For the Pittsburgh Steelers, the equation on Sunday afternoon was a simple one.
Win and you’re in the playoffs for the first time in three seasons.
Thanks to perhaps the best effort they received from their defense all season long, the Steelers are heading back to the postseason after defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 20-10 at Heinz Field.
“It was a big fight by our football team today,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “We did what was necessary to secure victory. I loved the spirit of our defense. We challenged those guys this week.”
Ben Roethlisberger passed for 220 yards and a touchdown, Le’Veon Bell added a score of his own, and that was plenty of offense as the Steelers leaned on their defense the rest of the way. A defense that produced a season-high six sacks and forced a turnover.
More impressive, they limited Jamal Charles to just 29 yards rushing on the afternoon.
“We had a game plan to try and bottle up the run,” said defensive end Heyward. “These wins don’t come easy and we just need to keep improving. I thought we answered the bell in the red zone today.”
Both teams marched down the field with relative ease on their first possession, but neither team could finish and had to settle for three despite each having first and goal situations.
Heyward had a lot to do with keeping Kansas City out of the end zone early, recording 1.5 sacks on the first KC drive, including one on third-and-goal that forced the field goal.
The Steelers pass rush made it difficult on Chiefs’ quarterback Alex Smith all afternoon. While Smith threw for 311 yards, Heyward and James Harrison lived in the KC backfield for most of the afternoon.
Harrison in particular was all over the field and abused former No. 1 overall pick, Chiefs tackle Eric Fisher. The veteran finished with seven tackles and 1.5 sacks on the afternoon.
“It felt good,” said Harrison, who returned to the lineup after missing last week. “My play was ok. Good enough to help us get a win.”
Kansas City was held to three again on their second drive, taking a 6-3 lead, before the Steelers offense went to work.
Pittsburgh put together an 11-play, 80-yard drive that resulted in a one-yard touchdown run by Bell, who was pretty much held in check for most of the afternoon, totaling only 72 combined yards from scrimmage.
“They did a good job of playing the run,” said Bell. “They had a lot of men in the box and tackled well. But we got some efficient runs when we needed them.”
The Steelers held a 10-6 edge at the half, and things stayed that way until late in the third quarter when Roethlisberger hit Antonio Brown with a three-yard touchdown pass. On the play Roethlisberger suffered a knee injury, but returned to the game on the next series.
As usual, Brown made a lot of plays in the passing game, hauling in seven receptions for 72 yards, but when the Steelers needed a big play for most of the afternoon, Roethlisberger looked in Heath Miller’s direction.
Miller finished the day with seven catches for 68 yards, many of which came on third down.
“It was a good job by the coaching staff,” said Roethlisberger. “They saw there were going to be opportunities to get Heath the ball. He’s a playmaker. Just get him the ball and let him do the rest.”
While the Steelers offense did enough to win, the story of the afternoon though was the defense, who for a change had a positive impact in a win.
They forced one turnover and their six sacks were a season high. More importantly, while Kansas City was able to move the chains, the Steelers didn’t allow any big plays and kept the Chiefs out of the end zone all afternoon.
The result was five red zone trips for the Chiefs and only four field goals to show for it.
“With them being the number-one red zone defense in football, I thought points could be tough down there for our offense,” said Tomlin. “We needed our defense to play tough in the red area and keep the playing field level. I thought they responded to that challenge.”
Now that the Steelers know that they won’t be sitting home for the postseason again, they have their eyes on a bigger prize, a showdown with the Cincinnati Bengals next Sunday for the AFC North title.
“We still have another game,” said Roethlisberger. “We keep getting questions about the playoffs, but dang that, we still have a divisional game at home. We aren’t looking past that. Heck no. We still have work to do. It feels good knowing that we are going to the playoffs, but we still have work to do.”
Photo Credit: Pittsburgh Steelers
