The Pittsburgh Steelers don’t have the luxury of time-or excuses-after a brutal Week 13 loss to the Buffalo Bills. With the calendar flipping to December and playoff hopes hanging in the balance, the Steelers now face what might be their most pivotal game of the 2025 season: a Week 14 showdown on the road against the Baltimore Ravens. Both teams sit at 6-6, and with first place in the AFC North up for grabs, this one’s shaping up to be a classic AFC North slugfest.
Let’s not sugarcoat it: Pittsburgh’s recent form has been rough. They’ve dropped five of their last seven and are coming off one of the most lopsided losses of the Mike Tomlin era.
The Bills didn’t just beat the Steelers-they ran all over them, racking up 249 yards on the ground and exposing a defense that looked overwhelmed and underprepared. Combine that with an offense that couldn’t get out of its own way, and you’ve got a team that’s limping into Baltimore with more questions than answers.
Still, not everyone’s ready to count them out just yet.
NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt, known for his fiery takes on Good Morning Football, isn’t jumping ship. In fact, he’s doubling down on the Steelers to bounce back in Week 14.
“On Monday morning right now, after one of the worst, most listless Steelers losses you’ll see of this generation, I think they’re gonna win next week at Baltimore,” Brandt said. “I do.”
That’s a bold call, but it’s not without precedent. The Steelers under Mike Tomlin have made a habit of pulling themselves out of the fire just when it looks like the season is slipping away. Tomlin’s never had a losing season in his 18 years at the helm, and while this campaign is dangerously close to snapping that streak, history says you can never count out a Tomlin-led team when their backs are against the wall.
Brandt pointed to that very resilience as the reason he’s still riding with Pittsburgh. “This is how the Steelers work.
This is how Mike Tomlin works,” he said. “You get to 6-6.
All is lost, it’s post-apocalyptic. Everything’s, ‘Fire this person.
Cut this person.’ And like that, they find a way to win and the gravity kicks in.
This is right where the Mike Tomlin Steelers live. When it seems like all hope is lost, oh, what do you know?
They win two out of the next three.”
It’s a familiar narrative for Steelers fans: chaos, criticism, and then-somehow-a late-season surge. But if that script is going to play out again, it’ll need to start in Baltimore, against a Ravens team that knows them better than anyone and won’t be in the mood to play spoiler to Pittsburgh’s redemption arc.
The keys? It starts with the defense.
After getting gashed by Buffalo, the Steelers’ front seven has to respond with physicality and discipline, especially against a quarterback like Lamar Jackson, who can turn broken plays into highlight reels. Offensively, Pittsburgh needs more than just flashes-they need rhythm, consistency, and someone to step up and take control of the huddle.
There’s no denying the stakes. This isn’t just about staying alive in the playoff race-it’s about identity.
The Steelers have long prided themselves on grit, toughness, and finding ways to win ugly. Week 14 is the kind of game where all of that gets put to the test.
We’ve seen Pittsburgh rise from the ashes before. Whether they can do it again-and do it in enemy territory with the division on the line-will tell us everything we need to know about who this team really is in 2025.