On a short week after an embarrassing loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 16, the Pittsburgh Steelers were looking forward to a quick turnaround to get back on track against the Kansas City Chiefs.
That didn’t happen on Wednesday as the Steelers were blown out 29-10 by the Chiefs in an ugly performance that capped a brutal three-game stretch in which the Steelers have lost all three and their stranglehold on the AFC North in the process.
With that quick turnaround from Saturday to Wednesday, the Steelers were hoping to get back on track, refocus and regroup. Third-year receiver Calvin Austin III thought they did that in the short time between games. But then on Christmas Day, the Steelers were flat and pretty much gave the game to the Chiefs, he said.
“Our performance wasn’t anything like the work we put in before this game. That’s the frustrating part about it,” Austin told reporters via KDKA’s Extra Point postgame show. “If we just went out there and played a good game and got beat, of course that would be frustrating.
“But it’s more frustrating when you just give it to them almost and you don’t even put up a winning effort.”
The Steelers came out of the gates slow, spotting Kansas City a 13-0 lead in the first quarter. Then, just when it seemed like the Steelers were going to get back into the game, QB Russell Wilson threw a killer red-zone interception.
Though the Steelers got back into the game eventually at 13-7 and 16-10 entering the half, things fell apart in the second half. The defense couldn’t get stops, the offense couldn’t do much of anything and continued to shoot itself in the foot with pre-snap penalties and silly mistakes.
That’s largely what Austin is talking about when it came to giving the Chiefs the game and not performing on Christmas Day like they had prepared leading up to the matchup.
Not putting up a winning effort was a common criticism from players postgame, and that included head coach Mike Tomlin, who stated that the game sucked “to be blunt” after the loss. There’s a lot of talk in the locker room after the loss about guys needing to want it and needing to go back to work. Even safety DeShon Elliott ripped the Steelers for players not doing their “fricking job.”
The work, according to Austin, has been good, especially this past week. That’s not translating to the field, so something needs to change because the Steelers are in the midst of a three-game losing streak and it’s not looking good at all for them.
