If 2021 is starting to feel familiar to Pittsburgh Steelers fans, well, it should.

Because you just lived through it in 2018.

The longer this topsy-turvy NFL season winds along, the more it looks like that ill-fated Black and Gold voyage of three years ago that ended in late-season heartbreak and without a playoff bid.

• Both editions of the team endured a regrettable tie. This year, it was a 16-16 draw with the 0-8 Lions. In the opener of 2018, the Steelers tied a Browns team 21-21 that would end up 7-8-1.

• The 2018 team began the campaign 1-2-1. This year’s team was 1-3 after four weeks.

• That team rebounded, winning its next six outings. This year’s club rattled off four in a row.

• Then hard times returned in 2018, as the Steelers lost three straight, including a blown fourth-quarter lead against the Chargers. The current club stumbled through a 1-3-1 stretch, including a blown fourth-quarter lead against the Chargers.

• Most recently, this year’s version of the Steelers won a tight, low-scoring contest at Heinz Field in Week 15 that would’ve virtually eliminated them from playoff contention had they lost. It was a 19-13 decision over the AFC South-leading Titans. Cornerback Joe Haden made a huge defensive play at the end of the game to seal the win. They improved to 7-6-1 with the victory.

— NFL (@NFL) December 19, 2021

In 2018, the Steelers won a tight, low-scoring contest at Heinz Field in Week 15 that would’ve virtually eliminated them from playoff contention had they lost. It was a 17-10 decision over the eventual AFC East champion New England Patriots. Cornerback Joe Haden made a huge defensive play at the end of the game to seal the win. They improved to 8-5-1 with the victory.

The next week, the Steelers of 2018 went on the road as an underdog to visit the 12-win New Orleans Saints with Drew Brees at quarterback. This Sunday, the “ghost of Christmas present” Steelers are going on the road to play the 10-win Kansas City Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes at quarterback.

This is where the current Steelers would like those similarities to stop.

Because that Steelers group of ’18 lost their game in New Orleans 31-28 and missed the playoffs at 9-6-1 with Cleveland failing to help the last week of the season as they lost to the AFC North champion Baltimore Ravens.

These Steelers might find themselves at 9-7-1 in exactly the same boat, with Cleveland hosting the Cincinnati Bengals the last week of the season. And coach Mike Tomlin’s team may well find themselves watching the outcome of that one with their postseason hopes in the balance just as they did three years ago.

Most frustrating, that Steelers team went into New Orleans undermanned and outgunned. Yet, they played one of their best games of the year and could’ve won it. Had it not been for a JuJu Smith-Schuster fumble and a pair of horrible pass interference flags, they would have stolen the game.

“We look forward to heading to Kansas City and putting our skills on display against a group that’s an AFC titan,” Tomlin said Tuesday. “One of the teams that perennially is in it. And in it in a big way. We’re excited about putting our skills against theirs.”

That’s the right attitude to have, of course. But if we are to take Tomlin at his word, pitting the Steelers’ skills against the Chiefs’ is a matchup the Steelers simply can’t win. Especially if All-Pros Travis Kelce (tight end) and Tyreek Hill (wide receiver) clear covid-19 protocols in time to be active on game day.

“We’ve got to score points,” Tomlin said of facing the Chiefs. “The 19 points that we scored last week, I don’t think it’s realistic to think that that’s going to be enough to get out of the stadium with a victory this time around, particularly just given their recent outputs and what’s transpired with them this year.”

Those recent Kansas City outputs include 34.7 points per game over their past three contests and 28.1 points per game over the course of their current seven-game win streak.

Even if Kelce and Hill can’t participate, the Steelers need to be wary of the Chiefs running attack. Even though, on average, coach Andy Reid’s offense only accumulates 109.9 yards per game on the ground, K.C. popped off for 132 yards rushing two weeks ago in a win against the Las Vegas Raiders and 126 yards against the Dallas Cowboys before their bye on Nov. 21.

Meanwhile, the Steelers have the second-worst rush defense in the NFL at 143.9 yards per game. And it just yielded 201 yards on the ground against Tennessee last weekend.

“It was ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,’” defensive captain Cameron Heyward said of his unit’s effort last week against the Titans. “The ‘ugly’ was the 200 (yards rushing). The ‘bad’ was the time of possession (39 minutes and eight seconds for Tennessee). But the good was 13 points. Our pass defense was good. And the really good was picking up the W.”

Heyward’s “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” reference is also fitting of this Steelers season in general. As it was of that 2018 team.

A sequel to that 1966 movie was proposed and never made. If 2021 is actually a remake of 2018, for the sake of the Steelers, let’s hope the ending is more favorable in Kansas City over this Christmas weekend than was the case in New Orleans a few years ago.

If not, at least rewrite the ending for the last week of the season. Because no one in Pittsburgh was a fan of how that original screenplay wrapped up.

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