Steelers’ Coach Tomlin says Bills were more physical as team tries to get back in the win-column

PITTSBURGH — The first think Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said about Sunday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills was about their physicality.

“They were the more physical football team,” Tomlin said.

During his weekly news conference Tuesday, Tomlin said his team simply couldn’t keep up with the surging Bills. He said they were the more physical team in all phases of the game and if the Steelers want to make a run deep into the playoffs, they’re going to have to fix that.

Tomlin also touched on the Steelers running game, or lack of one. The team’s three running backs combined for just 47 yards on 17 carries against the Bills. James Conner is dealing with a quad injury and could be limited in practice early this week. That was a major reason why Jaylen Samuels took the lions share of the carries in the second half of the game.

But the running game is still a major focal point for the coaches.

“We’re several weeks into a focus there and we’ll continue to work. We haven’t necessarily seen the fruit of that work yet, and some of that can be traced to some of the short weeks we’ve had, and we acknowledge that, and that’s why we’re excited about working this week, and continuing our emphasis there,” Tomlin said.

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The Steelers had five days to prepare for Washington and six days to prepare for the Bills. Both of those games resulted in the team’s first losses of the season. The team is now in the middle of an 8-day stretch before they take on the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football.

Additionally, the team announced they signed offensive lineman Danny Isidora from the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad. Isidora is coming in to help shore up a beat-up offensive line that did not have any more backups at one point Sunday night against the Bills. Matt Feiler was placed on the Reserve/Injured List on Monday after he suffered a pectoral injury against the Bills. Rookie Kevin Dotson has a shoulder injury and Chuks Okorafor has an ankle injury. Zach Banner went down for the season early on this year with a knee injury.

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