Monday Night Football Afterword: Steelers vs Chiefs

The Chiefs gave the Steelers a scare, but Pittsburgh faces
a bigger problem. Photo credit to ESPN.

As it turned out, this was a much more interesting game than anyone, myself included, figured it would be heading into last night.

The Chiefs held a lead, in regulation, for the first time this season. In fact, they held a 10-0 lead early in the second quarter before the Steelers rallied to tie the game at halftime.

The third quarter saw no scoring change. When Pittsburgh took a 13-10 lead in the fourth, I figured that it was over, that KC’s confidence was so low that they were doomed to suffer another loss. Not only that, but the officials really seemed to be skewing things in favor of the Steelers and that wasn’t helping Kansas City’s cause, either.

Instead, in an incredible final drive of regulation, which included overcoming a costly offensive pass interference call, Matt Cassel made some incredible passes I never expected to see from him, and get his team in position for Ryan Succop to redeem himself from an earlier field goal miss. He made the field goal but an interception by Cassel deep in Chiefs territory in overtime led to a 1^st Down field goal try by to give Pittsburgh the victory.

There were many turning points in the game, most significantly a defensive touchdown for Kansas City that was called back on account of the infamous ‘Tuck Rule.’ The score would have given the Chiefs a 17-10 lead in the third quarter. More importantly, even though the score did not count, the Chiefs were still flagged for excessive celebration.

It was a very weird game, but the bad news from all of it is on the Steelers side. The Chiefs season was already over before this game began, but Pittsburgh could be in serious trouble, too. Ben Roethlisberger left the game with a shoulder injury and was taken to the hospital during the game. There was some speculation that it may have been a separated shoulder but so far the only confirmed report is a shoulder sprain. That said, ESPN recently announced that Steelers personnel are concerned that it may be a significant shoulder injury that could lead Big Ben to miss a fair amount of time.

Week 10 was a rough one for quarterbacks. In addition to Roethlisberger’s injury, Alex Smith, Michael Vick and Jay Cutler all suffered concussions. So far, only Alex Smith, who has no documented past issues with concussions, appears on track to play in Week 11.