them and went three-and-out after two others. On a broad technicality, the Steelers turned it over after the first-half interception with one of their own after halftime.
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Ultimately, the Steelers got the win, and that’s all that matters. But in the grand scheme of things, they still don’t appear to be playing at the required level to be confidently matched up with the top teams in the AFC. Those teams, primarily the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens, consistently capitalize on the opportunities that Pittsburgh mostly squandered this week against New England.
It’s a long season, and Tomlin has time to right the ship, but Steelers fans no doubt have a hard time buying into that clichéd idea. Pittsburgh doesn’t seem to adjust; they just do what they know and expect it to work most of the time. This time it did enough, but not every week will be so forgiving.