Mark Madden: With the Steelers showing familiar faults, is another collapse underway?

Whatever is happening with the Pittsburgh Steelers isn’t good.

Their 10-3 mark of a few weeks back seems like fool’s gold.

They’ve been dominated in consecutive weeks by upper-echelon teams Philadelphia and Baltimore, making it clear that the Steelers are a class below. The opposition’s physical superiority made the gap all the more discouraging: The Steelers got badly manhandled, a clear betrayal of their brand.

It feels more than a bit like 2018, ’19 and ’20. Another classic Steelers collapse under coach Mike Tomlin.

Never mind these last two losses. Good teams occasionally lose consecutive games.

But the Steelers’ momentum seems irreparably broken. They got battered.

Now they host Kansas City, 14-1 and winners of the past two Super Bowls.

That game will have a crapshoot feel to it: It’s a third game in 11 days for both teams, played on a Wednesday, injuries more probable to carry over and to occur, lack of recovery time likely to make the game sloppy and haphazard.

Kansas City has won 11 games by one score, including four of its past five. Are the Chiefs stumbling or merely laying low till the playoffs start? In either case, that’s still Patrick Mahomes at quarterback.

The Steelers need a victory at any rate and by any means.

After facing Kansas City, Cincinnati will visit. If the Steelers win out — even though there’s little reason to believe they will — they win the AFC North and get a home game for the playoffs.

If that happens, they might win a postseason contest for the first time since the 2016 season.

The Steelers could do that even if they don’t win the division but visit the right opponent in the wild-card round. At Houston wouldn’t be easy but would be doable.

But it’s not too early to think about what happens if the Steelers don’t win a playoff game for an eighth consecutive year. (Their current streak of seven is ninth longest in the NFL.)

Because all these seasons feel the same.

The Steelers are firmly implanted in the NFL’s mushy middle: not good enough to make a playoff run, not bad enough to get a franchise-altering high draft pick.

They don’t improve. Their supposedly brilliant coach doesn’t come up with game-changing wrinkles. No significant tactical adjustments. Not week-to-week, not in-game. The Steelers just show up and play like the Steelers. That’s either good enough, or it isn’t.

The Steelers pursue an outdated brand of football: defense, ball control, low-scoring, tough. Except it’s a fast, high-octane, score-fast era, and the Steelers aren’t very tough. Their defense isn’t very good, either: It didn’t get a single three-and-out at Baltimore and allowed drives of 96 and 86 yards.

The roster is significantly flawed. They traded their No. 2 wideout without a Plan B, and that spot still hasn’t been filled. Besides Cameron Heyward, their defensive line is weak. They’ve recently used plenty of draft choices on the offensive line, but that unit is still subpar. They make luxury picks such as tight end Pat Freiermuth in 2021’s second round, and his impact has been meh.

A lot of the mistakes, shortcomings and disappointments get ignored.

Tomlin is a great coach just because. The Steelers are a great organization just because. Every team wants to be the Steelers. The Steelers have yet another season at .500 or better, and all is well.

That’s the standard. It’s not the same as the old standard.

So what changes if the Steelers yet again don’t win a playoff game and lose, say, four of their last five?

Nothing whatsoever.

Tomlin will return. So will the important people in football ops.

I could be wrong. But I’m not.