Open Thread: Pittsburgh Steelers at Kansas City Chiefs

Pittsburgh didn’t do a lot to ignite bright hopes for next week’s AFC Championship Game visit to New England, the Steelers advancing despite never scoring a touchdown. Basically the team will have to play their best, mistake-free football if they want to leave Kansas City with the W. That means 55.2 percent of the eligible KC market was watching the game, which the Steelers won 18-16. That makes for an interesting matchup between fierce AFC rivals Sunday in Foxboro, with a trip to Super Bowl LI on the line.

It’s not just that the Chiefs beat the Steelers in that week seven game, but it was HOW it happened and what happened afterwards.

When the Falcons play host to the Packers in the early game on conference championship Sunday, the game will pit a Matt Ryan-led Atlanta team that has averaged a league-best 35.1 points at home, and a Green Bay group that since November 20 has 24 touchdowns, one interception, and the league’s hottest hand in Aaron Rodgers.

These franchises have been studies in stability.

“They’re playing on rhythm”, said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. The Patriots have had only Bill Belichick since 1999.

The game promises to be memorable. Obviously, it’s going to be a great challenge.

The Chiefs cut the lead to 15-10 with a Cairo Santos field goal at the end of the third quarter, but Boswell would match it with his sixth of the night, pushing the Steelers’ lead back to 18-10. Will the Pittsburgh Steelers or the New England Patriots fall in the divisional playoffs? Quarterback Alex Smith finished with a meager 172 yards passing, with a QBR of 33.3 percent. I wonder if we find out that his “broken fingers” are a more significant injury than we originally thought.

THEN AND NOW: The Patriots beat the Steelers, 27-16, on October 23 at Heinz Field.

And Brown has the ability to take any pass all the way for a touchdown, as he showed in Pittsburgh’s wild-card win over Miami.

One of them will be on the other sideline. The pass fell incomplete, but Davis was penalized for hitting Conley, a defenseless receiver.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are in the midst of a youth movement on defense.

They were minus-2 when they faced the Steelers in October. They converted another fourth down before Ware reached the end zone.

But it was dicey, as the forecasts seemed to be constantly changing, so Donovan said everyone wanted to make sure they had the latest information before making the change. “You’ve got to mature through the year”.

They wound up overtaking Oakland for the division title on the final day of the regular season, earning a first-round bye and a home playoff game.

Maybe some people aren’t anxious about a Pittsburgh matchup given the Patriots have had the Steelers’ number for quite some time, going 9-3 during the Tom Brady era, including 2-0 in the postseason. “You’re in the playoffs, so you need to throw everything out, whether you played them before or didn’t play them before, personnel or whatever it is”.

It’s not going to be easy.