The Steelers lost to the Colts by a score of 27-24 at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

It was the first loss of the 2024 campaign for Pittsburgh (3-1), but that didn’t stop everyone from going a little nutso on Sunday evening, all day Monday and probably today as I’m typing these words. You know how things go following a Steelers loss: The people want accountability. The team was unprepared. It was sloppy. It played down to the level of its competition (a competitor that it was only favored to beat by two points). Mike Tomlin should be fired.

I didn’t realize until after Sunday’s defeat in Indianapolis that it was the Steelers’ first regular-season loss since they last visited Lucas Oil Stadium on December 16 of last year. Pittsburgh had won six games in a row (not counting the wildcard playoff loss to the Bills last January, of course). That’s a long time in between defeats, right?

Think about everything that happened since the last time the Steelers lost a regular-season game.

Mason Rudolph became a fan favorite. Fans chanted his name in the stands at Acrisure Stadium after he started in Week 16 and led Pittsburgh to a blowout victory over the Bengals on Festivus.

Rudolph is now a Titan. Mitch Trubisky is back with the Bills. Kenny Pickett, the quarterback half the fans hated and the other half defended to an almost unhealthy level (many still do, btw), became such a locker-room malcontent that he was shipped off to the Eagles in the offseason.

Obviously, in addition to losing his starting job over the last five games of the 2023 campaign due to “injury,” Pickett’s attitude was made worse by the fact that a group of Pittsburgh’s veteran leaders–including T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward and Minkah Fitzpatrick–openly recruited Russell Wilson to sign with the Steelers during the offseason. He did.

Not only did Wilson sign with the Steelers, but Justin Fields, a quarterback Tomlin openly courted before the 2021 NFL Draft, was acquired in a trade with the Chicago Bears.

Arthur Smith was hired as the Steelers’ new offensive coordinator.

The Steelers signed Patrick Queen.

The Steelers had a draft.

One of those draft picks, Troy Fautanu, suffered a season-ending injury.

Paul Skenes became the most popular rookie in the history of Pittsburgh sports when he made his debut with the Pirates on May 11. Skenes never stopped being a pitching phenom. Speaking of the Bucs, they hung around .500 for a good bit of the 2024 season, got hot, contended for a while, acquired a few decent players at the trade deadline, and immediately collapsed.

At least they made it to Steelers training camp.

Also, a bunch of transformative stuff took place in the “real world.”

What I’m trying to say is, sometimes, football teams lose.

And it had been a while since the Steelers lost the type of game they did on Sunday. I’m talking about one of those one-score affairs that comes down to which team makes enough plays at the end. Pittsburgh hadn’t lost that kind of contest since last November in Cleveland.

Matt Canada was still the Steelers offensive coordinator last November (at least most of that month, anyway).

Finally, if your motto is to play every game that way–painfully close to the vest without even the thought of trying to ambush the opponent from the onset–eventually, your players aren’t going to make the necessary plays to win it at the end.

It’s like what Donte Jackson said after Sunday’s loss: “Those guys get paid, too.”

Still, though, it sucks to lose, even if it happens for the first time in 10 months.

If the Steelers go almost a full calendar year before losing their next game, man, that would be something…if you know what I mean?