I wish I could say I’m surprised by the Steelers’ 30-13 beatdown at the hands of the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday evening, but I’m not.

I mean, who are we kidding? If your best case for why the Steelers will win a game leading up to kickoff is that “When nobody expects them to win, they usually win,” that’s just not a good sign.

Speaking of signs, where were the tangible signs that Pittsburgh would win on Saturday? They didn’t exist.

They haven’t existed all year.

Over the first 11 weeks, the Steelers were like that game kids now play on TikTok where they flip a bottle and hope that it lands on its cap or whatever, and when it does, they run around screaming, “Oh, bleep! Oh, bleep! Oh, bleep!” (At least they’re not playing Madden, amirite?) The fact is, the Steelers were relying on way too many “Oh, bleeps!” during their 7-4 start. Their overall stats just didn’t match their record, and unless they started to play sound football that included a sustainable offense and a defense that didn’t have to lean on sacks and takeaways, the law of averages was going to catch up with them.

Just like in that “Oh, bleep!” game the kids play.

The Steelers scored just 13 points vs. Indianapolis, and seven of them were set up by a blocked punt by Connor Heyward that was recovered at the Colts’ one-yard line by Nick Herbig. In other words, Pittsburgh was trying to “Oh, bleep!” its way to another win, but it couldn’t. Why? Because teams can’t win that way week in and week out. Eventually, talent overrides everything else.

The Colts, despite a plethora of injuries, had more talent than Pittsburgh and were able to gash its defense to the tune of 30 unanswered points over the final 44 minutes. Yes, the Steelers defense has been compromised by injuries, especially at inside linebacker, but it wasn’t like T.J. Watt and Co. were reminding anyone of Dick LeBeau’s best units prior to the season-ending injuries suffered by Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander.

Speaking of Watt, he really didn’t impact Saturday’s game at all. I mean, he had two sacks, but he wasn’t a difference-maker because it’s hard to be that when the rest of the defense is just suspect.

The offense was hellish again on Saturday, and the fire has only intensified since Matt Canada was sent packing nearly a month ago. If you’re keeping score at home, the Steelers are now averaging 14.25 points per game sans the presumed reason for the pee-poor season.

I realize that Mitch Trubisky has been the starting quarterback for the majority of the post-Canada era, but if you’re going to sit there and tell me Kenny Pickett was much better, you’re simply telling me things that aren’t true.

I believe the over/under for the Steelers win total in 2023 was set at 8.5. Why did we believe things would be different? Because general manager Omar Khan made a bunch of offseason deals? Patrick Peterson was always just a name from the past. Same with Allen Robinson. If the Pirates had acquired the baseball equivalent of Peterson and Robinson, they’d be laughed at by the media and fans.

Elandon Roberts, Holcomb and Alexander were solid acquisitions, but they were joining a defense that was elite in name only, despite its expensive price tag.

We assumed Isaac Seumalo would finally solidify a beleaguered offensive line, but you know what they say about people who assume things. We also assumed that head coach Mike Tomlin would wait a little too long before inserting rookie Broderick Jones into the starting lineup, and we were right to assume that.

I think everyone was guilty of buying into the hype as the offseason gave way to the preseason, even the national and local pundits who began to say things like, “The Steelers have a stacked roster.” I never quite bought it, but I wanted to believe they were right.

The national and local pundits were either wrong, or they were simply telling fans what they wanted to hear.

Either way, it was obvious from the first quarter of the very first regular-season game that Pittsburgh just wasn’t a good team.

The Steelers, now 7-7, managed to hang in there for as long as they could and probably gave all that they could.

But the Steelers, with only three games remaining on the schedule, have nothing left to give.

Not that they ever had much in the first place.