Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin speaks during a news conference after an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Pittsburgh, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aaron Rodgers hopes his bloodied nose isn’t broken. The reeling Pittsburgh Steelers feel the same way about their season.
The four-time MVP’s fractured left wrist turned out to be far from Pittsburgh’s biggest problem in a 26-7 loss to Buffalo on Sunday that dropped the Steelers back into a tie with Baltimore atop the AFC North.
The 41-year-old Rodgers took a big hit from Bills edge rusher Joey Bosa on the first play of the second half. Bosa drilled the future Hall of Famer into the Acrisure Stadium turf, the ball popped free and Christian Benford scooped it up for a momentum-swinging score.
Rodgers laid face down for several moments before jogging to the sideline. He sat out a series while getting patched up in the medical tent and returned with tape and splotches of blood on his nose.
It wasn’t pretty. Fitting for a group that has looked the part of a first-place team in name only for the better part of two months. The Steelers (6-6) have dropped five of seven, with three of the setbacks coming by 10 points or more at the hands of teams in the playoff mix.
“We’ve got to flush this one,” Rodgers said.
If they want to salvage a season that is threatening to spin out of control, they don’t have much of a choice.
Rodgers, playing exclusively out of the shotgun or pistol to protect his injured wrist, completed 10 of 21 passes for 117 yards, most of them in garbage time.
“We just didn’t have a lot of positive plays,” Rodgers said. “I felt good enough to be out there. … Disappointed in my performance. Disappointed in the offensive performance.”
Pittsburgh managed just 166 yards, its third-lowest total in coach Mike Tomlin’s 19 years. Yet the offense was just one of the Steelers’ many issues.
A defense that knew the Bills and reigning MVP Josh Allen would challenge it on the ground wilted repeatedly.
Buffalo rolled up 249 yards rushing, the most by a visitor at Acrisure Stadium since it opened in 2001. James Cook ran for 144 yards, and Allen mashed his way into the end zone for an 8-yard score early in the fourth quarter that put the game out of reach.
The Bills controlled the ball for nearly 42 minutes and snapped the ball 74 times, nearly double that of the Steelers (40).
“It was (a butt) kicking in all areas,” linebacker T.J. Watt said.
Perhaps just as concerning is the way the Steelers lost their composure. Cam Heyward, a seven-time Pro Bowler and fixture in the locker room for 15 years, was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct in the third quarter when he responded to what he described as Allen kneeing him in the stomach.
“Just jawing back and forth and ticked off the entire game because as a quarterback you’re getting protected, but I’m not,” Heyward said. “It just (ticks) me off.”
There’s plenty to get riled up about. While Pittsburgh still controls its playoff destiny, it also faces a closing five-game stretch that includes two meetings with the run-heavy Ravens and a visit to Detroit.
Tomlin believes his team can find the answers it needs over the next month. Yet the reality is the Steelers have been unable to consistently get stops all season when they can’t produce turnovers.
Pittsburgh had two takeaways in the first half to mask the fact that it was outgained by a more than 2-to-1 margin. Buffalo did a better job protecting the ball in the second half, and the Steelers yielded.
The fans grew so restless that they chanted “Fire Tomlin!” during the second half. While Tomlin didn’t acknowledge hearing it, the longest-tenured coach in major North American professional sports was not surprised.
“I share their frustration tonight,” Tomlin said. “We didn’t do enough.”
Tomlin said he’s “looking at everything” in terms of solutions, though Pittsburgh has been mostly healthy. What the Steelers haven’t been is consistent, and as December begins, it’s fair to wonder if consistency is ever coming.
“Players need to take accountability, myself included,” Rodgers said. “And I will.”
