Five games into their season, the Steelers are a profound disappointment.
Don't let anybody tell you differently.
Please don't let them let tell you, "A lot of teams would like to be 3-2," because 3-2 stinks in light of the competition.
It stinks given the vast array of talent in that room.
This is a 13-3 team in terms of sheer pedigree.
This should be a tour-de-force season, a season where the Steelers put it all together.
They should be 5-0. That was the soft part of their schedule they just completed, made softer by breaks such as avoiding Sam Bradford and playing the Baltimore Ravens a week after the Ravens played in London.
Think of it this way: The Steelers just faced DeShone Kizer, Case Keenum, Bad Joe Flacco (as opposed to Good Joe Flacco, who might be making a comeback based on his performance in Oakland), Mike Glennon and Blake Bortles and somehow managed to lose twice.
The run defense, once a point of great pride, looks sickly. The numbers are frightening. The Steelers are allowing 5.1 yards per carry. Only Jacksonville (a team the Steelers refused to run against, of course) is allowing more.
Sure, the numbers are slightly skewed by Leonard Fournette's 90-yard touchdown run Sunday. On the other hand, Leonard Fournette had a 90-yard touchdown run Sunday. That's the longest in the NFL this season.
How does Bud Dupree, touted by his pass-rush guru, Chuck Smith, as the next NFL defensive player of the year, go an entire game without a solo tackle, as he did Sunday?
Meanwhile, coach Mike Tomlin went temporarily insane Sunday and still couldn't cop to it two days later. Forget about abandoning Le'Veon Bell too early _ three consecutive passes from the Jaguars 5? Fifteen carries overall? _ and consider this: Tomlin still is defending the two ridiculous challenge flags he threw. Said he would do it again.
He didn't even check with his replay guy before throwing them. He did it based on sight _ once on a Jacksonville completion for a first down (Artie Burns actually celebrated this play), once on an obvious incompletion to Antonio Brown.
What possibly could be the harm in giving your replay guy a quick shout?
Not that replay challenges are the major problem here. Leadership might be, though, if you ask Hines Ward. He's not in the room, but he knows a few guys who are, and he had a few thoughts Tuesday in an interview on 93.7 The Fan.
"The talent is there, but if you have a lot of 'me guys' out there, you're not going to get to where you want to get," Ward said. "Someone has to take the leadership role. There was always the passing of the torch to someone. Jerome (Bettis) left it to me and James Farrior and those guys. It's just always been like that.
"The Steelers have always done a great job of mixing the older guys with the younger guys and teaching them the way, and for whatever reason, there was some leadership lost after Brett Keisel left, after Troy Polamalu left and Casey Hampton and those guys.
"Yes, the talent is there. But is the leadership there in the locker room?"
We'll find out soon enough, I suppose. The Steelers travel to Kansas City Sunday to play the unbeaten Chiefs.
We'll find out if this $100 million offense is going to live up to its potential, too.
Ben Roethlisberger explained on his radio show Tuesday that Jacksonville stacked the box with "eight or nine guys" to stop Bell.
That should have left the Jaguars extremely vulnerable to what everybody thought would be a high-powered Steelers pass game.
Where has Martavis Bryant been?
Why did Justin Hunter make two consecutive starts while Eli Rogers _ a Roethlisberger favorite _ was scratched?
Is Todd Haley getting anywhere near what he should out of an offense that talks about "30 points a game" but has yet to reach that figure this season and has hit it only twice in the past 15 games?
And, of course, the biggest question of all: Can Roethlisberger regain his form?
He spoke in unusually brash terms Tuesday _ in a way you never hear him talk, actually _ saying he firmly he believes he's still "one of the best in the world" at his position and "one of the best that's ever done it."
That sounds like a man who might play with a serious edge Sunday _ or one who might suddenly feel the need to say such things aloud because self-doubt has crept in.
I'll give Tomlin the last word. He was talking about his offense, but he might as well have been talking about every question broached here, and more.
"You can only answer with your performance."
