"We didn't kick enough ass," Cam Heyward fumed at his stall. "It's as simple as that."
Wow, no. It actually isn't.
Respect that man for candor. For standing up. For further saying, "I look forward to practice Monday. Because it won't be fun. I'll make sure of it." And then for adding, "I'm the leader of this defense. I didn't do enough. That's on me."
Respect that man. Don't doubt his sincerity.
But don't, for one split-second, take any of that too seriously. Because that sorry defensive display from the Steelers in this 42-37 evisceration -- no, an utter emasculation -- by the upstart Chiefs on this Sunday, in the home opener on a beautiful day for football, amid what was supposed to be a big fall for football around here ... that was anything but simple.
And if you ask me, it would have been nice to pick up some of the same accountability from over Heyward's head. Because that alone would have helped explain how un-simple this all was.
How Patrick Mahomes, a bazooka-armed talent but making his third NFL start, threw more touchdowns than incompletions, six to five, without being pressured, much less touched.
How Travis Kelce, in the wake of the Rob Gronkowski debacle last season, was allowed to roam free in the secondary in one-on-one matchups with linebackers for seven catches, 109 yards and two touchdowns.
How neither Tyreek Hill nor Sammy Watkins, two more known commodities, had to break a bead of sweat to get open for a combined 11 catches, 190 yards and the day's most pivotal touchdown.
How Kareem Hunt blew through holes the size of the big ketchup bottle on his way to 75 yards, including a 9-yarder in the final two minutes that ... well, hang on, this one has to be seen to be believed:
Let's set the scene for this: The Steelers had just pulled within five after taking their good old time to score a touchdown -- more on that in a bit -- and Mike Tomlin chose not to try an onside kick -- more on that in a bit, as well -- so the Chiefs took over with 1:59 left at their 25.
For once, Mahomes could holster himself. These were obvious run situations. Hunt would get the ball. All 63,956 in attendance knew it, and the Steelers did, too. So they sent out their big package, including none other than Big Dan McCullers, who'd had his team's only sack to this point, to plug the line.
Which no one did.
I asked Big Dan what happened in there.
"That hurt real bad," he replied. "I know why I was sent out there. We all knew what we had to do. It was just a little fundamental thing."
Fundamental?
"I tripped up on their center, their guard came down on me, and there was a gap there. Cam did his job. He got a good push up field. But that gap was too big, and their guy hit it."
See? Not simple. Many, many layers, including among the players.
But it doesn't stop there in a team sport. It never stops there. It stops at the top. And when the Steelers' past two home games have now seen them concede point totals of 45 and 42, when they scored plenty enough to win both and -- worst by far -- when those losses reflect poorly on schematics, communication and discipline ... yeah, you'd better believe it stops at the top.
It's on Tomlin and Keith Butler.
I don't separate the two anymore when discussing the defense. Not after word emerged from the locker room late last season that Tomlin himself was so skeptical of Butler's work that he took a chunk of it under his own wing. Neither has ever clarified that, but to me, that cloudiness alone is worth referring to them in the slash sense.
It's the Tomlin/Butler defense.
And man, the Tomlin/Butler defense had one hell of an atrocious day.
Which is why, being honest, it bugged me that Tomlin, per voluminous precedent, took zero responsibility when I asked what the coaching staff could have done to better support his secondary, given that Mahomes averaged 14.2 yards per completed pass and the overall Kansas City offense averaged an astounding 8.3 yards per play:
"We didn't get after 'em'," was as close as he came to substance in that response.
That's blaming the players.
Not acknowledging that anything at all could have been done to support corners -- even linebackers -- who were in one-on-one matchups they were losing badly ... that's blaming the players.
Not allowing that maybe he and Butler could have gotten help for -- or replaced -- Artie Burns, who'd been iffy to play because of a toe injury late in the week, even though Burns would get scorched for three touchdowns ... that's blaming the players.
Don't get me wrong. There was immense blame to be placed on the players.
Burns, for example, had excuses for being beaten, but it was beyond inexcusable that, on Kansas City's first play of the second half, after Hill hadn't touched the ball yet and everyone had to know Mahomes would pump one his way, Artie flat-out fell asleep before the snap. I watched him the entire time out of curiosity for how he'd handle the challenge. He was slow to the line, then was twisted into a pretzel as Hill blew by him for a 36-yard catch that contributed to the Chiefs taking the lead.
That's squarely on Burns, just as other mistakes were on other players. Sean Davis looked as lost as I'd ever seen him, late on support, clumsy in his reads, admitting to me afterward, "Just a bad day." I'm not sure I'd ever seen Mike Hilton whiff on an open-field tackle, but he did so twice on this day, then told me, "That surprised me, too." Stephon Tuitt had the team's lone pass defended -- yeah, there was only one -- but otherwise was invisible. Bud Dupree had two lousy tackles, two lousier pre-snap penalties and never came close to Mahomes. Even T.J. Watt, who appeared bound for Canton in Cleveland last week, put up one solo tackle and a quarterback hit that I can't even recall.
The players did very much own all of the above, no one more than Coty Sensabaugh, who was inserted early in place of Cam Sutton:
Several others spoke up, too.
"We've got to make plays. That's what it boils down to," Vince Williams told me. "I don't want to take credit from the Chiefs. They played great ball. But we didn't."
"Pretty much everything went wrong, and it was on all of us," Hilton said. "You need to watch the film and learn from it, but there isn't much else to say. We were bad."
"Against these teams that are very talented, if you don't execute, you're going to expose yourself to a lot," Heyward said. "We didn't execute."
I pressed Cam if it could be anything beyond execution. Anything at all, like, say, putting more DBs on the field.
"You know, when we're supposed to have certain people in certain positions, that's uncalled for. It doesn't mean we need more DBs on the field. We just have to be where we're supposed to be. If everybody just does their 1/11th, then we trust each other. And the team feeds off each other. But if one guy makes a mistake, it puts everybody in jeopardy. We just have to execute better."
They do.
And to echo several of the Steelers, the Chiefs, in particular Mahomes, deserve all the plaudits they're receiving after putting up 70 points through the first two weeks. They aren't Prototypical Game Manager Alex Smith's Chiefs anymore. They're a blast.
But again, to dismiss the coaching as a factor, meaning for those of us on the outside, would be insane.
So, since the head coach won't do that, at least not publicly, I'll offer my own here, only I'll cover the whole swath, not just the defense:
• Where were all those extra DBs?
After an entire summer invested in packages built on a six-man, even a seven-man secondary, Butler's signals seldom strayed from the 3-4 norm. Williams hardly ever left the field. Jon Bostic, another complete non-factor, was out there most of the time, too.
Double-coverage?
"We didn't do any," Davis confirmed for me. "We have to do our jobs. We have to cover people."
Fine, but when that isn't working, adjusting and adding a wrinkle would appear to be more of a potential solution than wagging a finger at Burns or replacing Sutton with Sensabaugh.
That's not coaching. That's hoping.
• Was it news that Joe Haden was out?
Haden hadn't practiced all week, and his status for this game was never known to be in doubt. But one wouldn't know that from both corners running the same scheme, facing the same one-on-one matchups with wide receivers, as if it would be enough for someone to say 'The Standard Is The Standard,' click his heels a couple times and watch the magic unfold.
Here's Burns vs. Hill in single-coverage:
Coaching. Hoping.
• Why, oh why, do we still see linebackers on tight ends? Or even wide receivers?
I'd have asked all of this, by the way, of Butler directly, but he's not available to the media except on Thursdays. But this might be the No. 1 question when that opportunity eventually arises. Because there's nothing nuttier than watching people who can't cover other people trying to cover those people. Williams was on Kelce far too often. Watt was dropped into coverage ... OK, watch this one:
Someone should be committed for that assignment. Never mind that Watt does the most damage on the pass rush. What's he doing chasing Watkins 50 yards down the field? Just because Mahomes had one of his few misfires doesn't mean it should be forgotten.
By the way, this apparently wasn't shown on the TV broadcast, but I saw Watt whirl around after that play up there to bark toward Davis for the lack of support. Davis was definitely late -- I checked -- but that's ultimately on Tomlin/Butler that Watt's put in that absurd position in the first place.
• Why couldn't anyone communicate?
This came up again and again in the locker room, and that couldn't have been by accident. Especially among the defensive backs. All concerned acknowledged, almost with disturbing ease, that signals were getting crossed all over the place.
I gave the defense credit for precisely the opposite in Cleveland, even as I expressed guarded optimism for the group in general. But all of that went kablooey against the Chiefs, and no one could really explain why.
"I wouldn't say anything was different," Hilton told me. "Except that we were just bad."
• No, really, why couldn't anyone communicate?
This one's worth asking twice, if only because I brought this up repeatedly through the summer out of concern that installing all these new defensive schemes for players with so little experience -- more than half are 25 or younger -- was taking a risk that couldn't be afforded in a win-now season. And if the players are struggling with anything systematically in Week 2 of the regular season, never mind at this scope, that's never on the players. It means the coaches didn't have the proper read on what their players could process.
• How about some clock managment for once?
Get this: The Steelers moved the ball to the Kansas City 20 with 4:52 remaining, needing two scores. They got that score, the 3-yard dive by Roethlisberger, with 1:59 left. Now, scoring touchdowns is hard for everyone in this world except Mahomes, so how quickly they come isn't always within a team's control. But how quickly they get back to the huddle, how quickly they line up for plays, most definitely is.
Asked about the clock management in that sequence, Tomlin answered, "I’m happy with it. I wanted to maintain the three timeouts to give ourselves a chance to stop them. Ben is good in no-huddle. They were trying to switch people."
Say what?
This wasn't a no-huddle. The Steelers gathered a few yards behind the line before every play. By definition, that's a huddle. And from there, they had all kinds of extended counts once at the line. For no apparent reason.
• Why punt on fourth-and-6 near midfield with 9:24 left while down two scores?
"Nine and change left in the game. Less than a two-touchdown game," Tomlin explained. "Wanted to give ourselves a chance."
He's got an argument. But it's another questionable call. Meaning it's fair to at least question it. It's not like the Tomlin/Butler defense looked like it was about to stop anyone.
To repeat, there's coaching, and there's hoping. This was hoping.
• Why no onside kick after pulling within five in the final two minutes?
"I wanted to give ourselves a chance to stop them," Tomlin explained. "We were holding all three timeouts. We didn’t do it effectively enough to create enough time for our offense to function."
Do it effectively enough?
The Chiefs ran the ball up the middle twice for 12 yards and the only first down they'd need. That's not effective at all. Not to parse words from a live press conference, but that sounds like an attempt at justifying the decision.
This, too, is questionable in the literal sense. Onside kicks work only about 3 percent of the time. But this defense was working at about the same rate.
• Where's the discipline?
I cut the Steelers slack on their 12 penalties in Cleveland, mostly because the Browns had 11. In this one, the Steelers and Chiefs both had 12, but a pattern's a pattern. Particularly since most of these penalties are pre-snap, eminently preventable things. Like Antonio Brown committing a false start several miles away from the football.
And speaking of AB ...
... that has to stop. Like, not yesterday but two or three seasons ago.
His quarterback had just dived headfirst into the end zone to pull the Steelers within striking distance and, while his teammates congratulated their quarterback, he pouted, stomped off the field and began jawing with Randy Fichtner, presumably because he wasn't getting the ball enough.
Fact: AB's been targeted 33 times through two games. Thirty-three!
Fact: AB's been getting away with this garbage for far too long.
Fact: AB's been granted more license for such behavior than anyone on the roster.
Fact: That's the domain of the head coach.
Fact: The head coach won't deal with it in any capacity.
I'm no fan of the overhyping of the Steelers' drama, so much of which is manufactured. But AB's drama is real and endless and, unlike most of the manufactured stuff, this is an actual distraction because it so often occurs right out on the field. It affects what people are doing during games — of which there are only 16 — and all focus should be on the team.
What did AB have to say about this?
You'll have to ask his agent, I guess. He moped off the field with Drew Rosenhaus' coddling arm wrapped over his shoulder, then bolted the locker room just as reporters were entering.
Look, Tomlin's not going anywhere. I can't conceive of the circumstance in which that could change, so I don't invest energy in that thought process one way or the other.
But if Butler wasn't already in trouble for being torn apart in the playoffs the previous two winters by the Patriots and Jaguars, and he isn't in trouble after much more of this, I'll be stunned. He hasn't shown himself well at all since being promoted to replace Dick LeBeau and, if anything, the defense has regressed under his watch.
Is that The Standard now?
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers vs. Chiefs, Heinz Field, Sept. 16, 2018. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS