There will be no Merry Christmas for the Steelers this season.
The Chiefs made sure of that by handing the Steelers their most lopsided loss of the 2024 season, 29-10, Christmas Day at Acrisure Stadium.
The loss is the third-straight for the Steelers in a stretch that saw them play three games in three days against some of the NFL's heavyweights.
In this case, as in the previous two games, the Steelers were outplayed, outcoached and outclassed.
This is a team that is still headed to the playoffs. The Steelers clinched that two weeks ago when they secured at least a Wildcard berth in a 27-13 loss at Philadelphia.
But, as was the case in that loss to the Eagles, a 34-17 defeat at Baltimore and in Sunday's game, the Steelers didn't play complimentary football at all.
And leading the way in that has been the defense.
Two weeks ago against the Eagles, the defense couldn't get off the field to end the game, allowing Philadelphia to possess the ball for over 20 minutes in the second half and for more than the final 10 minutes of the game.
Last Saturday against the Ravens, the defense allowed more than 200 rushing yards and Lamar Jackson threw three touchdown passes as Baltimore went on long-sustained drives.
Against the Chiefs, Kansas City had players running free through the secondary whenever it wanted, as Patrick Mahomes completed 29 of 38 passes for 320 yards and three touchdowns, posting a 127.1 passer rating.
Some of that is to be credited to Mahomes, perhaps the best quarterback of the generation. He's not won three Super Bowls, including two in the last two seasons, for nothing.
But some of it also can be attributed to the Steelers just making it too easy for him.
"Guys can't be wide open. That's the first thing," said safety DeShon Elliott, who returned for this game after missing the past two with a hamstring injury. "Do your job. I thought we communicated, but guys weren't doing their job. It's Week 18. You shouldn't have these problems in Week 18. This is a Week 1 or 2 problem. I don't know where we went down the line from being the defense we were, but we've got to get back to being who we are."
That would include getting sacks and turnovers. Those are things this defense lived on during its 10-3 start to the season.
But the Steelers failed to record a single sack of Mahomes in this game, despite the fact the Chiefs were playing with left guard Joe Thuney at left tackle – their fourth left tackle of the season – and right tackle Jawaan Taylor was on the injury report for this game with a knee injury.
T.J. Watt had a tackle for a loss and a pass defensed, while Alex Highsmith had a pass defensed and Nick Herbig a quarterback hit, but the Steelers' edge rushers didn't affect the game as they normally do.
Mahomes was a big reason for that. The ball was coming out quickly, a season-best 2.34 seconds according to NextGen stats, and he was diagnosing what defense the Steelers were employing like he had sat in on their team meetings during the week.
But even when he did hold the ball, he bought time moving around the pocket enough to escape pressure and make back-breaking plays.
No play perhaps showed that more than on Kansas City's second touchdown drive. Facing third-and-11 from his own 20 after Watt had a tackle for a loss on first down, Mahomes was flushed from the pocket to his left. As Highsmith chased him and rookie linebacker Payton Wilson charged at him to close off his running lane, he flipped the ball underhand, over the head of linebacker Patrick Queen, who had broken off his coverage of running back Samaje Perine as Mahomes neared the line of scrimmage.
Perine made a diving catch of the ball at the 34, converting a first down, extending the possession. On the very next play, Justin Watson got free down the sideline for a 49-yard gain, with Mahomes stepping up in the pocket to avoid pressure to the outside.
That set up an 11-yard touchdown pass to Watson on a play in which there seemed to be some confusion in the secondary regarding what the defensive call was on the play.
The defense got the necessary stops in the second quarter after allowing 13 points to Kansas City on its first two possessions – the Chiefs missed a PAT in perhaps their only mistake of the game – but then allowed 17 points on three consecutive possessions to open the second half.
Game. Set. Match.
"We have the same players. The players haven't changed," Elliott said. "We just haven't executed. Get the ball for the offense. Play well in the red zone and get off the field. We're not doing that."
Who they have played in recent weeks has certainly had a hand in that. But how they've played, regardless of the opponent, is even more concerning.
Head coach Mike Tomlin didn't mince words when describing this defeat.
"That sucked, to be blunt. Not the type of ball we want to play," he said.
• The offense doesn't escape culpability for this loss, either.
Quarterback Russell Wilson threw a costly interception in the end zone with the Steelers trailing 13-0 in the first quarter. And that came after Jaylen Warren had scored on an 8-yard run, only to have it called back because of a holding penalty on tight end Darnell Washington that, quite simply, didn't need to happen.
Washington was being tasked with sealing the edge on the run up the middle, but took a defender and threw him to the ground well after Warren had cleared the hole.
Even with that, however, the Steelers still had a chance facing second-and-14 at the Kansas City 18.
But Wilson forced a pass to tight end Pat Freiermuth that was intercepted by safety Justin Reid, one of three Chiefs in the area.
"He was going to go vertical, but at the end of the day it can't happen 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."
And a costly one for the Steelers.
Later, trailing 22-10, Freiermuth lost a fumble on a third-and-15 dump off on which he was tackled five yards short of the line to gain.
Part of the reason for that was because Wilson was sacked five times in this game – including just before the fumble by Freiermuth. And it wasn't all on the offensive line.
On several of the sacks, Wilson had time to throw the ball but lacked open players to throw it to.
And the five sacks came with the Chiefs playing without All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones, perhaps their most dangerous defensive player.
"They didn't do anything schematically necessarily that we weren't prepared for," Wilson said. "They did a little bit more five-three-three and different things that they did, but to be honest with you, I just think that they made more plays than we did."
• The special teams units also didn't help matters.
This was, after all, a complete breakdown across the board.
Punter Corliss Waitman had a sub-par day kicking the ball, including a low line-drive boot on his first attempt that traveled just 40 yards and was fielded on the run. Twenty-five yards later, the Chiefs had the ball for their first possession at the Pittsburgh 42.
Giving the ball to Mahomes at the 42 is like giving most quarterbacks the ball in the red zone. It's a losing proposition.
"The first touchdown drive was 40 yards," Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said. "We turned the ball over in the second half. I think it was a 20-something yard drive in that half.
"I know a guy like him with his talent level and resume, you can't give him short fields and things of that nature."
That second short drive – 34 yards – came after Freiermuth's fumble early in the fourth quarter.
You can't have a quarterback such as Mahomes need to go a combined 76 yards to put 14 points on the board – even if your defense is playing lights out.
"Everything, the whole thing from the beginning, the middle, coming out of halftime, special teams. Everything played a part," said Steelers wide receiver Calvin Austin III of what plagued the Steelers in this game. "It wasn't one thing here or there. You can overcome anything. It's just playmaking and stuff."
In all three phases.
• The Steelers have one game remaining in the regular season with which to turn this thing around before the postseason begins.
But the thing they have now in their favor is something of a mini-bye week. After playing on a Wednesday, they'll get a chance to make a deep dive into what's gone wrong over the course of the past three games and try to correct the issues.
"You can look at it from a lot of angles," said head coach Mike Tomlin, referring to the team's failure in all three phases against Kansas City.
"The bottom line is junior varsity is not good enough. We've got to own that. But we've also got to look at what it is we need to do differently. We're not going to continue to do the same things and hope for a different result. That doesn't seem sharp to me. So we're going to take a hard look at this. We've got a couple extra days before we get back into it. We're going to take a look at it and make whatever necessary changes we need to make in the totality of this thing, because again, that doesn't feel good. I
"t doesn't look good. That's just the truth and reality of it."
The changes could be schematic. They also could be who they are doing some of those things with.
At this point, everything should be on the table, because after the Steelers' Week 18 game against the Bengals at Acrisure Stadium, the only thing that is guaranteed is that the Steelers will play someone in the postseason.
If they continue to play the way they have, they'll have two games remaining in their season, regardless of the opponent.
"There's got to be a want-to, and there's not enough of that right now," said Highsmith. "We've got a game left – we're going to find out who wants it. You've got to want it."
• Time will tell if this is a blip on the radar or a sign of things to come. But these three losses aren't even in the same stratosphere with the three consecutive losses the Steelers suffered late in the 2023 season before righting the ship and winning their final three regular season games.
Those defeats came at the hands of the Cardinals, Patriots and Colts, who combined to go 17-34 in 2023. These three losses came to teams with a combined record of 38-9 after Baltimore's win at Houston on Wednesday night.
Thing is, the Steelers have believed all season that they are one of the best teams in the NFL. The results of these three latest games would suggest they aren't.
But they did beat the Ravens earlier this season. And they still own wins over the Chargers, Broncos, Commanders and Falcons, all of which enter this weekend's games in playoff spots.
So, perhaps the Steelers are a good team. But they have shown in these past three games, they have some work to do if they want to be considered a great one.
There's still an overall belief this team can be a great one.
Why?
"Because it's what we do. It's what I love to do," Tomlin said. "Even on days like today. I love the game. I love working with that group in there. We're not performing the way that we need to. We'll stay down and keep working."
• With Baltimore's win over the Texans, the Steelers now fall to the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoff standings after having held down the No. 3 spot – at worst – for a very large stretch.
It stinks because the team had worked so hard early in the season to get to 10-3, only to see what had been a two-game lead three weeks ago evaporate.
But a win next week over the Bengals could give the Steelers the boost they need going into the postseason.
Cincinnati's offense is as good as any the Steelers will face in the postseason. How the Steelers perform in Week 18 against that unit could be telling.
"I just think this next game is going to be huge for us going into the playoffs," Highsmith said. "We've got to get some winning going."
It also wouldn't be prudent to head into the playoffs on a 4-game losing streak.
"(We're) just going into it understanding that it's going to be a 0-0 score come playoff time, and that's got to be where we are," Wilson said. "That's got to be our perspective, and how we go about it is really going to matter over the next 10 days, how we prepare, how we think about it."
• You don't often see a team lose when it rushes for 200 yards, but that's what the Steelers accomplished in this game.
Then again, outside of Jaylen Warren's 71 rushing yards on 11 carries, much of what the Steelers gained on the ground came on empty calories – on the final possession after things had been decided.
Wilson did have 55 rushing yards on six scrambles, helping to convert some third downs, but it's ridiculous to think the Steelers rushed for more than 200 yards in a game in which they scored 10 points as a positive event.
Warren, however, ran hard throughout the game and gave the offense a clear boost. That's not to suggest that Najee Harris didn't run as hard, but Warren was the more effective player in this game, also catching five passes for 41 yards.
"Jaylen has been great for us. Obviously he was kind of injured, dinged up early in the season. He's been great for us, making some big-time runs, catches and all that," Wilson said. "He does some special things. He's physical. He's tough to tackle. We're excited about Jaylen. He's going to be a big part of us turning this around.
"I think Naj, too. Obviously he had some good runs there, especially near the end when he touches the football. He's had a good year for us. It's going to take all of us. That's what it's going to take to be champions. It's going to take all of us. It's going to take all of our effort, all of our mentality, all of our energy to that. I'm counting on us to do that."
• You have to appreciate the play of Mahomes. Several times in this game he manipulated defenders with his eyes, only to throw the ball to a different receiver, knowing exactly where his guys were going to be at, even if they weren't there quite yet.
"You give credit to them and Mahomes in terms of diagonals and coverages," Tomlin said. "We were spinning the dial. We were playing some man, we were playing some zone, we were pressuring some."
It didn't seem to matter all that much what the Steelers threw at him. Mahomes was up to the task of beating it.
• Dale Lolley is co-host of "SNR Drive" on Steelers Nation Radio. Subscribe to the podcast here: Apple Podcast | iHeart Podcast Pittonline@iheartmedia.com
"Obviously Pat is a great quarterback," Elliott said. "Players, coaches, we've all just got to be better. It all goes hand-in-hand. Our cohesiveness is not there right now. We've got to get back to that."
If you're not on top of your game, and the Steelers most certainly are not right now, Mahomes will make you look bad.
He certainly did in this game.
• This game marked the third time this season the Steelers have played a game without forcing a single turnover. They're 1-2 in those games.
It also marked the third time this season they have outright lost the turnover battle. They're 2-3 in those games, with the wins coming over the Chargers and Commanders, with the losses coming against the Colts and in the past two games against the Ravens and Chiefs.
Prior to this season, the Steelers had been 0-18 since 2020 when losing the turnover battle, showing just how critical that stat happens to be.
But this team has show it can win when it doesn't necessarily win the turnover battle. It does, however, make beating good teams much more difficult.
That's what hurt again in this game. Mark Robinson jarred a ball loose on a punt return that the Steelers couldn't recover. Later Watt tipped a pass high into the air that Patrick Queen couldn't catch.
In both instances, the Steelers would have had the ball deep in Kansas City territory.
It was more of the same of what happened in Baltimore last weekend, when the Ravens fumbled twice early in the game and the Steelers failed to recover either one.
"We had balls on the ground early," Tomlin said. "We had a ball on the ground on the punt team early. We didn't cover it. We had a ball tipped up in the air. They could have provided our offense a short field; we didn't catch it. We're not being opportunistic on the defense our the special teams side when given an opportunity. We had balls on the ground in terms of opportunities a week ago that we didn't capitalize on, and then we're not securing them on offense."
Perhaps fixing what currently ails this team is as simple as that.
But it can't all be based on things like fumble luck.
The Steelers are forcing the fumbles. They're just not getting on them.
But they also can't allow offensive players to run free and unfettered through their secondary.
• To add insult to injury, Travis Kelce moved past former Steelers star Hines Ward with his 1,001st reception in this game, sliding Ward down to 15th on the league's all-time receptions list.
The Steelers could have used a little of Ward's moxie and toughness in this game, offensively and defensively.
