Halicke: Slew of crucial mistakes kept quashing comeback

INDIANAPOLIS -- There are sometimes coaches are just out-coached. One team gets the better of the other schematically and they beat them strictly by Xs and Os.

In the Steelers' 27-24 loss to the Colts Sunday afternoon at Lucas Oil Stadium, this really wasn't the case. It wasn't the best day for Mike Tomlin, Arthur Smith and Teryl Austin. But, the slew of self-inflicted wounds derailed any chance of securing the fifth 4-0 start to a season in franchise history.

"The real, tangible reasons why we lost this game, it's on us," Tomlin said after the game. "We were sloppy in a lot of ways. You just don't win football games versus motivated groups in their venue playing the way that we played today in certain instances."

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a fan of Tomlin and Smith refusing to completely scrap the game plan after falling behind 17-0 and do something -- anything -- to create a spark, whether it be going to a no-huddle offense or anything else to catch the Colts off guard. I'm not a fan of the fact that in three straight appearances against Shane Steichen, the Steelers have given up the following:

• 2022 (Steichen as offensive coordinator of the Eagles): 35 points, 401 yards allowed
• 2023 (Steichen as head coach of the Colts): 30 points, 372 yards allowed
• Sunday: 27 points, 358 yards allowed

That means Steichen knows how to attack the Steelers' Cover 3 zone scheme. I fear for a potential rematch in the playoffs. I wouldn't pick the Steelers to win.

Now, all of that being said, and deservedly so, this team lost by three points. And, even considering the failures by the coaching staff on this day, it pales in comparison to the mistakes made on the football field. By the players.

Too often these type of games are put under the narrative of it being a "Tomlin trap game" or that "Tomlin didn't have his team ready to play."

Let me show you just how many mistakes that were made that fall on the players, not on the coaching. And, it started right away with the first play from scrimmage:

This is a great read by Joey Porter Jr., and he gets in front of the pass in plenty of time. He just whiffs on knocking it down. But, he really should have intercepted it. Make Anthony Richardson pay for a poor decision. Instead, the Colts got a 32-yard gain right off the bat, and eventually punched the ball in for a touchdown.

The offense didn't do much better. Their first play from scrimmage was a precursor to just how sloppy things could be for them:

Zach Frazier gets immediately pushed backward at the snap, so hard he steps on Justin Fields trying to go back for a handoff. Then, even after the offense was able to overcome that play and move the ball down to the Indianapolis 39-yard line, well within Chris Boswell's range, Spencer Anderson and Broderick Jones both come in late to try and push the pile forward and hit Colts players late for a 15-yard penalty:

That's three points potentially off the board. Answering an opening touchdown drive with any kind of points can help swing momentum. Instead, the Colts stepped on the Steelers' throat, getting touchdown on their next drive, then got a field goal after the Steelers failed to convert a fourth-and-1 at their own 39-yard line. And in the midst of those two drives, the Steelers missed out on two legitimate takeaway opportunities:

If Patrick Queen falls on that ball, that prevents the Colts from scoring their second touchdown. And if Porter intercepts the pass from Joe Flacco in the end zone, that prevents the Colts from getting a field goal to make it a three-score game. These aren't situations in which you go, "Man, it sure would be nice for the defense to make a play." These are takeaway opportunities there for the plucking. Cannot miss those. Those are mistakes.

After falling behind 17-0, the Steelers needed something. Two drives later, the offense put together a promising drive. Despite starting at their own 4-yard line, the Steelers drove all the way down into the red zone. Even then, the mistakes didn't stop:

That just can't happen. And by that point, even though it was only the second quarter, it just about wrapped things up for the Steelers. Trying to come back in a game in which one side of the ball is losing is one thing. But, trying to do it while constantly shooting yourself in the foot is damn near impossible.

And, that wasn't the only fumble that cost the Steelers' points:

Fields has done a pretty remarkable job avoiding the disastrous plays we saw so often in Chicago. However, it reared its ugly head on this play. Already in field goal range, just know when to live to fight another down and take the points however they can be gotten. Just a terrible decision and the worst play Fields has made as a Steeler.

Unfortunately for the Steelers, though they were able to escape that turnover without any points surrendered and scored a touchdown on their next drive, the defense saw their streak of four straight series without allowing a point snapped, capped off by a busted coverage:

The Steelers are in a zone defense here. So, when Beanie Bishop decides to run with the receiver running a drag toward the right side of the field, that opened up a wide open window for Drew Ogletree to fill, giving Flacco an easy pitch and catch for a touchdown.

Yet, somehow, the Steelers managed to claw all the way back to a 27-24 deficit and got the ball back with just over two minutes remaining with one timeout. And after moving the chains and nearing midfield, once again, Fields had another issue with a snap:

Now, Fields took the blame for this, saying the silent count was on one. So, when he kicks his leg, that's the signal to snap it. However, Frazier was in the middle of a call and Fields then looked right to check the coverage. However, Mason McCormick tapped Frazier, which is the signal to snap it. So, he did and Fields wasn't ready for it.

These guys have six more road games. The issues with the silent counts have to be figured out. This isn't even J.V. stuff. It just can't happen on an NFL field.

And, to top off the laundry list of mistakes, here's the final sequence for the Steelers' offense:

I don't know what Najee Harris was thinking here. And, this was just icing on the cake for a bad day at the office for the former first-round pick. He has to get out of bounds there to preserve the lone timeout the Steelers had. By not doing so, the Steelers were forced into rushing a fourth-and-10, which produced a pretty predictable result.

All of these mistakes -- and there were others, too -- are on the players. Lack of execution, stupid decisions, busted assignments, turning the ball over -- this always produces disastrous results, especially when there are mistakes such as these at every turn.

It was a Herculean effort for the offense to come all the way back from a 17-0 deficit to make it a 27-24 game. And typically, I like to dedicate these Chalk Talk pieces to breaking down the Xs and Os. However, the sheer number of crucial mistakes were far too many to overcome, regardless of any schemes or game plans.

"Just poor execution and poor focus -- that it," Fields said after the game. "It’s simple. It’s not a complicated question. We just have to be more focused and come out hot. That's just what it is. So, we’ve got to come up, block the right guys. I’ve got to make the right reads. I’ve got to get the ball out when I need to get the ball out. So, it's not that deep a question. It's actually very simple. What we were doing in the second half is what we should have done coming out. Ran out of time at the end, and that's kind of how the game goes. So, that’s why you can't warm up to things."