A 35-25 heartbreak at the heart of Steel City left everyone yearning for the old Steel Curtain days. But after the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 8 loss to the Green Bay Packers, former head coach Bill Cowher took a deep dive into the Steelers’ defense and shared his verdict on where things stand.

“I think it was a very good first half. When you go into a game, you go into halftime, you’re up 16-7. You get the ball coming out at the second half, you got a quarterback who’s very good with cadence, get them to jump offside, takes a shot down the field, and it’s not even called,” Bill Cowher noted on the Dan Patrick Show. He also spoke about some of the game’s pivotal points.

“I thought that was a very pivotal point in the game… if it’s third down and three, there’s a different play call… Maybe even go for it on fourth down. And then you turn around, and the very next series, you get pressure on Jordan Love. He throws a ball that’s up for grabs, and it turns into an 80-yard of 70-yard reception that leads to a touchdown. So I think it kind of spiraled out of hand at that point, but that was a very pivotal time in the game.”

The play Cowher described was a 90-yard scoring drive in the third quarter. It included a massive 59-yard pass from Packers quarterback Jordan Love to tight end Tucker Kraft. That was the beginning of the momentum shift for Green Bay. Love followed it up with another 78-yard drive that ended in a touchdown right as the fourth quarter started. The Packers got a 22-19 lead, and the Steelers kept trying to chase after them the rest of the game.

Jordan Love was left unchecked to repeat Brett Favre’s franchise record of 20 straight completions. The Steelers’ defense couldn’t land a single sack on Love as he dominated for 360 yards and three scores. But even with the Steelers’ defense ranking near the bottom after Week 8, Cowher’s verdict isn’t for the defense throughout the game. It’s just for the few plays that changed the game and handed the Packers a win.

“So, I don’t think you got to be careful by looking and describing a whole game, saying ‘the defense was this, the defense was that.’ There was a few plays there because I saw a first half where they got after him [Love]… held him to seven points and that. So I think I’d be very careful at this point to overanalyze something.” That’s the verdict from the wise man.

For Bill Cowher, fixing those key slip-ups will solve everything for the Steelers moving forward. But does the current head coach also feel the same way? While Cowher offered a deep dive, Mike Tomlin took a different route altogether.

Mike Tomlin’s mission statement for the week ahead

The Steelers held the Packers to just 7 points all the way through the first half. But Green Bay scored 28 points after halftime. 21 of those came in the fourth quarter alone, while the Steelers’ late-game touchdown could only bring their second-half points to 9. The penalties took care of the rest for the Steelers’ 35-25 loss.

Six penalties cost the Steelers a loss of 65 yards, including a costly 15-yard penalty on wideout DK Metcalf. Post-game, Mike Tomlin didn’t mince words.

“It’s not a lot to talk about. We got to get better. We got to get better in a hurry. So, we say very little when we win. We say less when we lose. It’s all about getting back in the lab and getting better.”

No hype, no excuses. Just grinding to improve their 4-3 record. The season’s still alive, but there’s no time to waste. Next Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts will prove to be another big challenge. The Colts have the momentum of a 4-game win streak. The Week 9 matchup will be the proving ground to see if Mike Tomlin’s squad has finally found a formula for playoff relevance again.