The Pittsburgh Steelers, playing with their third-string quarterback, suffered a tough loss on Sunday, 23-13 to the Kansas City Chiefs.
The offense struggled at times and the performance of the defense left a lot to be desired.
While there was a lot not to like about the Steelers performance, which dropped them to 4-3 on the season, there were also a few bright spots as well.
Let’s take a look at how the Steelers graded out following Sunday’s loss.
Quarterback- There was no magic coming out of Landry Jones in his first NFL start. While Jones threw for 209 yards and a touchdown, he did turn the ball over three times, tossing a pair of interceptions and losing a fumble. He did get the ball to the Steelers playmakers, but there weren’t enough big plays coming out of his arm this week. Grade: C-
Running Backs– Le’Veon Bell had another 110-yard day, finishing with 121 yards on just 17 carries. DeAngelo Williams was stopped on a fourth-and-one play and also dropped a pass that would have resulted in a first down. Grade: B
Wide Receivers- Welcome back Antonio Brown. After nearly being taken out of the Steelers offense by Mike Vick, Brown had a nice day with six receptions for 124 yards. But Brown bobbled and tipped a pass that resulted in an interception. Martavis Bryant only had three catches for 45 yards, but one of them was a touchdown. The rest of the receiving core was very quiet, including Heath Miller, who didn’t catch a pass for the first time since 2008. Grade: C+
Offensive Line: The Steelers were able to run the football as the running backs averaged 6.1 yards per carry. They also gave up only two sacks, both by Tamba Hali, including when Hali beat Alejandro Villanueva to force a fumble late in the game. Grade B-
Defensive Line- Cam Heyward was pretty solid, but the Chiefs ran for 138 yards on the day. The front three also couldn’t get any pressure on Alex Smith even though he came into the game being sacked more than any other quarterback in the AFC. It showed that the front three really missed Stephon Tuitt. Grade: D
Linebackers- It wasn’t a good day for the linebacking core. They couldn’t cover Travis Kelce and there were way too many missed tackles. That was a problem from the opening kickoff as this Steelers team hasn’t tackled that poorly in a really long time: Grade: D
Secondary- Even without Jeremy Maclin, the Kansas City receiving core was able to make plays. The secondary didn’t force a turnover and Smith completed 21-of-32 pass attempts for 251 yards and a touchdown. Most of those were very easy completions. Grade: D
Special Teams- Kicker Chris Boswell continues to be a bright spot and the Steelers did get one decent kick return from Dri Archer, but they also allowed DeAnthony Thomas a big punt return which set up a KC field goal. Grade: C
Coaching– I wasn’t thrilled with the offensive game plan, especially in the first half. The defense had one of their worst performances of the season and at the end of the day the Steelers got beat by a worse football team. Three turnovers and countless missed tackles will do that to you. Grade: C-
Photo Credit: Getty Images
