The 2025 season is certainly not going as well as the Pittsburgh Steelers envisioned. Their offense and defense, both of which had a few new additions this offseason, are underperforming. The team sits at 6-6, and a loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday would probably doom its postseason hopes. Frustration is showing up in many ways. One of which is the atmosphere at Acrisure Stadium. That’s something that jumped out to former Steelers OC Bruce Arians.
“That’s a sad state. I’m watching the history of the Steelers, and know the history very well, been a part of it for eight years. For the Packers to come in and for Aaron Rodgers to have to use a silent count at Heinz Field, that was the first sign to me that something was seriously wrong,” Arians said Friday on The Rich Eisen Show. “To lose the way they’re losing at Heinz Field, and for the fans to be booing Renegade, yeah, there’s something missing. It’s not the level of play the Steelers are expecting to watch and see.”
Arians refers to Acrisure Stadium as Heinz Field, its former iconic name and one that’s hard for most Steelers fans to let go. Coincidentally, once the naming rights for the stadium changed in 2022, the home support hasn’t been as good.
Pittsburgh used to be a fortress. It’s not quite the same anymore. The Steelers aren’t like the Chargers, Raiders or Falcons who have opposing fans invade their stadiums every week. But we’ve certainly seen it happen in Pittsburgh in recent years.
There were a ton of 49ers fans in the crowd for the Steelers’ 2023 season opener against San Francisco. As a dominant San Francisco win came to a close, “Let’s Go Niners” chants rained throughout the stadium. In the Steelers’ 2025 home opener against the Seahawks, their players appreciated the presence of Seattle fans in the stadium. A couple months later Green Bay fans took over in similar fashion late in the Steelers’ loss.
But last Sunday against Buffalo was the worst. Not only were there a ton of Bills fans in the stadium, but the Steelers fans who did stick around chanted to fire Mike Tomlin. It’s just not a good look in general, and it’s starting to happen more and more often.
There’s one thing all these games have in common: each was a Steelers loss that got out of hand as the clock wound down. It also goes with the theme of this season, which is the Steelers’ descent into irrelevancy. They haven’t won anything meaningful for quite a while. It’s hard to keep that incredible fan support when there isn’t much optimism about the team.
This isn’t necessarily to blame Steelers fans, either. There are plenty of valid reasons to be upset with the franchise. But right now, things seem to be crumbling. The ever-decreasing home field advantage, compared to Arians’ days in Pittsburgh, is just the cherry on top.