The Steelers finally lost in the 2024 regular season, dropping their Week 4 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts, 24-27. As always, there are plenty of takeaways to be had:

1. Why the drama?

Let’s get the context out of the way first: Sunday’s loss was a rough one that showed off a lot of the Steelers’ many flaws. The offense and defense underperformed and lost a favored matchup against an injury-stricken opponent. It’s a failure that falls on both the players and coaches and a disappointing way to end the first month of the season.

But let’s rewind the clock back to… anytime ahead of Week 1, really, and think about just how unexpected a 3-1 record and division lead leaving September would've sounded. I bet almost every Steeler fan would’ve been content with that deal in August.

Don’t let recency bias convince you the sky is falling after just one loss. The Steelers are still off to a strong start and in great position in the division race. There’s no reason to panic.

But it’s not just the fans — Broderick Jones was arguing with random people on Twitter/X. Najee Harris had a weird post-game Justin Fields rant. The players seem overly on edge, too.

So, in a weird, twisted way, a “trap game” loss to the Indianapolis Colts might’ve been just what the doctor ordered for the culture and mentality of this team. Winning dilutes a lot of issues, but now they’re concentrated and clear as day. Unlike the 2020 11-0 squad, which I evoked last week due to the Steelers’ unstable winning streak, this group might have a better chance at turning it around and facing reality now that the first loss is out of the way.

Sure, that might be blindly optimistic — but at the very least, don’t let one game completely change your thoughts on the 2024 Steelers. One off day doesn’t undo what’s been an elite defense up to this point. The offense is still incredibly imperfect, but more strides were made on Sunday. There might be time for drama this season. 3-1 in September is not the time.

I finally joined the Fields-for-QB1 contingent last week and I’m sure I wasn't the only one. And I’m not ready to leave just yet.

Now, if you’re a die-hard Fields supporter looking for some solace by reading this column, this isn’t the right place. His second-quarter 20-yard-loss-and-fumble in Colts territory was one of the worst plays I’ve seen this season. Fields also took the blame for the botched snap that ended the Steelers’ attempted game-winning drive — maybe he was falling on the sword for his rookie center, but regardless, that’s one to two monumentally negative plays by Fields that greatly contributed to a three-point loss. Then there are the missed reads, poor pocket awareness, etc.

But there was more than enough good from Fields to keep me from labeling it a “bad” game — far from it, actually — 367 total yards and three total touchdowns are the type of quarterback numbers fans have been dreaming of for years. That’s the type of performance that, if the Steelers had won, everyone would be quick to forgive Fields’ errors.

Because of that, you can’t write off Fields yet — especially if you were on board with him as QB1 ahead of Sunday’s loss. If you have a high-potential young quarterback, you don’t kill your confidence in him after just one loss. A three-touchdown, one-turnover performance doesn't scream “Bring Russell Wilson in!” to me.

Also, some perspective is needed. For as many mistakes that Fields made that took the Steelers out of the game, he was often the sole reason why the team was in the game in the first place, scoring every touchdown and maintaining poise down 17 points. Russell Wilson might be a better passer than Fields, but I’m not sure if he would’ve been able to make half the plays Fields did behind the Steelers’ patchwork O-line (no James Daniels, no Isaac Seumalo, no Troy Fautanu).

Is Fields “the guy”? No clue. But one up-and-down game should not drastically change opinions on either side. I hope we see him starting next week.

3. Self-inflicted wounds

Should this be a recurring segment at this point? The Steelers, once again, repeatedly shot themselves in the foot. Let’s look at the list I tallied during the game (and I’m sure I forgot some):

Frazier stepping on Fields’ foot to kill a play
Late hit by Spencer Anderson and Broderick Jones in field goal range
Delay of game to kill crucial drive to open second half
Losing a timeout due to a horrible challenge by Mike Tomlin on an obvious Colts’ catch
George Pickens fumbling the ball away in the red zone
Joey Porter Jr. dropping an interception in the red zone
The aforementioned Fields fumble in Colts territory
Red zone false start
Lack of urgency on the Steelers’ second-to-last drive of the game
Unexpected shotgun snap to kill game-winning drive attempt
Harris failing to get out of bounds on last drive but doing a half-hearted juke anyway

Looking at the Pickens fumble/Porter drop sequence alone — that’s a potential 10-point swing!

In a way, as infuriating as the trend has been, it shows the Steelers’ issues aren’t just due to a talent deficiency. With a few less mistakes every game, they’d be a much better team. Clean up the execution and improve the coaching, and Pittsburgh can live up to its strong record.

Of course, four games in, and game-breaking mistakes are no longer a bug but instead a feature. If it continues to get baked into the Steelers’ identity, the mistakes are no longer something that can be fixed but something that has to be lived with this season. The Steelers can’t live in the ifs all year.

4. The defense dropped the ball

We’re used to talking almost exclusively about the offense following Steelers’ games this year. The defense has had its quirks, but largely, it’s been the one constant in 2024. If the Steelers can score over 10 points in a given game, they’ll win. That’s the formula.

Earlier this week, we talked about how the Steelers’ historic pace on defense wasn’t going to last all year. But a collapse of this magnitude was unprecedented, especially given the group’s relatively strong bill of health.

The Colts, on the other hand, were averaging less than 20 points per game entering the matchup. They were without their star center and lost their starting quarterback a few plays in. Of course, running back Jonathan Taylor and the offensive line are excellent, and Indianapolis’ receiving corps is one of the most sneaky-talented in the NFL, but this was not a particularly terrifying matchup for the NFL’s top defense.

Instead, the Steelers gave up 27 points, recorded zero turnovers and just two sacks, and were sliced and diced by a 39-year-old Joe Flacco (who, to be fair, is hardly a bad quarterback — but it doesn’t look good!).

The allow-less-than-10-points formula was always asking a bit too much, sure, but under 20 seems reasonable given the amount of money spent on the Steeler defense, the general disarray of the offense, and the matchup. While the Pittsburgh offense held up their end of the deal with 24 points on the board, the Steeler defense gave up three more.

At the end of the day, the defense dropped the ball in this game. You can point to the Steelers’ early offensive struggles hurting the defense and I won’t argue too much, but Pittsburgh still won the time of possession battle. It was just a disappointing performance.

5. Alex Highsmith is better than you think

This was one of those games where the biggest winner is the guy who didn’t even play.

Steelers outside linebacker Alex Highsmith caught a lot of strays last week as backup Nick Herbig was proving to be the splashier player on the edge. With Highsmith’s injury entering Week 4, Herbig got a chance to prove if he actually was the better option to start.

The Steelers’ edge presence was by far its least effective all season on Sunday. To be fair, that’s not all on Herbig, who actually played a solid game despite struggling against the Colts’ read-option game early. But the Steelers definitely missed Highsmith’s more steady run defense at times, as well as the spark provided by Herbig coming fresh off the bench instead of being tired out during a long drive.

The moral of the story? It’s better to have three good outside linebackers than two. It’s more integral to the Steeler defense than many realize.

6. What’s up with Najee Harris?

On a similar note, we’ve done the “Najee Harris’ backup looks better than he does” conversation before, so I don’t want to waste too much time on his subpar performance on Sunday, Zaire Franklin’s thoughts notwithstanding.

However, until he left with an injury, Cordarrelle Patterson was undeniably playing better. But let’s get one thing out of the way: Najee is not a bad runner. He showed that off on an angry run after catch following a screen pass in the fourth quarter. He had a similar moment in the run game to close out last week’s victory against the Chargers.

But Harris just hasn’t been that efficient in Arthur Smith’s scheme all year, for the most part. I think it has everything to do with Harris’ strengths as a runner. He excels in a power scheme where he can pick up momentum in a straight line, follow a lead blocker, and get a cool stick from Kyle Brandt later in the week. We’ve seen him do this plenty of times before.

In Arthur Smith’s zone run scheme, Harris is struggling to find the right combination of lateral agility, acceleration, and vision to succeed. It doesn’t fit who he is as a running back. Patterson, on the other hand, is a veteran of the Smith offense and runs it to perfection with the agility of a former wide receiver.

Part of it does fall on Harris for not being very scheme-versatile, but Arthur Smith also needs to find ways to put his players in a position to succeed. If there’s any good news, it should just get better from here. The Steelers’ O-line will get healthier and the holes will get bigger. Harris will get more comfortable. And maybe Arthur Smith will start to call a few more power runs when big No. 22 is in the backfield.

7. Odds and ends

DeShon Elliott continues to impress each week. He might’ve been the best player on the Pittsburgh defense on Sunday.
Slow starts are killing the Steelers. The Colts looked a thousand times more motivated and hungry in the first quarter, and that dug a hole Pittsburgh could never quite get out of.
The unnecessary roughness call on Minkah Fitzpatrick was a bad one, but don’t go blaming the referees for the outcome of the game. There were plenty of bad calls in the Steelers’ favor on Sunday as well.
I’ve been bearish on Darnell’s Washington future as a pass-catcher this year, but he proved me wrong on Sunday. It turns out physics always wins: Big man with momentum will always run over a smaller man. Maybe checkdowns to Washington need to become a bigger feature of the offense (and red zone targets, please!).
It was good to see Beanie Bishop Jr. get a (half) sack on Sunday. He’s gotten a lot of criticism this year, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t easy to root for.
Patrick Queen is not as bad as some seem to think he is, but there’s no denying that the Steelers’ linebackers just weren’t playing up to standards on Sunday. Pittsburgh needed more physicality in the middle, but it wasn’t there.
There are some problems to clean up in the Steelers secondary as well. The Colts’ receivers (and Joe Flacco’s surgical performance) were a greater challenge than anticipated.
Calvin Austin III may just be a gadget player, but he’s really settled into that role. Another week with a big play, this time in the punt return game.
A Pat Freiermuth touchdown (and 57-yard game) is a huge step in the right direction for the passing offense.
The quarterback-center exchange has to get cleaned up, and I’ll keep mentioning it until the miscues stop. Just inexcusable.

There’s no better way to bounce back from a rough loss than beating the Cowboys in primetime. Fortunately for the Steelers, they have the chance to do exactly that in Week 5’s Sunday Night Football.

What are your takeaways from Steelers vs. Colts? Agree/disagree with the ones above?Join our Behind The Steel Curtain community and let us know in the comments!