Chiefs report card: Offense, Mahomes shine in win over Steelers at Pittsburgh
The key plays, stats and grades for the Chiefs’ 42-37 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pa.
The recap
Player of the game: Patrick Mahomes passed for 326 yards and tied a franchise record held by Len Dawson with six touchdown passes in a game. Mahomes went 23-of-28 and also rushed for 18 yards.
Reason to hope: The offense enjoyed a record-setting day and scored 42 points in just the third career start for Mahomes.
Reason to mope: The defense again proved vulnerable against the pass, and the Steelers made it a point to attack the KC secondary. That strategy worked to the tune of 452 passing yards and three touchdowns.
Looking ahead: The Chiefs will now turn their attention to their home opener against the San Francisco 49ers at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.
Report card
Rushing offense: B+. While the big plays were largely produced by the passing attack, the Chiefs ran for 127 yards and averaged 5.1 yards per carry on their way to victory. They also used the ground game to control time of possession in the fourth quarter (7 minutes, 42 seconds). Kareem Hunt rushed for 75 yards on 18 carries.
Passing offense: A. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ record-setting day started from the opening possession and never fully stopped. It stalled in the second quarter, but it kicked back into gear in the second half. The offensive line did a great job protecting against a defense that recorded seven sacks the previous week. They allowed just one on Sunday. Mahomes had more touchdowns (six) than incompletions (five) as he completed 23 of 28 passes for 326 yards.
Rushing defense: A. The Chiefs came in expecting the front seven to be the focal point, but the Steelers largely abandoned the run after having little success in the first quarter. The Chiefs held the Steelers to 33 total rushing yards and less than 3 yards per carry. They also didn’t allow a run of more than 9 yards.
Passing defense: D. Pittsburgh’s All-Pro quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, got off to a slow start, but his offensive line gave him plenty of time and the Chiefs paid for their a lack of a pass rush. Roethlisberger surpassed 300 yards passing with more than seven minutes left in the third quarter. The Chiefs’ secondary was spread out and forced to cover for extended period, and they were exploited repeatedly. The secondary also committed multiple in the form of penalties that extended drives or led to points. The Chiefs’ first sack came after 50 pass attempts.
Special teams: A-. The Chiefs’ special teams unit made big plays for the second week in a row. This time, De’Anthony Thomas had a punt return that basically gift-wrapped a touchdown by giving the Chiefs’ offense the ball at the Pittsburgh 10-yard line on its first possession. They were strong in kick coverage and Tyreek Hill’s presence made the Steelers afraid to punt inbounds. The only glaring miscalculation came when Hill allowed a punt to drop and ended up pinning the Chiefs at their own 1-yard line in the fourth quarter.
Coaching: C. The Chiefs jumped all over the Steelers out of the gate on the road, and the offense adjusted after a lackluster second quarter. They bounced back with 14 third-quarter points to regain control of the game. Defensively, they were able to take away the ground attack of the Steelers. However, they seemed to struggle to adjust to the Steelers’ passing game and were late to turn to the blitz to apply pressure. Twelve penalties on the road against a good team is not a sign of a disciplined football team — particularly the couple of false starts on third down.
Lynn Worthy
Lynn Worthy covers the Kansas City Chiefs and NFL for The Star.
This story was originally published September 16, 2018 at 5:37 PM.