The Pittsburgh Steelers are entering their final challenge at the end of this 11-day, three-game gauntlet of elite, Super Bowl-caliber teams. According to win-loss records, this is their greatest challenge yet against the 14-1 Kansas City Chiefs, who are atop the entire NFL. But there seems to be a notion that the Chiefs are a very beatable team.
Mike Tomlin was asked Sunday about the Chiefs appearing to be less dominant as in previous years and he quickly dismissed that talk.
“I don’t know how dominant they need to be. They’re 14-1,” Tomlin said during his weekly press conference via the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “This is the ultimate parity league. Often these games come down to one scores and the good teams find a way to get outta stadiums and they usually find a way to get outta stadiums with great consistency, and they’ve done that.
“They’re 14-1. They’re two-time defending world champs. I see ’em in that regard and I’m preparing with that edge.”
The Chiefs have been in 10 one-score games this seasob and have a perfect 10-0 record in those games. There have been a few pretty dramatic finishes where the Chiefs snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Five of those 10 games were by a margin of three points or less. That is what’s led to the perception that they are a much more beatable team than your typical 14-1 squad.
At the end of the day, they still have Patrick Mahomes at quarterback, and they still have Andy Reid as their head coach. With that combination, they are always going to be a threat to make a deep playoff run. The Chiefs are the back-to-back defending Super Bowl champions. They have a decent chance of extending that to the first-ever three-peat of the Super Bowl era.
The Chiefs stumbled into the playoffs in 2023 and then caught fire to win it all. They are absolutely capable of doing something similar this year.
What the Steelers do have going for them is the fact that they are hosting this game after a brutal 11-day stretch for both teams. The attrition component has caught up to both teams with multiple key injuries to monitor. It seems that there’s a decent chance of the Steelers getting WR George Pickens, CB Donte Jackson, S DeShon Elliott, DL Larry Ogunjobi and others back after missing some time. Getting some of those fresh legs back could provide a timely boost.
If the Steelers want to make a deep playoff run, that would likely involve traveling to Kansas City at some point. They first need to prove they can do it at home. Tomlin is not taking the Chiefs lightly and preparing with the appropriate edge that a 14-1 team deserves.
