For the second straight year, the Pittsburgh Steelers had just three points at halftime, and their slow offensive starts are becoming a major problem as they have now lost two games in a row following a 20-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 5.

“I wish I could tell you,” TE Pat Freiermuth said via audio provided by the team’s media department when asked why the offense is starting slow. “We have to find out quickly. We’re in October, November, late stages, big games and things like that. So we have to find out.

“On the first drive we moved the ball. But we have to stop doing stupid things. I think on the next drive we had offside positions, two of them or something like that, and there were certainly manageable situations where we could have gotten the first pass and kept the drive going. So we have to stop kicking ourselves before we can move on.”

Pittsburgh had no penalties on its second drive, but QB Justin Fields fumbled after Linval Joseph ran through OG Isaac Seumalo for a sack that put the Steelers in a 3rd-and-24 situation.

It was Pittsburgh’s third drive in which the team was blamed for two false starts, and that simply can’t happen, especially not at home. The mistakes and penalties compound Pittsburgh’s other problems on offense and make it really difficult for the offense to get into a rhythm

There are just too many mistakes offensively at the start of games, and the Steelers weren’t aggressive when it came to calling plays at the start. On their first drive, they seemed content to play for the field goal, going 2nd-and-10 from the Dallas 30 and going 3rd-and-8 again on the next play. The conservative play hurt the Steelers later in the game when they need points, and if they had gone for the touchdown instead of the field goal, the end result might have been different.

The Steelers don’t have talented playmakers all over the field on offense that would make it easy for them to catch up and make up for their slow starts. Their best receiver is George Pickens, who had a very quiet day with three receptions for 26 yards and only one reception on two scores in the first half. He also played just 34 of 57 snaps against the Cowboys.

The Steelers need to try to get Pickens more involved early, but he also needs to assert himself when the opportunity arises, as he had a crucial third-down drop on a ball he should have caught.

It goes without saying that Freiermuth is right when he says the slow starts are an issue the Steelers need to address quickly. If not, things could continue to go south as Pittsburgh tries to stay in contention in the AFC.