The thing that scares you about the Pittsburgh Steelers, who will visit the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, is the deep ball. That’s also where I think the Chiefs are vulnerable. That’s why upon first glance I am nervous about Sunday’s game against the Steelers.
However, should I be worried? The Steelers deep ball doesn’t seem to be the same this year. Check out these Ben Roethlisberger stats when he throws deep this year compared to last:
Ben Roethlisberger's 6.5 yards/attempt is career low. For a team that has so readily "gone for the jugular" last few years, this is tough: pic.twitter.com/DL3oKIOcFe
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) October 9, 2017
And this:
Big Ben's deep passing stats are insane. On passes 20+ yards downfield, he’s 5-27 for 183 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs, 24.5 passer rating per @PFF.
— Sean Wagner-McGough (@seanjwagner) October 10, 2017
Right when Alex Smith finds his deep ball, Big Ben loses his. The NFL is weird. Big Ben has six touchdowns to seven interceptions and has his lowest completion percentage (61.5) in nearly 10 years. Don’t be fooled though. It’s still way too early for me to say that this is a good matchup for the Chiefs because it wasn’t that long ago that this Steelers team came in here and beat the Chiefs. It just takes one game for the Steelers to find their rhythm.