For as bad as the loss was on Sunday for the Pittsburgh Steelers, there were a number of key moments that could’ve turned the game’s tide in their favor.

Reviewing game film, I came up with six such instances, which I’ll further elaborate on below.

4th-and-12-PIT 19 (1st – 14:22)

The Steelers offense immediately went 3-and-out to start the game: never a good sign.

Punter Jordan Berry boots this ball 39 yards, a directional play intended to keep the ball out of the hands of Chiefs dynamic return man Tyreek Hill, but it instead stays inbounds and is fielded by the up man, De’Anthony Thomas, who has nothing but a wide-open running lane to work with.

That’s because Cameron Sutton, playing the outside coverage, was already pushed off of the field of play. (He’s on the ground, out of view, just above Thomas in the top-left gold box.)

On the ground in view is Roosevelt Nix, who misses a tackle, leaving absolutely no one else with an opportunity to make a play, other than punter Jordan Berry (bottom right).

Thomas returns the play for 31 yards when Sutton recovers, and forces a fumble that magically pops right back into Thomas’ arms five yards down the field for another 12-yard gain: a total of 48 yards for a negative play that puts the Chiefs on the Pittsburgh 10, when the Steelers offense had started at their own 19! (KC scores two plays later.)

4th-and-5-PIT 44 (1st – 5:09)

Already trailing 14-0, the Steelers put together a respectable 9-play, 58-yard drive but Ben Roethlisberger overthrows a wide-open James Washington on third down and Pittsburgh brings out the usually reliable Chris Boswell for a 49-yard field goal attempt.

Boz went 9-of-10 of his field goal attempts between 40-49 yards in 2017 and made all four of such attempts from a distance of 50 yards or greater. However, he’d miss his second attempt of 40-plus this season, giving the Chiefs excellent field position at their own 39.

Those three points would’ve been huge had things worked out differently as the game wore on.

3rd-and-10-PIT 19 (1st – 0:54)

Following another quick score from the Chiefs that put the Steelers in a 21-0 hole, they caught a break when this strip sack of Big Ben, which would’ve resulted in another touchdown for Kansas City, was nullified by a defensive holding penalty on Chiefs CB Orlando Scandrick.

The Steelers would drive down the field and score, making that penalty a 14-point swing.

3rd-and-3-PIT 32 (3rd – 1:57)

Somehow, maybe miraculously, the Steelers tied the game at 21-all before halftime.

The comeback bid soured some when the Chiefs received the ball to start the second half and drove the distance of the field in five plays to go up seven. The Steelers answered with a touchdown of their own, as the game turned into a shootout.

KC would score yet again to go up 35-28 and now it was the Steelers turn to answer. They would start at their own 25 and wind up in a third-and-short situation. There was no reason to believe the offense wouldn’t continue putting up points following four straight touchdown drives, but Roethlisberger misses his intended target: a wide-open Ryan Switzer.

They ensuing punt would only travel 33 yards, setting the Chiefs up for yet another score on a drive that would see the Steelers defense penalized on four of the next five plays, following the minute and a half break from the offense’s three-and-out.

3rd-and-1-KC 1 (4th – 2:46)

If there’s one play I’d love to take back, given how the day has gone and all of the other poor plays, it’s this one.

Trailing 42-28, the Steelers defense forced a safety and then a fumble (and recovery) to help aide the offense. They didn’t do anything on the safety play, but were gifted great field position to continue their comeback attempt.

Now on the 1-yard line with all three timeouts remaining, all they had to do was punch the ball into the end zone. Unfortunately, the play which develops doesn’t get the job done.

The Steelers overload one side of the line and clear both receivers to the right. This left James Conner uncovered, but Roethlisberger opts to toss the ball short to JuJu Smith-Schuster, who is immediately stuffed for a loss of two yards.

I’m not sure if Ben waits a second here and would have JuJu open across the goal line, or if he thought the angle to throw to Conner was too tight of a window, but those were the only two options after also sending Antonio Brown into motion across this formation.

Not only did the loss of yards sting, but the clock ticked and wasted an additional opportunity to stop it at the two-minute warning; when the Chiefs would’ve had possession had the Steelers scored here.

1st-and-10-KC 25 (4th – 1:59)

Following the two-minute warning which hit as the Steelers kicked off following Roethlisberger’s touchdown run, everyone in the building was prepared for run plays to chew clock and force Pittsburgh to burn their remaining timeouts.

What happened next was totally unacceptable: a 9-yard gain by Chiefs RB Kareem Hunt.

The defense was completely blown apart here. The Steelers used a timeout here and again following a Kansas City first down. By the time the Chiefs were forced to punt on fourth down, the clock only had 12 seconds remaining in the game.

Had the Steelers made a 3-and-out stop here, or scored earlier in the play above, they may have had at least an extra half minute to operate with. Alas, a penalty on the punt here eliminated any chance of getting the ball back into the offense’s hands, with the game finishing in a 42-37 defeat.