On Second Thought: Steelers @ Chiefs

Photo via Steelers.com

Usually after a win like Sunday’s beatdown of the Chiefs everybody is lined up with game recaps, grades, and so on . But Ivan Cole is a DNP for the last two weeks with carpal tunnel and Homer is off gadding about, so you’re just going to have to put up with me this week.

In my first effusions over the game I pretty much skipped over the less perfect aspects of it, and honestly I think this is appropriate in many ways. Part of the excitement of a live performance, whether given by a rock band, a professional chamber choir such as I conducted for many years, a symphony orchestra, a production of Hamlet, or, yes, a football game, is that anything can happen at any given moment, and a great many of the things which can happen are, shall we say, less than optimal.

Steelers @ Chiefs: the Acceptable, the Objectionable, and the Appalling

Phot via Steelers.com

This post should really be called The Return of the Native, or some equally classy literary name, because the big news is:

• 1: The Chiefs are no longer undefeated.
• 2: James Harrison is BACCKK!

It is possible that No. 2 had something to do with No. 1.

Steelers’ Opponent Preview: The Kansas City Chiefs

The most important player on the field, the last time the Steelers and Chiefs played…

It’s very tempting to just say “last undefeated team in the NFL. Let’s do this again some time…” It’s very possibly all you wish to read.

But a sense of duty compels me to write this anyhow, as little as I like the prospect of studying even more closely an opponent I’m dreading. Because this might be the first really complete team the Steelers have seen this season, and we’ve seen how uneven they have been against flawed, even highly flawed, teams.

Better Late Than Never

As everyone knows by now, the Divisional Round game between the Steelers and the Chiefs has been moved to Sunday evening.  Personally, I don’t see that the NFL should take the chance of icy roads for game-goers. There is a much better solution staring everyone  right in the face-move the game to Heinz Field. The forecast calls for partly cloudy and 38 degrees-perfect football weather.

Unfortunately the NFL is, as usual, completely obdurate, and so I don’t expect my suggestion to get any playing time in Roger Goodell’s luxury suite in New York. As usual.

Opponent Preview: The Kansas City Chiefs

As Mike Tomlin might say, this isn’t my first rodeo writing about the Chiefs. The Steelers, as perhaps every sentient being in the English-speaking world is aware by now, beat the Chiefs not only handily but decisively in Week 4, thus leading the bipolar Steelers fan base to assume that “Pittsburgh’s Goin’ to the Super Bowl.” At least until they subsequently lost to the unregarded Dolphins.

On Second Thought: Steelers vs. Chiefs

Tom Puskar photo

Homer J and Ivan both had plenty to say about Sunday’s game. Not a surprise. We all have plenty to say because it was so very satisfying. For one thing, perhaps the Steelers won’t make us all look like fools for our confident predictions of a great season. But there were a lot of interesting facets to the game beyond the “old-fashioned beat-down” aspects.

First was the score in the first quarter. The Steelers have never put up 22 points in the first quarter. Adrian (eldest son) and I were extrapolating an 88-0 win, but perhaps it was overambitious. Even the 58-0 win we projected at half time was, in the event, a non-starter. But both of us were perfectly happy to take a win by 29 points, with the other team’s points all coming in the last 11 minutes.

The Chief Problem: Steelers Week 7 Opponent Preview

via Kansas City Star

It’s been a musical week here on the site. Monday’s game recap featured the Coasters singing for QB Landry Jones. Today’s video, which you can watch here, (sorry, it won’t embed) features a vocal performance by a former Steeler which is notable for its tunelessness and yet oddly compelling. I think Steeler Nation will appreciate the message.

Last week I noted it’s been a while since the Steelers have seen the Cardinals. This week I feel as if it hasn’t been nearly long enough since we’ve seen the Chiefs.

History of the Matchup:

The first contest was held in 1970, after the AFL/NFL merger. Since then the win/loss record is Steelers, 20, Chiefs 9, a 31% win percentage for the Chiefs. During those years the Chiefs were 338/357/7, a 48.6% win percentage. So historically the Steelers have defeated the Chiefs more often than the overall record of the Chiefs vs. the league.

The Steelers had a tenth loss in the 1993 postseason. The 9-7 Steelers were the sixth seed, and played the No. 3 seeded Chiefs, who went 11-5 that season. Despite the game being in Arrowhead Stadium, the Steelers were winning for a great deal of it, and might well have won in regulation had it not been for a blocked punt in the last couple of minutes which allowed the Chiefs to tie the score. It took 11 scoreless minutes of overtime before the Chiefs won with a field goal.