ALTOONA, Pa. -- The season came to a halting end for the Steelers in their 42-21 loss to the Chiefs Sunday night, a game that was largely disappointing both on the field and in the coaching booth.
Wide receiver Diontae Johnson was one of the many disappointments with a number of drops, but he was far from alone in that regard. Though, on the field it seems as if something could have been different based on what the players saw on the field and not the coaches.
"We will see certain stuff out there ... and we just felt like certain stuff wasn't going our way at times, but at the end of the day, we can just do what the coaches tell us to do," Johnson said in a meeting with the media Monday. "Although we talk amongst each other about what we see out there, certain things weren't going our way like certain play calls. Just wasn't getting what we wanted to get the offense going. And like I said, we could just do what we were told to do."
Coaches and players see the field differently as a result of different vantage points, from the booth to field level.
"They know what plays to call that work and what don't work, so we can only control what we can control," Johnson said. "I want to just pinpoint little things about the offense. I mean we've shown we can be explosive, but obviously, we got to be consistent at times, every time actually."
The consistency, or lack thereof, plagued the Steelers throughout the season and especially against the Chiefs. That inconsistency led to the lack of success on offense, and while there were some flashes of explosion and competence offensively, it just wasn't enough.
"We showed flashes we can be consistent, but know you got to keep doing that throughout the season," Johnson said. "That's all we pretty much did, just show flashes, but we could have been better. But at the end of the day, I feel like we are a great team all the way up."
How the Steelers fix the issues with playcalling and the inconsistencies within the offense remain to be seen, but it's likely to be a new-look offense next season.
More from Johnson's availability
• On life without Ben Roethlisberger: "It's going to be different, obviously. Whoever they bring in, obviously, got to get that connection down right away. It's going to take time, but eventually that's gonna come together and you're going see in the games where we got the connection down and whatnot, but it's just starting over. Whoever they bring in, we gone work."
• On Mason Rudolph: "Mason is a great player, great quarterback. He's smart. Playing with him my rookie year, he's shown that he can win us games. In those tough moments, too, he can make plays, he's relaxed. At times when you were on the sideline this year, he was always on it, telling us what to look for, what coverages they mostly were in and just throwing out plays we could beat certain coverages with. He's a great player and I'm sure he's going to work his tail off to compete for the starting job, and I'm pulling for him."
• On a contract extension: "That would be a blessing to get an extension. Just all the hard work I put in over the past three seasons now. If I get an extension, I'm going be excited. I want to be in Pittsburgh for the rest of my career, but I'll just see what happens right now."
• On his relationship with his fellow receivers: "We talked about that a lot during the season, about this might be our last time being together. We've played with each other for a few couple years, just being able to know each other, bond with each other, knowing how each other plays. It's going to be different if they don't come back next year. We still got that friendship, and you just used to being around certain people for quite a while, you know. But like I said, I wish them boys the best no matter what, if they here or they on a different team, I'm still pulling for them and want nothing but success regardless. And whoever they bring in for quarterback, we just going to work and try to get to the Super Bowl."
