The Pittsburgh Steelers have not had the start they wanted to the 2025 NFL season. Pittsburgh got a narrow 21-14 win against New England in Week 3. They may be 2-1, but Pittsburgh has plenty of reasons for concern after Sunday's narrow win against New England.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin spoke openly about his team's struggles ahead of Week 4.
Tomlin suggested that Pittsburgh's inability to get defensive stops on third down could have been due to schematic issues.
“You know, they had a really good plan,” Tomlin said at a press conference on Tuesday, referring to the Patriots' coaching staff. “As I mentioned earlier, there were a myriad of ways we were somewhat limited with some of our schematics due to obvious circumstances. I expect us to continue to get better in some of those spaces.”
The Steelers did force five turnovers against the Patriots. However, they were unable to slow down New England at a consistent rate.
Two of those turnovers happened deep in the red zone. That illustrates how the Steelers were one or two plays away from losing against the Patriots.
Should Steelers be concerned about their defense after offseason additions?
The Steelers made several additions on defense this offseason. In fact, they were widely regarded as going all in on the 2025 NFL season.
So why hasn't that infusion of talent showed up on the field?
The Steelers upgraded their secondary this offseason, signing Darius Slay and trading for Jalen Ramsey. The hope before the season was that Pittsburgh's upgraded secondary would give T.J. Watt more time to get after opposing quarterbacks. In theory, that could have made Pittsburgh's defense even more ferocious.
But that has not been the reality of the season yet.
Pittsburgh's defensive performance from Week 3 is unquestionably their best of the season. That shows just how bad things have gotten.
The Steelers surrendered 32 points to the Jets in Week 1 and 31 against the Seahawks in Week 2.
Pittsburgh needs to figure out how to fix their defense as soon as possible. Otherwise, it could be the problem that torpedoes their all-in 2025 season with Aaron Rodgers.
Next up for the Steelers is a Week 4 matchup against the Vikings in Dublin.
