The Steelers dropped their third and final preseason game to the Lions by a score of 24-17 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan on Saturday afternoon.

Pittsburgh jumped out to a 14-0 lead before the Lions roared back to score 24 of the final 27 points of the football contest.

Look at me, talking about a preseason game as if it was an actual football contest. The loss dropped the Steelers record to 0-3 in 2024 exhibition action.

What does the Steelers’ winless preseason mean heading into the regular season? Theoretically, it should mean absolutely nothing; everyone knows every team has its own agenda when it comes to exhibition football, especially nowadays when there are only three games to iron out the kinks every summer.

Take Saturday afternoon’s exhibition finale, for example. The Steelers opened the game with most of their starters playing on offense, while Detroit rested a lot of people on both sides of the ball. Pittsburgh took advantage of this by scoring a touchdown on its opening drive. Quarterback Russell Wilson completed a beautiful deep out to receiver George Pickens, who made a pretty catch along the sidelines. Cordarrelle Patterson reeled off a nice 31-yard run straight up the gut to give the visitors a quick 7-0 lead.

The defense was relentless on the Lions first possession, as Nick Herbig looked like a man among boys while sacking quarterback Hendon Hooker twice. Herbig’s second sack loosened the football from Hooker’s grip, and the defense recovered it at the Detroit 35.

Justin Fields then came in for Pittsburgh and used his legs and, most importantly, his arm to drive the offense down to the two. The prettiest play on the short possession occurred when Fields hit receiver MyCole Pruitt on a quick 22-yard pass right down the middle to set up a first and goal. Running back La’Mical Perine reached paydirt from there to make it 14-0.

Everything that happened afterward was disheartening…or was it?

Back when vintage Ben Roethlisberger was wearing his baseball cap on the sidelines during an exhibition matchup, you’d only focus on the things that happened in the brief moment he donned his helmet–if he even put it on at all that game.

Preseason didn’t matter because you knew the Steelers were good. You knew Troy Polamalu was the real deal. You knew Casey Hampton would make the lives of opposing centers miserable during the regular season.

We know little about the 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers crew that just wrapped up its exhibition campaign.

The fans and media thought they knew who the Steelers were last preseason when Kenny Pickett led the first-team offense to five touchdowns in as many drives. Exhibition football mattered last summer because it appeared to validate the selection of Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft as well as the decision to keep Matt Canada around as his offensive coordinator for the 2023 campaign.

It only took about five minutes of Week 1 of the regular season to remind us all that the exhibition action we spent weeks feasting on was full of empty calories.

What about the 2024 preseason we may have decided to avoid binging on?

Forget about five touchdowns by the first-team offense in as many drives, all of Pittsburgh’s offensive teams scored a total of four touchdowns in three games. Pittsburgh posted a combined 32 points for an average of just under 11 per week.

Is there reason to be concerned about the offense or was new OC Arthur Smith soft-serving a vanilla version of what he’ll offer up starting September 8?

Was Herbig really a man among boys or was he a super-sub playing among future podcasters, social media influencers and SEC sideline reporters?

Did Detroit bounce back so quickly from the 14-0 deficit because the Steelers took most of their starters out or was that 14-0 deficit the result of the Lions beginning the game with most of their starters out?

I didn’t worry too much about the results of Steelers preseason games in the 2000s or mid-2010s. However, exhibition football seemed to be a good barometer of how Pittsburgh would play in the early-2010s. In other words, not so great.

The Steelers appeared to give off a not-so-great vibe during their just concluded 2024 preseason.

But that was just my imagination, no? What I witnessed over three weeks meant nothing as the Steelers prepare for the 2024 regular season, right?