If you’re thinking that it’s been hard to find anyone willing to support the Pittsburgh Steelers heading into the Wild Card round, you’d be right. Even in our attempts to find out more about the Steelers at this stage of the season from an expert, we’re still hearing nothing but frustrations about the team (and fears about facing the Chiefs). That’s fine with us.
Let’s not forget that no game in the NFL is automatic and the playoffs are certainly not the time to overlook an opponent. We wanted to get a better sense of how competitive the Steelers are looking after winning their last two games and claiming a playoff spot, so we asked our friend Tommy Jaggi, expert over at Still Curtain, to tell us more about the matchup and what the team learned from their loss to the Chiefs only three weeks back.
Were you surprised to look up and see the Steelers as an official playoff team?
Prior to Pittsburgh’s season finale against the Ravens, making the playoffs didn’t seem like much of a possibility. After FiveThirtyEight gave the Steelers just a 6 percent chance of making the tournament, I was floored when they found a spot in the playoffs. Thank you, Jaguars!
It was only three weeks ago that the Steelers lost by multiple possessions to the Chiefs. How heavy does that hang in the minds of the franchise and fans?
It’s a hard pill to swallow. When these two teams met in Week 16, this game was never close and Pittsburgh was ultimately pummeled 36-10. This certainly doesn’t give us a lot of confidence running this one back. Over the past four games, the Steelers have scored just 17.75 points per contest. This isn’t going to get the job done against the Chiefs on the road in the playoffs.
Have you seen a marked difference in Big Ben in these last two wins of the regular season? What about the rest of the offense?
Unfortunately, I have not seen a different Ben Roethlisberger over Pittsburgh’s past two wins than the one we have all seen for most of the past two seasons. Despite back-to-back victories that helped the Steelers to a playoff berth, Roethlisberger is throwing for a dismal 4.0 yards per attempt over his last two games and has just two touchdowns over this span. The rest of the offense has been just as bad, as the offensive line continues to struggle and the running game has been wildly inconsistent.
Pat Freiermuth was not in play last time. How much does that change things offensively for the Steelers this time around?
It definitely adds another element to the Steelers offense when Pat Freiermuth takes the field. He can do the dirty work over the middle of the field and is a chains-mover on third down. I’m not sure if his presence makes a big enough difference this time around, but he should add a boost to their passing offense in the playoffs.
Any final predictions for this score?
The Steelers were trounced when these two teams met the first time this year. While I see Mike Tomlin learning from some of his mistakes, I don’t think Pittsburgh has the firepower to go toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. I predict Kansas City wins 29-17.