The Pittsburgh Steelers have begun the 2025 season with a lot of inconsistencies. The team is 2-1 through three weeks, but the defense is certainly underperforming, while the offense is struggling to compete with Pittsburgh's opponents. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the rest of the offense put up great numbers in Week 1 against the New York Jets, but the group struggled at times against the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. Consistency and efficiency needs to be found on that side of the ball, and Pittsburgh is going to have a chance to do that in Week 4 against the Minnesota Vikings.
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Steelers' Aaron Rodgers and Mason Rudolph in the locker room before a Week 3 matchup with the New England Patriots during the 2025 season.
Pittsburgh's Week 4 matchup with the Vikings is a special one as the game will be taking place in Ireland. The Steelers have a large fan base in that area of the world, and there are plenty of connections with the country and the franchise due to the Rooney family. The game will be the second game of Week 4 as it will be kicking off on Sunday morning, and a lot of things change when teams have to go overseas. Teams have to plan an extensive amount of time to travel, while also being concerned about practicing and getting players used to the time difference.
The travel schedule over the next week is going to be tedious for Pittsburgh, and Head Coach Mike Tomlin made sure to keep that a secret from his players. TJ Watt shared this with Albert Breer in a recent article for SI.
"But there’s still a ton to address through an uneven start—with the line, the defense and the quarterback still looking for consistency," Breer wrote. "The next chance the Steelers have to find it will be in Dublin next week, in Pittsburgh’s first international game in 12 years. In an effort to keep the players’ focus where it needed to be, Watt said that Tomlin kept the schedule for the trip away from them the past couple of weeks. As such, the 31-year-old joked that his goal now is 'first and foremost, learning the schedule.' After that, there’ll be plenty left to address."
The schedule for international travel is always crucial. With the NFL playing more and more games overseas in recent years, it has been interesting to see the approach that different teams take. Some organizations like to leave earlier in the week to give players and coaches more time to adjust their bodies to a new time zone, while others wait till later in the week.
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Steelers' star edge rusher TJ Watt and Head Coach Mike Tomlin communicate with one another on the sideline during a professional football game on the road.
Pittsburgh's last international game came during the 2013 season, and it was also against the Vikings. The game took place in London, and Pittsburgh lost the game and dropped to 0-4 on the year afterwards. Some players that were on that team have since come out and said that the way in which the organization traveled for the game was not the best experience, as players were sluggish in practices and the actual contest. Coaches were even falling asleep in meetings, which are all factors that could have played a role in the seven-point loss to Minnesota.
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Steelers Owner and Team President Art Rooney II looks on before a game.
Steelers Continue To Make The Same Mistakes
Pittsburgh is one of the NFL franchises that seem stubborn. The organization continues to try to do things its own way, and it is hard to say that anything works super well. The travel for the last international game was seemingly a disaster, which has been determined from the comments from various players and coaches. Despite that, Team President Art Rooney II has already stated that the team plans to follow the same travel plan as it had in 2013, which is lining Pittsburgh up for catastrophe.
What do you think about Tomlin keeping the schedule from his team? Let us know in the comments below!
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