Mike Tomlin said something about Kenny Pickett last week in a Steelers.com story that jumped off my computer screen:

“He is a sick, sick competitor.”

I’ll say something about Pickett this morning:

He was just sick — period — against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

So was his offense.

The Steelers’ lopsided 30-7 loss in the season opener was another reminder that no one should put much value in the exhibition games. Pickett and the first offense were perfect in three wins against Tampa Bay, Buffalo, and Atlanta — five drives, five touchdowns. But against San Francisco, they were abysmal. They didn’t get their initial first down until the final two minutes of the second quarter. Before that drive started, they had run 15 plays and gained just 1 yard. Pickett was 5 of 9 for 9 yards with an interception. Their only touchdown — a 3-yard pass to Pat Freiermuth — came on that possession with 10 seconds left in the half after the 49ers played a prevent defense trying to extinguish the clock before halftime.

You really did have to see the ineptitude to believe it.

Tomlin blamed the loss on the 49ers doing a better job than the Steelers on “possession downs” or their equivalent, “weighty downs.” He made sure he hammered that point. He mentioned “possession downs” three times and “weighty downs” seven times during his 6 1/2 -minute post-game press briefing.

I know, I counted.

Many will blame Matt Canada for the pathetic showing. Of course, he isn’t without blame. He had no solutions against the San Francisco defense, which was best in the NFL last season on the 49ers’ way to the NFC championship game.

Others will blame the Steelers’ highly-paid yet underachieving defense, which allowed the 49ers to go touchdown, field goal, touchdown, field goal on San Francisco’s first four possessions. The 49ers ran 39 plays in the first half as they built a 20-7 halftime lead. They averaged 5.5 yards per rush for the game and finished with 188 rushing yards, 65 coming on a fabulous touchdown run by Christian McCaffrey that crushed the Steelers’ spirit on the second play of the third quarter.

It’s difficult, if not nearly impossible, to play from that far behind against a defense that good. The Steelers might as well not even have had a running game at that point. They managed just 41 rushing yards on 10 carries, 24 coming on one run by Najee Harris late in the second quarter.

But that doesn’t change the bottom line:

There was no doubt which of the two second-year quarterbacks was better in the game.

The 49ers’ Brock Purdy had it all over Pickett.

Steelers cornerback Patrick Peterson had taunted Purdy last week, saying Purdy gave away “tells’ about the plays the 49ers were going to run. Purdy didn’t just make Peterson, who promised an interception, look like a fool by beating him with a 19-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk early in the second quarter. He exposed the Steelers’ defense by throwing for 220 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. His passer rating was 111.3.

And Pickett’s rating?

I’m surprised it was as high as 68.4 after he threw two interceptions.

Pickett looked off all day. He never tried to make any plays with his legs, as he did last season when he was successful. It almost was as if he was afraid of getting hit. Remember those two concussions last season?

Pickett generally had decent pass protection, even though he ended up being sacked five times. The 49ers took away his deep ball, forcing him to throw underneath or to the sidelines. If his throws weren’t high, they were low. Or they were wide.

One play stood out:

Pickett had Freiermuth open on a 4th-and-4 play from the 49ers eight-yard line late in the third quarter, but the two failed to connect.

“Pat saw it differently than I saw it,” Pickett said. “We’ll get it right.”

Actually, one series stood out early in the second quarter in the worst possible way for the Steelers offense:

On first down, Pickett threw a pass to Jaylen Warren that resulted in a 5-yard loss. The 49ers declined a holding penalty on Chuks Okorafor on the play. On second down, Pickett was hit by defensive end Clelin Ferrell as he threw for Allen Robinson II and was lucky the ball wasn’t intercepted by linebacker Fred Warner. On third down, Isaac Seumalo was called for a false start. On third down again, Pickett was sacked by defensive end Drake Jackson.

The boos poured down on Pickett and the offense from a crowd that showed up at Acrisure Stadium expecting to see — if you swallowed the pregame hype — the Steelers take their first step toward Super Bowl LVIII.

Instead, the fans saw what was, on this otherwise gorgeous late-summer day, a lousy football team.

There is a bit of good news, if you can believe that. The loss was to an NFC opponent, so that won’t hurt the Steelers in the tiebreakers at the end of the season. The next game is much more important. It is at home next Monday night, an AFC North game against the Cleveland Browns, who stunned the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.

But you know the brutal truth as well as I do:

Nothing really feels like good news after what we saw Sunday.

“It was a failure on our part in all areas,” Tomlin said. “We got kicked in the teeth today in a lot of ways.”