Mike Tomlin on Steelers’ 3-game slide: ‘Junior varsity is not good enough’

Three times in 11 days, the Pittsburgh Steelers faced a team aiming for the Super Bowl, the kind of elite company the Steelers have spent most of the season trying to prove they belong in.

And three times in 11 days, Pittsburgh found itself doing all of the little things wrong — and some of the big things too — on its way to a lopsided loss, the latest a 29-10 defeat at the hands of Kansas City on Christmas Day that offered a stark contrast of two teams heading in opposite directions.

The Chiefs — who have slogged as much as they have surged while pursuing a third straight championship — scored twice early, forced two momentum-shifting turnovers, had five sacks and closed it out the second they had the chance.

The Steelers (10-6) spent three hours “running on the beach” as coach Mike Tomlin put it. The defense could do little to slow down Patrick Mahomes. The offense had trouble protecting Russell Wilson or generating any kind of sustainable rhythm even with wide receiver George Pickens back in the lineup after missing three games with a hamstring injury.

The result became a familiar one. Pittsburgh trudged off the field searching for answers that may not come, not in time to make a serious playoff run anyway.

“We just need to continue to find ways to get better,” Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt said. “As the season goes on, the margins are smaller.”

Too small at the moment, for Pittsburgh to be at anything less than its best. The Steelers have been far from it during a three-game slide that’s seen their grip on the AFC North lessen with each passing week.

Against a Kansas City team that seems to be finding itself, Pittsburgh has gotten away from the identity it carved out during the first three months of the season. The NFL leader in takeaways failed to produce a single turnover. Wilson forced a pass into triple coverage in the end zone that ended a scoring threat. And Watt and the rest of the Pittsburgh defense didn’t bring Mahomes’ familiar No. 15 to the ground even once.

“You can’t afford to spot them points and allow them to scramble around in the pocket and have time,” Watt said. “We didn’t have any success.”

No, they didn’t. And the Steelers are running out of time to regain their swagger ahead of a postseason berth they locked up weeks ago. Yet all the optimism that they were capable of making a playoff run for the first time since 2016 has dimmed amid a slide in which they’ve been outscored by an average of 16 points.

“The bottom line is the junior varsity is not good enough, we’ve got to own that,” Tomlin said.

Pittsburgh gets a bit of an extended break before it hosts Cincinnati in the regular-season finale. How the Steelers respond over the next 10ish days is vital.

“Our belief can’t waver,” Wilson said. “If anything, we’ve got to turn it up even more on our belief.”

Maybe, but it would help if they could also avoid the kind of self-inflicted wounds that have hounded them during one of the more trying stretches of Tomlin’s lengthy tenure.

A two-play sequence late in the first quarter symbolized how it’s gone for Pittsburgh since a win over Cleveland on Dec. 8 pushed the Steelers to 10-3 and made them a fringe contender for the AFC’s top seed.

Pittsburgh was driving down 13-0 when Wilson orchestrated a crisp drive that gobbled up 69 yards in three plays. Jaylen Warren appeared to finish it off with an 8-yard touchdown run. A holding penalty on tight end Darnell Washington nullified the score.

On the next snap, Wilson tried to thread a pass in between three defenders to tight end Pat Freiermuth. Kansas City’s Justin Reid easily picked it off.

“It’s on me,” Wilson said. “I was trying to give Pat a chance. He’s done a good job for us down in the red zone and they made a good play.”

Though the Steelers managed to get within 13-7 at the break, the defense yielded almost immediately. Kansas City scored on each of its first three possessions after halftime, including a pair of touchdowns in just over two minutes at the start of the fourth quarter to put it away.

The Chiefs headed to a joyous locker room where they celebrated in Santa suits after clinching home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. The Steelers trudged in the opposite direction, their chances of claiming the AFC North dimming and a season once brimming with promise trending toward a familiar result: a quick postseason exit.

“The bottom line is we’re just not performing well enough,” Tomlin said. “I’m less concerned about the control of the division and more concerned about the quality of our performance at this juncture.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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