Kansas City’s Rainbow
and Pot of Gold:
Why They’ll Whip Pittsburgh
Laddie Morse
There’s a rainbow of possible reasons why the Kansas City Chiefs will beat the Pittsburgh Steelers this Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. Let’s stick our hands right into the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow and see what we get.
“New and Improved”… Coverage
If the Chiefs come out and play a stiff man-to-man game in the defensive backfield, like they have all season, it should mean a win. With the Steelers touting one of the best WRs in the game — Antonio Brown — DC Bob Sutton will be mixing things up by hiding and providing a variety double-team coverages for Brown and Roethlisberger to deal with. Also, there’s no reason to think the Chiefs defensive backfield can’t cover all their other wideouts in single coverage.
The Chiefs DBs have improved since their first meeting on Oct. 2. Steven Nelson has matured and gotten better while D.J. White will not be the first man up in coverage across from All-Pro Marcus Peters. Talking about Peters, he’s also taken his game to another level. He stopped taking such a high number of risks — many of which net him interceptions, but on the other hand allows receivers to get past him and make plays like Darius Heyward-Bey did to secure the Steelers first score in their first meeting — now, Peters does a great job of holding down his side of the field.
Marcus Peters faced 7 of the Top 10 receivers this year (by receiving yds), including Antonio Brown. He did not allow a TD to any.#PITvsKC
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) January 12, 2017
Newcomer Terrance Mitchell has become a reliable force on the other side. ProFootballFocus rated Mitchell the best at his position — out of all the DBs in the league — during week 15 vs. the Titans. Here’s what PFF had to say about Mitchell that week:
“Terrance Mitchell allowed just one catch for 4 yards on the seven passes thrown into his coverage, and he broke up two of the incompletions. Marcus Mariota had a passer rating of 39.6 when throwing the ball in his direction, or the exact same passer rating as he would have recorded by just throwing the ball at random people in the crowd.”
The Steelers group of WRs is no better than the Broncos or the Falcons corps and the Chiefs secondary held each of those groups to exactly the same number of yards in their last visit, 183. Personally, I can’t wait to watch the matchup of the Chiefs DBs and the Steelers WRs. It’s going to be a completely different ballgame.
Pounding Roethlisberger
The Chiefs three primary pass rushers are all as healthy as they’ve been all season. If the Chiefs defense can produce consistent pressure on the Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger the Steelers will be in trouble. The Chiefs pass-rush should be better than ever for a few reasons:
1) Justin Houston is back and if he performs like he did the last time he “came back” everyone in Arrowhead will be ecstatic,
2) Tamba Hali has been thoroughly tenderized and rested and should be his vintage best,
3) Dee Ford will not be pressured to be “the one” to make a play. He played like a Pro Bowler during the middle part of the season and if he plays up to that level on Sunday, Ben Roethlisberger should find himself eating dirt sandwiches… which will match the old dirt that’s already on his face.
The BBDB Run Defense
If the Chiefs run defense shows up like it did in a handful of other games this year, they’ll win. The Chiefs held the Raiders #6 rushing attack to less than 100 yards per game in 2016. The Texans were ranked 8th in rushing this year and the Chiefs held them to less than 100 yards as well. The Colts Frank Gore had a one-thousand-yard season again this year (his 9th 1,000-yard rushing season) but the Chiefs defense held him to 37 yards. The Chiefs hold when they have to and possess what we’re calling a BBDB (bend-but-don’t-break) defense. While they ranked 26th in run defense, they’ve also ranked 5th in the number of TDs (10) they’ve given up rushing. If the Chiefs defense makes Pittsburgh’s running game look average, it will be a victory for DC Bob Sutton the Chiefs… and that seems doable.
Run Alex Run
If Alex Smith uses his legs and is able to play like he didn’t just come out of the concussion protocol, then the Chiefs will be fine. In Smith’s first three seasons with the Chiefs he averaged nearly 400 yards per season (391) but this year that number took a nosedive to 134. Some have speculated that the reason is that Andy Reid and new co-offensive coordinators, Matt Nagy and Brad Childress, have wanted Alex to stay in the pocket longer and go through more of his reads for 2016. When that didn’t work out as planned they asked him to get the ball out of his hand faster which has meant picking an open primary receiver and then ripping it. Multiple telecasts have featured the “2.25” seconds Alex is holding the ball this year which is so fast that defensive linemen can hardly grab the lineman in front of them before the ball is already completed and moving downfield in the opposite direction. Since Alex went down in the Indianapolis game and sat out the next game vs. Jacksonville as he was going through the concussion protocol, he’s made progress that’s led to some runs like he used to make.
Chipping Off the Old Block
I remember when I was in high school and our team was so good when I was a sophomore that we beat out main rival 63-to-28. The very next year, our rival had a star player, were they loaded for bear and returned the drubbing. Chips on shoulders don’t fade away. Players who were beat 43-to-14 in the last game they played… don’t readily forget to even-the-score the next time they match up against that opponent.
The Steelers Head Coach has called the Chiefs the ”nameless-gray-faces.” He does this with each team they face to try and take the personal aspect out of it but when LB James Harrison said he couldn’t even recall playing the Chiefs this year, you have to think the Chiefs do remember… and take that as a bit of an insult. That kind of comment can cause some extra motivation in player whether they admit it or not.
Rounding the Corners
Revelation: The Pittsburgh Steelers defensive backfield (#16) is not as good as the Denver Broncos defensive backfield (#1). Sometimes… I just love stating the obvious. Alex Smith threw for 432 yards 2TDs and an INT in two games against the Broncos. It’s logical to expect a better result against the Steelers DBs especially since Alex plays better in the playoffs than the regular season. It’s not just the Pitt DBs who will take a beating because Travis Kelce should be able to make their LBs look dazed and confused. Yes, Lawrence Timmons is pretty good in coverage but I would not expect their egotistically motivated LBs to admit a weakness in any area which will be part of their Achilles heel because that’s what their defensive backfield is… a weakness. And, there’s no way Andy Reid leaves that weakness untested. One way the Chiefs, and Alex Smith, will exploit the Steelers is by throwing… well, the Beatles said it best…
Here, making each day of the year,
Changing my life with a wave of [his] hand,
Nobody can deny that there’s something there,
Here, there, and everywhere.”
Distractions Shouldn’t Be Taking Center Stage
I highly doubt that the possible loss of John Dorsey has had any effect on the Chiefs locker room. The Chiefs have shown over the past two seasons that they have an unshakable group of men who aren’t easily drawn off focus. You’d have to be surprised to find out that this has happened.
There you have it… a rainbow of reasons for Chiefs fans to be happy come Sunday afternoon. Let the rainbows shine. Go Chiefs!
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