After
an awesome week 16, the NFL will be back with only two days in between. That’s right, week 17 is already geared up
with two Christmas Day specials. After
the Chiefs, Texans, Steelers, & Ravens played this past Saturday, all four
teams will be back to play their week 17 matchups with swapped opponents for an
added jolly bonus to our day of gifts and cheer. The Ravens will suit up to take on the
Houston Texans on the road at 4:30 PM, while the first game will feature a
contest between the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers at 1 PM. To go from playing on a Saturday to playing
again on Wednesday does seem a bit odd at first, but when you think about it
the same thing happens when a team plays on Sunday followed by a Thursday Night
game the next week.
Kansas
City is coming off yet another win which isn’t all that surprising, though the
Houston Texans had played them very close.
Next up for the Champs is their toughest test of the season. The Chiefs have played some good teams this
season, eight of which are playoff-bound.
That said, they’ve only played two teams with defenses of the same level
of difficulty (Chargers & Broncos).
Pittsburgh has one of the best defensive units in the league and ranks
within the top ten in multiple categories.
The Steelers own the Chiefs in their all-time series 23-14-0, though
since Mahomes has been in the league Kansas City is a perfect 3-0 against them. A lot has been left to be desired by this
squad, yet Andy Reid has his team atop the entire NFL and a two-game lead in
the AFC with a 14-1 record this year. That
one blemish came from Buffalo, but it seems like it will almost be impossible
for the Bills to take the AFC’s top spot away from last year's defending
Champs. I know it is like having a song
on repeat to hear this same old message, though the reality of this team has
been the strength of their defense.
Steve Spagnuolo’s
coaching of this defensive unit is the main reason the Chiefs have been coming
away with a bunch of wins they had no business walking out with. They have been victorious in ten one-score
games, five have been by three points or less, while four games were won by two
or fewer points. After researching KC’s
wins with such point differentials, Statmuse.com shows they are currently ranked
as 7th all-time in games won by less than three points (four teams
tied with 6, two teams tied with 7) and presently placing second in victories
of two or fewer points (Packers had 5 such wins in 1989). Here’s where I'm going to blow your mind, the
total amount of games they’ve won by a touchdown or less this season may not
seem like a huge deal, right? Well, it
is because the Chiefs are ranked first all-time in NFL history with this
statistic. How this team is consistently
able to do this is just plain and simply crazy.
I still don’t think that they will be able to win a third consecutive
Super Bowl, however, they did just welcome back two of the biggest pieces of
their offense back into the lineup. Mahomes
must be thrilled to have his starting running back Isiah Pacheco (first game
back was in week 13) alongside offseason addition receiver Marquise “Hollywood”
Brown.
CHIEFS OFFENSE:
POINTS PER GAME- 23.7 (11th)
TOTAL YARDS P/G- 338.9 (13th)
RUSH YARDS P/G- 112.9 (15th)
PASS YARDS P/G- 225.9 (12th)
SACKS ALLOWED- 36 (17th)
CHIEFS DEFENSE:
POINTS PER GAME- 18.5 (3rd)
TOTAL YARDS P/G- 307.2 (3rd)
RUSH YARDS P/G- 91.4 (3rd)
PASS YARDS P/G- 215.8 (17th)
TOTAL SACKS- 34 (22nd)
Mike Tomlin
is walking into a home game on Christmas Day with a whole lot on his mind. The Steelers just lost their second straight
game this time to their storied rivals, the Baltimore Ravens. It is very hard to see this Pittsburgh team
dropping three straight even if their next opponent is the Chiefs. They are still in first place in the AFC
North and by the end of Christmas Day, with a loss to KC they could very well
give the North title away to Baltimore if the Ravens can gain a victory over Houston. Russell Wilson has played very strong for
Pittsburgh this season leaving a lot of his previous doubters in his dust. The Steelers are seemingly always top defense,
with great play out of Watt, Heyward, and Fitzpatrick they certainly pose a
serious threat to the Kansas City Chiefs that they haven’t seen this year. If they can get a healthy George Pickens back
into the lineup he can cause some mismatches for Kansas City’s pass
defense. The Chiefs' pass defense is
currently the 17th-ranked unit in the league and is honestly the only weakness
that they have had so far this season.
The Steelers have
been struggling on offense without Pickens and may not be much of a threat to the
Chiefs if he is unable to go on Wednesday.
He has been their best offensive weapon to stretch the field this year. In their last three games, the top-receiving
production came through wideout Calvin Austin III catching 4 passes for 65
yards, and 5 receptions for 65 yards in week 15. In week 14 tight end Pat Freiermuth led them
in receiving with 3 catches for 48 yards.
I can’t stress enough what he has meant to this offense and their team
in general. Pickens is starting to look like
he will become the type of player he was advertised to be. He still hasn’t reached his ceiling in his
third year as a pro out of Georgia and is only 8 receptions along with 290
receiving yards away from surpassing his career highs.
Defensively
as I already mentioned Watt has been widely in the talks for DPOTY for weeks
now. Their DC Teryl Austin has them
playing elite-style football, only allowing 299 points total this year to
opposing offenses (T-7th).
Steelers have also only yielded 4,851 total yards through 16 weeks of
the season which ranks 11th among the rest of the league. They are ready to show the rest of the NFL
that they can surprise some teams. They have
a huge opportunity to make a strong case for that if they can get a win on
Christmas Day against Patrick Mahomes, and Andy Reid alongside the rest of the
Chiefs.
STEELERS OFFENSE:
POINTS PER GAME- 23.5 (12TH)
TOT YARDS P/G- 324.9 (19TH)
RUSH YARDS P/G- 126.0 (11TH)
PASS YARDS P/G- 198.9 (25TH)
SACKS ALLOWED- 40 (21ST)
STEELERS DEFENSE:
POINTS PER GAME- 19.9 (6TH)
TOT YARDS P/G- 323.4 (11TH)
RUSH YARDS P/G- 102.7 (7TH)
PASS YARDS P/G- 220.7 (20TH)
TOTAL SACKS- 36 (16TH)
This
game should not disappoint as the NFL has given us a game with two top-ten teams,
both of which possess top defensive units.
This has all the makings for some great holiday football with two of the
smartest NFL head coaches of all time. On
one side of the field will be the two-time Super Bowl Champion Andy Reid while
coaching adjacent to him will be another Super Bowl-winning coach, Mike Tomlin. By no surprise, the Chiefs are the early favorites
for this game -2.5 on the road. In
Tomlin’s 18-year career as the Steelers head coach, he has only had a three-game
plus losing streaks ten times within nine seasons (Steelers had 2 such losing streaks in 2019). Call me crazy but I am leaning towards the
Steelers in an upset on Christmas Day.
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