3 Steelers most to blame for deflating Week 1 loss to 49ers

Mike Tomlin didn't bring a prepared team into Week 1 vs 49ers

When you lose your Week 1 game by only scoring seven points, it's hard to blame anyone other than the head coach. Week 1 is the game you have the longest time to prepare for. It's been on the calendar since May, and while preseason is the preparation for the whole season, it should really first and foremost be the preparation for Week 1 to get early momentum going.

How your team plays in Week 1 is a great indicator of how well they responded to what messages you hammered home in training camp and preseason.

The stats and scoring -- which I've beaten to death in this article already -- speak for themselves, but also consider that the sideline was in turmoil:

This is drama you'd like to see from your team if they're battling late in the season for a playoff spot. When stakes are high, even teammates can get out of sync with one another.

But in Week 1? This looks more like a team in disarray than anything else.

Circling back to our first point on Matt Canada, those issues roll up to Tomlin as well. It was Tomlin's decision to keep his coaching staff largely the same, and it's a gamble that clearly hasn't paid off. While Tomlin might have felt there was something for him to salvage with his current team, Week 1 has all but proven otherwise.

When he made the decision, he also gave an incredibly weak explanation as to why. That would be OK if the team came out firing on all cylinders. But in retrospect, it just looks like a lack of accountability.

Tommy Jaggi pointed out in January that Tomlin had to shoulder the blame for Canada after opting to keep him employed in Pittsburgh. True then. Even truer now.