Steelers vs. Chiefs Preview

I've been trying all week to come up with something nice to say about the Chiefs. Last night, it came to me. Their front office is not afraid to make bold moves.

Now, most of those moves have sucked the past few years, but they're not afraid to make them.

Last year before the draft, they traded Jared Allen to Minnesota. It's true that they got a first round pick and a third round pick for a guy they were probably going to lose anyway, but, last year, Allen had 14.5 sacks. The Chiefs as a team had ten sacks. LaMarr Woodley and James Harrison each had more sacks individually than the entire Chiefs defense. This year, Allen has 10.5 sacks and the Chiefs defense has 12. So... good for them.

This offseason, they acquired Matt Cassell and Mike Vrabel for a second round pick. Cassell currently has a 75.2 passer rating, has been sacked 32 times, and is averaging 5.7 yards per attempt. Vrabel has 33 tackles and a sack, but he has started every game. So... good for them.

The one bold move that I think will eventually work out is that they recently released Larry Johnson for generally being an ineffective douche and decided to hitch their wagon to Jamaal Charles. I like Charles a lot and it's not because I stashed him on my one fantasy team because I knew Johnson would eventually fall off. Or, not just because of that.

Their pass defense has given up 12 plays of 40 yards or more. Their run defense has given up two such plays. The respective numbers for the Steelers are two and zero. Think about that... we're nine games into the season. That means that, every game, they give up a pass play of 40 yards or more. That's crazy.

Every game, they get to the quarterback once. Every game, their quarterback is sacked four times. Their defense is inexperienced and weak. Their offense is predictable and impotent.

The Steelers are really, really upset that they lost to the Bengals. Their offense is fired up. Their defense is fired up. Some of the sound bites that have been recorded this week sound like some of the guys literally want to kill someone (if they haven't already).

Above and beyond the stats I already quoted, you could take any stat that quantifies any type of skill or worth in football and the Steelers would be better than the Chiefs in that area. The matchups favor the Steelers. Matt Cassell operates a dink and dunk offense. The Steelers defense destroyed him last season and that's when he was throwing to Randy Moss and Wes Welker. This season, he's throwing to Chris Chambers. And that's it. Because Kansas City traded Tony Gonzalez (bold strategy, let's see how it works out for them) to Atlanta in the offseason and Dwayne Bowe, their best receiver, is currently serving a four game suspension.

On a bad day, Chambers is an older, less reliable version of Limas Sweed. On a good day, he's an older, less reliable version of Mike Wallace.

I could make this entry 3,000 talking about the matchups and stats that make the Steelers a far, far superior team. But, it's Saturday and I've got stuff to do. So...

If they lose, here's how it happens:

1. Chiefs coach Todd Haley has the game of his life calling plays and gets "dialed in" as they say. He prepared for this defense for Super Bowl XLII (which the Steelers won, by the way) and he knows their strengths and weaknesses. He got dialed in in the second half of that game, so he could do it again. Then again, he was calling plays for Kurt Warner, Anquan Boldin, Steve Breaston, and Larry Fitzgerald. So there's that. And I thought his name was Todd Staley, but that didn't look right, so I looked it up. It's Haley. So there's that on top of that.
2. They get a special teams touchdown and a defensive touchdown. Neither of these things is beyond the realm of possibility given how the season has played out thus far for the Steelers.
3. Jamaal Charles and Chris Chambers have great games and are still unstoppable even when the defense focuses all their energy on stopping them. I don't think that happens, but I also didn't think the Bengals would sweep the Steelers in the regular season. So there you go.

But, I think they're too mad. The Chiefs suck too hard. The Steelers know they need to use this as a tune-up game for when they have to face the hated Ravens next Sunday.

And, really, we all need this. We need the Steelers to go out and crush someone, even if it's a crappy team, in order to re-establish dominance. Last week's loss sucked hard. This week's win (if it happens and if it's a blowout) will take away some of that sting.

This is actually a big game. If Kansas City plays us tight or, God forbid, they win, that's going to be a big blow to the confidence of this team and the confidence of Steelers fans everywhere. A loss here kills the season. That's a big game, no matter how bad the Chiefs are.

But... I did mention that they're bad, right?

Prediction:
Steelers 38, Chiefs 10