Coach Mike Tomlin Postgame Press Conference (Week 13 vs Buffalo Bills) | Pittsburgh Steelers

Coach Mike Tomlin Postgame Press Conference (Week 13 vs Buffalo Bills) | Pittsburgh Steelers

[Music] You know, not a lot needs to be said, man. That’s a that’s an awful performance by us. Um, but it’s us. Um, we didn’t do a lot well tonight, obviously. Um, we didn’t possess the ball or maintain ball security on offense. Um, we were highly penalized. We allowed those guys to run the ball. Um, didn’t play 60 minutes of action. Didn’t play complimentary football. And so, uh, we got to absorb that result. Um, you know, we certainly not going to feel sorry for ourselves. That’s this business we’re in. Um, had some injuries. Um, Pat Queen had a contusion. He wasn’t able to run. Um, and so, um, he wasn’t allowed to come back into the game. James Pierre is in the concussion protocol. Uh, questions. Mike, is there anything um that you can pinpoint or explain some of the second half issues you’ve had this season? Not putting together 60 minutes of action. Certainly, there tangible things, you know, things that you and I both see, but um we better look at it and look at it hard because it’s usually something beneath the surface that’s producing that particularly in the consistency in which it which it is it’s occurring. Um you know, that third quarter was awful. was awful last week and so we got to absorb the responsibility of that. Mike, this is the third time you guys have let at halftime and then allowed another team to win. What do you guys as a coaching staff have to do better when other teams are adjusting to what you guys do? That’s exactly what I’m talking about. We didn’t play a good half of football. We turned the ball over um and produce scores um and there’s nothing mystical about that. It was really similar to last week. Mike, offensively, are you avoiding passing over the middle of the field? If not, how to explain so little production there? It’s just not enough production. Um, you know, we’re not going to make excuses for it. Coach, why wasn’t a package for Darnell Washington used earlier than starting in the fourth quarter? And two, does it seems the schematic for uh coach Smith is not beyond 10 yards because of the passing. I know I’m a demon, but I’m just I’m interested in that. All of those questions are reasonable given what we we put out there. uh we had a lot of work in front of us. Like the issues that were popping up in the run game, do those stem from a lack of physicality and how do you fix that at this point in the season? You know, I thought it just, you know, was as it wore on um the the attrition component of it became a factor. Um I’m not going to say too much tonight. Um I’ll take a look at the tape, but certainly it was below the line and increasingly so. How much did Derek Harmon’s absence impact you stopping a run? You know, whenever you miss some people, it’s impactful. Mike, do the solutions to turn this thing around exist in your building? Certainly. What gives you the confidence that they do? Keep watching. Coach, only 58 yards rushing today. So, what do you have to do to be effective game in and game out with running the ball? You know, we got to win possession downs. We got to maintain possession of it. We can’t turn the ball over. It’ll produce more snaps for us. And if we do that, man, we’ll probably have more than 58 or whatever it is that you mentioned. seemed like you guys kept kept your safeties back more to stop the pass and that worked early, but what did you guys need to do with the guys up front to stop the run while doing that? We we had an appropriate safety allocation relative to the run. We did. How much was the offense limited by Aaron’s wrist? Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t. You played a number of games where other teams had backups in on the offensive line and your defensive front hasn’t seemed to be able to take advantage of that. Why do you think that is? You know, good question. I don’t have the answer to it. I know that, you know, they weren’t in a whole bunch of one-dimensional passing circumstances today and that’s usually where the backup game shows. Mike, do you look at game plan or personnel changes offensively? I’m looking at everything. And also the time of possession. Isn’t that critical for your defense to get a little rest in terms of that as well? That’s what I was talking about when I referred to the attrition component of it. Mike, how do you guys encounter teams that kind of commit to the run the way the Bills did? It seemed like a lot of the runs when you guys run it, you were running it into the teeth of them. I’m sorry. How do you guys counter when teams are doing run are committing to stop the run the way the Bills did? It seemed like a lot of plays they were just charging forward. You know, run it, pass it, man. We just weren’t successful enough today, man, to sustain any type of ball control or or produce enough points um to be functional today and that’s just the reality of it. Did you have a sense for how restless and frustrated the crowd was today? Um I know how restless and frustrated I was and so I assume they were in the same state we were in. Did you have you have a couple of big splash plays against you early in the third quarter, still a lot of game ahead. Do you feel like you weren’t able to find an emotional response to that in addition to the on the field stuff? To get the emotional response, man, we didn’t produce plays, you know, um we didn’t produce enough plays to put the fire out. Couple more. What goes through your mind when the when there when the crowd there’s a crowd chaining to chaining to fire you in your home stadium? Man, I share their frustration tonight, man. We didn’t do enough. Um, and that’s just the reality of it. Coach, last AFC North is everything for you to win it is still in front of you. So, what do you have to do to keep this team or to get this team going to win some games to possibly win the MC? You know, I’m not big picture oriented tonight. I’m just talking about what we did or didn’t, more importantly, did not do tonight. Certainly, we understand where we are and the opportunity that’s in front of us from a divisional standpoint. Um, but that, you know, that’s that’s very secondary. As we sit here tonight, man, we had a we had a poor performance and and that’s where uh our energy is and should be uh in terms of the analysis of this. All right. All right. Thanks. and so forth.

Coach Mike Tomlin speaks to the media about the Steelers matchup against the Buffalo Bills in Week 13 of the 2025 season.

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