Steelers Defense Gives Max Effort in Win over Chiefs

Even if you were confident that the Pittsburgh Steelers would beat the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday, you had to be shocked at how they did it. On a day in which the Pittsburgh offense struggled, the defense stepped up big in a 20-12 victory to secure a playoff spot. In case you missed it, here are full highlights from the win:

Going into the game, the Steelers had the No. 1 offense in the league in terms of yards. So that means Pittsburgh was just going to march up and down the field on Kansas City and score at will, right? Not so fast. The Chiefs defense was its typical stingy self, holding to Steelers to only 282 yards in the game. This is around 130 fewer than what Pittsburgh has averaged all season.

Joe Sargent/Getty Images

With that, the onus fell on a much-maligned Steelers defense. If you had told me that this game would have been won or lost on the play of a 288-pound defensive end and a 36-year-old linebacker, I’d have probably told you that you were crazy.

But that is exactly what happened. The combination of defensive end Cameron Heyward and linebacker James Harrison, along with linebacker Jason Worilds, stuffed the run and made life miserable for Kansas City quarterback Alex Smith.

Truth be told, it really was a team effort. It was clear that Pittsburgh came in planning to minimize the damage running back Jamaal Charles could do and force Smith to beat them.

On those patented stretch plays that Charles has been able to break off for long runs, Pittsburgh’s defense swarmed. Veteran linebacker Lawrence Timmons showed up all over the field, and he seemed to be in on nearly every play. Pittsburgh played disciplined assignment football on the inside zone, and sledding was tough for Charles all game.

NFL Network reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala had this to say about the impact Timmons had on that huge fourth-down stop that cost Kansas City points at the end of the first half: 

"

Chiefs 4th-and-1 from the Steelers 11 and Lawrence Timmons STUFFS Jamaal Charles. Timmons did say Friday: It's how you play now that matters

— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) December 21, 2014 "

A big tip of the hat to rookie defensive end Stephon Tuitt as well. The first-year player from Notre Dame showed great power and nice closing speed. Tuitt also pitched in a sack on Smith and should get an increased workload next Sunday and into the playoffs. Tuitt also had a huge forced fumble in the third quarter that turned into a touchdown for Pittsburgh and put the game out of reach. 

Here's a little more about Tuitt from Steelers team reporter Missi Matthews:

"

Nice game for @DOCnation_7 today. He recorded his first career forced fumble and first career sack against the Chiefs.

— Missi Matthews (@missi_matthews) December 21, 2014"

But maybe a bigger part of what Timmons did was in coverage. On multiple occasions, Timmons was sent out into the route to trail Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Kelce finished the game with only four catches for 31 yards.

USA TODAY Sports

All in all, Pittsburgh's day against Smith was tremendous. Even though Smith threw for 311 yards, Pittsburgh sacked Smith six times and hit him eight. And as for Charles? Well, Charles finished with 77 yards of offense, but only 29 of those came on the ground. 

However, even with all of that, the best way to understand how well the defense played is to look at whose names weren’t called. The Steelers secondary.

Over the past several weeks, this unit has been abused by opposing offenses. This week, however, this group did a nice job of keeping plays in front of them and made a huge improvement in tackling. There was an intensity and a cohesiveness that had been missing in weeks past.

Overall, this was one of the most complete games the Steelers have played, and it couldn’t have happened at a better time. With the Cincinnati Bengals and the AFC North on the line next Sunday, they will need this sort of continued effort to stay competitive.