Playoff Time: Chiefs Vs Steelers Set For Part Two

After a wild and wacky final regular season week in the 2021 NFL season, the playoffs are now set. The Kansas City Chiefs were unable to secure the conference’s number one seed, after the Tennessee Titans staved off the Houston Texans yesterday. Thus, Kansas City will enter the playoffs as the number two seed in the AFC. That is the second time in the last three years where that has happened. It turned out pretty well two years ago, as the Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV when entering the playoffs as the two seed.

This means that Kansas City will host the seven seed on Wild Card Weekend. After many crazy endings on Sunday, we found out that the Pittsburgh Steelers had earned the final of three wild card spots in the conference. Kickoff is set for Sunday night on January 16th at 8:15 p.m. eastern time/7:15 p.m. central time. It will be broadcasted on NBC and Peacock.

The Chiefs and the Steelers of course met just a few weeks ago at the same venue where they will meet this Sunday night. Kansas City won the contest by a score of 36-10, and at one point led 30-0. Let’s look back at some of the top performers from that matchup, as well as some of Kansas City’s or Pittsburgh’s best performers of the season.

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Flashback

Let’s start with the Chiefs. In that December meeting at Arrowhead Stadium, Patrick Mahomes had one of his more complete games in a while. It was a surgical day where he was able to beat Pittsburgh in all areas of the field. Additionally, Mahomes displayed tremendous anticipation and ball placement against the Steelers. He finished the day with three touchdown passes, no interceptions and a completion percentage of 76.6 percent. More importantly, Mahomes proved that he could win without some of his top weapons.

Travis Kelce was one of the more notable Chiefs to miss the first matchup against the Steelers, due to COVID protocols after testing positive in the leadup to the game. Byron Pringle, Mecole Hardman and running backs Darrel Williams and Derrick Gore all had fine days receiving. Pringle had two touchdowns against Pittsburgh, whereas Hardman finished with one. Despite missing that game, Kelce was still able to end his 2021 regular season with 1,125 receiving yards. That marks six straight 1,000+ yard receiving seasons for the heralded tight end.

On the Pittsburgh side of things, not much went right in that first trip to Kansas City. The Steelers rookie running back did pull a few longer runs here and there. Najee Harris accumulated 93 rushing yards on 19 carries on the day, good enough for 4.9 yards per carry. Meanwhile, Diontae Johnson was the Steelers leader in receptions and receiving yards that day. The Toledo product had six catches for 51 receiving yards, as well as one receiving touchdown, Pittsburgh’s lone touchdown in the game.

Kelce was not the only notable tight end to miss that game. Steelers rookie tight end Pat Freiermuth was unable to go in that game at Kansas City, because of a concussion. The first year player finished the regular season with 60 catches on 79 targets, 497 receiving yards (8.3 yards per reception) and seven touchdowns. His catch percentage was an admirable 75.9 percent on the season.

Top Performers

Let’s now briefly list some of the top performers for the entire season from both the Chiefs and the Steelers.

Kansas City Chiefs

In Kansas City, it of course starts with Mahomes. He overcame a tough, turnover filled start to the season. That 3-4 start included 17 giveaways by the offense, the most in the league at the time. What is crazy is that the Chiefs had 10 of those 17 giveaways on the opponent’s side of the 50 yard line. Mahomes threw nine interceptions, while also having four fumbles (two fumbles lost) during those first seven games. In the last 10 games, he only threw four interceptions. The Texas Tech product produced 4,839 passing yards, a touchdowns to interception ratio of 37:13, two rushing touchdowns and a completion percentage of 66.3 percent, which ironically tied his same completion percentage figure from last year.

From running backs, Darrel Williams (558) and Clyde Edwards-Helaire (517) had the most rushing yards among players. They were also the top two for Kansas City in rushing touchdowns. Williams had six rushing scores, while CEH had four rushing scores. Williams also added 452 receiving yards to register his first career season with at least 1,000 scrimmage yards. Obviously, that is a tremendous feat for any player, let alone a former undrafted free agent.

Receiving was again run through Tyreek Hill and Kelce. Hill finished with 159 targets, 111 receptions (a new single season franchise record), 1,239 receiving yards (11.2 yards per reception) and nine receiving touchdowns.

The aforementioned Kelce finished with 134 targets, 92 receptions, 1,125 receiving yards (12.2 yards per reception) and nine receiving touchdowns.

Pittsburgh Steelers

In what is expected to be the final season for Ben Roethlisberger, he still threw the ball around the yard quite a bit. He played in 16 games, missing one because of COVID protocols. The 18 year NFL veteran finished with 3,740 passing yards, a touchdown to interception ratio of 22:10, one rushing touchdown and a completion percentage of 64.5 percent.

At running back, Harris was used as a true first round pick, garnering a workhorse role. He received 307 rushing attempts. The rest of the Steelers combined for only 104 rushing attempts across 12 players, with no one receiving more than 36 carries, outside of Harris. In the end, he finished with an even 1,200 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns on the ground. Harris also had 74 receptions on 94 targets, 467 receiving yards (6.3 yards per reception) and three receiving touchdowns as a pass catcher.

The top four receivers for Roethlisberger were Johnson, Harris, Freiermuth and Chase Claypool. Here are their following receiving stat lines:

Johnson: 169 targets, 107 receptions, 1,161 receiving yards (10.9 yards per reception) and eight touchdowns

Harris: 94 targets, 74 receptions, 467 receiving yards (6.3 yards per reception) and three touchdowns

Freiermuth: 79 targets, 60 receptions, 497 receiving yards (8.3 yards per reception) and seven touchdowns

Claypool: 105 targets, 59 receptions, 860 receiving yards (14.6 yards per reception) and two touchdowns

Coaching Wisdom

Each team possesses two of the best head coaches in the league. The long-lasting pedigree of Andy Reid and Mike Tomlin has not been matched by many in the NFL’s last 15-20 years. Here is how each team has done in recent playoff history.

Kansas City Chiefs

Specifically in the Andy Reid era, consistency has been a staple for the team in red and gold. The Chiefs have now made the playoffs in seven straight seasons and in eight of his nine years as Kansas City head coach. When Alex Smith was quarterback, Reid’s teams were a combined 1-4 in the postseason. The Chiefs have gone a combined 6-2 in the postseason with Mahomes at quarterback. This has led to three straight home AFC Championship Games in the last three years, two straight Super Bowl appearances in the last two years and the Super Bowl championship two years ago. That was of course Reid’s first Super Bowl win as head coach.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Mike Tomlin currently has the third longest tenure of NFL head coaches with one team. Only Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots and Sean Payton with the New Orleans Saints currently have longer coaching tenures with one team. Tomlin began coaching Pittsburgh at the age of 35, which was extremely young for NFL head coaches at the time in 2007. On top of that, Pittsburgh won Super Bowl XLIII over the Arizona Cardinals during his second season, in which Tomlin set the new record for youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl (36 at the time).

That is Tomlin’s lone Super Bowl win. Other notable accolades include two total AFC Championships and seven AFC North division titles. He has never endured a losing season as Steelers head coach. That record of consecutive non-losing seasons to begin a head coaching career is still active right now. Pittsburgh just secured a 15th straight non-losing season, with a 9-7-1 record in 2021.

He holds a 154-85-2 regular season record all-time with the Steelers. Meanwhile, Tomlin has gone a combined 8-8 in the playoffs. His early playoff appearances with Pittsburgh were obviously much more fruitful than his recent years. In his first eight playoff games, the Steelers were a combined 5-3. They have gone the inverse of that in their last eight playoff games, at 3-5. Tomlin and the Steelers have not won a playoff game in their last two playoff appearances. Additionally, Pittsburgh’s last playoff win came after the 2016 season (January 2017).

Be on the lookout for more FPC Chiefs playoff coverage articles throughout this week. For more great sports and NFL content, stay tuned to Full Press Coverage.

– Braden Holecek is the Kansas City Chiefs managing editor for Full Press Coverage. He covers the NFL. Like and follow on Follow @ebearcat9//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Follow @FPC_Chiefs//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js and Facebook.