It wasn’t about if the Pittsburgh Steelers could beat the Kansas City Chiefs. Given the way these two teams have played, it was something of a given the Steelers wouldn’t be able to keep up. But given this was the last game of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s Hall of Fame career, I think everyone expected a better effort than to be blown out by the Chiefs 42-21.
After the first quarter when the Steelers defense seemed to be inspired to keep Pittsburgh in the game, the wheels fell off completely. The Chiefs offense just toyed with them for three quarters and found new and creative ways to score touchdowns. This included a touchdown pass to an offensive lineman and a touchdown pass thrown by tight end Travis Kelce.
Offensively it was just more of the same for the Steelers. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before but the offensive line struggled, running back Najee Harris was held in check, wide receivers Diontae Johnson and Chase Claypool are dropping passes, offensive coordinator Matt Canada remains clueless and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger kept throwing the ball so quickly, no one could make a play.
The Steelers now have plenty of time to contemplate everything that went wrong with the 2021 season and try to rebuild this team around a new quarterback.
