If you've been rooting for the Pittsburgh Steelers to finally turn the page on Mike Tomlin, Week 8 was another step in the right direction. With ten days to prepare to host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football, Tomlin's team was embarrassed in a 35-25 loss, which included 28 points surrendered in the second half.
This comes after a shameful Week 7 Thursday Night Football outing against the Cincinnati Bengals in which Tomlin's team allowed Ja'Marr Chase to earn 16 receptions on 23 targets for 161 yards and a touchdown.
That's when the excuses started coming.
Tomlin insisted that the Steelers' biggest problem against the Bengals wasn't getting shredded by quick slants all night; it was stopping the run. Against Green Bay, Pittsburgh stopped the run—holding Josh Jacobs to 2.5 yards per carry on 13 attempts (the Packers had 3.6 yards per attempt as a team). But once again, it was the passing game that destroyed the Steelers' fragile defense.
After getting humiliated through the air last week, the Steelers allowed 20 straight completions to Jordan Love and the Packers in the second half of SNF while looking completely incapable of slowing down their opponent or even getting pressure on the QB.
In back-to-back games, the Steelers allowed over 340 passing yards and three passing touchdowns without creating a single turnover. During this span of primetime action, they've surrendered a combined passer rating of 120.2 to quarterbacks Joe Flacco and Jordan Love.
Despite every effort to make a run at the playoffs in 2025, the Steelers have fallen flat. Now there's nobody left to blame but Mike Tomlin.
Pittsburgh Steelers fans have every right to blame head coach Mike Tomlin
The Steelers have now given up over 30 points in four of the seven games they've played this season. T.J. Watt has been a disappointment after signing a three-year, $123 million contract extension in the spring, while Darius Slay has proven to be a horrendous addition during the 2025 offseason. But performances this collectively bad start with the head coach, and Tomlin deserves a lion's share of the blame.
Pittsburgh is already on an eight-year drought without a playoff win, and many fans believed Tomlin should have been relieved of his duties years ago. There's never been more justification for this than now.
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It was Tomlin's idea to run it back with one of the league's oldest defenses, and it was Tomlin's idea to make the defense even older this year by adding players like Darius Slay, Jalen Ramsey, Chuck Clark, Juan Thornhill, and Daniel Ekuale.
This isn't working. Things have gone stale in Pittsburgh in recent years, and every fan knows it. Tomlin's cliché responses to the media are no longer satisfying, and zero worthwhile adjustments have been made.
Simply put, the Pittsburgh Steelers are not a good football team right now, and Mike Tomlin is responsible. It's time to move on.