The Pittsburgh Steelers started their 2021 season by beating the Buffalo Bills 23-16. In the fifth game of the 2022 season, Buffalo beat Pittsburgh 38-3 on Sunday, inflicting a fourth consecutive loss on the Steelers.

“Largely, we were a disaster in all three phases,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin said about the defeat by the Bills.

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The Steelers had a new starting quarterback on Sunday in an attempt to spark the offense. But after four games of Mitch Trubisky and one game of Kenny Pickett as the No. 1 QB, Pittsburgh ranks 30th in points, 28th in yards, 23rd in passing yards and 29th in rushing yards among the NFL’s 32 teams in 2022.

The lack of production for the Steelers extends to running back Najee Harris, a Pro Bowler last season when he set Pittsburgh’s rookie rushing record with 1,200 yards but coming off an 11-carry, 20-yard performance against Buffalo.

Given the Steelers’ many letdowns this season, Tomlin said it’s hard to pin Pittsburgh’s problems on the former Alabama All-American.

“He missed some time in team development and that may be a component of him finding or not finding rhythm,” Tomlin said on Tuesday. “But probably it’s just reflective of kind of where we are. It’s tough to analyze individual components of something when things unfolded, particularly last Sunday, the way that they unfolded from a collective perspective.”

Last season, Harris had 307 yards and two touchdowns on 78 rushing attempts and 198 yards and one touchdown on 28 receptions after five games.

This season, Harris has 222 yards and one touchdown on 69 carries and 64 yards and one touchdown on 13 receptions.

A foot injury caused Harris to miss two weeks of work at training camp in August, and he left Pittsburgh’s 23-20 overtime victory against the Cincinnati Bengals in the season-opener because of another foot injury.

Harris played 980 offensive snaps as a rookie — 170 more snaps (or 21 percent more) than any other running back in the NFL. Harris was on the field for 84 percent of Pittsburgh’s offensive snaps.

With 381 touches (rushing attempts plus receptions), Harris became the first rookie to lead the NFL in that statistic since 2001, when LaDainian Tomlinson had 398 for the San Diego Chargers.

This year, Harris has played 69 percent of the Steelers’ offensive snaps, and he has about five fewer touches per game than he did at his point in 2021.

Tomlin said the increased use of undrafted rookie Jaylen Warren at running back and the inability of Pittsburgh’s offense to sustain possessions figured in the changes in Harris’ stats.

An undrafted rookie, Warren played one more offensive snap than Harris on Sunday, when he ran for 24 yards on five carries and caught four passes for 39 yards.

“We’ve been playing Jaylen increasingly anyway, and I think that’s going to continue,” Tomlin said. “I think he’s proven that he’s a capable varsity player, and we need plays from all parties involved. And so, that has transpired and will continue to transpire.

“I think if you’re talking about touches and rhythm and things of that nature, you win weighty downs, you win possession downs and that allows you possession of the ball and to continue to snap it and that creates more opportunities for everyone, whether it’s the run game, whether it’s targets from a receiving standpoint, whether it’s running-back rhythm, whether it’s things that supplement core plays, play-action, etc. The winning of possession downs aids all of those discussions because it produces more downs.”

Pittsburgh has three more games before it reaches its open date for 2022. The Steelers will try to turn their season around over the next three weeks against teams faring better than they have so far.

Pittsburgh hosts the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, visits the Miami Dolphins for the Week 7 Sunday night game on Oct. 23 and visits the Philadelphia Eagles, the NFL’s only undefeated team, on Oct. 30.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.