Steelers Read & React: Who are the Steelers following Week 2’s loss?

Ask a Yinzer about their beloved Steelers this week, and you’d be forgiven if you came away from the experience believing the sky is falling. Sunday’s 31-17 loss to the Seahawks was both perplexing — thanks mostly to one bizarre and game-altering play involving the NFL’s kickoff rules — and a gut punch to a fanbase whose confidence has perhaps reached an all-time low.

Steelers fans might not always agree on who should be blamed when the team struggles, but one thing is clear: The results haven’t been good enough.

There’s still a ton of season left, and we at Read & React don’t want to go into full-blown panic mode following just one loss. Each one is tough to stomach, and we still think this is a team capable of roughly 10 wins and a playoff spot. That team can course correct and improve as the season goes on.

But considering the general tone and tenor of the fanbase, and the fact that we both have a set of working eyeballs that have witnessed two weeks of 2025 Steelers football, we understand that there are some major early concerns. We thought it would be prudent to pop the hood on what’s been ailing the Steelers so far and share what has us concerned and what we’re hopeful can be improved upon.

What is your biggest cause for concern through two weeks?

RP: Put quite simply, I’m worried by the lack of physicality. The Steelers have been dominated in the trenches two weeks in a row, and it’s not like they’ve faced the league’s brightest and best yet.

Let’s start on the offensive side of the ball. In Week 1, no matter which stats you use, the Steelers run game was putrid. Excluding an Aaron Rodgers kneel down, Pittsburgh rushed the ball 19 times for 52 yards (2.7 YPC).

Dive into some of the advanced metrics and it illustrates further how futile the Steelers were at establishing the run: Pittsburgh ball carriers averaged -0.04 yards before contact — indicating they were getting hit behind the line of scrimmage — and averaged -0.1 EPA per rush. Making matters worse, the Steelers only faced a stacked box (eight-plus defenders) on 10% of their rushing attempts, and faced light boxes (six or fewer defenders) on 45% of their attempts.

Things got a little better against Seattle, but the results are still far from what the Steelers will need to be competitive against the top of the AFC. Excluding a three-yard scramble from Aaron Rodgers at the end of the game, the Steelers ran the ball 20 times for 69 yards (3.45 YPC). They improved their average yards before contact to 0.48, but that figure would still rank 28th in the NFL. Pittsburgh’s rushing EPA (-6.1) ranks 23rd in the NFL after two games. Any way you slice it, they’ve been bad.

And that Jets run defense that had Pittsburgh in such a bind in Week 1? It got sliced up by Buffalo’s...