Airing of Grievances: Steelers look outmatched, ill-prepared vs. 49ers during regular season reality check

To begin each of the last two seasons, the Pittsburgh Steelers shelved many concerns from their fans by upsetting top-notch playoff teams on the road: Buffalo (2021) and Cincinnati (2022).

In the 2023 season opener Sunday, after a preseason that seemed to erase many issues that lingered from last winter, the Steelers were scorched by the defending NFC West champion San Francisco 49ers by a final score of 30-7.

Frankly, the game felt like even more of a blowout than that. Where were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers backups when the Steelers needed them?

Offensive play-making and defensive execution were on display in the preseason. But when facing one of the NFL’s best rosters in a game that mattered, it was the Steelers who looked outmatched.

“Everybody in this locker room should hate this feeling because I hate it,” said linebacker Alex Highsmith. “We have to come out and play better. … They’re a great team. We’ve got to start faster. We’ve got to respond when we have adversity. We didn’t do that today.”

No, they didn’t. And if any team knows about adversity in September, it’s the Steelers. Despite those season-opening wins in the last two campaigns, they’ve backed themselves into a corner four of the last five years with losing records over the first four weeks.

Now, with a loss in Week 1 against one of the NFL’s elite, all of the rah-rah happy talk about how much better the Steelers might be in 2023 has evaporated. The reality now appears to be that they are a lot closer to being in the middle of the pack of a dense AFC than at the top of it.

And they’ve got a ton more to do if they are to envision even being in a position to earn their first playoff victory since 2016.

To that point, our first “Airing of Grievances” for 2023 is extensive, and we still left a lot on the cutting-room floor.

Horrid first half: For the first half of the game, the Steelers couldn’t have been worse if they tried. Mike Tomlin’s players looked ill-prepared at the start, and they were trounced from the opening kickoff.

Before their 95-yard scoring drive at the end of the second quarter, the Steelers were outgained 223-1. They went the first 28 minutes without a first down, were flagged for five penalties and burned all their timeouts before that scoring drive with 93 seconds left.

The Steelers’ first five possessions consisted of four punts following three-and-out drives and one interception.

Related:

• Madden Monday: In opener, Steelers QB Kenny Pickett was less like 'Big Ken,' more like 'Bubby Pickett'
• First Call: Brock Purdy responds to Patrick Peterson's suggestion his offense has 'tells;' Ravens costly injury; Browns big win
• 49ers clobber Steelers as perfect preseason is quickly forgotten

Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett was off-target on multiple throws and tossed another interception in the second half. The offensive line was getting pushed around. Players had trouble keeping their feet. And the run game netted 2 yards on its first four carries before a big run by Najee Harris during the two-minute drill.

Meanwhile, the 49ers offense shredded the Steelers defense. The first-down count was 14-0 at one point. In the first half, they held the ball for more than 21 minutes, and Brock Purdy had a passer rating of 119.9 as he went 14 of 21 for 154 yards and two touchdowns.

A-plus for Aiyuk: I thought the game might be delayed at halftime so that we could witness the Hall of Fame inductions of Purdy and Brandon Aiyuk. Purdy hit Aiyuk five times for 76 yards and two touchdowns in the first half alone.

It appeared that the Steelers were trying to account for everybody but Aiyuk, and he burned them on multiple occasions. If they were trying to cover him, that’s even worse, because he was getting wide open.

Then Aiyuk flattened Damontae Kazee on a downfield block during Christian McCaffrey’s 65-yard touchdown run on San Francisco’s first possession of the second half.

For the afternoon, Aiyuk ended up with eight catches on eight targets for 129 yards and those two scores. When asked why Aiyuk was getting so open, safety Minkah Fitzpatrick offered no comment.

“Tell”ing tales: On Thursday, Steelers cornerback Patrick Peterson said the San Francisco offense had some “tells,” and he would let us know what they were after he got an interception during the game.

Well, I guess we’ll never know what they were now because Peterson didn’t get a pick, and if the Niners were tipping plays, the Steelers did nothing with them.

Plus, Peterson was the closest defender on both of Aiyuk’s touchdowns, and former Steeler Ray-Ray McCloud III walled off Peterson from McCaffrey at the end of his touchdown run.

When asked if the Niners ditched those “tells” he felt that he saw, Peterson said, “No. It was there. I had the opportunity to get two picks. I just didn’t grab it in. But credit to those guys. They did a great job sticking to their game plan and getting into their identity.”

San Francisco ended up with 391 yards and held onto the ball for 37 minutes, 23 seconds.

Offensive agony: Whatever strides the Steelers made on offense during the preseason, things went in reverse to start the regular season against the 49ers.

They managed just 41 yards on 10 rushes. Twenty-four of those yards came on one run from Harris, 4 more came on a scramble by Pickett. After completing 31 passes on 46 attempts for 232 yards, Pickett wound up with a 68.4 passer rating. He had two interceptions and was sacked five times to go along with the team’s lone touchdown, a pass to Pat Freiermuth.

“Lack of execution, especially early,” center Mason Cole said of the offense. “Starting the game with five three-and-outs (and the interception). Not converting on third downs (5 of 15). Bad ball by us. It put the defense in bad spots.”

The Steelers averaged a putrid 3.9 yards per play. As a comp, the Houston Texans were last in that category in the NFL at 4.7 a year ago.

Adding injury to insult: Not only were the Steelers beaten up on the scoreboard, they got beaten up on the field, too. That was particularly true along the defensive line.

The Niners rushed for 188 yards, through little resistance from the defensive front. Meanwhile, defensive end Cameron Heyward injured a groin while attempting to tackle Purdy in the first quarter. He re-entered the game twice but was unable to play in the second half.

DeMarvin Leal was compromised with an elbow injury, and Larry Ogunjobi labored through the foot injury that kept him sidelined from practice all week. Leal and Ogunjobi combined for just five tackles over 66 San Francisco offensive snaps.

Also, receiver Diontae Johnson was limited to three catches for 48 yards. He hurt a hamstring on his final reception in the third quarter and did not return.