Before Steelers coach Mike Tomlin attempts to win Sunday night’s AFC North showdown with the Baltimore Ravens, he is attempting to win the PR game with his own fans.
And maybe his players.
And probably himself.
“Welcome to AFC North championship week, as I like to refer to it,” Tomlin said to open his weekly press conference Tuesday afternoon.
The winner of Sunday’s game claims the AFC North crown and advances to the playoffs. The loser stays home.
“It is an honor to be in these games — to be in these highly contested matchups,” Tomlin added. “It seems like Baltimore is always a dance partner. I certainly am respectful and appreciative of that relationship and some of the historic things we’ve been able to do when these two teams have come together. This appears to be one of those weekends.”
Sunday’s game could’ve been a meaningless contest buried at 1 p.m. with the Steelers resting half of the roster on a de facto bye week in advance of an assured playoff game next weekend.
Pomp and circumstance of this high-stakes intradivision clash aside, that’s what everyone in Pittsburgh would’ve preferred.
Instead, though, the Steelers now have to claw their way through their biggest rival to make the postseason because they lost a game to the divisional doormat in Cleveland last week, 13-6.
In part, that’s why Tomlin is doing such a hard sell on the aura of the latest chapter of Steelers-Ravens with the division on the line. He doesn’t want the players to be down in the dumps over what they just left on the table. He doesn’t want the fans in a sour mood, and chanting to fire him the moment Derrick Henry busts off a run longer than four yards.
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He wants to have an actual homefield advantage for this game. Not a tension-packed cauldron waiting to explode the first time the offense has a three-and-out.
Which, based on how things went last week against Cleveland, would probably be the first possession.
“It was just a bad performance. We are just focused on beating Baltimore this week,” Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth said Monday. “We are all looking forward to the opportunity Sunday night. It is a big one. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. What happened happened on Sunday. We have to go into this week… whatever it takes.”
Hopefully, Freiermuth is an integral part of the attack. With the wide receiver position weakened by DK Metcalf’s suspension and Calvin Austin’s questionable injury status, the tight ends need to get more passes than they did Sunday.
Even with Darnell Washington out with a broken arm.
Freiermuth had 63 yards, but only three catches in Cleveland. Jonnu Smith had five catches but for just 18 yards.
“We build plans week in and week out, in an effort to highlight them, and particularly them relative to what we anticipate from others,” Tomlin said of his tight ends. “Some weeks are zone weeks, some weeks are man weeks, different people are highlighted based on the matchups in those discussions.”
Given how often Tomlin talks about Freiermuth being a “zone-killer,” that’s even more reason to put his skills on display Sunday night. Tomlin spent a great deal of time on Tuesday speaking about how often the Ravens are deploying zone defenses of late.
“It looks like they’re minimizing some of their man-to-man since the last time we played them. We had some big plays in one-on-one circumstances. It looks like they pivoted a little bit,” Tomlin explained. “Schematically, they’re more zone defenses than they were the last time — less isolation one-on-one moments to produce big plays and flip the field, or produce scoring drives.”
When Baltimore has the ball, the Steelers will have to figure out how to stop Henry, along with whatever rushing yards the Ravens get from their quarterback, whether that’s banged-up starter Lamar Jackson or Tyler Huntley.
“There are certainly some things (in Baltimore’s scheme) that are exclusive to Lamar. That’s not taking anything away from Huntley. It’s just certain things that are Lamar and no other human on the planet,” Tomlin said. “Largely, I think they play to a certain personality, regardless of who is quarterback. That was on display a week ago (beating Green Bay 41-24). They’re experienced in playing with Huntley. They know how to play with him schematically, and he knows how to play.”
Starting for an injured Jackson in Green Bay, Huntley supported Henry’s 216 rushing yards with 60 of his own (plus 107 yards passing). Former Raven and current Steelers linebacker Malik Harrison doesn’t expect much of a difference in approach from Baltimore, regardless of who is at quarterback.
“They are basically the same player,” Harrison said on Monday. “They are identical.”
When it comes to loading up to stop star running backs, the Steelers’ oft-criticized rush defense has actually been pretty good. Jonathan Taylor, Josh Jacobs, Jahmyr Gibbs, Quinshon Judkins and D’Andre Swift all had below-average games versus Pittsburgh.
However, in 2025, when the Steelers have had to prepare for QBs who have the ability to run well (Jackson, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Justin Fields), the opposing running backs have popped off.
In games against those quarterbacks listed above, their running back teammates (Henry, James Cook, Kimani Vidal and Breece Hall) have averaged 110 yards per game. Those opposing teams (the Ravens, Bills, Chargers and Jets) averaged an eye-popping 190.8 yards per game on the ground.
Preparing for two capable runners at once has proven difficult for Tomlin’s defense.
“I feel like our coaches are going to have a plan to stop the run, stop the quarterback runs. We just have to do our job. Do our assignments,” Harrison said.
Welp, “welcome to AFC North Championship Week,” indeed. No one said it was going to be easy.
But beating the 4-12 Browns should’ve been.
And the offseason certainly won’t be for Tomlin if his team loses Sunday night.