Steelers coach likely on hot seat after comments from Mike Tomlin

The Pittsburgh Steelers had a huge loss on Sunday as the team fell to the Chicago Bears, 31-28. All three phases of the game for Pittsburgh struggled in some regard, and the team just did not play well enough to win. There were some questionable decisions made during the game, and the Steelers firmly lost control of the contest during the second half. The offense turned the ball over twice and the defense struggled to get the Bears off of the field. The special teams unit also was not good enough in the grand scheme of things.

The Steelers struggled in all areas of the game in some regard, and the group did enough to hurt themselves which ultimately kept them from winning the game. Turnovers on offense and shortcomings on defense hurt the group, and the special teams unit did not do much to help. Pittsburgh lost the field position battle throughout the contest, and it was something head coach Mike Tomlin pointed to when talking to the media after the game.

"Any number of plays could have changed the outcome of the game." Tomlin said. "You just got to live every down singularly in all three phases knowing that. I think today was a very good illustration of that. I thought we could have had better field position with our kickoff team for example. If we had more timely punting with our punt team. We're all responsible, we know that."

Tomlin was clearly disappointed with the special teams unit. The kickoff group consistently allowed Chicago to return the ball past the 30-yard line, which is a bad recipe to start drives defensively. Pittsburgh did not excel when returning kickoffs either, as there were multiple instances where the group put the offense on the field at the 20-yard line or worse.

A large reason the Steelers struggled on special teams is just the players on the field not being able to make plays, but losing the field position battle is not uncommon for Pittsburgh. The Steelers have struggled to find success in returning kicks, when opposing teams are often able to get the ball out near the 30 or further. That is an indictment on special teams coordinator Danny Smith.

Smith is often praised as a special teams coach due to his group often making some splash plays and the success of kicker Chris Boswell, but Pittsburgh consistently being behind the eight ball when it comes to kickoff return yardage and kickoff return yardage allowed is a major issue. Field position plays a major role in the outcome of games, and it is an area the Steelers have struggled.

Smith is beloved in Pittsburgh, but some improvements need to be made. The group better show some progress as the rest of the season moves along, or else the organization could be forced to make some changes on the coaching staff in order to combat the issue. Smith has been under fire more than once during the 2025 season, which could be his last year with the organization.

Steelers had punting issues during loss to Bears

Pittsburgh also struggled when it came to punting the ball away to Chicago. Corliss Waitman is typically a fairly reliable punter, but he struggled in Chicago. His longest punt went just 39 yards, and he averaged under 36 yards per punt in the contest with zero punts pinning Chicago inside their own 20-yard line. 

Waitman did have a good punt to start the third quarter that had Chicago get the ball at its own 10-yard line, but the Steelers were called for a penalty that forced a re-kick. The Bears wound up getting the rock at their own 40 as the ball went out of bounds.