The Steelers have suffered many head-scratching defeats under Mike Tomlin's leadership. In 2012 and 2013, they lost to the listless Oakland Raiders.
In 2015, the Steelers were in a playoff position at 9-5 before they lost to the Ryan Mallet led 4-10 Baltimore Ravens.
Yesterday's loss takes the cake.
The Steelers fell to a 2-10 Raiders team that's not good in any phase of the game. Mike Tomlin and/or Ben Roethlisberger kept the hall of fame quarterback out of the game until the Raiders took the lead with 5:20 remaining in the 4th quarter.
That's the same logic as repairing a dam after the flood.
The Steelers defense, against a team that averages 18 points a game, gave up back to back 73+ yard drives in the waning moments.
The offensive line, supposedly one of the NFL's best, was unable to get a push all day and the Steelers averaged 2.1 yards per carry.
Chris Boswell missed a kick and comically fell down on the games final play.
Defensive backs dropped two interceptions and didn't make a play on the ball seemingly all day long.
Mike Tomlin refused to use a timeout when Oakland was on the doorstep of taking the lead inside of two minutes.
It was a comedy of errors. But that's not the only reason this is the worst regular season loss in the Mike Tomlin era. Pittsburgh has only a half game lead in the division, and two of the best teams in the NFL are coming up on the schedule in the New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints.
In order to stave off a historic collapse, the Steelers are going to have to upset at least one of the big dogs in the NFL. I don't see that happening.
The dam is broken, and the Steelers playoff chances look to be flooded.