Mark Madden: It will get worse for Steelers before it gets better

Here’s some real talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are 1-3 on their way to 1-7 going into the bye week (2-6 at best):

• Kenny Pickett erred horribly in his NFL debut. His second interception did as much as anything to lose the game. Pickett must throw that ball away or take a sack. If he does either, the Steelers at least run clock for a few more plays, maybe make the sticks.

Instead, the New York Jets got the ball at their 35 with 3 minutes, 34 seconds left and scored the winning touchdown with 16 seconds left. Do the math.

Pickett is a rookie. He’s going to make mistakes. But that was a throw poorly chosen and badly made, a few inches above a 6-foot-5 tight end’s reach. Too high to catch easily, not high enough to sail out of bounds.

• The defense is a fraud. Being minus T.J. Watt and playing too many snaps are just excuses. That defense has a few good players and lots of bad ones. Pressure on the quarterback has lessened, never mind sacks. (Just three in the last three games.) Cam Heyward is invisible now that he’s absorbing double-teams Watt previously handled.

That was boy toy Zach Wilson who drove the Jets 81 yards and 65 yards in the fourth quarter. Wait till its Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills next Sunday.

It’s the NFL’s highest-paid defense. But it’s nowhere close to being the best.

Related:

• 5 things we learned: Offense shows more consistency staying on field in loss to Jets
• Madden Monday: Steelers 'have to stay with (Kenny) Pickett now'
• Airing of Grievances: Defensive demise, ill-timed interceptions undermine Kenny Pickett's Steelers debut in loss to Jets
• First Call: JuJu Smith-Schuster's eye-catching quote about Steelers; Diontae Johnson says 2022 a 'rebuilding year'

• The receiving corps is awful. They drop the ball. They tip the ball. How about catching the ball?

Chase Claypool is 6-foot-4 for no good reason. He got manhandled by a 5-9 defensive back on Pickett’s first interception. Claypool made zero catches Sunday. Diontae Johnson catches every ball but the one he’s got to. He had just two receptions vs. the Jets. (Johnson used the R-word after: rebuilding. At least somebody’s honest.)

• Running back Najee Harris isn’t a bust. Yet. But he’s played 22 NFL games and gained over 100 yards in just three. Praising his 74-yard effort Sunday is lowering the bar. Harris just isn’t hitting all the holes. (What holes there are.)

Harris’ mediocrity isn’t all on the offensive line, which admittedly regressed badly Sunday by piling five penalties on top of subpar play.

The Steelers are a bad team. I’m not the kind of guy to say “I told you so,” but … (Actually, I’m exactly the kind of guy to say “I told you so.”)

The Steelers are reaping mistakes made when they chose offensive weaponry in the first two rounds of each of the last two drafts while ignoring their problems in the trenches. The offensive line is rotten, and the defensive front seven isn’t getting much done. (I’m exactly the kind of guy to repeat himself when he’s right, too.)

Pickett will play better. But he threw three interceptions in a half. Pickett showed spark and courage, but three picks is three picks.

Excuses are being made on Pickett’s behalf, but, except for the game-ending interception on the Hail Mary, they’re invalid. I’ve already discussed the second, game-losing interception. Pickett floated the first one and brought two defensive backs into the play.

I would not have used Pickett till after the bye week. Now he seems locked into playing the death stretch at Buffalo, at home vs. Tampa Bay, at Miami and at Philadelphia. Pickett is in a position where he’s looked upon the save the season.

That’s unfair, not least because he won’t be able to do it.

Do you miss Ben Roethlisberger yet? Roethlisberger’s guile wins that game Sunday and perhaps one of the other losses. (It’s still best that he retired.)

Tomlin’s verbiage after the game was intriguing. Tomlin said he inserted Pickett for a “spark,” like a hockey coach changing goalies. It wasn’t really the other guy’s fault, but …

It would be folly to go back to Trubisky, but Tomlin might. Trubisky played for Buffalo last year. That familiarity might help. It also would spare Pickett the indignity of getting ripped to shreds by the Bills, who are favored by 14.

Trubisky was visibly angry after the game, and he should be. Tomlin never had any faith in Trubisky. Three-and-a-half games is a quick hook. Trubisky likely was sold a bill of goods by Tomlin, who didn’t deliver. (See Ingram, Melvin. Or Blount, LeGarrette.)

I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news: This will get worse before it gets better. A lot worse.