Mark Madden: The Steelers are broken, and it falls on Mike Tomlin

When Aaron Rodgers is hopped up on ayahuasca, or whatever truth serum he’s taking that enables him to play (not very well) with three fractures in his left wrist, it would be fun to ask him if the situation in Pittsburgh is what he’d hoped for.

Here’s betting it’s not.

The Steelers are 6-6, tied with Baltimore atop the AFC North. The Steelers and Ravens play Sunday at Baltimore.

Dec. 7: A day that will live in infamy.

But it will be difficult to top the infamy of this past Sunday. Regardless of their record and where they sit in the standings, the Steelers proved themselves an utter disaster in their 26-7 home loss to Buffalo.

Their offense has zero identity and only had the ball for 18 minutes. Not one thing that offense does works.

Their defense is the NFL’s highest-paid ever but absolutely stinks. It gets the odd takeaway but can’t get off the field otherwise. The Bills had 249 yards rushing, the most ever by a foe at Acrisure Stadium. Both of Buffalo’s starting tackles were injured, but the Bills still got maximum push for their running game and conceded zero sacks.

The individuals on that defense should be embarrassed, the pricier ones even more so.

T.J. Watt was invisible. Cam Heyward drew an unsportsmanlike conduct flag after the Bills scored a touchdown. Great leadership. Is there any tape of Josh Allen kneeing Heyward like the latter claims?

Watt and Heyward have let the Steelers down most of all. They haven’t delivered on the promise of their inflated paychecks.

The Steelers have no heart, no fightback. Witness Sunday’s third quarter. It went from 7-3 Steelers to 16-7 Bills in a little over six minutes. It went bad, and stayed bad.

This is a lot worse than it looks, and it looks terrible.

No hope is offered for the future. It’s an old roster. This season was supposed to be “all in.”

Ben Roethlisberger retired in 2021 and still hasn’t been replaced. Quarterback has been a shameful parade of elderly retreads, recycled rejects and a little-handed first-round calamity that set the franchise back at least five years.

The coach and GM aren’t going anywhere. The Steelers might change coordinators, traditionally the organization’s sacrificial lambs.

The Steelers are, and will continue to be, exactly as you see them now. They haven’t changed appreciably in years.

It can’t be fixed. The fans know it. Acrisure Stadium knows it.

They booed “Renegade.” They chanted, “Fire Tomlin!” It’s a brave new world. Almost dystopian.

But nothing will change.

Mike Tomlin should be fired. Won’t happen.

Omar Khan should be fired. Won’t happen.

The scheme won’t change on either side of the ball.

The Steelers just want to be right, even more so when they’re wrong. Witness the obsession with the fat-kid tight end at the expense of Pat Freiermuth vanishing like Houdini.

The Steelers are broken. But somehow they’re still tied for first in the AFC North. Twisted opportunity still beckons.

Rodgers shouldn’t play at Baltimore. He deserves respect for trying. But he wasn’t good vs. Buffalo.

He’s too limited, too skittish, and that trickles down to the rest of the offense. Can’t take snaps under center. He can only do things right-handed: handoffs, etc. The playbook loses too many pages. Play-action disappears.

I’d rather use Mason Rudolph at 100% than Rodgers at whatever percent.

But you wouldn’t. Tomlin wouldn’t.

If Rodgers is, at some point, too injured to play, the season’s final indignity might be Tomlin using rookie Will Howard at quarterback just like he nonsensically played small-college bum Duck Hodges in 2019. Quack, quack.

The situation is dire. And it’s nearly 100% Tomlin’s fault.