The Pittsburgh Steelers managed an ugly road win against the New England Patriots in Week 3 after forcing a whopping five turnovers. They came away with a 21-14 victory, improving their early 2025 record to 2-1, good for first place in the AFC North, believe it or not.
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The triumph followed a rough loss for the Steelers in their home opener in Week 2. Pittsburgh and the Seattle Seahawks had been duelling for the first half of the game. But at some point, the Steelers decided to turn their gun on themselves and begin shooting themselves in the foot. Friendly fire in the worst possible way.
A miscommunication on a route led to one Steelers receiver tipping a sure touchdown for another to a Seattle DB by accident. And perhaps the greatest kickoff gaffe of all-time gifted the visiting team with another one (goodbye, Kaleb Johnson). As long-time long-snapper Christian Kuntz said on his podcast in the week following that 31-17 loss to the Seahawks, “we lost that game more so than they won that game.”
“It’s kinda crazy when you think about it, and Mike McDaniel said it in his interview with the Dolphins. He’s like, ‘We lost the game, we gotta learn how to not lose the game,'” Kuntz added.
“Bill Belichick always used to say, ‘Don’t lose the game.’ We’re professionals, professional footballers; they should be winning the game. They should be using that motto when you’re playing high school games. Don’t commit penalties, don’t do this, let’s not lose the game. But it’s the same for the NFL, self-inflicted wounds.”
However, it wasn’t all bad. In fact, everyone being in a bad mood after that embarrassing home loss was actually a good thing.
As Kuntz pointed out, several newcomers mentioned that they liked how “pissed” the whole team gets after a loss. Everybody loses, but in Steel City, it’s treated like an unacceptable outcome.
“In the locker room, I’ve talked to a couple of guys that weren’t with the Steelers before, they were with other organizations. And they said after losses, it was kind of cool to come into the locker room… and like, bro, we’re pissed [in Pittsburgh after a loss]! No one’s talking. Everyone’s pissed in the locker room. Guys have said … that like, ‘I haven’t felt that [way] after a loss when I was in [some other team].'”
As Kuntz said, the fact that the Steelers are reacting to defeat in the right way makes him feel good. Their culture is still strong, embodied by the trio of head coach Mike Tomlin and captains Aaron Rodgers and Cam Heyward regularly walking off the field together through three weeks.
That culture has produced a lot of wins over the past couple of decades. They just need to figure out how to carry it into the postseason, where they haven’t won a game since the week of Donald Trump’s first inauguration as President.
Just think about how much has happened since then — with no Steelers playoff wins.
