PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin isn’t about to blame his team’s lethargic 18-13 loss to the New York Giants in the preseason opener on the calendar.

Tomlin knows the Steelers haven’t played a game in nearly eight months. He also doesn’t care. The way he figures it, committing seven penalties Saturday night, enduring couple of Keystone Kops moments on special teams and generating little offense has little to do with rust.

“Sometimes it can be characterized as part of August football but I’m not buying that,” Tomlin said. “I think that we can set the bar higher than that for the first time out, you would like to think. But we didn’t tonight, so we need to make those corrections.”

There is plenty to correct. Pittsburgh brought in Danny Smith hoping the passionate special teams coach could spruce up a ho-hum unit. It might take awhile. The first-team punting unit allowed New York’s Damontre Moore to come in untouched and block Drew Butler’s kick.

Wide receiver/punt returner David Gilreath’s night was even worse. He unwisely fielded a punt inside the Pittsburgh 5 early in the third quarter and went nowhere. An illegal block on the brief return pushed the Steelers back to their own 3. Not exactly the spot rookie quarterback Landry Jones wanted to take his first NFL snap. He botched a handoff in the end zone and fell on the ball for a safety.

Gilreath’s night didn’t get any better when he let a punt later in the quarter clang off his facemask and into the hands off New York’s Tyler Stash recovered.