That’s more like it: Offense shows what it can be
PITTSBURGH – This was how Pittsburgh’s vaunted offense was supposed to look.
The Steelers hung 22 points on the Kansas City Chiefs in the first quarter of Sunday night’s matchup at Heinz Field, scoring their most points in a first quarter since 1940.
That’s right, 1940.
It was no coincidence it happened on the night when running back Le’Veon Bell made his 2016 debut.
It also was no coincidence quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was coming off a game in Philadelphia last week that was, well, certainly not among the best performances of his career.
Entering Sunday, the Steelers were 10-0 coming off a loss with Roethlisberger at quarterback.
He had been a big part of that, throwing 22 touchdown passes and averaging just under 300 yards passing in those games.
He added to those totals in a big way against the Chiefs, throwing for 300 yards and five touchdown passes before exiting in favor of Landry Jones.
Roethlisberger threw to all nine of his eligible receivers in this game, with four different players catching touchdown passes.
“I thought everybody got involved,” said Roethlisberger. “That’s what’s a lot of fun, when everybody participates, everybody gets involved. We can be pretty dangerous.”
Kansas City played the willing partner in what transpired, losing a fumble, having a pass intercepted off a tip by defensive end Cameron Heyward and getting a 23-yard punt from Dustin Colquitt from its own 17-yard line. The Steelers’ offense cashed in on those opportunities.
By the time the first half concluded, this game was effectively over. Roethlisberger had thrown more touchdowns (four) than incompletions (three) in a 29-0 start that left the Chiefs reeling.
This is what the Steelers were built to do.
They don’t have anything even remotely resembling a shutdown defense. But, as we saw in this game, if the defense can come up with some stops or even a turnover or two, this offense has its quick-strike ability.
Pittsburgh’s scoring drives following Kansas City’s turnovers/bad punts were three plays, one play and two plays.
That’s going for the jugular.
The only downside to what happened was that right tackle Marcus Gilbert left with a sprained ankle at the end of the half. Other than that, it went exactly as scripted for the Steelers.
Roethlisberger needs to figure out how to take this game on the road. He had thrown 42 touchdown touchdown passes at home since the start of the 2014 season. On the road during that same span, he has 17 touchdown passes.
That’s a dramatic difference.
There’s some reason to think that could be changing. In the opener at Washington, Roethlisberger threw three touchdown passes.
He wasn’t good last week at Philadelphia, but nobody wearing black and gold was good in that game.
As we saw against Kansas City, having Bell back in the lineup makes a big difference.
While the Steelers had nice moments this season out of its wide receivers not named Antonio Brown, players such as Sammie Coates, Eli Rogers, Jesse James and Xavier Grimble aren’t meant to be front-line contributors. But with Martavis Bryant suspended for the season and Bell missing for the first three games, they had to be just that.
In this game, we saw Bell split wide with DeAngelo Williams in the backfield. We saw Bell go in motion from the backfield. We saw Williams and Bell in the same backfield with Bell then going in motion.
We saw options.
And that can’t be a bad thing for this Pittsburgh offense.
Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.