Anatomy of a Touchdown
Special Edition Part 1:
Breaking Down the
Pittsburgh Steelers
Jason Seibel
With the Pittsburgh Steelers coming to Kansas City on Sunday, many are looking to the teams’ earlier meeting during Week Four on Sunday Night Football for some indication of how the Divisional Round game may play out. But, if you ask Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin, it doesn’t matter in the least bit. Hell, if you ask Steelers’ linebacker James Harrison, he wasn’t even sure the Steelers had played the Kansas City Chiefs this season.
Trust me, Big Jimmy — can I call you Big Jimmy? — it’s a game most of us have tried to forget as well.
But, they did play, and even though there have been changes to both teams, the venue is different and the stakes are certainly different, I thought I would take one for the team and go back and watch that horrendous Chiefs’ performance — so you don’t have to — in order to see exactly what went wrong in the 43-14 drubbing.
Today, I’ll break down each offensive and defensive drive of the first half, commenting and adding pictures where I see fit. Then tomorrow in part two, I’ll break down the second half, and at the end, I’ll try to give a prescription for a win in the Divisional Round for the Chiefs. As I go through the tape and put it down in words, I will also point out key players from both teams who will not be playing this Sunday for whatever reason. Strap in, because this is going to be quite the ride.
First Offensive Drive
The biggest difference from the start was the fact that running back Knile Davis was returning kicks for the Chiefs instead of wide receiver Tyreek Hill. While this changed later in the first half, Davis was the primary kick returner at the beginning of the game.
On the first drive, both Davis and De’Anthony Thomas were back deep and there was a fake handoff play that could have gone for a huge gainer, if Davis would have given up the ball. I’d like to see this used later on in the playoffs. I’m sure special teams coordinator Dave Toub has something up his sleeve.
Quarterback Alex Smith started out very crisp with the offense, picking up back-to-back first downs with solid throws to Jeremy Maclin and Chris Conley. However, the drive started to stall when Smith had a swing pass to Jamaal Charles (IR) — in his first game of the season — fall to the turf right in front of him.
The very next play was one of those “cute” Andy Reid plays where they tried to move the pocket by rolling Smith out to the left. That’s where it started going downhill. Defensive lineman Cameron Hayward (now on IR) made Chiefs’ right guard Zach Fulton look like a Pop Warner player.
After a couple of more plays, the drive — which started out promising — came to end with Smith being flushed out of the pocket and throwing the ball away on third down.
First Defensive Drive (First Quarter)
After a fantastic Dustin Colquitt punt — aren’t they all fantastic? — the Steelers set up their drive at their own five-yard line. However, on the first play from scrimmage Roethlisberger did what he does so well, and ran a play-action pass that went to Sammie Coates up the right sideline for 47 yards. Marcus Peters was defending on the play and simply got beat.
The thing about this play was, Peters was in a position to make a play on the ball because it was under thrown. If he would have gotten this head turned around quicker, he could have potentially made the pick and turned this game around from the beginning.
An item of concern going into Sunday’s game is who will cover Le’Veon Bell out of the backfield. During this game, it was Derrick Johnson (IR) but now will be up to Ramik Wilson and potentially Justin March-Lillard who made a good move inside on this drive and made a tackle-for-loss.
Another positive on this drive was that, even without Justin Houston, the Chiefs were able to get some push on the pocket, to include a Dee Ford sack. I think adding a rested and healthy Houston to this formula could yield huge results.
After the huge pass play, the drive was ended by a Steelers’ holding penalty and the Ford sack. This led to a Jordan Berry punt which set the Chiefs’ offense up at their 24-yard line.
Second Offense Drive (First Quarter)
The Chiefs second drive ended almost as quickly as it started. The first play was an inside handoff to Spencer Ware who plunged up the middle. However, defensive end Stephon Tuitt punched the ball loose and caused Ware to drop his third ball in four games. This was very unusual because Ware didn’t fumble the ball in college. Of note, Ware has only lost one fumble in the 12 games since this night.
This turnover set up the Steelers’ offense on the Chiefs’ 32-yard line, in prime position to score.
Second Defensive Drive (First Quarter)
Again on the defensive side of the ball, the Chiefs showed some moxie in the running game. The first play was a quick little shovel pass to Bell with some misdirection that the Chiefs sniffed out and stopped for a minimal gain. The second play showed some serious discipline by Kansas City’s defenders, at it was a double reverse from Big Ben, to Bell to Coates. The Chiefs didn’t let the Steelers’ wide receiver even make it back to the original line of scrimmage.
Then this happened.
This is very clearly a broken coverage. There is not a single Chief defender within five yards of Steelers’ wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey.
Breaking down the All-22 film, it’s easy to see that the broken coverage came down to Derrick Johnson and safety Eric Berry. I’ll break it down, so we can all see where the breakdown occurs.
As the play began, the Chiefs were in a two-safety high set. Eric Berry was playing “centerfield” and trying to second guess where Roethlisberger would go with the ball. As Heyward-Bey came out of the slot, Derrick Johnson initially picked him up in coverage. But, as DJ was manning the middle zone of the Cover-2, he passed Heyward-Bey off, as he moved out of his zone. Johnson was expecting that Berry would pick up Heyward-Bey in coverage. However as we can see, Berry was already moving to bracket Coates in coverage.
By the time Berry realized his mistake, it was too late, and Heyward-Bey was walking into the end zone with the Steelers’ first touchdown of the day.
To add insult to injury, Tomlin went for two and hit wide receiver Markus Wheaton (IR) in the middle of three Chiefs defenders, making the score 8-0.
Third Offensive Drive (First Quarter)
As the next drive began, the Chiefs picked up a couple of quick first downs with runs from Ware and Charles and then a quick outside pass to Hill. However, the Chiefs quickly committed their second turnover of the game when Smith threw an interception.
The play was designed as a screen to Ware, where he was supposed to leak out to the left, and Smith would hit him. In looking at the All-22, had it worked, it would have been a “big gainer” as there was a lot of green on the other side of the field.
However, as Ware tried to make his way through the “trash” of the offensive and defensive linemen, he was hit by Heyward, throwing off the timing of the play. To add insult to injury, Heyward then tipped the ball in the air, which was then caught by linebacker Jarvis Jones and returned to the four-yard line.
While this interception wasn’t strictly on Smith, he should have made a bit better decision, when he saw the play wasn’t developing as intended.
Third Defensive Drive (First Quarter)
On the ensuing play, it didn’t take long for the Steelers to take advantage of the turnover. Roethlisberger calmly hit his favorite target, wide receiver Antonio Brown and made the score 14-0 without the extra point.
While it was a short field, safety Ron Parker on one of the best three wide receivers in the NFL is a mismatch every time. This was a bad defensive set. Now, I’m not saying that this was the reason the touchdown was scored, but it definitely didn’t help on this play.
After the extra point, the score was 15-0 in favor of the Steelers with five minutes still remaining in the first quarter.
Fourth Offensive Drive (First Quarter)
On the ensuing kickoff, Davis tried to get cute and ended up setting up the Chiefs in the shadow of their own end zone by running backward.
After a couple of runs, Smith got a first-down by hitting tight end Demetrius Harris and then wide receiver Chris Conley before a Hill sweep was sniffed out and blown up linebacker Lawrence Timmons. An incomplete pass and false start penalty later, and the Chiefs were punting the ball back to the high-powered — and fired up — Steelers.
By the way, never mind the comment I made earlier about Colquitt’s kicks always being fantastic. This punt was terrible, only traveling 23 yards down the field.
Fourth Defensive Drive (First Quarter)
After a short Bell run up the middle, Roethlisberger launched his third big pass — and second long touchdown — of the quarter, hitting Brown for a 38-yard touchdown.
Defensive Coordinator Bob Sutton will have a tough job on Sunday. On this touchdown, he puts CB2 Steven Nelson on an island with Brown in one-on-one coverage. Brown runs a simple post route, and simply beats Nelson on the play. Combine that with a perfect throw from Ben, and it was another touchdown for the Steelers.
After another extra point, the Steelers led the Chiefs by a score of 22-0 with just over a minute remaining in the first quarter.
Fifth Offensive Drive (First Quarter)
After two turnovers, a sack and several QB hurries, Smith started getting anxious in the pocket. It showed in his presence and his throws. He missed Ware high on a throw into the flat and then overthrew him on a wheel route out of the backfield. It was a quick three-and-out for a struggling Chiefs offense.
Fifth Defensive Drive (First Quarter into the Second Quarter)
Despite a long pass play of 18 yards from Ben to Brown, the Chiefs defense tightened up a bit on this drive. The stand was punctuated with a sack by defensive lineman Jaye Howard (IR).
After two penalties–holding and a false start–the Steelers were backed up to their 12-yard line, making it third-and-29 to go. A quick desperation play to Bell only netted 14 yards and the Steelers were forced to punt.
Which brings us to, what should have been, the first Tyreek Hill punt return touchdown of the season. I’ll break this down for you. Briefly.
As Hill began his cut back to sweep around to the opposite side of the field, one of the Steelers gunners began to dive at the Chiefs returner. As that player begins to go to the ground, the Chiefs’ Harris goes to the ground as well. This drew not one, but two flags from officials for an illegal block in the back.
I find the call to be a bit chincy, because the Steelers player was already going to the ground. He was already going to miss the tackle because of Hill’s speed and therefore: if Harris actually even made contact, it didn’t affect the outcome of the play.
But what do I know?
The penalty brought the touchdown back to the Chiefs’ 18-yard line which is where Smith and the office tried to get some momentum going.
Sixth Offensive Drive (Second Quarter)
The Chiefs tried to mix some hard-nosed running with a couple of quick passes–which is the bread and butter of their offense–and had a little success. But ultimately, Smith threw a pass too high for receiver Albert Wilson to haul in, and the Chiefs were forced to punt.
Again.
Sixth Defensive Driver (Second Quarter)
The Steelers’ rushing offense makes me nervous. It made me nervous before this game and it makes me nervous going into Sunday. Bell is on a whole other level when it comes to his patience waiting for blocks to set up in front of him.
The flip side of that is, it sets up the play action which Big Ben used quite a bit during this drive. The nail in the coffin in the first half, though, was driving down to the Chiefs’ nine-yard line and then finding tight end Jesse James — who the Steelers fans still continue to call “Heath” after retired tight end Heath Miller – -in the end zone for a nice back shoulder pitch and catch.
James lined up tight on the line and then once the ball was snapped ran a fade route straight to the back corner of the end zone.
As James made his way to the back of the end zone, safety Daniel Sorenson failed to pick him up, which allowed him to create a bit of separation. Roethlisberger immediately recognized this and started his throw before his tight end even finished his route.
The back shoulder throw was perfect and placed where only James could grab it. In addition, Roethlisberger did a fantastic job looking off Chiefs safety Ron Parker who was also in coverage, keeping him in the middle of the field long enough to make sure it would be a positive play.
This was the fourth Ben Roethlisberger touchdown throw in the first quarter, and after the extra point, the Steelers’ lead was extend to 29-0 with :44 remaining in the first half.
Seventh Offensive Drive (Second Quarter)
After a touchback on the kick, the Chiefs took over at the 25-yard line and put together a nice little drive with their two-minute offense.
One thing of note, it was with 40 seconds remaining in the first half before Smith targeted tight end Travis Kelce. Kelce caught the pass for a nine-yard gain. A couple more passes to Maclin — which were plays designed to get the Chiefs’ No. 1 receiver open — put Kansas City in field goal position with eight seconds remaining.
However, in the pouring rain and after a high snap kicker Cairo Santos was unable to convert, and any momentum the Chiefs may have had moving into the locker room at half-time was lost.
First Half Thoughts
This was the worst half of football the Kansas City Chiefs played all season. Nothing worked.
Their offensive gameplay was in shambles after the first turn-over. After nearly 21-years in the military, there is a saying that goes “no plan survives first contact with the enemy.” It essentially means you can plan everything until your heart’s content, but when the bullets start flying, that all goes out the window and a certain amount of making stuff up on the fly has to happen.
That saying is just as true in football. When things started going horribly wrong for the Chiefs, some adjustments had to be made.
On the opposite side of the ball, the defense was completely overmatched. The Chiefs’ defensive backs were completely unable to defend the Big Ben long ball and that led to several “explosive” plays, many of which were converted into points. The fact that the defense had to defend a short field on multiple occasions because of turnovers or special teams gaffes didn’t help.
All in all, in the first half of this game, the Chiefs were outplayed and out coached.
Check back tomorrow for the second half of this game, and my thoughts on how I think this all translates into what the Chiefs will have to do on Sunday to beat the Steelers. Thanks for reading and Go Chiefs!
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