After the Pittsburgh Steelers defense was decimated once again by the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, head coach Mike Tomlin promised that he would examine the team's defensive schematics, in addition to evaluating the performance of his players in the 35-25 loss.
"We all have to own it," Tomlin said. "Certainly, you start with the schematics because that's the leadership component of it, a certainly we'll be looking at everything that we're doing, man, because some of these problems are somewhat repetitive. We're not getting better fast enough."
After two days to examine the issues presented by the Packers on Sunday, when the Steelers gave up 360 yards passing and three touchdowns to Jordan Love and company, including 245 yards after the catch — 128 by tight end Tucker Kraft — Tomlin has decided that the schematics of his team's defense were not the issue.
Tomlin said that he will not replace defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, and defended his overall body of work over four seasons with the team, while acknowledging that the 2025 results have not been up to par.
In terms of the problem, Tomlin highlighted two big plays the defense gave up in the third quarter in third-and-long situations. One was a 59-yard catch and run by Kraft over DeShon Elliott . The other was a 33-yarder to Christian Watson , who got behind Juan Thornhill and Brandin Echols .
Those two plays converted third and long situations where a stop would have forced a punt and turned them into red zone opportunities that Green Bay converted into touchdowns.
Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft scores a touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Oct. 26, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
"We certainly need to be better in third down than we've been, but it doesn't necessarily mean dramatic changes in terms of schematics and things of that nature.
"If you look at those two plays, on the 60-yard play, the quarterback was hit as he let it go, and so it's details that are usually the difference when it's a millisecond. And on the other play, the roughly 35-yard play, he got outside the pocket on us and extended (the play), and we've certainly got to do a better job of keeping him constricted in the pocket and getting two guys in the catch point down on the grass.
"That's one thing that we didn't do in either circumstance. We play a lot of the man-free concepts and usually gives us an opportunity to get two guys at the ball down the grass. We didn't in those instances, and produced field- flipping touchdown-drive-producing plays that really changed the texture of the ball game."
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin at practice on Oct. 22, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
Nothing Tomlin said there is incorrect. In both of those big plays — which were huge moments of the game — his players were in position to make a play and simply failed to.
On the first play, if Patrick Queen was a hair quicker in defeating his block, Love would have never been able to get off his pass to Kraft. Elliott was in position to make a play on the ball and was unable to.
On the second, Queen and T.J. Watt didn't contain the left edge of the defense. Thornhill was in position to make a play on the ball and couldn't.
Those are details that absolutely could be cleaned up, Tomlin is correct. But what about the rest of the game? Those two plays accounted for 82 of Love's 360 yards.
Cam Hayward said after the game that he didn't think the team responded well to the adversity of giving up those big plays, an idea that Tomlin agrees with.
"I don't think I like how we responded to the explosion plays," Tomlin said. "You don't always have control over what happens to you in-game, but rest assured some things are going to happen. There is ebb and flow over the course of 60 minutes. In that instance as a collective we feel like we didn't respond in the appropriate or desired way. We didn't smile in the face of it. We didn't produce the type of plays that counteract those things and get the balance back in our favor. So, we will certainly be critical of ourselves and utilizing that as fuel as we prepare for our next opportunity. …
"The first component is acknowledging it. You really don't get an opportunity to fix it until you face those circumstances again. So, we spent some time acknowledging it. We're going to get back to work."
Pittsburgh Steelers CB Joey Porter Jr. plays against the Green Bay Packers. Ed Thompson/Steelers Now
There is plenty of truth to all of that. When you see veteran defensive players unable to execute routine assignments, there is probably something beyond the assignments themselves and the distribution of them that is going wrong.
But the idea that all of the team's issues on defense can be boiled down to two big plays and the response to them is absurd. Love completed 20 consecutive passes against the Pittsburgh defense. For two weeks in a row, it was too soft on underneath routes and too easily picked apart.
Tomlin said that tackling was an issue on underneath passes. Again, true.
But the fact that they're seemingly allowing every first read to be wide open underneath, now for two weeks in a row, is an underlying issue that Tomlin, for whatever reason, refuses to address head-on, despite the obviousness of it.
Does he see it and want to deflect criticism? Does he see it and think it's unfixable, and therefore not helpful to mention? Or does he not see it at all? I guess we're going to keep finding out.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Mike Tomlin Doubles Down: Scheme Not the Problem with Steelers Defense
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