PITTSBURGH —Last week, I wrote a very long column about the five reasons the Pittsburgh Steelers have struggled throughout the 2025 season.
If I wanted to, I could write it again. The Steelers lost to the Buffalo Bills , 26-7 on Sunday, further sinking their 2025 season, and even though the way they went about losing was slightly different, almost everything I wrote about last week was a factor in this week's loss.
The obvious problems on offense were again the obvious problems. The Steelers' receivers rarely got any separation, even though the Bills were stacking the box to stop Jaylen Warren and company, the few times they did get open, injured 41-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers was not crisp. The offensive line didn't protect him all that well, leading to yet another injury, and backup Mason Rudolph throwing a game-turning interception.
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in a game against the Buffalo Bills on Nov. 30, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
On defense, Teryl Austin once again failed to find a successful in-game adjustment to what the Bills were doing to the Steelers defense. It was a different attack than the one the Bears put for the the previous week, but if anything, it was even more simple-minded. Buffalo ran the same run play, over and over and over again.
"I've never seen a team run the same play as much as they ran it tonight and have as much success as they had," Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt said. "I'm out of words for it."
Watt should have a good idea what the Bills were doing. He was the player they were running right to, over and over again, despite backups in at both tackle spots. The Steelers have spent over $80 million this year on outside linebackers and defensive linemen and another $27 million on linebackers. They were decimated by a Buffalo offensive line missing two of it starters. Watt and Cam Heyward , the veteran leaders of the defense, have not lived up their salaries.
Finally, the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade continues to look worse and worse. While the Steelers' run defense was getting gashed, Jalen Ramsey spent most of the game lined up 12 yards off the ball. He made nine tackles, but had almost no real impact in the game. On offense, Jonnu Smith ran the wrong route once, whiffed on a block on a fourth down, and finished with one catch for six yards.
I could write another 2,000 word column about all of those things, but I'll just refer you to last week's. There's no point in writing it again.
Instead, I'm going to write about the fans. I don't really care to do so — I get paid to talk about football, first and foremost.
Bills Mafia invades Acrisure Stadium for a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Nov. 30, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
But the environment Sunday evening at Acrisure Stadium felt notable. From the moment I walked through the North Shore, it was evident that many of the Black and Gold faithful had made their feelings about the team known silently — with their feet. There were thousands of members of Bills Mafia in the city on Sunday, and even though Buffalo is one of the closest NFL cities, that's something that couldn't be said very often recently.
Inside, as the familiar-to-these-Steelers script played out in a familiar way, the fans let their displeasure be known. There were boos at the end of the first half, even though the Steelers were winning, 7-3.
In the second half, when the team imploded , the fanbase exploded, and in many ways, it felt like a rubicon was crossed. I've heard a lot of home-crowd boos in my time covering the team. I've never heard the fans chant for the firing of their head coach . I've never heard Renegade, of all things, booed.
The fans want blood — and it's hard to blame them.
When the same problems are the same problems over and over again, inside the same paradigm (losing with a strong defense and a patchwork offense with deeply flawed quarterback play), frustration is reasonable.
Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II before a game against the Denver Broncos on Sept. 15, 2024. — Alan Saunders / Steelers Now
Obviously, not everything that has gone wrong with the Pittsburgh Steelers is the fault of head coach Mike Tomlin. But for a very long time, Tomlin has been very comfortable being the sole voice of the franchise. Art Rooney II speaks to the media twice a year. The general manager, only slightly more often than that. Tomlin takes to the podium twice a week, and he's made no bones about being the not only the messenger, but also making the decisions that the team's make as a group behind closed doors his decisions in the public sphere.
The Steelers have spent the last five years of the post-Ben Roethlisberger era floundering through an attempt (really two attempts, with the first one started over after Kevin Colbert's departure) at a rebuild, but they've kept that word out of their mouths.
They've told everyone that would listen that they were trying to win a Super Bowl. But that wasn't really true. Sure, they'd love to, but internally, they knew that wasn't a realistic outcome for this team, and they acted accordingly .
But if you won't make it obvious that you're rebuilding, and you won't say that you're rebuilding, people are going to be mad when you're average at best. And if you take credit for every group decision, people are going to mad at you when they don't go well.
The fanbase has clearly turned on Mike Tomlin.
Will that matter? Probably not to Art Rooney II. He was aware of the team's internal expectation — that they were selling a bill of goods while marking time to the 2026 NFL Draft from January on. He is also aware of what actual role Tomlin has had in the team falling short of even those meager internal expectations. I doubt that — after five straight years of exceeding them — would be enough for him to be fired with two seasons left on his contract.
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin during a game against the Green Bay Packers on Oct. 26, 2025. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
But what about the man himself? Does Tomlin want to continue to say the same things in press conferences and have his name dragged through the mud on social media and for the thousands to chant for his firing week after week? I don't know.
I've long said that Tomlin will be the Steelers' coach for as long as he wants to be. I guess we'll find out how bad he wants to be here.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Saunders: Same Old Steelers Story Puts Focus Squarely on Mike Tomlin
Related Headlines
