Steelers fans showered boos onto their team and chanted for the firing of coach Mike Tomlin throughout the second half of yesterday’s 26-7 loss to Buffalo. Tomlin’s crew took a 7-3 lead into halftime and gave up 23 unanswered points in the final two quarters as the Bills set the all-time rushing record for a Steelers opponent at Acrisure Stadium, ripping the Pittsburgh defense for 249 yards, 144 of them by James Cook. The Steelers’ total offense for the game was only 166 yards.
Tomlin said the Steelers put on an “awful” performance.
It was the fourth time this season, and the second game in a row, that the Steelers took a lead into the second half and lost the game. Tomlin isn’t sure what’s going on, but he says they’d better find out fast.
The Steelers are 6-6 and tied with Baltimore for the top spot in the AFC North, but Tomlin says right now, they’re focused on playing good football, not on standings.
Defensive lineman Cam Heyward says the team’s problems come down to individual performances.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers says the offense didn’t do its job on Sunday, but they can still pull it together this week against the Ravens.
The Steelers lost linebacker Patrick Queen to a hip injury in the second quarter, and a few plays later, cornerback James Pierre was sidelined by a suspected concussion, although he returned briefly before he was pulled from the game. Rodgers had his nose cut when he was sacked from behind at the start of the third quarter, a play on which he fumbled and the Bills returned it for a touchdown. With Rodgers out to get his nose attended to, Mason Rudolph came on and badly overthrew a pass which was intercepted, leading to another Bills score.
With the Bengals and Ravens having played on Thursday, and the Bengals winning, the only other AFC North team in action yesterday was Cleveland, which lost to the 49ers, 26-8.
The AFC North standings show the Ravens and Steelers tied for the top spot at 6-6, with Baltimore holding the tiebreaker edge, followed by the Bengals at 4-8 and the Browns at 3-9. The Steelers play at Baltimore at 1 o’clock on Sunday. The Bengals play at Buffalo. Cleveland will host the Tennessee Titans.
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