Bah humbug.
What a disaster that Christmas Day performance from the Pittsburgh Steelers was, resulting in an ugly 29-10 loss to Kansas City, the Chiefs locking up the AFC’s No. 1 seed in the process.
Even with the return of key pieces on both sides of the ball after missing them in recent weeks due to injuries, the reinforcements didn’t help much as the Steelers looked overmatched and outcoached all game on both sides of the football. It certainly didn’t help that there were communication issues defensively that led to guys being wide open, and pre-snap penalties that hindered the Steelers on offense.
Three losses in a row, and now a mini-bye week to try and regroup. Boy, do the Steelers need it.
Let’s get to some grades.
QB — D
The loss to the Chiefs isn’t entirely on Russell Wilson, but he wasn’t good enough once again, throwing a killer interception in the red zone on a ball that should have never been thrown to Pat Freiermuth. The look was never there, and it was crucial turnover.
It wasn’t just the turnovers, either. Wilson was sacked five times, and at least two were on him for holding the football too long. Wilson did make some nice plays on the afternoon, throwing a dime to George Pickens for a 41-yard gain in the first half. He also threw a great back-shoulder ball to Pat Freiermuth on a Steelers scoring drive.
He also made plays with his legs, too, rushing for 55 yards and a touchdown on six carries, including a long scramble of 15 yards, though that came in garbage time. But there just wasn’t much in the passing game as the Steelers struggled to generate much, even with the return of Pickens.
RB — B+
Things looked pretty good initially for Najee Harris, who came out with a noticeable burst and had a nice 10-yard run early in the game. But after that, Harris slowed down and the Steelers turned to Jaylen Warren.
Warren had a huge game, rushing for a career-high 71 yards on 11 carries. He added five receptions for 41 yards and really had impressive burst, giving the Steelers great energy when he was in the game. He had an early 22-yard run that sparked the Steelers right after Pickens’ 41-yard catch, and he should have had a touchdown on the day, but it was wiped out due to a holding penalty.
Warren handled the majority of the workload after that, though Harris closed the game with a couple of long runs in garbage time. He finished with 74 yards on 13 carries, eclipsing 1,000 yards on the season for the fourth straight year.
WR — C
It was nice to see George Pickens back in the fold, and he had the explosive play early, hauling in a 41-yarder over Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie. But after that, Pickens had just two catches for 9 yards, finishing with three receptions for 50 yards. He did have an 18-yarder wiped out due to a pre-snap penalty, but it was a relatively quiet day for Pickens, and he showed his frustration late in the game, too.
Calvin Austin III had a nice 15-yard reception to convert a 3rd and 14, but he finished with just four receptions for 31 yards and wasn’t utilized much after the big play. Mike Williams was targeted twice and didn’t have a reception. He appeared to make a great leaping grab down the sideline late in the first half before replay assist overruled it.
Van Jefferson saw one target and didn’t have a reception, while Scotty Miller’s illegal-shift penalty with under 10 seconds left caused the 10-second run-off to occur, ending the game and summing things up perfectly in the ugly loss.
TE — D+
One week after not being utilized as much as he should have been, Pat Freiermuth got a lot of work on Christmas Day, finishing with a team-high seven receptions on eight targets for 60 yards. He was a weapon in the middle of the field, but he had a killer fumble with the Steelers trying to get back into the game. That set up the Chiefs’ final touchdown to put things away.
Darnell Washington’s holding penalty wiped out a Jaylen Warren touchdown, and on the next play Russell Wilson threw his killer interception. He also had one reception for eight yards in the loss.
Connor Heyward had one reception for eight yards, too, but had a big offensive offsides penalty on Pickens’ 18-yard catch in the fourth quarter. It negated a first down, all but ending the Steelers’ drive. Far too many killer mistakes to outweigh the good in the receiving game.
OL — D-
If running the ball was the only thing that mattered, the offensive line would be sitting pretty here with the grades as the Steelers ran for 202 yards and a touchdown. Granted, 55 of those were on scrambles from Wilson, but Warren ran the ball very well in the first half, and Harris started the game strong.
Some of Harris’ success came in garbage time, but in the first half in a close game, Warren and the run game were impressive.
Where the offensive line was a mess was in pass protection. Broderick Jones had a really rough day, allowing two sacks, while Dan Moore Jr. was beat for a sack and had a whiffed block in space on a screen that was brutal. Also, Zach Frazier didn’t snap the ball in time on a false start late in the game that led to some frustration, too.
It’s a young OL and there are growing pains, but Christmas Day was a mess.
DL — B-
The Steelers’ defensive line played the run well, limiting the Chiefs to just 69 yards rushing on 20 carries. They did give up a key rushing touchdown to Chiefs’ RB Kareem Hunt in the second half that seemingly put the game away.
I thought the Steelers controlled the line of scrimmage pretty well against the run, especially Cameron Heyward and Larry Ogunjobi, who combined for seven tackles. They also ran to the ball as usual, too, with Heyward having a big hit on Xavier Worthy in space and Ogunjobi tracking down Travis Kelce.
Keeanu Benton flashed at times as a pass rusher and held his own against the run. But the problem is, there wasn’t much consistent pressure from the group, and with the Chiefs leaning heavily on the quick passing game, it largely negated the big men up front.
LB — C-
Alex Highsmith had a really strong game, generating quite a bit of pressure on the day. Unfortunately, he wasn’t rewarded as Mahomes is one of the toughest QBs to get on the ground. Highsmith finished with four tackles and had a critical pass breakup in coverage in the red zone.
T.J. Watt had three tackles, one tackle for loss and drew a key holding call in the game. He also had a key batted pass that should have been intercepted, but outside of that he wasn’t as consistently impactful as one would have liked against Jawaan Taylor.
Inside, Patrick Queen had seven tackles and played the run well, but he had a huge dropped interception that could have helped swing the game in favor of the Steelers. Payton Wilson had four tackles and Elandon Roberts had three tackles. Wilson had some nice coverage against Travis Kelce in the red zone.
DB — D-
What a mess.
Miscommunication in coverage was once again prevalant and rather infuriating. Too many guys were running wide open leading to easy completions from Mahomes. You don’t need to give a guy like that extra help.
Donte Jackson made his return and was beat deep immediately, looking like he was running in sand. He ended up with four tackles, but the big shot loomed large as the Chiefs went down and scored.
James Pierre had some nice plays in coverage, making a good play one-on-one against DeAndre Hopkins to break up a pass. I thought Minkah Fitzpatrick was all over the place, making plays and coming downhill to make big sticks on crossing routes. He tied Queen with a team-high seven tackles and showed up in a positive way. However, he was beat in the flat on Xavier Worthy’s opening touchdown, which simply can’t happen. Ugly play.
DeShon Elliott wasn’t as impactful as I was hoping in the game in his return, but he had four tackles and it wasn’t a coincidence the Steelers tackled much better on Wednesday than they had in recent weeks.
Cameron Sutton continues to be a zero for the Steelers. Sure, it’s great he can line up and play multiple positions, but it seems like he’s the main culprit lately for some of the communication issues and is just getting beat over and over again in coverage.
Special Teams — B-
Chris Boswell drilled his only field goal attempt of the game and now sits at 40 field goals made on the season, just a few away from setting an NFL record. Sure would be nice to see him get that in the season finale.
Corliss Waitman had some success against the Chiefs, averaging 44.5 yards on four punts. He had a long of 58 yards on the day, but his coverage units didn’t help him out much. However, they did have a huge forced fumble on the first punt return of the game after Mark Robinson’s big hit on Nikko Remigio.
The Steelers couldn’t recover it though.
There were issues on kick returns, too, as Remigio had a 31-yard return to open the second half. He also had a 25-yard punt return and helped give the Chiefs some good field position.
