The Kansas City Chiefs lost their first game of the season on Sunday as the Pittsburgh Steelers once again came into Arrowhead Stadium and walked out with a victory. There were a lot of things that fans could point to in this game that weren’t good:
- Alex Smith had his worst game of the year, leaving a lot of possible big plays on the field.
- The coaching staff appeared to be outmatched by the opponent for the first time all year as the offensive play calling was lack luster and the adjustments on defense seemed to be too little too late.
- Zach Fulton had a high snap that cost the Chiefs two points.
- Andy Reid opted not to kick a field goal in a game where points were hard to come by.
- Phillip Gaines missed an interception that Antonio Brown took 50 plus yards for a touchdown that was the final nail in the coffin.
That all being said, the real reason the Chiefs lost this game was because they couldn’t win in the trenches.
If the Chiefs controlled the trenches, the safety, the passed-on field goal, even the missed interception that Brown takes to the house would not have mattered. The Chiefs were completely dominated in the trenches and they still had a chance to win the game on the final drive of the game. Even if they just control the line of scrimmage on one side of the ball, they win that game.
The Chiefs had done an excellent job up until this game of being effective on offense despite a slew of injuries to their offensive line. This was the first game where those injuries finally caught up to them. The Chiefs thought that their interior line this season would be made up of Parker Ehinger, Mitch Morse, and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif. On Sunday the interior of K.C.’s line was manned by Bryan Witzmann, Zach Fulton, and Cam Erving.
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While Pittsburgh definitely was able to get some pressure off the edge against the Chiefs starting tackles, it is the pressure up the middle and lack of a clean pocket to step up into that seems to give quarterback Alex Smith happy feet. We all know who Alex Smith is at this point in his career. He had been lights out prior to this game as he consistently kept his eyes up and was willing to take chances down the field. In this game you could tell the constant pressure up the middle got into Smith’s head as he panicked on more than one occasion and missed several open targets down the field. The Steelers Stephon Tuitt was particularly disruptive on Sunday.
It didn’t help that he had almost no running game to keep the defense honest. The Chiefs came into the game boasting the league’s best rushing attack as rookie Kareem Hunt had been flat out dominant through five games. While Hunt still managed to get 100 yards from scrimmage for a record sixth straight game to open the season it was mostly through the air. Hunt managed only 21 yards rushing on nine carries. The entire Chiefs team only managed 28 yards on 15 carries. Hunt didn’t suddenly stop being a great runner. The Steelers just dominated the line of scrimmage and Hunt had to break multiple tackles just to get back to the original line of scrimmage.
While not every defense will have the speed to cause that many problems at the point of attack, the Chiefs still must be better up front if they want to get their offense back on track. The lack of a running game and pressure up the middle are a recipe for “Bad Alex,” and the Chiefs need to avoid that going forward after this loss. Hopefully they can get some guys back healthy on the offensive line sooner rather than later.
Now let’s talk about the defensive front.
It doesn’t take a football expert to understand that if the Chiefs allow a running back to gain 179 yards rushing, it makes it hard to win. The problem wasn’t just the yards they were allowing though. The Chiefs once again displayed a bend but don’t break philosophy on defense. The Steelers racked up 439 net yards but only had 19 points to show for it. If you have the highest scoring offense in the NFL through five games and your defense only allows 19 points at home you should win that game.
So this loss is mostly on the offense right?
Well, not so fast.
Yes, the offense absolutely deserves their fair share of the blame as we just finished discussing. HOWEVER, part of the reason the Chiefs weren’t able to muster very much on offense is because they didn’t have the ball. You can point to the defense only allowing 19 points and say they did their job, but that ignores the fact that their inability to stop Le’Veon Bell allowed the Steelers to dominate the time of possession. Again, some of that is on the offense for not maintaining possession of their own but the Chiefs barely touched the ball in the first half as Bell and the Steelers offense sustained multiple long, clock-draining drives.
The Chiefs like their defensive linemen. Chris Jones, Bennie Logan, Allen Bailey, and Rakeem Nunez-Roches are all talented guys who have shined at times this season. During this game they simply didn’t win the battle at the point of attack enough. Not only did they not get their hands on Bell, but they often weren’t able to occupy enough blockers to free the linebackers up to make the tackle. Now, to be fair, there were times that the linebackers had chances and Bell just made them miss. However, other times Bell was through the front seven before anyone really got a hand on him.
You just have to look at the Chiefs top three leading tacklers to see the issue.
Terrence Mitchell: 6 solo, 2 assists
Daniel Sorensen: 4 solo, 4 assists
Derrick Johnson: 3 solo, 3 assists
When you give up 194 yards rushing and your two leading tacklers are defensive backs you are getting worked at the line of scrimmage. Period.
The Chiefs are now giving up the fourth most yards per carry in the entire NFL. Despite the fact that they are 5-1 they are still giving up the seventh most rushing yards per game. Yes, they gave up a ton on Sunday, but given that they were playing with a lead for most of the other five games, it’s staggering that they are still giving up that many rushing yards per game. The Chiefs have to find a way to sure up their run defense moving forward. As the weather gets colder, teams will look to run the ball more and more and the Chiefs have to be able to get stops up front more often.
Finally, if the Chiefs want to get more pressure on opposing quarterbacks without sending a blitz those same defensive linemen have to get some push up the middle on passing downs. Obviously, the heart and soul of the Chiefs pass rush is Justin Houston and Dee Ford. They have to make plays off the edge. However, time and time again on Sunday Ford and Houston were ran around the outside by Pittsburgh’s tackles as Ben Roethlisberger stepped up in the pocket and got rid of the ball.
You could argue that the difference in this game between Big Ben and Alex Smith is that Ben was able to comfortably step up in the pocket and Alex wasn’t. The Chiefs interior rushers simply weren’t able to get enough push up the middle to force Ben outside of the pocket where Houston and Ford could get to him.
While you can point to plays missed here and there by different players on both sides of the ball, this game was lost in the trenches and the Chiefs need to make sure that it doesn’t become a trend going forward. The good news is that they should get some of their starting interior line back from injury soon. Also, not many teams have the speed on defense to cause the problems for K.C.’s offensive line like Pittsburgh did. Most teams also don’t have the offensive line and Pro Bowl running back to dominate the line of scrimmage in the run game either. So the Steelers definitely deserve credit for how they played on Sunday.
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The Chiefs shouldn’t panic after this loss but they also shouldn’t ignore the problems they had in the trenches. They either need to get these problems fixed or hope they don’t have to face Pittsburgh again in the playoffs. If they do, I worry we may see the same result that we have seen the last several meetings.
As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!