PITTSBURGH – Details, details, details.

That word was repeated over and over in the Giants’ locker room after their 26-18 loss to the Steelers on Monday night at Acrisure Stadium.

It was a loser’s lament, and it came from all corners of the loser’s locker room.

The Giants exceeded their goals for most of Monday night, but in the end they messed up the little things and it cost them.

Details, details.

The only detail that matters, however, is this: 2-6.

That’s the Giants’ record at the halfway point of this season, which is entering the dreaded phase of irrelevance.

Sure, the Giants went into the game with a great plan to keep the Steelers’ vaunted defense from eating Daniel Jones alive, a week after he was sacked seven times and scored twice as often as he did in the crushing loss to the Eagles.

Sure, rookie running back Tyrone Tracy had a career night with 145 yards and a TD. Sure, receiver Darius Slayton was a dynamic deep threat who caught four passes for 108 yards.

Despite the odds against the favored Steelers at home, the Giants delivered a tough, well-coached, uncompromising and cunning performance.

The Steelers entered the game with a 5-2 record, while the Giants were 2-5, and had won 21 straight Monday Night Football home games since 1991.

The giants?

They arrived in Pittsburgh with life support and Jones, an endangered species.

The odds were stacked against the Giants that night. And yet in the final three minutes, they had the ball in Pittsburgh territory twice, trailed by eight points, had a chance to tie the game, and turned the ball over twice.

Details, details.

On third down, Steelers edge TJ Watt accidentally rushed one-on-one with right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor and dusted him to sack Jones, forcing a fumble and recovering it.

The Giants got the ball back for one last attempt and were again at the Pittsburgh 45-yard line when Jones brought down running back Devin Singletary and the ball into the arms of Steelers cornerback Beanie Bishop Jr. with 42 seconds left. sailed.

“I brought him down,” Jones said.

The Giants allowed a 73-yard punt return for a touchdown to Pittsburgh’s Calvin Austin III in the third quarter, ending a 9-9 halftime tie. Austin weaved his way around the Giants’ coverage team for a total of 116 yards.

“I’m a little frustrated because we’re a good team and we beat ourselves every week,” Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence said.

“It’s very frustrating,” Jones said. “We got hurt a lot tonight and that’s the most frustrating thing about it. We need to go into more detail, starting with me. “Some of the good things that have happened have been undone by mistakes.”

Daboll praised his team, but could only do so much.

“I thought we did a lot of different things well, but not enough,” Daboll said. “I was proud of the way they fought for 60 minutes. We knew this was a difficult place. “There were a lot of good things… but not enough of them.”

Slayton said: “The most disappointing thing was that they were a really good football team and we had them right there at the end.”

Perhaps the worst detail missed that night came when rookie first-round pick Malik Nabers was called for an illegal motion that negated a Jones TD pass to tight end Chris Manhertz.

It was one of the Giants’ numerous pre-snap penalties that kept setting them back.

“Details,” Slayton said. “We have to be better positioned. We need to conserve our water better. “That’s what killed us.”

The details killed her.

“I need to go into more detail,” Nabers said. “I had a lot of mistakes when I was out there. I have to focus on the details. “Details win football games.”

Nobody said it better.

There was no giving up for the Giants. So admire that if you want.

The depressing thing is that they just weren’t good enough. Again.

Narrow defeats against favored opponents at the end of the day are just losses in the overall standings. And the Giants have too many of them.

Again.