The Steelers lost to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, 26-7, and Coach Mike Tomlin didn’t beat around the bush afterwards.

“Not a lot needs to be said,” said Tomlin. “That’s an awful performance by us. But it’s us.

“We didn’t do a lot well, obviously. We didn’t possess the ball or maintain ball security on offense. We were highly penalized. We allowed those guys to run the ball.

“Didn’t play 60 minutes of action. Didn’t play complementary football.

“So, we’ve got to absorb that result. We’re certainly not going to feel sorry for ourselves. That’s just the business we’re in.”

The Steelers went into halftime with a 7-3 lead, but in the second half it was all Buffalo, scoring 23 points.

“Not putting together 60 minutes of action,” said Tomlin of not producing in the second half. “Certainly, there are tangible things, things that you and I both see, but we’d better look at it and look at it hard because there’s usually something beneath the surface that’s producing that, particularly in the consistency with which it is occurring.

“The third quarter was awful. It was awful last week. So, we’ve got to absorb the responsibility of that.

“We didn’t play a good half of football. We turned the ball over, didn’t produce scores, and there’s nothing mystical about that. It’s about the same as last week.”

The offense was able to manage only 58 yards on the ground, while getting beat on time of possession, 41:59 to 18:01.

“We’ve got to win possession downs,” said Tomlin. “We’ve got to maintain possession of it. We can’t turn the ball over. It will produce more snaps for us.

“If we do that, we’ll probably have more than 58.”

While the loss is one the team has to deal with, there is still time to turn things around. The Steelers play at Baltimore this week, with an opportunity to move into first place in the AFC North, and with three of the last five games in the division.

“I’m not big picture-oriented tonight,” said Tomlin after the game. “Certainly, we understand where we are and the opportunity that’s in front of us from a divisional standpoint, that’s very secondary as we sit here tonight.

“We had a poor performance, and that’s where our energy is and should be in terms of the analysis of this.”