Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin held a press conference following Sunday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Here’s a breakdown of of the coach’s comments about the game.

Opening statement

Disappointing performance. Just not good enough really in all three phases. Not enough detail. Not enough big play making or execution, winning those one on one downs, and we didn’t play penalty-free enough.

I thought penalties were an issue early on for us offensively in terms of stopping us the first three or so possessions of the game because we got behind the chains because of penalties. And I thought penalties were a factor in us defensively in the second half in terms of minimizing our opportunity on possession downs and even losing some of those possessions downs because of penalties.

We were not playing well enough to have that occur. Not good enough today. We compliment Kansas City. They had a good plan, they had good execution of that plan, they played well.

We got a lot of work to do. It’s a good thing we got an additional day this week. We’ll take advantage of it, analyze this performance and get ready for our next one. Some bumps and bruises associated with play, but nothing significant from an injury standpoint to mention.

Re: Could you have done more with the secondary to get more help?

We just didn’t cover well enough. We didn’t rush well enough. It is always collective when they are making plays in the passing game. We didn’t get after them.

Why not onside kick with two minutes left?

I wanted to give ourselves a chance to stop them. We were holding all three timeouts. We didn’t do it effectively enough to create enough time for our offense to function.

Re: Ben Roethlisberger was off in the beginning of the game:

We were behind the chains. We were getting penalties. We got a block in the back, we got a holding. When that puts you at first-and-20 or second-and-20 that’s what the early portions of the game were about for us offensively.

Were you happy with the time management on your last scoring drive?

I’m happy with it. I wanted to maintain the three timeouts to give ourselves a chance to stop them. Ben is good in no huddle. They were trying to switch people.

I thought we would minimize some of the stuff we seen from them, but it didn’t pan out because they got a first down when they got the ball back. So we didn’t allow it to develop into the ways in which we were hoping.

Was it the same thinking you were hoping with the punt?

Certainly. Nine and change left in the game. Less than a two-touchdown game. Wanted to give ourselves a chance.

What do you have to do to cleanup special teams and are you concerned about Chris Boswell?

We are not playing well in the kicking game. We missed a couple kicks here in recent weeks. We are not punting with varsity-like consistency, so we got some work ahead of us and we’ll get started here in preparation for our next performance.

What was the problem with the offense?

Again, like I mentioned we got behind the chains early in the game and that is what was stopping those drives. I think we had a first-and-20, I think we had a second-and-20.

You’re going to end up punting when you’re in those circumstances and that’s what was stopping us in the early portions of the game and you just can’t afford to start slow, especially when they have a dangerous return man.

We had a penalty. We are started slow, they got a big punt return. We didn’t work to minimize his impact on the game in the ways that we envisioned.

Was Ben Roethlisberger limited by his elbow?

Not to my knowledge, no. I didn’t think he had any physical limits.

Are these games going to be the norm now with all of the rule changes?

I’m not trying to paint with a broad brush. I don’t know what’s going on outside of the stadiums that we are in from that perspective. Really, I am just trying to put together a solid, consistent, winning performance with this group and that is where our focus needs to be.