The Pittsburgh Steelers received a nightmare on Christmas day courtesy of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. DeShon Elliott delivered a harsh, blunt take about the nightmarish evening for Pittsburgh.
The safety endured a 29-10 thrashing with the Steelers at the hands of the defending Super Bowl champs. Elliott didn't mince words about how he felt about the effort, which he detailed to Steelers reporter Nick Farabaugh of PennLive.com.
“They made adjustments when they should have. We did not….guys can't be f—— wide open. That's the first thing,” Elliott began.
He later fired off one last strong message inside the locker room.
“Do your job…it's Week 18. We shouldn't be having these problems in Week 18,” Elliott said. “That's a Week 1 or Week 2 problem.”
How bad was Steelers' defensive effort vs. Chiefs?
Pittsburgh has gone from 10-3 to losing three in a row.
The Steelers especially looked lackadaisical in the second half. Kansas City outscored Pittsburgh 16-3 in the next two quarters.
The Chiefs delivered three scoring drives during their first trio of second half offensive possessions. Kansas City's first drive ended in eight plays and a field goal. But the next two culminated in touchdowns. Kareem Hunt scored on a two-yard run. Travis Kelce snuck behind the Steelers' defense next on his 12-yard touchdown catch. Kelce also made history at Acrisure Stadium.
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Kansas City completed 10 drives that totaled 389 yards. The Chiefs also turned four of their five red zone trips into points.
Elliott wasn't the only honest member of the Steelers. Head coach Mike Tomlin dished out his own honesty postgame, per Brooke Pryor of ESPN.
“That sucked, to be blunt,” Tomlin said. “Not the type of ball we want to play and really kind of eerily similar to our last performance in that we're not doing the fundamental things well enough.”
The Steelers are still playoff bound with 10 wins. However, they've lost their grip on first place in the AFC North. The rival Baltimore Ravens trounced the Houston Texans on Wednesday 31-2 to move one game up on the Steelers. Pittsburgh now only wins the division with a victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Jan. 5 and a Ravens loss.
