WHAT WENT RIGHT, WRONG VS. KANSAS CITY

The highs and lows of the Steelers matchup vs. the Kansas City Chiefs.

COIN TOSS: Chiefs call heads. It’s heads. Kansas City defers. Steelers get the football.

What Went Wrong: The first 115 seconds of the game proceeded as badly as possible for the Steelers. After receiving the opening kickoff, the offense went three-and-out, with Ben Roethlisberger throwing incomplete on first and third downs, with a second down completion being marred by an illegal block penalty that was declined. Jordan Berry’s punt traveled 44 yards and was fielded by up-back DeAnthony Thomas, who raced 53 yards to the Steelers 10-yard line. Three plays later. Patrick Mahomes gave the Chiefs a 7-0 lead with a 15-yard pass to Chris Conley.

What Went Wrong: Through the Steelers’ first two offensive series, Ben Roethlisberger was 2-for-5 for minus-2 yards, and James Conner had one carry for minus-3 yards. The Steelers went three-and-out both times.

What Went Wrong: The Chiefs extended their lead to 14-0 with a second touchdown on their second possession. This one came on a 19-yard pass from Patrick Mahomes to Travis Kelce. The big play on the five-play 71-yard drive was a 40-yard pass to Sammy Watkins that was completed down the right sideline between cornerback Cam Sutton and free safety Sean Davis. With 9:08 left in the first quarter, the Steelers were down by two touchdowns.

What Went Wrong: Things continued on a downward trend for the Steelers when the offense moved into position for Chris Boswell to attempt a 49-yard field goal, but the kick was wide left. The key plays on the drive to get that far were a 22-yard catch-and-run by James Conner in which he broke three tackles, and a 19-yard reception by Antonio Brown. On third-and-5 from the Chiefs 31-yard line, Ben Roethlisberger’s pass for James Washington was high and incomplete.

What Went Wrong: It became a 21-0 deficit with 2:24 remaining in the first quarter after a six-play, 61-yard drive stuck the ball in the end zone for a third time in their first three offensive possessions. Sammy Watkins was the author of two big plays on the drive – the first a 17-yard reception and the second a 31-yard run on a jet-sweep. The touchdown came on a 5-yard pass to Kareem Hunt in the left flat where the Kansas City running back ran through a Terrell Edmunds tackle to get into the end zone.

What Went Right: It looked like a strip-sack-recovery and a scoop-and-score touchdown by defensive end Chris Jones, but the Steelers got a huge break when CB Orlando Scandrick was flagged for holding, which gave the Steelers a first down and kept their deficit at 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.

FIRST QUARTER: CHIEFS 21, STEELERS 0

What Went Right: The Orlando Scandrick mistake ended up on the scoreboard as the Steelers cut their deficit to 21-7 with 14:20 left in the second quarter following a 26-yard touchdown pass to Jesse James. On the six-play, 81-yard drive, JuJu Smith-Schuster caught three passes for 45 yards.

What Went Right: It followed a three-and-out, and it took 11 plays, and it consumed 85 yards in 5:41, but with 6:27 remaining in the second quarter, it was a ballgame at Heinz Field following a 2-yard touchdown pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster. In addition to the scoring play, Smith-Schuster also caught two other passes for 20 yards, and Vance McDonald had one catch for 11 yards and had a key block on one of Smith-Schuster’s receptions. The one annoying tidbit was that Chris Boswell missed the extra point, and so the Steelers trailed, 21-13.

What Went Right: It wasn’t a three-and-out, but when Cam Heyward put a hit on Patrick Mahomes to break up a pass attempt on third-and-12, the Steelers forced a punt and ended up with the ball at their own 10-yard line with 3:06 remaining in the first half following a Chiefs punt.

What Went Right: Well, after all that, with 18 seconds left in the first half, the Steelers had battled all the way back to tie the game, 21-21, thanks to a 10-play, 90-yard touchdown drive that was capped by a 14-yard touchdown pass to James Washington, which was also his first catch in a regular season NFL game. Key plays on the drive were a 31-yard reception by Jesse James, a 15-yard pass interference penalty on LB Terrance Smith, and a 10-yard reception by Antonio Brown. Following the score, the Steelers elected to go for a two-point conversion, and James Conner took Ben Roethlisberger’s pass in the flat and powered across the goal line to forge the tie.

HALFTIME: STEELERS, 21, CHIEFS 21

What Went Wrong: When the Chiefs score, they score quickly. Taking the second half kickoff, the Chiefs took a 28-21 lead thanks to a five-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a 25-yard pass to a wide open Travis Kelce down the middle of the field. The drive started with a 36-yard catch-and-run by Tyreek Hill on the first play of the possession.

What Went Right: Another touchdown by James Conner capped an 11-play, 75-yard drive that allowed the Steelers to tie the game again with 7:12 remaining in the third period. The key plays on the tying drive were two catches by Smith-Schuster for a combined 30 yards, and then there was an ass in the flat to FB Rosie Nix that turned into a 19-yard gain. A potential interception by Steven Nelson in the end zone was negated by his own pass interference penalty that allowed him to get into position to make that play.

What Went Wrong: Travis Kelce was having himself quite the afternoon and he was a big part of the 75-yard touchdown drive that returned the lead to the Chiefs, 35-28 with 3:15 remaining in the third period. Kelce caught two passes for 40 yards to get the ball into position for a 3-yard touchdown pass to Demarcus Robinson.

THIRD QUARTER: CHIEFS 35, STEELERS 28

What Went Wrong: The Kansas City offense was giving the impression of being unstoppable following another touchdown in the third quarter – a 29-yard pass to Tyreek Hill that capped off a five-play, 65-yard drive that upped the Chiefs lead to 42-28 with 13:42 remaining in the fourth quarter. At the end of that drive, Mahomes was 20-of-23 for 309 yards, with six touchdowns, no interceptions, and a rating of 158.3.

What Went Right: Following a 59-yard punt by Jordan Berry that bounced out of bounds at the 1-yard line, the Steelers shaved two points off their deficit when Artie Burns and Morgan Burnett combined to tackle Kareem Hunt in the end zone on a second-and-10 from the 1-yard line. That made it 42-30 with 12:02 left in the fourth quarter.

What Went Right: The Steelers defense came up with its first takeaway of the game when Cam Heyward forced a fumble after a short sideline completion to Chris Conley that was recovered by Anthony Chickillo at the Pittsburgh 34-yard line with 5:03 remaining in the game.

What Went Right: A nine-play, 66-yard drive capped by a 3-yard sprint to the pylon on fourth down by Ben Roethlisberger brought the Steelers into range, 42-37, with 1:59 remaining in the fourth quarter. Jesse James caught a 46-yard pass to provide the big gain on the drive. The Steelers also had all three of their timeouts.

What Went Wrong: It ended without the Steelers getting another chance to get their offense on the field, because the team went for it on special teams. Attempting to block a punt with fewer than 15 seconds left, Tyler Matakevich didn’t get there and instead roughed Dustin Colquitt, which gave the Chiefs an automatic first down and allowed them to kill the final five seconds.

FINAL SCORE: CHIEFS 42, STEELERS 37