It seems like longer than three years ago, given the brilliance of Patrick Mahomes, but it was only 2018 that the Chiefs’ star quarterback and Ben Roethlisberger went blow for blow in a memorable quarterback duel at Heinz Field.
Mahomes, you might recall, was in his second year in the NFL but his first season as a starter. The Chiefs came to Pittsburgh in Week 2, fresh off a win at the Chargers in which the wunderkind 10th overall pick tossed four touchdowns in his first meaningful start after backing up Alex Smith as a rookie. But if that season opener was his coming-out party, the 42-37 win over Roethlisberger and the Steelers was what put the football world on red alert.
“I don't remember anything from that game, specifically, but I think from Day 1 we all saw how special of a player he had the potential to be, and has proven to be,” Roethlisberger said Wednesday morning before practice. “The stuff he does is pretty amazing.”
It’s surprising that Roethlisberger didn’t recall much from what was, quite literally, Day 2 of what would turn out to be an MVP season for Mahomes. Because you could call Roethlisberger’s performance in that one amazing in its own right.
In what reads like the box score from a Big 12 game, Mahomes and Roethlisberger combined for 778 yards and nine touchdowns on 62-of-88 passing — without a single interception. Roethlisberger was prolific, throwing for 452 yards — the eighth-most in his career — and three touchdowns, while also adding a 3-yard rushing score. But Mahomes was remarkably efficient, racking up 326 yards and an eye-popping six touchdowns with just five incompletions on 28 attempts — a 154.8 passer rating that still stands as the highest of his career.
“We thought he was good at that time — or was going to be good. But listen, Keith [Butler] does a great job with his defense, and Mike [Tomlin], so we knew it was going to be a great challenge,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Wednesday, reflecting on that 2018 matchup. “It was a close game. We ended up coming out on the [right] end of it, and he played well. I was happy for him. But that game doesn't have anything to do with this game.”
Maybe not, but there’s no denying that in one try against the Steelers, Mahomes was incredible. Even as that game was playing out, with the Chiefs taking leads of 21-0 and 42-28, there was a certain “is he really doing this?” factor to Mahomes firing dart after dart to open receivers.
To Reid’s point, the Steelers secondary will look completely different this weekend than it did back then. Joe Haden was out with a hamstring injury, so the most experienced cornerbacks were Artie Burns and Coty Sensabaugh, the latter of whom split snaps with current starter Cam Sutton. The safety tandem of Morgan Burnett and Sean Davis didn’t last long, and for the past three seasons, the Steelers have turned to Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds to patrol the back end.
“[Mahomes] is unbelievably talented. He's big-time competitive. He's got arm talent, he's got leg talent, he's got football intellect. He's extremely difficult to trick,” said Tomlin, who spent the early part of the week studying what defenses have been able to do to sack Mahomes. “He's only been sacked, I think, one time this year versus pressure, and that speaks to how he performs and they perform versus pressure. Man, he makes good and quick decisions. He gets the ball into the hands of guys that are not only dangerous in terms of getting open but are dangerous after they get the ball.”
Indeed, there’s a school of thought now that blitzing Mahomes is playing right into his hands. The new recipe, such as it is, to limit his impact is to make him read defenses and coverages, something Mahomes himself admits is an area where he’s had to improve in the NFL.
That strategy from defensive coordinators likely contributed to a slow start to this season for Mahomes, at least by his standards. The Chiefs hit the skids in Week 2, leading to a 2-4 rough patch in which Mahomes served up nine interceptions, one or more in all six games, and only twice had a passer rating above 90.5.
“Every quarterback goes through that somewhere in their career. I’ve been around some good ones, and not every game is going to be the perfect game, so you have to power through it,” Reid said. “The great ones do that. They power through and work on whatever they need to work on, trust themselves that it’s going to work out, trust their teammates, and move on. That’s kind of what we’ve seen with Patrick.”
They’ve also seen him have one of those perfect games, or close to it, and it came the only other time he faced the Steelers. If this is the second and last time he clashes with Roethlisberger, both have a lot to live up to in terms of fireworks.
“Taking care of the ball is, obviously, huge. Not turning it over, which we did last week, is key to victory,” Roethlisberger said. “Even with a team like [Kansas City], you say: ‘OK, if you possess the ball, that helps.’ But they can score really fast and do some amazing things. We just have to be smart and play our game and that’s going to be key no matter what happens.”
