It’s Danny Parkins’ last week at 610 Sports and I’m going to miss it because of timely interviews like this one. They talked to former Steelers great Jerome Bettis (and Neil Smith) about Sunday’s Steelers-Chiefs game.
Bettis talks like this is old school football, which it is for the Chiefs. Field position and stopping the run.
“If you want to make a case for Kansas City, you have to look at it and say Tyreek Hill has to have a big impact on this game,” Bettis said.
Timeout. Go back to August of last year. Can you imagine a Hall of Famer like Jerome Bettis talking about a Chiefs playoff game and saying this fifth round pick is the key to the biggest game of the year? Sometimes I need to be reminded of how insane Tyreek’s rise has been.
Time in...
“He needs to play significantly well so that they can score points and not have to go 80 yards, 90 yards down the football field,” Bettis continued. “If this is a game where the offense has to go the length of the field to score each time, it’s going to be a tough game for Kansas City to win. But if they can get chunks of yardage and big plays then they got a good opportunity to win.”
I kinda think that’s true. But that’s OK. The Chiefs win games on special teams. They win games on defense. This is another one where they may need that extra boost.
“The question mark is how can Kansas City slow down that Steelers offense,” Better said. “You lose Derrick Johnson, who is really your run stopper in that defense, the question is can Dontari Poe and those guys in the middle get it done in terms of stopping the run. That’s the answer to this football game. You get Justin Houston back. you got Dee Ford, Tamba Hali, you’ve got the pass rushers but can they stop the run? That becomes the question.”
Bell has been held to under 100 rushing yards in six games this year. The Steelers are 2-4 in those games. So, yeah, this is one of the keys to the game. The Chiefs may not be able to stop the run but they can dictate the type of game that’s played. If the Chiefs have a 14-point lead in the second half, you just took Bell’s rushing out of the game. That’s how the Chiefs can stop the run.