The Kansas City Chiefs come away with a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Sure, the Steelers were starting their third string QB but a win is a win and the Chiefs won.
Let me just say this: FINALLY!
The Chiefs had lost five straight games en route to the worst start of Andy Reid's career before they won this game. The Chiefs now stand at 2-5 on the season and hope to make it two in a row next week when they play the Lions in London. Check out the Chiefs 2015 schedule and see how many wins you can come up with.
Big day for Charcandrick West, Travis Kelce
With Jamaal Charles out there was a question of who would be the Chiefs top back. That is obviously Charcandrick West. Knile Davis is not much of a consideration in their offense, based not only on this week but last week as well. West was consistently the Chiefs top running back on Sunday against Pittsburgh and did a nice job with it. He ended with 110 yards on 22 carries and 19 yards on two catches.
Meanwhile, everyone already knew Travis Kelce was the man. He had a couple of slow games (for him) the past two weeks but he came back to it with a big day on Sunday against the Steelers with five catches for 73 yards, including a 26-yard gain in the fourth quarter that helped lead the Chiefs to the end zone to ice it.
Chiefs new offensive line ... not too shabby
I gotta say, I was impressed with the Chiefs new offensive line. They lined up like this today:
LT Eric Fisher, LG Ben Grubbs, C Mitch Morse, RG Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, RT Jeff Allen.
I'm hesitant to praise them too much until I re-watch the game but overall they looked pretty solid. Alex Smith seemed to have enough time and was only sacked twice. Charcandrick West racked up nearly 100 yards on the ground and averaged five yards per carry. I would expect to see this same group next week in London.
Play of the day: Eric Berry's INT
Love this play so much. Eric Berry, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma last year, came back to the team this year and should be a shoe-in for the comeback player of the year award. He can add this INT to his resume for that award. Not only is it cool because it's Berry but it's also a great play. Berry dives and cleanly catches the tipped pass and sets himself up for the return.
Timeliest plays: Tamba Hali's sacks
Le'Veon Bell broke a few tackles for a huge gain to bring the Steelers into the red zone in the fourth quarter. The Steelers were down 16-10 at this point and many Chiefs fans were envisioning the touchdown they would inevitably score to win the game. But they didn't score! on third down, Landry Jones dropped back to pass and Tamba Hali, who simply ran around the left tackle, came in for the sack. That held the Steelers to a field goal.
Shout out to Sean Smith, who didn't give up on Bell's long run and tracked him down before he scored. Saved four points.
With the Steelers driving later in the fourth, Tamba came back and strip-sacked Landry Jones for the turnover. Big day for Tamba. (Who said the Chiefs should bench him? That guy is stupid)
The Chiefs are bad in the red zone
The Chiefs first three possessions went to the Steelers 9, 3 and 11-yard line. They only got nine points out of that. They finished the game 2-of-5 in the red zone.
Everyone already knew the Chiefs red zone troubles after watching the eight field goal day against the Bengals a few weeks ago. It didn't cost the Chiefs this game but it has cost them other games this year. They HAVE to be better in the red zone. They just have to.
Interesting note: the Chiefs first red zone TD today came after they ran it three straight times. Who knew?
Don't kill Eric Fisher for the taunting penalty
The Chiefs OT was flagged for taunting during the game which led to Twitter and many fans across the country asking why in the world Fisher of all people would be flagged for taunting. It appears based on the replay that Fisher was pissed at a Steelers player who appeared to possibly be grabbing Charcandrick West on the ground. So it looks like, based on what I saw out of the replay, that Fisher was standing up for his teammate. Sure, he shouldn't have gotten the penalty ... but I like that fire out of him.
By the way, Fisher should be better than what he is but he is no longer a liability for the Chiefs. If you forget that he was the No. 1 overall pick and think of him as a third round pick, it's much easier.
Arrowhead is still full
I was expecting Arrowhead to be half full with lots of Steelers fans. Well, there were a lot of Steelers fans there but it was a full stadium. There were obviously more Chiefs fans than Steelers fans overall but Pittsburgh continued to show why they are such a great traveling fan base.