Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin knows what his defense must do on Sunday night when they host the Green Bay Packers.

"It starts with Josh Jacobs," Tomlin is referring to the running back that he believes the Steelers have to stop if they are to win a matchup of division leaders at Acrisure Stadium.

Jacobs has rushed for 414 yards and eight touchdowns on 111 carries this season for the Packers (4-1-1). In his first season with the Packers (4-1-1) last year, Jacobs had 1,329 yards and 15 TDs on 301 attempts. He led the NFL with 1,653 yards in 2022 with the Las Vegas Raiders.

"He's just a catalyst for a lot that goes on with them," Tomlin said Tuesday during his weekly news conference. "He's a nuts-and-bolts player. He's really good. He's got a great run demeanor. His pile almost always falls the right way, from his perspective."

The Steelers (4-2) are 17th in rushing defense in the NFL. However, they had had problems stopping the run at times this season.

The Cincinnati Bengals ran for 142 yards last week while beating the Steelers 33-31. The New York Jets gashed the Steelers for 182 rushing yards in the opener, but Pittsburgh managed a 34-32 victory.

The Steelers took an early 10-0 lead against the Bengals before Chase Brown had a 27-yard run on the first play of Cincinnati's next possession. That set the tone for the Bengals to get back in the game and eventually win on a field goal by Evan McPherson with seven seconds remaining.

Brown added a 37-yard run on the next possession and finished with 108 yards on 11 carries. The Steelers had given up just 135 rushing yards combined in their previous two games, wins over the Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns.

"It really started in the second quarter," Tomlin said. "Never felt like we had an opportunity to stabilize that component of the game. We had been trending the right way in that space for a number of weeks, but certainly last week was a setback in that area."

The Steelers must be better this week against Jacobs and the Packers to avoid losing back-to-back games for the first time this season.

"It can definitely be righted, but we've got work to do and we've got to attack it," defensive tackle Cam Heyward said.