Feeling the sting of a loss is bad on it’s own.

Feeling the sting of a 34-3 trouncing, the worst Steelers loss of the Mike Tomlin era, and worst defeat since 1989: wors-er than worse.

Yet, there was a sting felt even wors-est in this defeat. It wasn’t that the Steelers haven’t won in Philadelphia since the 60’s. It wasn’t dropping to 28-47-3 all-time against the Eagles, or 9-28-2 against them on the road.

It was the injuries.

Many injuries, several to key starters, were sustained during the Steelers loss. In fact, the team looked shell-shocked and out of sync at durations of the game, as they continually had to adjust.

Head Coach Mike Tomlin always exudes a “next man up” mentality in his team, but it’s difficult to keep it up when so many men were dropping like flies; though Coach will never admit it:

“From an injury standpoint we had a number of deals.

[LB Ryan] Shazier aggravated his MCL. [SS] Robert Golden had a hamstring. [LG] Roman Foster got a chest and an elbow, I don’t know which one. [RLB Lawrence] Timmons has a lower leg injury. He went to the hospital; from what I understand he is on his way back. [WR] Eli Rogers has a foot injury. [FS] Mike Mitchell has a knee injury that is being evaluated.

But those injuries aren’t the reason why we didn’t perform. We had 11 on the grass on every snap. The 11 on the grass didn’t get it done.

We accept responsibility for that.”

As mentioned, the postgame sentiment was the same throughout the Steelers locker room:

“Every year we deal with injuries, it’s one of those things where guys are going to have to step up and make plays. I’m excited for the next guy that’s going to be coming in.”

“You know here our job as players is to play football. We can’t worry about if somebody is down. You just have to play football. You have to do everything the coaches ask us to do as far as the game plan and your ability, and go out and play football.”

“That’s why you have 53 guys, injuries are part of the game and guys have to be willing to step up as well. We’re not going to make excuses, they got the job done and they should be commended for it.”

The team is correct is hinting that the loss was in fact a total team collapse. The Steelers never had a rhythm on any side of the ball for most of Sunday’s game.

None could be more true of the defense, which saw it’s biggest adjustments early, when S Robert Golden went down with what was described as a hamstring injury. The already adjusting Steelers secondary was forced to move rookie S Sean Davis from the slot corner (where he was filling in for the also injured Senquez Golson) and slide into Golden’s position. This shift brought rookie CB Artie Burns on the field, playing on the outside and pushing CB William Gay over to the slot.

Three of the Steelers four starting linebackers shuffled in and out of the game early as well. Ryan Shazier was seen leaving the field off-and-on throughout the game’s first few series, while Jarvis Jones walked off the first Eagles possession and returned, Lawrence Timmons left the field, and the stadium, to evaluate a potential shin injury.

Timmons’ loss may have been the most impactful. The longtime Steeler has the current longest active starting streak of 88 games, as well as 107 consecutive regular season games played.

Both are third-longest among NFL linebackers, so it’s easy to see how his absence placed additional pressure on backups Vince Williams (4th NFL season) and L.J. Fort (2nd NFL season). Fort, especially, is a player who was an underdog to make the 53-man roster, but beat out other hopefuls to secure a spot.

This was his first, significant, “real” game action with the Steelers.

Williams finished playing 71% of the defensive snaps, while Fort played a little over half with 51%. The dings and dents also provided OLB Anthony Chickillo with an uptick in playing time, to 28% of the snaps played on defense.

Chickillo’s unblocked rush of Eagles QB Carson Wentz was among one of the few QB pressures Pittsburgh applied during the game, as the Steelers failed to have any semblance of a pass rush, which is now a concern three games into 2016. (The Steelers were tied for 31st in the NFL, with a single sack, entering Sunday’s game.)

While the banged-up Steelers defense was unable to pressure Wentz, the Eagles defense blew up Pittsburgh’s offensive line, who also had an off day. The Eagles dropped Ben Roethlisberger for 4 sacks, and forced 2 fumbles, and an interception, in the game.

Much of the poor offensive line play came from David DeCastro, who was also partially responsible for the block of Chris Boswell‘s early field goal attempt, but the frontline also felt the injury bug bite, with Ramon Foster leaving the game for backup G B.J. Finney. In the Steelers previous two games, all 5 offensive linemen played every snap together. On Sunday, Finney filled in for 63% of Foster’s reps.

Again, the players would not make excuses for Ramon’s injury affecting their play:

“It’s no good – he’s a veteran guy.  That group, and that cohesion that they have is pretty special.  I know they’re going to beat themselves up pretty good for this, as we all will, and as we all should.  But I thought [LG] BJ [Finney] came in and did some really good things and hopefully we can get him back.”

“It’s huge. He’s a big part of the offense and does a great job of blocking. He’s a leader out there, but at the end of the day if any man goes down the next man has to step up and play just as good or better.”

Despite all of the injury woes, it was Markus Wheaton‘s return from injury which had an equal negative impact on the offensive game flow.

In his first game back this season, Wheaton dropped 3 passes, including a critical pass in the back of the endzone which fell between the 1’s on his number 11 jersey, something Markus mentioned in his postgame interview:

“I started the game off on the wrong foot. It’s frustrating, trying to get the trust back from my teammates and stuff like that. And then to go out and do that, it’s frustrating but at the end of the day, all I can do is look at the film and go from there.”

Wheaton was targeted a total of 5 times, with a lone catch for 2 yards.

Slot receiver Eli Rogers was also lost with what was described as a foot injury. Rogers ended the day with 2 receptions for 32 yards, another in a list of dismal outings from anyone not named Antonio Brown.

Yet, the luck could’ve bounced in the Steelers favor, with Rogers slipping on a key third down route in which he appeared open. The undrafted second-year player from Louisville had been a key contributor in the Steelers offense throughout the first two games.

The hope is the black cloud looming over the Steelers doesn’t stay for long. More news will come out over the course of the next few days regarding the severity of any of the injuries.

In perhaps some good among the bad news, Timmons returned to the stadium and was seen walking around the Steelers’ locker room after the game. His lower left leg was wrapped, hopefully as a precautionary measure and nothing serious.

Regardless, the Steelers will forge ahead with their backup plans in place. With a full week of practice to work inexperienced plays such as Finney, Burns, Davis and Fort into their proper roles, the team should be more prepared if any of the aforementioned starters are a scratch from this week’s Sunday Night Football contest with the Kansas City Chiefs.