PITTSBURGH — Mike Tomlin did not agree with Bengals receiver Tyler Boyd’s accusation that some Steelers players quit toward the end of Sunday’s game at Heinz Field.
Nor is he about to panic after the Steelers lost in back-to-back weeks at home for the first time in 18 years to drop to 1-2.
But he did acknowledge his players have to “absorb the negativity” that surrounds his team, particularly in an offense that looks no different than it did last year.
And the biggest negativity was generated by Boyd, a former star at Pitt who apparently felt emboldened after the Bengals beat the Steelers for just the second time in the past 13 meetings.
“I don’t care about Tyler Boyd’s opinion regarding what transpired at any point in that game,” Tomlin said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “I couldn’t care less what people say who are not involved with us and understand who and what we are. He’s entitled to his opinion, but I don’t have to respond to it.”
After the Bengals beat the Steelers, 24-10, Boyd said on Monday, “For a team to just lay down like that before the game was over ... they portrayed it to the whole nation on TV what they were about in how they gave up.”
Boyd’s comments came one day after quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said in his postgame comments that his message to the players as a team captain would be, “Just don’t quit.”
“You know, there’s a little something called pride when you play for the Pittsburgh Steelers, when you put black and gold on. And you may not have the best day,” he said. “Things may not be going your way. But you don’t quit, and you get back up and you fight.”
Tomlin said his team has to “absorb the negativity” because they are playing poorly.
The Steelers have produced just four touchdowns in three games and scored 50 points, third-fewest in the AFC. Dating to last season, the Steelers are 3-6 in their past nine regular season games and are averaging 18.6 points in those games. They have scored at least 24 points just once in the past nine games.
“We’ve got to remain singularly and professional focused in the midst of the negativity,” Tomlin said. “We’re not going to push the panic button. We’re not going to dramatically change who and what we are at this juncture. We’re not resistant to change for the purposes of getting better, but we’re not going to be so unsteady that we move away from our compass, the identity we worked hard to develop.”
Tomlin identified three areas that will be emphasized this week as the Steelers prepare for Sunday’s game in Green Bay:
— Do a better job as a coaching staff of understanding the team’s strengths and weaknesses. “We haven’t done that well enough, and that’s one of the reasons we played the way we played Sunday.”
— Improve the individual skills of each player.
— Get the players to have a better understanding and knowledge of the game, relative to the positions they play.
“We understand where we are,” Tomlin said. “We don’t want to be here. We don’t like it. But forget about not liking it. What are you going to do about it?”
