Chiefs fail again (and again) in the red zone — and have their fans seeing red, too
They huffed. And they puffed. And they huffed. And they puffed. Six times on Sunday afternoon, the Kansas City Chiefs drove as far as the Pittsburgh 28. For all that holiday shopping, this was the end result:
Twelve points.
Twelve stinkin' points.
Four times, they came away with three. Twice, they got nada.
On three occasions, the Andy Gang got to the Steelers' 15. Total points: Six. A pair of field goals and a turnover on downs after a fourth-and-1 stuff of tailback Jamaal Charles.
There will be short answers and long answers from Steelers 20, Chiefs 12 at Heinz Field, but the bottom line is the same: The team that talked since the spring about "finishing" didn't, and didn't in the game it needed most at the times it needed it most.
Kansas City (8-7) outgained the No. 1 yardage offense in the NFL, on the road, 327-282. The Steelers (10-5) ran the ball for 2.6 yards per clip and were held under 75 rushing yards as a team for just the fourth time all season. The defense held up its end, more often than not.
The offense ended up a few yards, a few critical plays, short, time and again. Four red-zone opportunities, zero red-zone touchdowns, 16 points left on the field. Ballgame.
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Throw in a run game that could never get its bread-and-butter -- the power look -- working, rushing 14 times for just 39 yards, and welcome to The Sunday That Got Away.
The game. The postseason dream. You name it.
After that victory over Seattle on Nov. 16 had lifted their record to 7-3, the Chiefs have dropped four of their last five and head into the post-Christmas home finale next Sunday needing a few holiday miracles to grab a ticket for the sixth and last AFC playoff slot.
Lose to Tennessee, beat New England, beat Seattle, lose to Oakland, and keep your mitts on the handrail at all times. These are what 8-8-or-9-7-kind-of-teams do -- teasing you, building up hope and visions of sugar plums and all the rest one week, then failing to tackle the Raiders the next.
The 2014 Chiefs are the NFL equivalent of your aunt's old, one-story ranch house with the wonky roof and leaky water heater: If it's not one thing, it's another. The Andy Reid Roller-Coaster got a nice day from quarterback Alex Smith (31-45, 311 yards) and star turns from rookie receivers Albert Wilson (87 receiving yards, though none after halftime, curiously) and De'Anthony Thomas (47 on six catches). Out of 14 third-down chances, six were converted.
But when push came to shove, the Chiefs lost out on the former and offered up a few of the latter as frustration mounted late. While young wideouts (Fan Concern No. 2) were starting to show some promise against a banged-up (and not great) Steelers secondary, a veteran, patchwork offensive line (Fan Concern No. 1) was getting its collective backsides handed to it by the Steelers' front seven. Smith was sacked six times -- the third time he'd been dropped a half-dozen times over the last two months. No. 11 was so shaken by the collapsing pocket in front of him -- left guard Jeff Linkenbach was tossed around like a rag doll all day by Steelers end Cameron Heyward -- that on a first-and-10 from the Pittsburgh 12 with 2:04 left in the game, the veteran signal-caller appeared to pump-fake so hard that he started to stumble to the ground, essentially taking himself down for a 4-yard loss.
Was that kind of game. Been that kind of month.
There will be the usual hand-wringing over Reid's play-calling, the lack of turns for Charles -- though, in Reid's defense, No. 25 was banged up and the push in the trenches was largely negligible. Should the Chiefs have kicked a short field goal, down 10-6, to end the first half, rather than go for it? Probably, in hindsight, but then we're talking about a 10-9 deficit instead of 10-6, and 15 points out of those doomed inside-the-30 trips instead of a dozen.
And to think: The Chiefs came into Sunday's tilt second in the NFL in touchdown ratio in the red zone (67.3 percent). They'd managed to hit paydirt on 75 percent of their trips to the red zone over the previous three games.
All that huffing and puffing doesn't mean diddly poo, as Jim Mora liked to say, if the pig's house is still standing at the end of the cartoon.
Yes, technically, they're not dead. Yet. The Andy Gang can still crash the postseason party if they:
-- Beat San Diego;
-- Get a Baltimore loss;
-- Get a Jacksonville win over Houston;
-- Kill a vampire with a wooden stake.
New deck chairs. Same Titanic. On the Sunday That Got Away, the star-crossed saga of 2014 might just have finally done the same.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
