CHICAGO — Even the always-optimistic Calvin Austin III didn't want to discuss the Pittsburgh Steelers' 31-28 loss Sunday to the Chicago Bears. He just felt as if he had nothing positive to say after the Steelers let another one get away.

It's their fourth loss in six games since pounding the Cleveland Browns made them 4-1. At that point, their record and place in the NFL standings indicated they were among the AFC's best. But now it looks more like they're headed for a same-old, same-old kind of season, one in which they manage a couple of good wins, pluck the low-hanging fruit in the early portion of the schedule, and show a little improvement that's not nearly enough to hang with the real contenders.

Perhaps that's putting too much stock into a three-point loss on the road against an opponent that's now 8-3. But at 6-5, frustration was palpable in a Steelers locker room that resembled that of a team that's losing steam rather than gaining momentum as the season nears December.

A couple of weeks ago, it was Mike Tomlin brusquely dismissing a question about the performance of Aaron Rodgers. This time it was veteran defensive back Jalen Ramsey walking off when asked if it feels at all like this season is slipping away from them.

"Come on, bro," Ramsey said. "I'm not ... "

Answering that, presumably. But what is the answer? Ramsey could've said no and taken the tack of Mason Rudolph, who put on a good face and assured the outside world the Steelers "have the right stuff to ready the ship and bounce back." Or he could've echoed T.J. Watt — a franchise cornerstone without a postseason win here, let alone a Super Bowl ring like the one Ramsey nabbed with the Rams — who bit off each word as he declared they have a lot of things to fix and must fix them quickly.

Tomlin kept his cool and will tell you there's not much to see here. It's just the NFL, the life they've chosen, and when two good teams meet the game can go either way, turning on any play.

But maybe the Steelers are better off when their players decline to comment or turn their postgame interviews into a root canal. Because linebacker Patrick Queen's remarks were problematic in their own sense.

How did the Bears manage to get so many receivers wide open? Queen appeared to literally suck his teeth as he thought about how to respond. But he didn't quite bite his tongue.

"I think we've just got to be better, honestly. I think sometimes it was schematic issues that we had," Queen said. "It's kind of hard for two guys as underneath defenders to try to guard two routes that's overhanging off the hashes and stuff. As much as you know it, you're trying to play the run, you're trying to get back to the bang or whatever it is; it's hard to do that. It's kind of a bad spot to be in. But at the end of the day, we've just got to be better, try to recognize it and get back."

That's the full explanation from Queen so that no one is misquoted here. And it's a lot of football jargon, but you don't have to be a defensive expert to know there's a certain group of Steelers employees whose job it is to handle the schematics and make sure they don't put players in "a bad spot to be in."

The coaches.

A follow-up to Queen was whether all those X's and O's he laid out could've been adjusted during the game.

"Yes," Queen nodded. "Yeah."

If Queen is correct, the Steelers — led by Tomlin and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin on that side of the ball — were outwitted by Bears play-caller Ben Johnson, a first-year head coach at any level who rose to prominence by being an offensive wizard the past three years with the Lions.

If Mason Rudolph is correct — that the Steelers have the solutions they need in-house ---they'll need to be a much different team than the one that collapsed last December. Sure, they aren't exactly the same on paper, but the coaching staff hasn't changed much, and now they face ghosts of playoff past in back-to-back weeks, the Bills and Ravens.

"We've got some good teams coming up, and it's going to show us where we're at," Queen said. "We can prove to the world who we are or we can fold."

That's the problem right there. Over the past month and a half, the Steelers might just be making it clear precisely who they are — again.

The fourth quarter Sunday was an encouraging sign that the Steelers aren't out of fight. They rallied but just couldn't overcome the hole they had dug for themselves. It's more that the big picture is beginning to take that familiar shape of a long-running soap opera with recycled storylines and many of the longtime characters involved.

"We can learn from this, but the hourglass is going and the sand is falling through," captain Cam Heyward said. "There's not a lot of time for mistakes."

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