Kovacevic: Everything about this was embarrassing ... even the effort

Kenny Pickett's passing was embarrassing. 

No exaggeration. Fifteen incompletions. Seven flat-out misfires. If he'd been at the beach, he'd have missed the ocean.

The offense as a whole was embarrassing.

Five three-and-outs before a first down. Not a thing till the final minute of the first half. No rush. No push. Two picks. Five sacks.

The defense might've been more embarrassing.

Gouged for 188 yards on the ground, a gaudy average carry of 6.1. Picked apart for 203 more through the air. One takeaway.

The special teams ... sorry, but I can't get past this:

There's no place to hide from a 34-yard punt following the season's very first possession, particularly when it contributes toward the opponent's opening touchdown. So yeah, for Pressley Harvin, who'd pledged for months that his poorly timed shanks were buried in the past, that was embarrassing.

There aren't any exceptions, really. All three phases of the Steelers' football ops failed them, and spectacularly so, with this 30-7 flogging by the 49ers on this Sunday at Acrisure Stadium. Collectively, individually, schematically, spiritually ... all of it graded out to an F-minus and a half.

And heck, I can't even confine my criticism to the field, since there was a stomach-turning percentage of the paying customers sporting San Francisco's scarlet and gold. Maybe as much as 40 percent. Never seen anything like it in Pittsburgh, let alone for a season opener that followed a perfect-in-every-way preseason. Never imagined I'd hear a booming 'LET'S GO NI-NERS!' chant here like the one in the second half.

No, seriously, look at these:

JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY

The 49ers' Nick Bosa slaps hands with San Francisco fans after the game Sunday at Acrisure Stadium.

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

View from the press box in the fourth quarter Sunday at Acrisure Stadium.

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS

The scene on Art Rooney Avenue before the game Sunday outside Acrisure Stadium

Talk about embarrassing. That's ... as someone born and raised here, reared on football and what it's forever meant to the fabric of this community, I don't have words for it. Certainly not printable words.

Who were these season-ticket holders who sold out?

How far removed from this franchise, physically and otherwise, are they?

What can be done about seizing those seat licenses from them and putting them into the hands of Pittsburghers or former Pittsburghers willing and capable of making the trip to -- gasp! -- Pittsburgh?

But I digress. For real.

Because, even amid all of the above, there were two elements to this generally rotten egg that reeked all the more upon peeling back:

1. They got bullied on both sides of the ball.
2. The head coach downplayed that.

That's not OK.

To be blunt, no offense has its running game gutted as the Steelers did unless the physical battle's being lost. Similarly, no defense gets gashed as the Steelers did unless the physical battle's being lost. And within both of those, neither occurs unless the opponent's better prepared psychologically or simply giving a greater effort.

Go ahead and be the judge:

That's Najee Harris' first carry of the day. Minus-2 yards. And that's all-universe linebacker Fred Warner, who was a whirlwind on this day, amazingly unaccounted for. But even setting aside the lapse in strategy or assignment -- I'd love to think it's the latter, but who knows? -- watch the broader shove across the line. As I see it, Pat Freiermuth does his job, James Daniels does his, and everyone else is either avoided or outright overwhelmed. Make special note of Isaac Seumalo and Mason Cole getting split despite their double-team on Javon Kinlaw.

Not Javon Hargrave, mind you, but Kinlaw. A fourth-year backup.

Make no mistake: Warner arrives untouched because the rest of the scene collapsed. And the rest of the scene collapsed because the other guys were giving a greater effort.

Give Cole credit for this answer when I asked what went wrong out there: “I mean, we started the game with five three-and-outs. That's just bad ball by us, a lack of execution. We put our defense in bad spots. We kept the defense on the field. Just bad ball.”

The defense was no different in this regard, arguably worse:

That's Damontae Kazee looking for the license plate, but he wasn't alone. Cole Holcomb wound up flat on his back on one of Christian McCaffrey's runs. Bodies were being strewn all over.

It sure didn't help, obviously, that Cam Heyward and DeMarvin Leal were hurt off the line, nor that Larry Ogunjobi's still nowhere near full health. But that shouldn't diminish how much more aggressive the 49ers were in any 50/50 situation, with the powerful -- and predictable -- exception of T.J. Watt, who'd deliver three sacks, a pass defensed and two forced fumbles.

Give Montravius Adams credit for sharing with me: "We need to clean up some things. Communication. Details."

Don't give any such credit to Tomlin, though.

Although he did concede that the Steelers were "kicked in the teeth" and that "we've got to prepare them better" and that "we've got to play better," when asked about his offensive line, he replied, "You know, it's a tough thing to dissect and isolate because so many other things are going on. If you're not winning possession-down play, you're not going to get a true evaluation of a lot of components. If you're not accumulating additional snaps, you're not going to have an opportunity to gain rhythm and develop the personality you desire. The importance of the weighty downs is probably highlighted in my inability to answer that as I sit here."

Say what?

He leaned on that "weighty downs" term seven times in a seven-minute press conference, and it was nonsense all seven times. The Steelers' offense didn't stink because it fell short in some semi-clutchy circumstances. It stunk because it fell short in every way under the sun. Their third-down execution was every bit as miserable as their first-down and second-down execution.

That's ignorance of reality, or it's running from reality, either of which is dangerous.

Then, asked about his defensive line being handled physically by San Francisco's offensive line, Tomlin replied, "There's a time-of-possession component to it. The defense that's on the grass is going to die on the vine in early September. They did a lot of things well, but I don't know if there's anything to what you're talking about specifically. It was an accumulation of things. Variables, if you will."

Right. Weighty downs n'at:

That's no way to fix stuff, thinking like that. And believe it or not, I see almost all this stuff as fixable, provided all concerned acknowledge that almost all of what happened here -- including the ugly shortfall in effort -- was very real.

First and foremost, the 49ers are very real. Any doubts about their continuing rank among the NFC's elite just went poof. That's a smart, star-studded offense, and that might be the fastest NFL defense I've ever witnessed live. Even the few things that went right for the Steelers offensively vanished within milliseconds.

Asked if he could've envisioned the 49ers dominating to this extreme, Kyle Shanahan remarked, "No. I mean, they didn't move the chains."

But also, lessons can be learned. And applied.

Remember how often through the 3-0 preseason I'd bemoaned that none of those three opponents, not even the Bills, presented a challenge akin to this one? And at a laser level, how it would've been wonderful to have seen an offense that attacked in bursts through or over the middle? Principally to test those new inside linebackers in a way they hadn't been tested?

Well, Horizontal Holcomb was why.

If there's a bright side I can see from this performance and outcome, it's this, and I mean it: Teams can and do get better by being exposed. And the earlier they're exposed, the better.

If Patrick Peterson's too old to handle outside corner -- and this day didn't go swimmingly for him -- then start revving up the Joey Porter Jr. model at the next opportunity.

THE ESSENTIALS

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THE INJURIES

• Steelers: WR Diontae Johnson (hamstring), DE Cam Heyward (groin), TE Pat Freiermuth (chest), RT Chuks Okorafor (head)

• 49ers: CB Ambry Thomas (head)

THE LINEUPS

• Steelers inactives: WR Gunner Olszewski, CB Desmond King, RT Dylan Cook, DT Armon Watts, QB Mason Rudolph (emergency)

• 49ers inactives: TE Brayden Willis, G Nick Zakelj, DT Kalia Davis, LB Dee Winters, LB Jalen Graham, RB Ty Davis-Price, QB Brandon Allen (emergency)

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE SCHEDULE

Next up's a Monday night date with the Browns, Sept. 18 at Acrisure Stadium. And the practices resume Wednesday morning.

THE CONTENT

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