The Kansas City Chiefs have won seven straight and coming for the last home game of the regular season to face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Kansas City Chiefs are set to battle the Pittsburgh Steelers at 3:25 PM Sunday at Arrowhead with big playoff implications on the line for both teams. The Steelers are looking to steal one from the Chiefs as they are trying to keep themselves alive in the playoff hunt and Kansas City is trying to clinch the first playoff berth in the AFC and have at least one home game in the playoffs. With Covid-19 striking the league it is getting some teams to hope to stay in the race and others bringing them down while they are looking up. These next couple of weeks will be a rollercoaster ride but both teams are not trying to let the pandemic hold them back. What should we expect in this showdown with the Chiefs and Steelers?
This Kansas City offense is coming off an electrifying performance against divisional rivals Los Angeles Chargers after winning in overtime off of a Travis Kelce catch and run that lead to a 34-28 victory in Sofi Stadium. That last win against the Chargers made it seven straight for this hot Kansas City team that is looking to clinch a playoff berth with a win against the Steelers. The Steelers are coming off a win against the Tennessee Titans last week that kept them in contention to keep fighting for a Wild Card spot. With the Steelers having one of the best defenses in the NFL, they will look to come to Kansas City to give Patrick Mahomes and this Chiefs offense a long evening and keep it competitive throughout all four quarters.
But, will their defense be enough to cause an upset on an offense that is beginning to find their rhythm again and click offensively especially with their offense not having an identity? How I see it with Big Ben and the Steelers offense, not in sync, this Kansas City offense regardless of the circumstance they will find a way to put some points up and you have to be able to go toe to toe with a juggernaut offense that can strike at any time. However, with the Covid-19 outbreak that happens within this last week, it has players such as Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill on the list-making unknown if they will be available this Sunday against the Steelers. If KC stars are unavailable, what does this mean for the offense? Well with Josh Gordon coming back from being out from Covid-19 as well, this will be his chance to establish himself in the offense and get more reps to impress Andy Reid and this coaching staff. Mahomes still has faith in him saying that “he knows he still has some talent left” establishing he will somewhat be a significant piece of this offense. I expect a lot of Gordon this late afternoon on Sunday getting involved in this offense.
This past Sunday, the Kansas City defense faced their biggest test throughout the winning streak and was somewhat lost after having two straight drives leading into turnovers. Herbert and the offense were able to find rhythm in the late first and second quarter having a dominant half against the KC defense. The Chiefs went into the half down 14-10 having to work their way through a slugfest that led into a win and the defense coming up with four turnovers on down. This upcoming week they have a lighter matchup against a Steelers offense that has been stagnant throughout most of the year. With Jones coming off the reserve list, he is looking to come back into Sack nation and have a feast against veteran future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger. With other key additions like L’Jarius Sneed and Gay returning back to practice and looking like they will be available for Sunday, it’s safe to say this defense will be back to what we have seen throughout this seven-game win streak. Expect this defense to have a phenomenal outing in Arrowhead with their last home game of the regular season. It will be rocking and decibel will definitely be up making it hard for the opposing offense.
I expect this game for Chiefs regardless of who will be activated before the game to come out and compete on all phases. With a chance to clinch a playoff berth and keep themselves in the driver seat going forward in the AFC with the No.1 seed, the Chiefs will give it their all to make it to a third straight Super Bowl and redeem themselves from an embarrassment they had last year.
