When you’re playing a top-five offense, especially when that offense put up 36 points on you just a few weeks ago, it’s understandable that there might be a certain priority toward making sure that the defense doesn’t allow the same thing to happen twice.
And that is the situation the Pittsburgh Steelers are in today against the Kansas City Chiefs, who ranked fourth in scoring this year, averaging 28.2 points per game. They put up 36, as mentioned, against the Steelers when they played just a few weeks ago, and that was with them on cruise control for most of the second half. It was 14-0 after one quarter, 23-0 by halftime, and 30-0 by the time the Steelers’ offense did anything.
“It’s pretty obvious that once the offense gets up in the game by 14, 21 points, whatever it is, that they can pretty much do whatever they want to do”, outside linebacker T.J. Watt said of how the last meeting against the Chiefs went, quickly snowballing out of hand. “Specifically, run the ball, drain the clock, all that stuff, limit the opportunities for splash plays, which is what we specifically in Pittsburgh thrive on”.
The Chiefs opened the game with an eight-minute touchdown drive after forcing the Steelers to punt on their opening possession. An interception from Ben Roethlisberger gave them a short field on possession two, getting into the end zone again in just over a minute. Another five-minute drive followed that ended in a field goal, followed by another touchdown. 23 points on four drives, with about 250 yards of offense. Short fields, turnovers, or no, Watt understands the onus is on the defense to make plays.
“It’s difficult, but a lot of the times, it’s on us for not stopping the offense, getting those three-and-outs, getting off the field”, he said. “The best defenses spend a lot of time on the bench, and so it starts with getting off the field and not having the sustained drives that they were able to have, specifically early in the game, against them the first time”.
The Chiefs had about a 2-to-1 time of possession ratio in the first half. They only forced two three-and-outs all game, and one was at the end of the game with Kansas City’s starters out. They recorded at least three first downs on eight of their 10 ‘meaningful’ possessions in the game, and one of the other two began on the Steelers’ 31-yard line and ended in a missed field goal.
