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Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin says fans who booed the team during their 26-7 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday are in the right.
“In general, I agree with them, from this perspective: Football is our game, we’re in a sport entertainment business,” Tomlin said Tuesday. “And so if you root for the Steelers, entertaining them is winning. And so when you’re not winning, it’s not entertaining.”
The Steelers are tied at the top of the AFC North and have never endured a losing campaign in Tomlin’s 18 full seasons in charge. However, they gave up 249 rushing yards in their loss to the Bills and some fans could be heard calling for Tomlin to be fired. There are problems on the other side of the ball too, with quarterback Aaron Rodgers saying that he was “disappointed in the offensive performance” against the Bills.
“If you’ve been in this business, you understand that, and so I respect it,” Tomlin said. “I share frustrations, I understand what makes this thing go, and winning is what makes this thing go.”
The Steelers also gave up sloppy penalties and defensive captain Cam Heyward was involved in a confrontation with Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
“I own the responsibility of making sure that these guys understand a component of being a tough team to beat is not beating ourselves,” Tomlin said. “We had some penalties and certainly you’re going to have penalties when you play. But penalties of the 15-yard variety, loss of composure and things of that nature hadn’t been us. And so that needs to be corrected immediately.”
While the Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens both have 6-6 records at the top of the AFC North, the Ravens edge the tiebreaker on points differential and have a significantly easier run-in. The teams play each other twice before the end of the season – the first meeting is this coming Sunday – and most prediction models have the Ravens as favorites to take the division. The Steelers are also 6-11 over their last 17 games going back to last season.
“Certainly our last performance wasn’t up to snuff [on Sunday], but I don’t know that it lessens our belief in self or our ability to deliver individually and collectively moving forward,” Tomlin said.
While Tomlin has consistently led the Steelers to the playoffs – and won the Super Bowl in the 2008 season – their last postseason victory came in January 2017.
