Bending and breaking

While the Steelers will spend the next couple days trying to find answers to the problems that have derailed their season, a painfully obvious one has emerged during their three-game losing streak.

And they’ve been unable to do anything about it.

In the past three games, they have allowed the Arizona Cardinals to score 24 unanswered points, the New England Patriots to score 14 and the Indianapolis Colts to put up 30 consecutive points without so much as a field goal.

In other words, not only have they been unable to prevent teams from gaining steam and building momentum, they have done little to answer the surge to change the outcome.

“We got to be able to bounce back with adversity,” outside linebacker Alex Highsmith said. “And we didn’t when that adversity hit.”

After being involved in eight one-score games to start the season, the Steelers have gone the other way. They’ve been outscored by an average of 25-13 during their three-game losing streak and they’re really not sure what to do about it.

“If I had that answer, I would tell you right now,” outside linebacker T.J. Watt said. “But I think it’s a combination of a lot of things and that’s what we need to figure out and solve as quick as possible moving forward.”

It was a somber locker room after the Steelers lost to the Colts, 30-13, on Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium, their most lopsided defeat since Week 4 in Houston.

It was the fifth consecutive game in which they failed to score at least 19 points, the longest such streak since they failed to do it in six consecutive games in 1969 when they were 1-13 in Chuck Noll’s first season

What made the defeat even more deflating, beyond dropping the Steelers (7-7) into the basement of the AFC North, was they had a 13-0 lead in the second quarter — the first time all season they had a double-digit lead before halftime.

“It felt good ... we were up,” said receiver Diontae Johnson, who helped build the lead with a 4-yard touchdown catch. “We just didn’t put any more points up on the board.”

Meantime, the defense allowed the Colts, playing without star running back Jonathan Taylor, to rush for 170 yards on 34 carries. It was so methodical the Colts actually ran 13 consecutive times for 70 yards on a field-goal drive that gave them a 27-13 lead.

On top of that, they watched quarterback Gardner Minshew throw for 215 yards and three touchdowns, despite losing his top receiver Michael Pittman Jr. after a vicious hit in the second quarter.

Injuries didn’t stop the Colts. But, apparently, it sounds like a convenient excuse for the Steelers.

“The defense is leaking,” Johnson said. “They got some players down, and it showed.”

Coach Mike Tomlin said after the game that “everything is on the table” for potential changes for Saturday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals (8-6) at Acrisure Stadium.

When asked if that includes quarterback Mitch Trubisky, who was lifted in favor of Mason Rudolph with two minutes remaining against the Colts, Tomlin said, “I don’t have the answers as I sit here right now. I know we better do some things differently, we better approach some things differently. We’re not going to roll that ball out there like that next week.”

But putting the blame on Trubisky, or thinking changing quarterbacks will fix their issues, is being blinded by the myriad of other problems that afflict them.

While it doesn’t sound like much, the Steelers scored more than one touchdown for the second game in a row – only the second time they have done that this season.

Trubisky ran for one touchdown on a 1-yard sneak and threw for the other on his 4-yard scoring pass to Johnson. He completed 16 of 23 passes for 169 yards, but also threw two interceptions. Curiously, the first came on a deep pass to George Pickens in which safety Nick Cross came down with the type of jump ball that is supposed to be Pickens’ specialty.

“I don’t know what to say,” Trubisky said. “We scored 13 points pretty quick, and then we couldn’t get anything going after that. The inconsistency, it has to stop.”

The Steelers have three games to stop this run of poor performances. But if it’s anything like the run of unanswered points they’ve been allowing, don’t expect them to stop the downward spiral.

Gerry Dulac: gdulac@post-gazette.com and Twitter @gerrydulac