2021 Steelers Season Recall: Pittsburgh’s postseason ends in wild-card clash with Chiefs
Steel City Underground presents our 2021 Steelers Recall: a look back at Pittsburgh Steelers games and storylines from last season.
After the Pittsburgh Steelers narrowly beat the Baltimore Ravens to get into the NFL playoffs, they went on the road on Super Wildcard Weekend to face the Kansas City Chiefs. The Steelers had lost to the Chiefs (10-36) in Week 16 of the regular season at Arrowhead, so there was a sense of urgency to perform better in order to keep their postseason alive. Things got off to a hot start in the wild card clash before falling apart.
The first quarter of the game was abysmal for both teams’ offenses. In fact, the first quarter was mainly a highlight reel of punters Pressley Harvin III and Tommy Townsend. A 14.5-point underdog heading into Sunday night’s Wild Card playoff game, the Steelers somehow remained knotted at 0-0 with the favored Chiefs as the game ventured into the second quarter.
With a little over 11 minutes left in the second quarter, however, Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt made a statement play.
Watt, who’d been egregiously held while attempting to make a tackle on Derrick Gore received a penalty for face-masking. Watt, who took exception to the call, dialed in and broke up a gimmick play between receiver Mecole Hardman – who’d stepped into the backfield to take the “wildcat” snap – and running back Darrel Williams. Williams tried to recover from the bobbled ball and saw Cameron Heyward punch the ball free once again. Watt scooped the ball for the score; he ran 26 yards and slid inside the endzone to put the Steelers on the scoreboard first.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was motivated by the play, however, instead of deflated. “We were all pissed at ourselves,” Mahomes said later. “We weren’t playing with enough energy. We weren’t playing at a high enough level… Everyone was talking to each other, and we came out with a different urgency.”
Despite pressure applied by the Steelers’ defense, Mahomes proceeded to throw for 404 yards and five scores that put Kansas City in the end zone on six straight possessions after the turnover. The first offensive drive took just an underhand flick to Jerick McKinnon after a 76-yard drive to tie the game for the Chiefs. Mahomes then found Brian Pringle and Travis Kelce to turn the tide, in a span of fewer than six minutes, in Kansas City’s favor.
The 21-7 lead at halftime was reminiscent of the 23-0 halftime advantage the Chiefs had taken into the locker room in Week 16. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had completed just five-of-14 passes for 24 yards in the entire first half; the offense had just 55 total yards.
The Steelers didn’t start things off well in the third quarter when, on their first offensive series, Najee Harris – who’d been almost completely shut down by the Chiefs defense – lost his first fumble of the season. The Chiefs bookended that Steelers series with a TD drive to start the second half (a pass to offensive tackle Nick Allegretti) and a TD catch to Tyreek Hill.
That pretty much sealed the game for Kansas City who was putting the screws to Pittsburgh to the tune that the stadium ran out of fireworks for the fans.
Harris finished the game with 29 yards on 12 carries. That isn’t to fault the rookie rusher, though. With poor play across the offense, especially from Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh was forced to keep their defense on the field for the majority of the game. That type of situation typically spells disaster, and it did for the Steelers that day.
Linebacker Devin Bush did grab an interception off of a Watt tip, but the offense couldn’t convert it into points. In the end, there was just not enough energy to keep the Chiefs from running up the score.
Roethlisberger finished what became his final career game having completed 29-of-44 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns. Receivers Diontae Johnson and James Washington were the recipients of the two TD passes.
“We didn’t make the plays we had to, early, to give ourselves a chance, and doing that, we didn’t keep our defense off the field. Those are tough situations to go against such a high-powered offense.” – Ben Roethlisberger
The Steelers exited Kansas City with a bit of a bruised ego after the final scoreboard showed 42-21 in a brutal loss.
After the game, head coach Mike Tomlin said, “As opposed to coming in here and talking about the things we didn’t do… the classy thing to do is compliment the Kansas City Chiefs. They have a really good football team, they have an explosive team, and they did a really good job tonight.”
