There was an air of nervousness entering the game as Steelers fans were still mentally coming to grips with what happened last week in Philadelphia. It’s amazing what 60 minutes of football can do to completely change the perspective. The skies opened up and it started pouring right before the teams took the field. Kevin Greene delivered some insane locker room speech. Le’Veon Bell got a good pop from the crowd coming out for his first game back. Then came Ben. Ever since Hines Ward retired Ben has had the honor of being the last guy out of the tunnel on offense. In that time, I’ve never seen him come out like he did on Sunday Night. He was freaking JACKED. He charged out of the tunnel and lit a fire under the team, the crowd, and the city. The tone was set, and the Steelers delivered.

First Quarter

The Steelers won the toss and deferred, giving the defense a shot at redemption from last week. Alex Smith hit two passes down the middle of the field to get across midfield, but Cam Heyward took over from there. The Chiefs tried to roll Smith out and Heyward just bowled through a gap, grabbed Smith with one hand and threw him to the ground for a real, legit, honest-to-goodness sack. Boom. The defense held from there and forced a punt.

Ben came right out and showed he wasn’t afraid of Marcus Peters, bombing one to Sammie Coates right over Peters’ head on the first play for nearly 50 yards down the right sideline. Haley moved Le’Veon around in the formation and the offense moved into field goal range thanks to an offsides penalty, but a holding penalty and a sack ended the drive.

On the Chiefs first play they tried to run Spencer Ware up the middle, who has been successful in Jamaal Charles’ absence, but also fumbled twice in three games. Make that three times in four games as Stephon Tuitt whacked his arm and the ball popped free with Ross Cockrell on the spot to fall on the fumble.

It looked like the offense was going to stall out to a field goal attempt but Kansas City forgot to cover DHB coming across the field and Ben hit him wide open for a 31-yard score.

Wanting to send a message and keep the foot on the gas, the offense stayed out for the two point conversion. Ben surveyed the field and finally found Wheaton cutting through the middle of the end zone for the conversion.

8-0

The Chiefs picked up one first down, but then Cam struck again. Smith tried to dump a pass out to a running back and Cam got a hand up and deflected the pass, which ricocheted up into the air and fell into the hands of Jarvis Jones who rumbled down the sideline before being tackled by Alex Smith inside the 5.

On the next play, Ben hit AB on a shallow cross underneath for another score.

15-0

For some unknown reason, Knile Davis thought it would be a good idea to run kickoffs out of the end zone in this game. He tried to cut one across the field and DHB complemented his touchdown catch with a huge tackle to bring Davis down at the 2. Bringing that ball out cost the Chiefs 23 yards of field position. Smith completed a few passes but the Chiefs never even got out to the 25 where they would have been if Davis had taken a knee. They tried an end around to a diminuitive wide receiver and Timmons hit the dude so hard he literally flew about 10 yards through the air. We’ll be seeing that shot on Renegade videos for years to come.

A shanked punt set up the Steelers again in Chiefs territory. On the second play, Ben went deep for AB and Brown made a leaping grab over a defensive back in the end zone for the score.

22-0

Brown got flagged for excessive celebration for gyrating his hips. The NFL has basically turned into Bomont and they’re going to start throwing flags at Kevin Bacon.

Nooooooo Fuuuuun League.

The Chiefs went 3-and-out. Somehow, it was still the first quarter.

In a seemingly insignificant play that may have actually been a turning point, Ben dumped a pass off to Le’Veon who got hit at the line of scrimmage by a defensive back but kept churning his legs, threw off the DB, and plowed forward for more yardage. After that, Le’Veon started to look like the old Le’Veon again.

Second Quarter

Ben kept things rolling with a wicked back-shoulder throw to AB that is just impossible to defend. A sack and two penalties stalled things out from there and the Steelers were able to flip the field thanks to the Chiefs committing about 20 penalties on a punt return.

The Chiefs were able to work the ball out of their own zone by using the one passing concept that worked for them. It basically featured a wide receiver running a post behind a tight end that ran an out route. When the TE cut out, the Steelers LB in zone would move towards the TE which cleared a throwing lane to hit the WR on the post. The Chiefs used this all game against the Steelers zone, as it was basically their only play that worked. The Steelers came up with a stop near midfield after a team sack on an attempted scramble then Stephon Tuitt got a big hand up and tipped a pass at the line.

With the Steelers torturing the Chiefs on the outside, Ben went to the middle of the field and hit a wide open David Johnson who rumbled for 25 yards down the seam until he plowed into a defender. AB picked up a big first down by catching an off-balance throw from Ben off his shoetops on a shallow cross to get us into field goal range. Le’Veon got a few carries to take us inside the 2-minute warning then Ben went to work. Ben hit James across the middle then Coates on an out-route to get into the red zone. Two plays later, Ben went back to The Outlaw Jesse James who made a leaping grab in the back of the end zone for the score.

29-0

The Chiefs had 44 seconds and all 3 of their timeouts to work with and Alex Smith hit a few passes over the middle of the field to move them into long field goal range. The rains started pouring again as Cairo Santos trotted out for a 49-yard attempt that he clanged off the right upright to send it to halftime.

Halftime

Literally everyone in the stadium left the seating bowl to try to take cover from the downpour, so hardly anyone actually saw Kevin Greene get his Hall of Fame Ring. Bad move by the Steelers to play the radio feed audio in the Great Hall and not switch over to the on-field audio.

Third Quarter

Ben got things rolling with a pass to Le’Veon then roped one to Xavier Grimble down the middle to move us into Chiefs territory. On 3rd and 4 at the edge of field goal range, Ben went YOLO and threw one up for Markus Wheaton who made a leaping grab in the front corner of the end zone and somehow got both feet down.

The play was reviewed and it was hard to tell if Wheaton’s right foot was down when he caught the ball because it certainly landed out of bounds after his left foot hit. His hip may also have come down in bounds before his foot, so there was not enough evidence to overturn the call on the field. TOUCHDOWN.

36-0

Alex Smith completed a few passes to get the Chiefs across the 40 but Cam Heyward put a stop to things, coming up with another sack. The Steelers responded by not doing much either, but eating time off the clock and working Le’Veon by giving him as many reps as they could. Le’Veon started to show better timing and explosiveness as the game went on and he got more comfortable being out on the field again.

The defense looked like it was going to hold again after coming upo with a stop on 3rd and 6 but Andy Reid decided to go for it on his own 35, because I guess once you’re down 36, nothing matters any more. The Chiefs converted and it gave them a little momentum to start working those post routes over the middle of the field again. Smith tried to take a shot deep down the field but first round pick Artie Burns made a great play to get his hand in and knock it away. Immediately, Burns turned around and pointed right at Chiefs CB Marcus Peters standing on the KC bench.

The Chiefs drove it down to the red zone and Smith hit Chris Conley, who once made a Star Wars fan video while he was in college at Georgia so it’s hard to dislike him too much. Conley’s leaping grab was close on the sideline and Tomlin challenged to see if his feet were actually in. They were, but the challenge was worth it at that point, it looked very close in real time. That set up the Chiefs inside the 10 but pressure and another pass defensed by Artie Burns put the Chiefs in 4th and goal. Thankfully, Andy Reid didn’t kick a field goal just for the sake of not getting shut out. He went for it, and the Steelers got pressure and forced a bad pass.

Fourth Quarter

The Steelers were pinned with their backs against the goal line and went 3-and-out, which gave the Chiefs great field position. Smith worked the middle of the field and easily got them down into the red zone. Spencer Ware got a rare carry and converted a 3rd and short. Two plays later, Smith hit Tyreek Hill inside the 5 who spun out of a tackle and dove into the end zone to break the shut out.

36-7

Ben hit Sammie Coates to get us out near midfield and get some breathing room. Three plays later on third down, Bell cut around the left side, stuck his foot in the ground and exploded through the hole, dancing between Chiefs defenders then taking off down the sideline. Pouncey got out in front of him to clear the way and Bell took it all the way down inside the 5 before being brought down from behind. Ben went for his 6th TD of the night but couldn’t hook up with Grimble then DeAngelo finished it off.

43-7

Cam Heyward recorded his third sack of the game and the Chiefs went 3-and-out. What an effort by the defense in this one. That pregame speech from Kevin Greene certainly lit a fire under them.

Landry Jones came in for the Steelers to just run some clock. A 3-and-out ensued but it didn’t matter.

Spencer Ware got a big run up the middle of the field for the Chiefs which more than doubled his rushing yardage on the game and basically only served to pad his stats. Artie Burns got called for some penalty that gave the Chiefs the ball inside the 5. They were mostly interested in running  out the clock and were trying to get Ware a touchdown, but the Steelers defense held strong. Andy Reid somehow mis-managed the clock…

…and after the Steelers came up with a 3rd down stop, there was a differential between the game clock and the play clock. Reid called timeout with 8 seconds left to go for it on 4th and goal. Smith completed a pass to Kelce to give someone more fantasy points.

43-14

Landry got to do the victory formation.

Players of the Game

Offensive Game Ball: Ben Roethlisberger
Defensive Game Ball: Cam Heyward

Honorable Mentions:
Le’Veon Bell
Sammie Coates
Antonio Brown
Jordan Dangerfield
Vince Williams
Lawrence Timmons
Artie Burns
Darrius Heyward-Bey

Final Thoughts

• Le’Veon Bell is back, guys. 144 rushing yards. 178 yards from scrimmage. Watch out.
• The Steelers seriously come through big time in night games. What a performance, especially by Ben who threw for 5 touchdowns. Ben set the tone when he ran out of the tunnel and carried it through with his performance.
• The Steelers went right after the Chiefs corners who had 6 interceptions last week. Ben challenged them deep again and again and the Steelers won jump balls and got behind the defense.
• Sammie Coates is starting to emerge as more than just a deep threat. Of course, having a 40+ yard catch in all four games is a nice boost to his confidence as well.
• Big confidence-booster for Markus Wheaton to haul in that touchdown and get both his feet down.
• The Steelers do miss Heath Miller, but the 3 tight ends combined for 4 catches, 60 yards, and 1 touchdown. If we can get that kind of production every game from the position, I’ll take it.
• The substitutes on defense played incredibly well. Vince Williams finished the game with 13 tackles and got credit for a sack on a Smith scramble. Jordan Dangerfield was a tackling machine on the back end. It was great to see a safety roaming around that was able to get guys down on the ground.
• Three sacks for Cam Heyward. What a game.
• Eric Fisher could not handle James Harrison. Even though Harrison didn’t get a sack, he routinely got pressure or bull-rushed Fisher right back into Smith’s lap.
• I wasn’t a big fan of Artie Burns whenever the Steelers picked him back in April, but he’s starting to come around and there is certainly some potential there. His arrow is pointing up.
• Great game by Lawrence Timmons. We’ll be seeing some of the hits he delivered on Renegade videos for years to come.
• Remember that guy from The Sporting News who thought the Steelers don’t need Le’Veon Bell? He was oddly quiet on Sunday Night.