The last time the home fans saw the Steelers in a meaningful game, they were allowing 45 points in a playoff loss to the Jaguars to end their 2017 season.
Sunday at Heinz Field, they picked up right where they left off.
Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City's hard-throwing second-year quarterback, threw for 326 yards and six touchdowns as the Chiefs toasted the Steelers, 42-37, and dropped them to 0-1-1.
"A disappointing performance," Mike Tomlin called it. "Just not enough execution in all three phases. Not enough detail. Not enough big playmaking or execution, winning those one-on-one downs, and we didn't play penalty-free enough. We've got a lot of work to do. It's a good thing we've got an additional day this week. We'll take advantage of it."
They'd better, because the Chiefs, now 2-0, took advantage of the Steelers throughout this game, though they were especially good early, jumping out to a 21-0 lead on Mahomes’ TD passes to Chris Conley, Travis Kelce and Kareem Hunt.
"You’ve got to make plays and be sound," Steelers linebacker Vince Williams told me. "It’s such a good team, a well-coached team, that we can overcome adversity. We’re built on facing adversity. Even though being 21-0 is not what you want, I feel like this team can overcome anything."
The Steelers did that behind Ben Roethlisberger, who finished with 452 passing yards and three scores, while also rushing for another.
After being outscored 21-0 in the first quarter, the Steelers outscored Kansas City, 21-0, in the second quarter, as Roethlisberger threw TD passes to Jesse James, JuJu Smith-Schuster and rookie James Washington -- Washington's first career touchdown reception.
That final score came with 18 seconds remaining in the first half and tied the game at 21-21 after the Steelers converted a two-point conversion on a pass from Roethlisberger to James Conner. The Steelers were forced to go for two after Chris Boswell, who had earlier missed a 49-yard field goal, missed the PAT following Smith-Schuster's score.
At that point, it still seemed like anyone's game. But Mahomes took control of it.
He threw a second TD pass to Kelce to open the second half, this one from 25 yards out, then hooked up with DeMarcus Robinson for a three-yard score after Conner tied it at 28-28.
Mahomes finished off his barrage with his sixth TD pass -- tying Jim Kelly (1991) for the most in a single game against the Steelers -- this one going to speedy Tyreek Hill. Hill was held without a catch in the first half, but finished with five catches for 90 yards, while Kelce had seven for 109 and Sammy Watkins grabbed six passes for 100.
Down 42-28, the Steelers had opportunities but squandered them.
The Steelers got a safety when Hunt couldn't get out of the end zone following a punt to the 1, and they got the ball back from Kansas City with 5:03 remaining when Cam Heyward forced a fumble that Anthony Chickillo recovered.
But they took over three minutes off the clock trying to score -- finally getting in on a Roethlisberger TD run -- and couldn't get a stop after kicking the ball deep to the Chiefs with all three timeouts remaining.
Heyward perhaps summed it up best.
"We didn’t kick enough ass," he said. "I’m not going to sugarcoat it. As a leader, I’ve got to be better. I look forward to practice."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE INJURY UPDATE
• The Steelers had no injuries to report in this game and expect to get cornerback Joe Haden, who sat out with a hamstring injury, back next week. Guard David DeCastro, who missed the game with a fractured bone in his hand, also could return.
THE GAME BALLS
My top three performers:
1. Patrick Mahomes
Chiefs quarterback
Mahomes finished the game 23 of 28 for 326 yards and six touchdowns, also scrambling five times for 18 yards. When you have more touchdowns than incompletions, you've had a really good game.
2. Travis Kelce
Chiefs tight end
The Steelers had traditionally done a good job of keeping Kelce, one of the league's best tight ends, in check. Not in this one. He caught seven passes for 109 yards and two touchdowns.
3. Ben Roethlisberger
Steelers quarterback
Like his teammates, Roethlisberger started slowly, completing two of his first five passes for minus-2 yards. But he finished 39 of 60 for 452 yards and three touchdowns, also scrambling twice for nine yards and a score. It was the second-most passing attempts in team history, behind a 66-pass game last season against Baltimore. He also now has the most games with 450 or more passing yards in NFL history with five, one more than Dan Marino.
THE GOOD
James is emerging as a pass-catching threat in this offense, one the Steelers were looking for when they traded for Vance McDonald last season. James caught three passes for 60 yards last week against Cleveland and followed that up with the first 100-yard game of his career with five receptions for 138 yards and a touchdown.
Opponents are focusing on taking Antonio Brown out of the game, much to his frustration. He finished with nine catches, but only 67 yards on 17 targets. With Brown stymied, James and Smith-Schuster flourished. Smith-Schuster caught a career-high 13 passes for 121 yards.
"Defenses are doing a good job of trying to take him away, doubling him and putting extra guys around him," Roethlisberger said of Brown, who was visibly upset on the sidelines and left without speaking to reporters. "So other guys are stepping up. Jesse James. JuJu, obviously is doing some great things."
THE BAD
The pass defense. Need we say more?
"We feel like we gave them the 21 points," said nickel corner Mike Hilton. "We gave them that. We had a lot of miscommunications and blown coverages that led to a 21-0 start.”
A lot of them looked like this TD pass to Kelce:
That's just too easy. When you're allowing things like this to happen with an All-Pro tight end, there were some miscommunications. The Steelers played a lot of zone in this game and it hurt them as Mahomes had no trouble finding the open guys in the seams.
Artie Burns got victimized on three of Mahomes' touchdowns. Burns, who was playing despite being questionable with a toe injury, said you can put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the players.
"We just didn’t do our job, that’s why we lost today," Burns said.
THE PLAY
The Steelers had worked their way back into the game after digging themselves a 21-0 hole, and tied the score at 21-21 going into the half. The momentum had clearly swung back in their favor.
"There were some adjustments made," Williams told me. "Things started to work in our favor."
Then the Chiefs came out of the locker room for the second half and Hill, who had not touched the ball in the first half, beat Burns off the line of scrimmage for a 36-yard gain. It was as if the Chiefs reminded the Steelers they had another guy to be concerned with who hadn't been a factor in the first half.
Burns said he wasn't expecting deep help. The Steelers played a healthy amount of Cover-2 and Mahomes made them pay with passes like this when they did, hitting the right spots in the zone.
"I’ve just got to cover my man, do my job and make the play," he said.
That didn't happen — after his quiet first half, Hill finished with five catches for 90 yards and a score.
THE CALL
Trailing 42-28, early in the fourth quarter, the Steelers pinned the Chiefs at the 1 on a punt and Hunt was tackled for a safety to make it 42-30. On the ensuing free kick, Antonio Brown had a return to the Pittsburgh 47 negated by an illegal formation penalty by Stevan Ridley.
The second kick put the ball at the Pittsburgh 30, but after one first down Roethlisberger threw an incompletion and then was sacked for the only time in the game for a 10-yard loss. Brown picked up 18 yards on an inside screen, but Vance McDonald was penalized for a block in the back -- one of three the Steelers had, including two by McDonald -- and even an 18-yard gain on a third down screen to Conner resulted in fourth-and-seven.
Tomlin chose to punt with 9:24 remaining.
"Nine-and-change left in the game, less than a two-touchdown game, we wanted to give ourselves a chance," Tomlin said.
That came when the Steelers finally turned the Chiefs over, as Cam Heyward forced a fumble with 5:10 remaining that Anthony Chickillo recovered, but the Steelers didn't score until 1:58 remained when Roethlisberger ran in from three yards out.
Tomlin eschewed an onside kick, and the Chiefs converted a first down and ran out the clock.
"I wanted to give us a chance to stop them," Tomlin said. "We were holding all three timeouts. We didn't do it effectively enough to create enough time for our offense to function."
THE OTHER SIDE
The Chiefs are obviously pleased with the progress made by Mahomes, who was making just his third career start.
Kansas City traded two first-round draft picks -- in 2017 and 2018 -- and a third-rounder last year to Buffalo to move up and get Mahomes with the 10th pick in the draft. The Chiefs then traded longtime starter Alex Smith to Washington in the offseason.
All Mahomes has done in his first two games this season is throw 10 touchdown passes with no interceptions.
"He did well," said Kansas City head coach Andy Reid. "The key to this thing is that we’re growing, that you keep growing."
The Steelers threw a lot of different looks at Mahomes, but he didn't flinch.
"We had a good look at the film about where they were going to do it," said Mahomes of the Steelers' blitzes. "They were switching up coverages and they got me a couple of times on their blitzes. I just got the ball out of my hands and guys were getting open."
THE SCHEDULE
THE COVERAGE
Visit our Steelers team page for everything from this game.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers vs. Chiefs, Heinz Field, Sept. 16, 2018. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS