All the goodwill and hope brought by a perfect preseason ended for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the terrible reality of their regular-season opener. Kenny Pickett and the Pittsburgh offense, which had high expectations after scoring on each of their preseason drives, were dragged in a Week 1 home loss to the San Francisco 49ers, 30-7; the most lopsided home defeat in the Mike Tomlin reign.
While San Francisco left the game looking like an NFC Super Bowl contender, the Steelers walked away from Acrisure Stadium looking like preseason imposters.
“We accept responsibility obviously for the outcome,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said after the game, via the team website. “We compliment those guys on the quality of work that they did. We absorb the negativity that comes with how we performed today, and we go back to work. We’ve got to prepare them better. They’ve got to play better. That’s just the reality of it.
“We got kicked in the teeth today in a lot of ways.”
The Steelers defense permitted Christian McCaffrey to run for 152 yards on the ground, CMC’s highest total as a 494er and since Week 5 of 2019.
Pittsburgh’s offense was truly disappointing to the tune of 239 yards of total offense (a meagre 3.9 yards per play). Pittsburgh dropped behind, 20-0, in the first half and got shut out in the second.
The same way Pickett and Co. looked great weeks earlier, they looked sick on Sunday.
“We didn’t win enough possession downs to be competitive,” Tomlin said. “You can’t start games 0-5 on third down and think you’re going to have the type of day that you desire. You’ve got to win the weighty downs.”
Pittsburgh was 5-for-15 on third downs in the game with Pickett throwing a couple of interceptions (including a touchdown to Pat Freiermuth). Over his last eight matches of 2022, Pickett had just one pick.
Tomlin who coached the Steelers since 2007, had only two home losses of 15-plus points in his tenure before Sunday. Week 1 was a wake-up call for the team.
“Disappointing day for us,” Tomlin said. “Not how we wanted to perform.”
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