Run Issues Continue in Pittsburgh

by Bo Marchionte
@bomarchionte | College2Pro.com
Published September 14, 2025, 5:16 PM

Pittsburgh, PA – Mike Tomlin didn’t look like a coach simply frustrated by a September loss. He looked deflated. Standing at the podium after the Steelers’ 31-17 defeat to the Seattle Seahawks, his words carried a weight beyond anger. Tomlin is usually quick to steady the ship, but his expression and tone hinted at something deeper in his disappointment.

Maybe even discouragement.

This is a man who spent the offseason buzzing about this group’s potential, and through two weeks, he seemed to be fighting the reality that his excitement had been met by the same old problems.

“I don’t. I hadn’t made any comparisons. I was just as I sit here today. I’m, you know, digesting what transpired in stadium today, and we got to do better,” Tomlin said, his voice betraying more fatigue than fire.

Even after a season-opening win in New York against the Jets, there were red flags. Pittsburgh flashed promise but showed plenty of flaws. Week 1 can often be chalked up as a shake-the-rust moment, but Week 2 painted a harsher picture.

Defensive struggles, compounded by missing personnel, made the afternoon miserable. Joey Porter Jr., Derrick Harmon, DeShon Elliott, and Malik Harrison were all ruled out prior to kickoff. Then, during the game, injuries piled on as Isaiahh Loudermilk, Patrick Queen, James Pierre, and Payton Wilson all went down. Tomlin pointed to attrition, but the truth remained, the Steelers were gashed in the trenches again.

“We absorbed some attrition in game, and many of those guys are new. And so, it’s a challenge. We certainly are capable of better than that. So, we’ll keep working,” Tomlin added, though even his insistence on solutions sounded heavier than usual.

The problem isn’t new. It’s an open wound.

The Ravens shredded Pittsburgh’s run defense in last year’s Wild Card game, piling up 464 yards of offense, including a staggering 299 on the ground. That embarrassment became the fuel for an offseason of retooling. “Stopping the run” was the mantra repeated like gospel all spring and summer. But now, in back-to-back weeks, the Steelers have given up 100-yard rushers.

T.J. Watt, normally the engine of confidence and competitiveness, looked disgusted postgame. His words were as blunt as his expression.

“I mean, there’s always an emphasis on the run. The first note of every single week is smashing run. You guys have heard me say for nine years, we’re always trying to smash the run. It’s not a lack of trying. Schematically or effort. I don’t know, we need to look at the film, but we need to be better, and we need to look in the mirror. We need to turn over every stone we possibly can, because this can’t continue to happen. Otherwise, you’re just going to continue to see what we saw today.”

Watt went further, breaking down the chain reaction when teams bulldoze Pittsburgh on the ground.

“Teams can pin your ears back. Teams can get one-dimensional situations. You have to wait until a two-minute drill potential to be able to get after the quarterback like we do. That’s not fun football right now. We need to get back to doing what we do best stop the run first and foremost to create those longer down and distances.”

The disgust on his face told as much as his words. This wasn’t the tone of a leader chalking things up to an early-season stumble; this was a player sounding the alarm.

Now sitting at 1-1, the Steelers appear no further along on September 14 than they were last January after Baltimore steamrolled them out of the playoffs. The offseason vow to harden the defense against the run feels like empty rhetoric in the wake of two straight ground-poundings.

Tomlin insisted the work to repair things will begin immediately.

“We will get better. We have to. We’ll begin that process tomorrow.”

For now, though, what lingered in the room wasn’t reassurance. It was disappointment. It was disgust. And it was the uncomfortable sense that the Steelers’ biggest problem isn’t going away anytime soon.

Photo Credit Frank Hyatt/College2Pro.com