The Pittsburgh Steelers barely made it to the playoffs thanks to an epic season finale between Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers. Their reward? a road trip against the Kansas City Chiefs.
That's not the kind of prize you'd expect after a long and winding road, especially given the way the Chiefs thrashed them in the regular season. Then again, for whatever reason, it seems like you can never count Mike Tomlin's team out.
That's why the coach is still pretty confident in his team's ability to bounce back and be at their best when they visit Arrowhead this weekend. With the way their defense has been playing, they're never truly out of any game.
Mike Tomlin Knows The Chiefs 'Handled Them' In The Regular Season
“They handled us and handled us definitively,” coach Mike Tomlin said, per Trib Live. “We understand that, but at the same time, we’re not paralyzed by that. We accept that we didn’t play well enough last time. We accept that we didn’t plan well enough, but that was last time. We’re excited about the process of readiness this time, putting together a better plan, putting guys in position to make more consistent plays, particularly in weighty moments and situational ball.”
Tomlin Lauds Patricks Mahomes Ahead Of Wild Card Game Showdown
The Steelers will have their hands full with Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes is playing his best football when it matters the most after an erratic start to the season, and there's only so much you can do to try and slow him down:
“It’s the ability to challenge you schematically and structurally but also in his ad-lib fashion as he extends plays,” Tomlin said. “It’s his ability to create time and space to allow plays to develop that is unique and challenging. He threw a red-zone touchdown where he probably held the ball for five or six seconds. He doesn’t feel pressure that’s not there. He has a low pulse rate. I think that allows him to extend plays.”
“The bottom line is you can’t do either too much,” Tomlin explained. “You better be prepared to do all of the above. When you play good people, you can’t beat them in a one-dimensional way. You can’t. So it’s going to take the full complement of what it is we do, and it’s going to have to be done at a high level from an execution standpoint.”
Most people anticipate this will be Ben Roethlisberger's final game and for very good reasons, as the Chiefs are peaking at the right time. But we've seen crazier things happen and you can never underestimate a Hall of Famer QB desperate to live another day.
