PITTSBURGH — The Giants once again showed a national television audience what they do best. When the lights come on, they wilt. When things get tough, they capitulate. When the final tally is added up, they have lost.

So it went on another fruitless and at times embarrassing “Monday Night Football” showcase for a team that is growing tiresome in its inability to get out of its own way.

This time, they were in it until a third-quarter meltdown and then flirted with a comeback before succumbing to their sad identity, allowing the Steelers to beat them, 26-18, at Acrisure Stadium.

The offense was a penalty-laden mess, new starting left tackle Chris Hubbard did not exactly build a wall, second-year cornerback Deonte Banks got benched after yet another bad-look deal on the field and Daniel Jones, showing more emotion than usual, once again could not get his team across the goal line more than once.

“Yeah, it’s frustrating, for sure,” Jones said. “Very frustrating. We hurt ourselves a lot and that’s the most frustrating part about it. We’ve got to be more detailed, starting with me. Some of the good stuff that happened was negated by the mistakes.”

The Giants (2-6) remain alone in last place in the NFC East after their third consecutive defeat. This time, they did bust out with a few big plays — pass completions of 43 and 39 yards to Darius Slayton, a 45-yard touchdown run by rookie running back Tyrone Tracy — but too many missteps led to not enough points.

It got ugly when Banks, the 2023 first-round pick, was benched in the second quarter after head coach Brian Daboll grew irate after Banks failed to bring down running back Najee Harris right in front of the Giants’ bench.

The Giants were hanging in, tied 9-9 at halftime and battling on defense into the third quarter, getting no help from an offense that was struggling under the heat of the Steelers rush.

A tug-of-war affair was tilted toward the Steelers when Calvin Austin took a punt by Matt Haack and made the Giants look silly on a 73-yard return for a touchdown. Four players — Nick McCloud, Bryce Ford-Wheaton, Patrick Johnson and Darius Muasau — had a shot at Austin and all four came up empty. That put the Steelers up 16-9.

After a feeble three-and-out on offense, the Giants on defense finally caved in, as Russell Wilson lobbed one of his moon balls to Austin, who beat rookie Dru Phillips for a 29-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

The Giants were in a 23-13 hole, but before the dirt was shoveled completely over them, Tracy scored to make it 23-15 with 11:07 left. That was promising.

The ensuing two-point conversion attempt was clown-like. The Giants wanted a quick pass to Malik Nabers on the left side, with a wall of blockers lined up in front of him. At the snap, no one on the blocking line moved, allowing Alex Highsmith to race in untouched to nail

Nabers as the ball came his way. Apparently, Devin Singletary was checking with the officials to see if he was lined up correctly and that caused a chain non-reaction. Jones saw that mental gaffe and threw his arms up in disgust.

“It was frustration that we didn’t execute it,” Jones said.

“It was just ‘Let’s get our butts set,’ ” Daboll said. “I appreciate that. I liked that about him. It’s good to see him do that.”

Greg Joseph’s fourth field goal pulled the Giants within 26-18 with 5:06 to go. One play later, Micah McFadden forced a fumble from Russell Wilson that Bobby Okereke recovered on the Pittsburgh 37-yard line. The Giants had a chance. But not for long.

T.J. Watt sped around Jermaine Eluemunor to nail Jones for a sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery to give the ball back to the Steelers with 2:29 remaining.

Jones blamed himself for the strip-sack. He was surveying the coverage and forgot to alert rookie tight end Theo Johnson to shift to motion over to help Eluemunor with Watt with a chip-block.

“That’s my fault,” Jones said.

“DJ feels terrible … I know he’s going to own it,” Daboll said. “He came up here to say he owned it.”

The Giants got the ball back a final time on their 7-yard line with 1:53 to go. They got to the Steelers’ 35-yard line before Jones’ pass sailed and was intercepted by Beanie Bishop Jr. with 34 seconds to go.

The Giants continued their ineptitude on this night of the week, losing for the ninth time in their last 10 games playing under the spotlight on Monday night.

Jones is 1-15 in games played in prime time. He is akin to a vehicle venturing out in the evening without headlights.

Nose tackle Dexter Lawrence during the game admonished his teammates and afterward said, “We have to show more passion, as a team, as leaders, whoever.”

At this point, nothing is working for the Giants the way they want and need it to. They have lost five of their first seven games for the second straight season.

“It’s not fun,” Daboll said. “I believe we do things right. Unfortunately, the results aren’t what we want them to be.”