Buy him a motorcycle helmet. Just in case.
The Steelers are utterly dominating this game, except that they still don’t know what to do during a kickoff return and Ben keeps giving them gifts. They are the Chiefs, for Christ sakes - it should never be this interesting.
Un-fucking-believable. The tendency to play down to the opponent continues.
Well, I did not see this coming.
This is the break down for the game, with Pittsburgh first and KC second:
First Downs 27 13
Total Yards 515 282
Passing Yards 401 214
Rushing Yards 114 68
Penalties (Yds) 8(85) 4(28)
Turnovers 3 1
Punts (AVG) 6(36) 6(39)
Time of Pos. 44:07 22:25
Final: 27 to 24, Chiefs. Fuck.
I don’t tend towards pessimism but this is disastrous. The Steelers might be the third best team in the AFC North this year. Losing to a crippled Chiefs team can not be considered acceptable for a team with playoff, much less Super Bowl, aspirations.
Wow. Our special teams did poorly, but in general just too many mistakes! How on earth could the Steelers lose to KC? 
So pissed right now. With the talent on this team, if they play mistake-free, they can beat ANYONE in the NFL. I honestly think they would be unbeatable. But in all 4 of the losses this year, (and a couple of the wins), there are just mistakes galore. Poor kickoff coverage, dropped interceptions, holding penalties, false starts, fumbles, etc, etc.
I’m somewhat optimistic given that last year’s team had a somewhat similar tendency earlier in the season to make tons of mistakes, and they ironed them out for the playoffs, but at this point, we need to worry about MAKING the playoffs. So frustrating.
Awesome!
:rolleyes:
Any NFL team can beat any other NFL team if it plays “mistake-free”. Well, except the Browns.
Pretty much every single score of the Chiefs today came from some boner moment from the Steelers.
What does that have to do with the Steelers being the most talented team in the league?
…and Michigan would have beat the suckeyes if the QB hadn’t thrown 5 INT’s.
Bengals lose to Oakland. That can’t be a bad thing for us.
The Bengals outplayed and outschemed us on defense. They won that game, the Steelers gave this one away. This game should count for two in the loss column. Even though the offense put up big numbers in the passing game today I still think that’s where the problem lies.
The offense isn’t underperforming, this is the level of talent we have. As fans we see through rose-coloured glasses but there are problems with this offense. That’s not to say they suck, but they’re not the Colts or the Saints or whomever. Ben’s a good Quarterback, possibly a great Quarterback, but he’s not the right guy to go out and win games without a running game to relieve the pressure. Part of the problem is Ben’s weak at reading zones, part of the problem is our receivers don’t get good separation on their routes. Hines Ward reads zones well but he’s not a guy who can break bracket coverage. Heath Miller has great hands but he’s not a guy who can create separation. Our line has improved immensely in pass protection, especially Willie Colon, but on running plays they don’t get a good push inside. If we had a stronger running game we could be buying some separation by prying the coverage off these guys on play-action and slants but we just don’t have the interior linemen to play that kind of game. The 400 passing yards they put up today don’t impress me because those gaudy numbers haven’t been correlating with wins. They put up those big numbers on a couple of drives each game but in the process make themselves one-dimensional by falling in love with the spread formations. They do that to try and open the inside running lanes because the o-line can’t do it on their own. This offense shows flashes of greatness but it’s not going to happen because when push comes to shove and the opposing defense spreads out to contain the perimeter we can’t force them out of it. As long as teams know they can stifle the offense by maintaining pressure in the late stages of games our “talented” offense is going to keep losing. Our early season success in late drives came against soft zone defenses. Teams have learned not to do that anymore.
As far as the other units, obviously the coverage unit is struggling too. I have no idea what the answer is there. The defense is still solid, can’t pin the blame for any of these losses on them.
Hines Ward is averaging 80 yards a game, not including today’s big game which will bump him up into the 85-87 range. Santonio Holmes is averaging 76 yards a game. Mike Wallace is averaging 50 yards a game. The problem is not your wideouts.
They’re a good group and those are nice numbers but they are still part of the reason for the high sack totals; it’s not because they’re playing poorly it’s because the offense has been forced to become one-dimensional. Ben hangs on to the ball much longer than other QBs and part of the reason is the lack of separation these guys get on hot routes. That’s not my complaint though, I like these receivers. That’s the group we have and that’s a group we can win with. I’m just saying that when the opposing defense is putting everything they have into stopping the pass this team can’t impose their will on them. The passing game is good but they aren’t at that Peyton Manning - Marvin Harrison level of being able to throw on you even when that’s what you’re geared up for stopping. With a stronger running attack teams would be forced out of that comfort zone and those wideouts would have more space to operate in. It’s not a pass first offense, it 's a pass only offense too much of the time. The reason for that is the lack of balance and if you watch the middle of the line on running plays they just aren’t getting any push. Teams are now able to blitz more effectively or keep LBs back in spy coverage, double the TE, whatever they want. The receivers are good, Ben is good, but they are, in my opinion, playing a style of offense that doesn’t suit their talents and it’s because they don’t have any choice.
This isn’t all about losing today, 24 points should be enough to win with this defense but all the talk has been of the Steelers talent and potential on offense. If you look at the skill players we have the offensive production seems like it should be much better and these are the reasons I think it has been lower than anticipated.
I’ve had a few hours to stew on this and I’m still speechless. That was a loss that never should have happened, and even though I saw it I still can’t figure out exactly where it all went wrong.
Opening kickoff.