EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- All that was missing yesterday was one more glimpse of Bobby Shaw's Superman T-shirt.
If Shaw had flashed the world after his late, meaningless touchdown, as he did in a lopsided loss last season, this lame Steelers' performance would have been complete.
It would have been a total embarrassment.
"This was a playoff game for us and we came out and stunk up the joint," safety Lee Flowers said after the New York Giants turned out the lights on the Steelers' season, 30-10.
"I'm standing on the sideline late in the game [because of a sprained left knee] with tears in my eyes. Guys asked me, 'Lee, your knee hurt that bad?' I said, 'No, man, aren't you watching? We're getting our butts kicked out there.' "
Flowers wasn't the only one who felt like crying.
If you sat through it or watched on television, you did, too.
"It was our worst effort of the season," Bill Cowher said.
If he and the players weren't embarrassed, they should have been.
Equipment manager Rodgers Freyvogel might have been the only guy on the Steelers' sideline who didn't have a rotten day.
No one saw this coming. How could you after the Steelers had played so well to beat the Oakland Raiders a week earlier to climb back into the playoff picture? No one could have imagined they would come out so flat, so not ready to play.
The Giants' Omar Stoutmire returned the opening kickoff 47 yards. On the Steelers' first two kickoff returns, Donnel Thompson and Ainsley Battles were penalized for an illegal block and holding.
And those might have been the highlights for the Steelers' special teams.
Kris Brown missed field goal tries of 36 and 44 yards. His miss from 36 could have pulled the Steelers within 13-6 early in the third quarter.
"It's deflating when that happens," Cowher said.
"I have no words for how I feel," Brown said. "I feel terrible. I feel like I cost us the game."
Every player on the defense could say the same thing. They allowed the Giants to convert 9 of 14 third downs. We're not talking about third-and-1s or third-and-2s. Five conversions came when the Giants needed at least 6 yards.
It's not as if the Steelers' defense didn't try to break up that remarkable game of pitch-and-catch played by quarterback Kerry Collins and wide receiver Amani Toomer. It just was powerless to do it. Collins looked like he did when he led that marvelous Penn State offense in 1994, throwing for 333 yards and two touchdowns. Toomer had nine catches for 136 yards and a touchdown.
"We couldn't stop them," Flowers said.
The Steelers' offense had no such heroes. Jerome Bettis had no place to run, getting 39 measly yards on 17 carries. Kordell Stewart wasn't nearly as sharp as he was in the two previous games. Of his 224 passing yards, 120 came in the fourth quarter after the Giants had built a 23-3 lead. Shaw dropped two long passes that might have made a game of it. Maybe that's why we didn't get his silly Superman routine after his 5-yard touchdown catch with 1:04 left.
Be thankful for small favors.
How do you like this three-play sequence from early in the fourth quarter? On second-and-goal from the New York 2, Bettis ran for no gain. On third down, Stewart was sacked. On fourth down, he threw an interception in the end zone.
Game, set, match.
The Steelers converted only 5 of 13 third downs. Courtney Hawkins had a 7-yard catch on third-and-9, Hines Ward a 5-yard catch on third-and-9, Hawkins a catch for no gain on third-and-7. It went like that all afternoon. It almost was if the Steelers weren't trying to make first downs.
Don't you just love those 5-yard passes on third-and-9?
Cowher and his coaches were no better than the players for reasons beyond the team being unprepared. Stewart took a delay of game penalty and had to waste two timeouts because the plays were late coming in from the sideline.
From every angle, this game was a nightmare.
It's one thing to lose to a better team. There's no shame in that.
It's something else to not show up mentally or physically, especially with so much on the line. That's disgraceful.
"We let a lot of people down today," Flowers said.
No one more than themselves.
Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.
Cook: This loss brings tears to your eyes 
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