"Same questions, same questions," Ben Roethlisberger muttered from under his breath before he departed the Steelers' locker room inside Heinz Field late Sunday night.
The quarterback, flustered all night by the Ravens' defense, had grown increasingly frustrated with the line of questioning following the Steelers' deeply disappointing 26-14 loss to their archrivals.
A small sampling:
On what happened?
"I just didn't make enough plays, point blank," the quarterback said flatly. "I'll take ownership on that game. Squarely on me. I apologize to the fans, my teammates. Just wasn't good enough."
On him and Antonio Brown -- five receptions on 11 targets for 62 yards -- still not being on the same page?
"I don't think I'm on the same page as anybody right now because I'm not playing well enough. I need to play better. Today was just a bad day at the office. We've all had them. I had one today."
You see where this is going, right?
Almost every answer was the same passive-aggressive variation of the same theme: "I've got to be better."
This, of course, is nothing new to anyone who has followed even a week of Roethlisberger's brilliant career. It's certainly nothing new to David DeCastro.
"We've all got to be better, it's a team sport," the All-Pro guard was saying. "I'll never single one guy out. That's never the case."
When the Steelers are winning Roethlisberger will graciously deflect credit elsewhere, even when he singlehandedly won a game. When they're struggling, like they are, he'll be the first one to fall on his sword — even when no apology or explanation is required.
Well, for once, Roethlisberger may have been spot on in his assessment of his performance on Sunday. No, he wasn't the only reason why the Steelers fell to 1-2-1, but he was clearly the biggest reason.
And to be fair, Roethlisberger wasn't brutally bad either. This wasn't three interceptions and two fumbles bad, like he was in Week 1 at Cleveland.
On Sunday, he completed 27 of 47 for 274 yards with one touchdown and one (late) interception.
The thing is, Roethlisberger has to be near perfect if the Steelers are to right their wayward ship. Is that too much to ask for? Probably.
But, know what? This is the offense he wanted. Technically, officially, Randy Fichtner is the offensive coordinator but, make no mistake, this is Roethlisberger's offense.
On a night when their much-maligned defense held Baltimore to a somewhat respectable -- by their standard -- 26 points, the Steelers' offense had to put up more than 14 points. Had to.
That they didn't is on Roethlisberger.
It was the fewest points the Steelers had put up since their Week 5 debacle last year against the Jaguars when Roethlisberger was picked off five times.
Against the Ravens, the problems were, as Chuck Noll once said, many and they were great.
Just as they did against Kansas City two weeks earlier at Heinz Field, the Steelers found themselves down big early and forced to throw the ball more than they or James Conner probably would have liked.
Though they were able to overcome a 14-0 deficit with a pair of second-quarter field goals from Chris Boswell -- hey, there's a positive -- and a 26-yard Roethlisberger to Brown touchdown, the Steelers were what no offense can afford to be: one-dimensional.
On both sides of the ball, the Steelers essentially lost this game on third down, but particularly on offense. They converted just 2-of-12 on Sunday. That, after converting just 3-of-11 each of the previous two weeks against the Chiefs and Buccaneers.
The Steelers' only two third-down conversions came on a one-yard Conner run to end the first quarter and on a third-and-4 when Roethlisberger hit Brown for a 9-yard gain midway through the second quarter.
Unable to win on first and second down, the Steelers were behind the sticks all night. Their average third down on Sunday was an unmanageable 6.75 yards. That's just no way to win.
"We were terrible on third down," Roethlisberger said.
No argument here.
"We didn't make enough plays to possess the ball," Mike Tomlin said.
If Sunday's nationally-televised debacle could be summed up in one possession, it would be their first series of the second half. Following an emotional tribute to the team's latest Wall of Honor inductees and with the North Shore rocking, the Steelers had all the momentum after their second-quarter comeback. Oh, and they also had the ball to start.
But after Conner ran twice for seven yards, the Steelers faced a third-and-3 at their own 41. Roethlisberger took a quick two-step drop and fired left to a wide open Ryan Switzer on a bubble screen. However, the ball was thrown way behind the 5-foot-8 receiver, who took a 5-yard loss on the play:
"He said he had some pressure and was trying to throw around the D-end or (Terrell) Suggs, and trying to get it around him," Switzer was telling me. "It was just one of those things."
Except it wasn't just one thing with Roethlisberger. After coming out of the break, he was like a pitcher who lost command of his fastball. If he wasn't throwing short, he was overthrowing the ball. He completed just 8-of-18 in the second half, including this miss to Brown that was also thrown behind in the third quarter:
"When you're converting on first down you can get a new set of downs and more things happen," the QB was saying. "Just didn't make enough plays in the second half to do that."
In fact, he couldn't even get into much of a rhythm. The Steelers went three-and-out on two of their three possessions in the fateful third quarter, as Baltimore dominated time of possession 9:11 to 5:49 (35:03 to 24:57 for the game).
On third down, the Steelers went 0-for-6 in the second half. They mustered just 47 yard of offense. Roethlisberger's 5.5 yards per attempt ranked among his 14th fewest in a single game.
But Roethlisberger still had one more chance to throw on his red cape in his phone booth. On a third-and-10 and down by nine with 3:15 remaining in the game, everyone knew exactly who he was going to throw to. The Ravens included.
For perhaps the only time on Sunday that Roethlisberger could have been accused of trying to force a throw to Brown, the Ravens made him pay for it. Throwing into triple coverage, Roethlisberger was picked off by Anthony Levine Sr. to seal the Steelers' worst start since 2013 when they went 0-4:
"I promise, I'll be back to play better," Roethlisberger said.
Indeed, the Ol' Cowboy will ride again next week vs. Atlanta at Heinz Field. If he doesn't play better, well, Team Turmoil could be facing even more drama.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers vs. Ravens, Heinz Field, Sept. 30, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS