49ers clobber Steelers as perfect preseason is quickly forgotten

So much for all of that preseason hype surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The regular season arrived with great fanfare Sunday, and, simply put, the Steelers weren’t ready.

Not for Brock Purdy, the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft who routinely exploited the middle of the field against a retooled Steelers defense.

Not for Christian McCaffrey, who had a back-breaking 65-yard touchdown run to open the second half.

And not for Kenny Pickett to look like a wide-eyed rookie judging by the way he overthrew receivers and couldn’t move the offense in his first home-opening start.

Murphy’s Law was at work for the Steelers as everything that could go wrong did in a 30-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers that was the antithesis of a preseason when so many things went right.

“We have to prepare them better. They have to play better,” coach Mike Tomlin said after losing his first opener since 2019. “That is just the reality of it. We got kicked in the teeth today in a lot of ways.”

The Steelers fell behind by 20 points in the first half as the 49ers scored on their opening four possessions while the Steelers offense took the opposite approach.

Pickett, running a unit that scored on all five of his preseason possessions, went five drives without leading the Steelers to so much as a first down. The offense was so dysfunctional that the home crowd of 67,679 showered it with boos early in the second quarter.

By the end of the game, the thousands of San Francisco fans who had purchased tickets led an audible chant of “Let’s go Niners” that punctuated the miserable day for the Steelers.

“No way did I envision this,” outside linebacker Alex Highsmith said. “They are a great team. They came in and played like it. We didn’t.”

Highsmith wasn’t alone in struggling to convey the disappointment in the way the Steelers opened the season.

“I don’t know if there is one thing I can say right now (that went wrong),” added outside linebacker T.J. Watt, who had three sacks and tied James Harrison’s career record in that category. “You saw the preseason. We were able to start fast in all three phases of the game. Today was definitely not like that.”

The Steelers have an extra day to lick their wounds. They don’t play again until next Monday night when they host the Cleveland Browns, who stunned the division-champion Cincinnati Bengals, 24-3.

“We have 16 games left. We’re not blinking,” running back Najee Harris said. “We’re still here, and we’re still excited for this year.”

The 49ers possessed the ball for more than 21 minutes in the first half. While they got two touchdown passes from Purdy to Brandon Aiyuk and a pair of Jake Moody field goals, the Steelers went three-and-out on five consecutive possessions.

That drought ended late in the first half when Pickett, running the two-minute offense, led the Steelers on a 12-play, 95-yard drive that ended with Pat Freiermuth’s 3-yard touchdown catch that cut the deficit to 20-7.

Until that drive, the Steelers had negative net yardage for the half. The 49ers had 222 entering intermission.

“We wanted to get out fast, and we didn’t do that,” Pickett said. “Playing from behind against a really good team, you’re putting yourself in a hole, and that’s something we can’t do.”

Any glimmer of hope for a Steelers comeback was extinguished two plays into the second half when McCaffrey escaped Levi Wallace’s attempt at an arm tackle on his way to a 65-yard touchdown run that pushed the margin back to 20 points.

With a chance to cut into the deficit late in the third quarter, Pickett’s fourth-down throw to Freiermuth in the end zone was off target, a familiar refrain on the day.

Pickett threw two interceptions — one more than he had the entire second half of the 2022 season — had another sure pick dropped and was sacked five times. He totaled a 21.3 passer rating while the 49ers were building a 20-0 lead. He ended with a 68.4 rating and completed 31 of 46 attempts for 232 yards.

“You get behind like that, you’re in a situation where you’re forcing things and trying to make a play to get us back in it,” Pickett said. “That’s why the key is to stay in the game and not get down like that when we’re trying to run-and-gun and score.”

Meantime, the defense couldn’t stop Purdy, who was given the keys to the 49ers offense after leading them to the NFC championship game last year. Purdy totaled 220 yards on 19 completions in 29 attempts as he kept finding receivers open across the middle of the field. More importantly, he didn’t throw an interception while facing a defense that led the NFL in that category last year.

McCaffrey rushed for 152 yards on 22 carries.

The Steelers signed three linebackers and rotated two players at strong safety. Still, this new-look defense couldn’t keep Purdy from exploiting the middle of the field.

The special teams also didn’t escape blame. Patrick Peterson jumped offside before blocking a field-goal attempt. This came after the Steelers burned a timeout before the ball was snapped. After a punt, long snapper Christian Kuntz was flagged for tugging a face mask, starting the 49ers drive at the 50.

“It was a failure on our part in all areas,” Tomlin said.