Throughout a week of playoff hype and excitement, Pittsburgh Steelers fans did everything they could to talk themselves into why this week’s postseason result in Kansas City would be different from the 36-10 beatdown their team suffered at Arrowhead Stadium on Dec. 26.

Hey, remember when the Steelers won in Indianapolis during the 2005-06 playoffs after the Colts trounced them during the regular season?

Hey, remember when the Steelers shocked Houston in the postseason after the Oilers beat them twice during the 1989 regular season?

Hey, remember when the San Diego Chargers stunned the Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium in the 1994 AFC Championship game? Maybe they can do that to the Chiefs?

Hey, maybe Ben Roethlisberger will have a Super Bowl send-off like Jerome Bettis did!

Yeah. That wasn’t happening this season. Against that team. With that quarterback.

The Chiefs are too good, and this edition of the Steelers just isn’t good enough, as Sunday night’s 42-21 defeat in Kansas City during the NFL’s “Super Wild Card Weekend” loss indicated.

“They’ve got an explosive football team, and they did a good job tonight,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “There are some things we didn’t do. But I don’t want to diminish what they did. I tip my cap to those guys.”

Fair enough, coach. And accurate, too. But that’s not going to stop us from venting during our final “Airing of Grievances” for the year after everything the Steelers didn’t do in their postseason swan song.

So much for that

All week long in Pittsburgh, all we heard about was how the Steelers offense needed to get off to a better start than it did during the regular season loss to the Chiefs.

Actually, a better start than it did in just about every game over the last three months to be more precise.

So, how did that go?

Well, the Steelers won the coin toss and elected to receive. The opening possession resulted in a three-and-out. In all, the Steelers had four full possessions in the first quarter. Matt Canada’s unit netted one first down and four punts.

The sequences included a drop by receiver Diontae Johnson. A false start by Johnson. A blown protection on a third-and-2 that resulted in a sack. And multiple miscommunications while changing plays at the line of scrimmage against the Arrowhead Stadium noise.

“Game plans are irrelevant,” Tomlin said. “We didn’t execute nearly well enough. It was several minutes into the third quarter and we had two first downs. You just aren’t going to keep pace with a lot of people like that, particularly an offense as explosive as the one Kansas City has.”

The Steelers offense averaged 2.2 yards per run and 1.8 yards per passing attempt and totaled 16 yards on 15 plays in the first quarter.

What a waste

The Steelers defense was fantastic to start the game. It started off with forcing three punts and two Kansas City turnovers.

One of them was a batted ball by T.J. Watt that Devin Bush intercepted.

MAHOMES PICKED OFF

(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/lSFW1QH9EO

— ESPN (@espn) January 17, 2022

Another was a fumble that Watt picked up for a score after a big hit by Cameron Heyward.

TJ WATT! STEELERS ON TOP. #HereWeGo#PITvsKC on NBC and @peacockTV. pic.twitter.com/lOf24rJx2i

— #SuperWildCard Weekend on NBC (@SNFonNBC) January 17, 2022

The coverage down field was tremendous. All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce was silent. All-Pro wide receiver Tyreek Hill was a non-factor.

Tre Norwood and Minkah Fitzpatrick were making great pass breakups and tackles. And the front seven was winning the line of scrimmage and flustering quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

But the offense provided zero help, and once Watt’s touchdown went on the board, the Chiefs woke up. It was as if an alarm clock went off. Like the Chiefs thought the game started at 8:15 p.m. Central time, not Eastern.

Suddenly, Mahomes was running around and extending plays. He was escaping the pocket and throwing to his right. The Chiefs receivers were running themselves open as Mahomes bought time, and the Steelers defensive backs were unable to plaster their coverage.

Mahomes and company scored touchdowns on their next six possessions, including a big catch and run from Kelce.

Kelce coming right into your living room @tkelce

: #PITvsKC on NBC: NFL app pic.twitter.com/SyJ0qnAIks

— NFL (@NFL) January 17, 2022

Despite being blanked in the first quarter, Kelce wound up with five catches for 108 yards and that touchdown. Hill had five catches for 57 yards and a touchdown as well.

“We had to create scarcity of opportunity,” Tomlin said. “We weren’t able to maintain that. We were getting after them early on. But they still possessed the ball. They still had opportunities. But we didn’t press them enough.”

In their last four playoff games — losses to the Patriots (2016), Jaguars (2017), Browns (2020) and Chiefs (2021) — Steelers opponents have posted 171 points, an average of 42.75 per game.

Bad day for DJ

Johnson had five catches for 34 yards and a touchdown. But, as mentioned, he had some rough moments — including the penalty and two drops.

Johnson grumbled about failing to make the Pro Bowl. He hasn’t been very good since then. He had just 116 yards receiving in the three games since the announcements were made and didn’t exceed 76 receiving yards in the final five regular season games.

Keep in mind, Johnson was also the guy who told people not to bother jumping on the bandwagon “once” the Steelers won in Kansas City.

I guess that won’t be an issue now.

What’s in a name?

Yet again it was proven that it doesn’t matter who the opposition lines up as the top running back, the Steelers rush defense is susceptible to getting torn apart.

Great backs like Joe Mixon and Dalvin Cook. Good backs like D’Andre Swift. Backups like Alex Collins, D’Onta Foreman and Latavius Murray. It didn’t matter, they all had big days on the ground.

Sunday night, the villain was Kansas City’s Jerick McKinnon. However, McKinnon did his job catching passes, too. McKinnon accounted for 61 yards rushing on only 12 carries and 81 yards receiving, plus a touchdown catch.

Patrick Mahomes is just casually flipping underhand touchdowns. #ChiefsKingdom#PITvsKC on NBC and @peacockTV.

(Via: @NFL)pic.twitter.com/QEAeEEGsgv

— #SuperWildCard Weekend on NBC (@SNFonNBC) January 17, 2022

McKinnon’s 142 yards from scrimmage is the most he’s had in a game since 2017.

Now you are just rubbing it in

Once the Chiefs extended the lead, it felt like they were just messing with the Steelers.

Mahomes threw a one-yard touchdown to offensive lineman Nick Allegretti to make the score 28-7.

BIG MAN TD ALERT! #ChiefsKingdom#PITvsKC on NBC and @peacockTV. pic.twitter.com/hY1McGAUDX

— #SuperWildCard Weekend on NBC (@SNFonNBC) January 17, 2022

Then Kelce threw a touchdown pass to Byron Pringle.

Travis Kelce catches touchdown passes. Travis Kelce also throws touchdown passes. #PITvsKC on NBC and @peacockTV. pic.twitter.com/utRCdh6ShC

— #SuperWildCard Weekend on NBC (@SNFonNBC) January 17, 2022

Pringle had two touchdowns, just like he did against the Steelers during their regular season game.

It was as if the Chiefs were simply putting stuff on tape for the Buffalo Bills next week.

And the Steelers were on-field props.

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