INDIANAPOLIS — Justin Fields stood by himself in the far corner of the visitors' locker room on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium, his pads and uniform still on, a clear look of frustration following the Pittsburgh Steelers' first loss of the season plastered across his face.

A few feet to Fields' right, Najee Harris bristled when I asked how he thought the quarterback handled himself as the Steelers tried furiously to complete a comeback before ultimately falling a field goal short to the Colts, 27-24.

"Y'all keep putting it on one person," Harris said. "It's the whole team, all 11 of us. Y'all keep making it about one player. You say Justin like he's the one throwing, catching and running.

"What did we do? I saw us all fight."

It's a fair point by Harris — and appropriate when dissecting one of the biggest storylines to come out of this one. The Steelers stubbed their toe for myriad reasons, but Fields shouldn't pay for it with his starting job.

Regardless of where Russell Wilson (calf) stands health-wise, I'm sticking with Fields after he completed 22-of-34 passes for 312 yards (104.0 rating) and three total touchdowns (one passing, two rushing).

No, Fields wasn't perfect. His mishandling of a snap from Zach Frazier on the Steelers' final drive was the last and most painful gut-punch of the afternoon. Fields also fumbled following a sack by Colts cornerback Chris Lammons in the third quarter.

The turnovers were part of an effort Steelers coach Mike Tomlin described as "sloppy," and it felt worse than that when the Steelers fell into a 17-0 hole at 12:31 of the second quarter thanks to a horrible start.

How bad was it?

The Colts marched 70 yards on eight plays on their first drive — touchdown. Their second, 86 yards on nine plays — another score. In between, Tomlin curiously chose field position over a 58-yard field goal.

Another odd decision followed, as they tried a Fields run out of shotgun on fourth-and-1 that came up short. On Pittsburgh's third drive, Fields misfired on third down to Pat Freiermuth, and one of the game's biggest mistakes ended the Steelers' fourth drive.

Fields completed a pass to George Pickens for 10 yards. But the wide receiver fumbled at the 5, an inexcusable play and huge momentum swing.

"We were just generally not as sharp as we need to be in order to function with the level of fluidity that allows a comfortable victory to take place," Tomlin said.

To put that another way, and more to the point Harris was making: It's not just one guy. And I'm certainly not excusing Tomlin, who seemed to get the Steelers' annual letdown out of the way this year.

The Steelers, for one reason or another, weren't ready to play.

Perhaps they took the Colts, 1-2 prior to Sunday and missing a bunch of regulars, lightly. Let's hope not. But it sure felt that way early, when Indianapolis kept ripping off chunk plays.

On the first two drives alone, the Colts rattled off seven that went for at least 10 yards, including passes to Michael Pittman Jr. for 32 and 28 yards.

And to think, the Steelers rolled in here with the top-ranked defense and a group that had done an excellent job of keeping a lid on things through three weeks.

"We weren't playing team football or together like we usually do," safety DeShon Elliott said. "I don't care what anybody says. We beat ourselves. We're a better defense than that."

The mistakes and disappearing acts were everywhere, honestly. So much so that I'm willing to chalk this up to the annual clunker, the frustrating no-show, the eminently avoidable letdown.

A few more:

— The Steelers failing to adjust quickly or adequately to the statue that is Joe Flacco when he replaced starting quarterback Anthony Richardson for good on the Colts' third drive.

— The Steelers closing to 17-10 on a 5-yard touchdown run from Fields in the third quarter ... only to turn around and allow a 10-play, 70-yard drive that ended with Flacco finding backup tight end Drew Ogletree with nobody around for an easy 15-yard score.

— Joey Porter Jr. failing to reel in what appeared to be a surefire interception in the corner of the end zone, the drive resulting in a Colts field goal and 17-0 lead.

— A costly missed tackle by Steelers cornerback Donte Jackson on a third-down play in the fourth quarter, allowing the Colts to pick up three more points.

— Third downs in general, as the Steelers — the best in the NFL at just 22% of conversations allowed through three weeks — allowed the Colts to make 8 of 15 (53.3%), including all three on the drive that ended with Ogletree's touchdown.

"We had opportunities to make plays on the ball," Fitzpatrick said. "We didn't make 'em. They took advantage of that."

What transpired here Sunday should offer valuable perspective, too.

The 3-0 start had everyone out way too far over our skis, talking about the Steelers being the third-best team in the AFC and operating as though a 4-0 start was inevitable.

The defense afforded that optimism, we seemingly thought, while forgetting that this is the NFL's hallmark, the fact that anybody can beat anybody ... and any team can step on rakes on any given Sunday.

That felt like what we watched here more than anything, not some idea that the Steelers will regularly start allowing 133 rushing yards, spotting teams three scores or seeing lines like T.J. Watt finishing with two assisted tackles and nothing else.

In other words, this wasn't the lackluster sort of performance that should necessitate a quarterback change.

Fields, who showed plenty of guts rallying the Steelers back and delivering a couple serious dimes to Pickens in the second half, must start against the Cowboys.

It allows more time for Wilson to get his calf right, if it's needed at this point. But it also sends the message that the Steelers aren't going to overreact to one poor performance, especially when it clearly wasn't one player's fault.

"I do like how the offense fought back," Fields said. "We do know we were shooting ourselves in the foot. We need to work on that, work on not hurting ourselves and get off to a faster start.

"I have to be better. We have to be better as a whole. We have to come back next week and bounce back."

Among other observations:

— Some horrible officiating in this one. Colts defensive end Isaiah Land was called for roughing the passer after sacking Fields on the Steelers' first drive. Gimme a break. It was a hard hit, a football play, and he didn't go for Fields' head.

The flip side: A whistle should've blown when Cam Heyward had Flacco in the grasp late in the third quarter. Are we over-protecting quarterbacks or not?

— Minkah Fitzpatrick's unnecessary roughness penalty late in the third quarter on a pass to Colts wide receiver Adonai Mitchell was equally as absurd, and it had Fitzpatrick pretty steamed afterward.

"I thought we were playing football," Fitzpatrick said. "I don't know what we're playing at this point. It's a different game than what I grew up playing and loving."

— My favorite play in this one might've been Darnell Washington leaping over a defender for a 20-yard gain on Pittsburgh's fourth drive. Don't see too many big men move like that.

— Also a clutch punt return (30 yards) by Calvin Austin III when the Steelers stopped the Colts on their first drive of the second half. Shame they couldn't do anything with it.

— Injuries are piling up. With Jaylen Warren already out, the Steelers lost their No. 3 running back/do-everything guy Cordarrelle Patterson with an ankle injury. Also, James Daniels left with the same thing, further stressing the offensive line. Good time for Isaac Seumalo (pectoral) to come back.

— So many Steelers fans here, the same as Atlanta and Denver. At least 50% in all three road cities.

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