Mike Tomlin says Steelers will make ‘necessary changes’ following third straight loss

Mike Tomlin didn’t mince words following the Steelers‘ 29-10 loss to the Chiefs on Christmas Day. The loss, Pittsburgh’s third over an 11 day span, dropped the Steelers to 10-6 and behind the Ravens in the AFC North division standings. It was Pittsburgh’s third straight loss by double digits.

Wednesday’s loss was a microcosm of how the past two weeks have largely transpired for Pittsburgh. The defense appeared to be overmatched (especially on pass defense), the offense made critical mistakes in key moments and the team failed to capitalize on Kansas City’s miscues in all three phases.

“That sucked, to be blunt,” Tomlin said, via the team’s website. “Not the type of ball we want to play, and really kind of eerily similar to our last performance in that we’re not doing the fundamental things well enough. We’re turning the ball over. We’re not getting turnovers. That hasn’t been a recipe for us, but it has been of late. Minus-2 or whatever we were in this game, you’re not giving yourself a chance, particularly turning the ball over in the red zone.”

Tomlin is right. The Steelers rarely beat themselves during their 10-3 start. But they’ve done so the past three weeks, committing costly turnovers on offense in the fourth quarter of each game. The last two games have included red zone turnovers by Russell Wilson, who has cooled off after winning six of his first seven starts in Pittsburgh.

Going back to the fundamentals will be part of how Tomlin looks to reverse course. He is also going to make changes between now and when the Steelers host the Bengals in Week 18. Tomlin alluded to making changes multiple times during Wednesday’s press conference.

“You can look at it from a lot of angles,” Tomlin said of his team’s recent struggles. “The bottom line is junior varsity is not good enough. We’ve got to own that. But we’ve also got to look at what it is we need to do different. We’re not going to continue to do the same things and hope for a different result.

“That doesn’t seem sharp to me. So we’re going to take a hard look at this. We’ve got a couple extra days before we get back into it. We’re going to take a look at it and make whatever necessary changes we need to make in the totality of this thing, because again, that doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t look good. That’s just the truth and reality of it.”

What changes can Steelers fans expect to see? Tomlin will likely make more schematic changes than personnel ones. That’s just the reality of being this late in a season.

On offense, one can expect offensive coordinator Arthur Smith to possibly revert back to Pittsburgh’s more ball control approach that helped them get off to a 4-2 start when Justin Fields was under center. The Steelers ran for over 200 yards on Wednesday; they’re more than capable of winning games that way while asking Wilson to do less.

If there are personnel changes, they could come on defense. That side of the ball has come unglued in recent weeks after being one of the NFL’s best units before that. Several defensive starters issued damming comments following their last two losses, including Wednesday’s.

“There’s got to be a want-to,” linebacker Alex Highsmith said, via the Post-Gazette. “There’s not enough of that right now. It’s that time of the year where we have two guaranteed games left. We’re going to find out who wants it, you know what I mean? Everyone in this room has to want it. That’s the only way we’re going to move on and get better.”

Fellow linebacker Patrick Queen offered an example of the unit’s recent struggles, which occurred Wednesday on Patrick Mahomes‘ first of three touchdown passes that was a short completion to rookie wideout Xavier Worthy. The Steelers knew what was coming, but they still couldn’t stop it.

“We preached it all week. We knew they would put one in the backfield,” he said. “We had a check for it. We got to the check and we just didn’t do our job. It comes down to doing your job.”

On the play, it looks as it defensive backs Minkah Fitzpatrick and DeShon Elliott got stuck between tight ends Noah Gray and Travis Kelce, who ran inside routes in the direction of Queen, who watched as Worthy was wide open in the field. Fitzpatrick eventually got to Worthy, but it was too late.