But part of that can also be attributed to the Steelers simply making things too easy for him.

“Guys can’t be completely open. That’s the first thing,” said safety DeShon Elliott, who returned for this game after missing the last two games with a hamstring injury. “Do your job. I thought we communicated, but the guys didn’t do their job. It’s week 18. You shouldn’t have these problems in week 18. That’s a Week 1 or 2 problem. I don’t know where we are. “We weren’t the defense we were across the board, but we have to get back to who we are.”

This included sacks and turnovers. Those are things this defense thrived on during its 10-3 start to the season.

But the Steelers couldn’t record a single sack of Mahomes in this game, even though the Chiefs were playing left guard Joe Thuney at left tackle – their fourth left tackle of the season – and right tackle Jawaan Taylor was on the injury report this game with a knee injury .

TJ Watt had a tackle for a loss and a pass defended, while Alex Highsmith had a pass defended and Nick Herbig had a quarterback hit, but the Steelers’ edge rushers didn’t impact the game like they usually do.

Mahomes was a big reason why. The ball came out quickly, a season-best 2.34 seconds according to NextGen Stats, and he diagnosed which defense the Steelers were using as if he had been in their team meetings during the week.

But even when he held the ball, he gave himself enough time to move around the pocket to escape pressure and make game-changing plays.

Perhaps no play showed this more than Kansas City’s second touchdown drive. After Watt made a tackle for a loss on first down, Mahomes was flushed out of the pocket to his left as he made a tackle for a loss from his own 20-point tackle. As Highsmith pursued him and rookie linebacker Payton Wilson charged toward him to block his path, he threw the ball underhand over the head of linebacker Patrick Queen, who had broken his coverage over running back Samaje Perine as Mahomes reached out the line of scrum.

Perine caught the ball at the 34 with a dive, converted a first down and extended the possession. On the very next play, Justin Watson broke free down the sideline for a 49-yard gain, with Mahomes advancing into the pocket to avoid outside pressure.

This enabled an 11-yard touchdown pass to Watson on a play where there appeared to be some confusion in the secondary as to what the defensive call was on the play.

The defense got the stops it needed in the second quarter after allowing Kansas City 13 points 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 leading up to the second to open half.

“We have the same players. The players haven’t changed,” Elliott said. “We just couldn’t get it done. Get the ball for the offense. Play well in the red zone and get off the field. We don’t do that.”

Whoever they played against in the last few weeks was certainly a factor. But the way they played, regardless of the opponent, is even more worrying.

Head coach Mike Tomlin didn’t mince his words when describing this loss.

“That sucked, to put it bluntly. Not the kind of ball we want to play,” he said.