PITTSBURGH — Five snaps into the season, things couldn’t have been going better for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Boom, DeAngelo Williams darted 18 yards. Bam, Ben Roethlisberger to Heath Miller for 14 yards. The Steelers were moving. The New England Patriots were skidding.

Then, Todd Haley allows, maybe he outsmarted himself.

Facing first-and-10 at the New England 24 in the first quarter last Thursday, the forever-aggressive offensive coordinator called a gadget play. Roethlisberger handed off to wide receiver Antonio Brown on a run/pass option. The Patriots didn’t bite and Brown was tossed for an 8-yard loss.

In a flash, the momentum had ebbed. Three plays later, it vanished completely when Josh Scobee pushed a field goal wide. By the middle of the second quarter, the Steelers were down two touchdowns and never really recovered in a 28-21 loss.

The kind the Steelers spent the offseason trying to avoid. Pittsburgh finished with the NFL’s second-ranked offense last season while winning the AFC North, piling up yards in team-record numbers. Yet the Steelers ranked only seventh in points due in part to their struggles — particularly early in the season — of turning long drives into touchdowns.

It’s an issue that again popped up against the defending Super Bowl champions. Pittsburgh was the only team in the league to have a 300-yard passer, a 100-yard rusher and a 100-yard receiver in the opening week. Good for fantasy owners. Not so much a club facing the league’s toughest schedule while playing without suspended playmakers Le’Veon Bell and Martavis Bryant.

Pittsburgh drove into New England territory seven times in nine possessions only to get two touchdowns and two field goals out of it. Hardly the outburst Haley predicted during minicamp when he said the Steelers could average 30 points a game.

“We just have to be more productive,” Haley said.