Steelers at Chiefs - Week 6 - Record: 5-1

I really didn't think we were going to win this game. I just had a feeling that Steelers thing was going to so brutally impact our game yet again -- just all the goofiness that makes virtually everything we do bad and everything they do good -- at least just enough to get them the win.

Happens every time.

Call it that weird spell that afflicts the Chiefs any time they play the Steelers. You see it in every game they play against them. It was on full display in that playoff game we lost to this team last year. It was all over that critical game in 2014 that effectively knocked us out of the playoff race. That thing just hasn't ended. I actually wonder if it has something to do with the Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley, just desperately doing everything he can to ruthlessly punish the Chiefs however he can with this interminably seething vendetta I'm sure he still has against us.

As far as I see I look at the Steelers getting clobbered by a Jaguars team as they did last week (even though the Jags are pretty good this year), I see them with two losses already, I see a team in disarray with this national anthem confusion, whatever little I catch about the Steelers it is all about a very average team... I don't get it...

They meet the Chiefs and no matter what they become a team of supermen.

Every single time.

It was like that game we played against them in 2006 when we just got hammered by them, I mean it was a complete and utter obliteration. I swear they had 14 guys on the field while we only had 9. I'm telling you that's what it looked like today. They constantly showed stats that indicate the Steelers are very average -- except when they play us.

And it isn't just the play on the field. It is the absurdity of the calls that go against us, like the touchdown that Demetrius Harris had -- oh he had it, he had the ball and took three clear steps, but the refs just missed it and Andy Reid just had a brain fart refusing to challenge it. Oh, sorry, all scoring plays are reviewed. So we can't even do anything about that. And even if it was too close to overturn, why? When we play the Steelers when does the play ever go in our favor by the inch required?

Look at that almost interception by Phillip Gaines. Are you kidding me? Why did that insanely idiotic play happen against us?

Because it had to do with the notoriously charmed Steelers.

So here's the upshot of this game beyond the curse stuff.

Alex Smith played a very very subpar game. He missed wide open receivers all over the place. A lot of that was the offensive line. He looked intimidated and the thug approach of the Steelers worked -- there were two roughing the passer penalties against them. Get into Alex Smith's head and you can rattle him. Smith was rattled all day.

The Steelers offensive line is very good. It's nice to have a healthy offensive line. Our refusal to have a Ray Lewis-type in the middle of the field really hurts against a team like this. LeVeon Bell had his typical 800 yards rushing against the Chiefs. Our loss of Eric Berry was glaring today -- he is really that big of a factor in shutting down their running game.

Meanwhile on our O-line our loss of Mitch Morse and LDT showed big-time today. Our running game was poor and it is because that make-shift O-line is being exposed. Zach Fulton had not been snapping the ball well and sure enough, first play of the game -- zzzhoop -- into the end zone for a safety.

I'm sorry but I'm tired right now. I have a lot of work and need some rest, and this game was just draining. Forgive me I'm not going to write a whole lot more.

It's probably pretty good that we lost because the pressure of seeing how long we can be undefeated is off. We can know what we need to do and what it takes to be a consistently winning team. As aggravating as all get-out as this all was, I will end on a positive note.

We still have weapons. We will regroup. It was fun to watch DAT make that catch and will his way to the touchdown. What a play by Eric Murray on that Steelers 3rd down late to give us a chance, awesome. Our special teams, Dustin Colquitt and Tyreek Hill and Jehu Chesson, great work. There were other great Chiefs individual efforts today, there were.

Several good things I can talk about with the Chiefs, yeah -- I mean, that we kept it close for so long while they were truly having their way with us on every metaphysical level has to be a good thing.
__