The Pittsburgh Steelers face an almost impossible task at the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round on Sunday night. As the crass underdogs, Ben Roethlisberger and Co. basically have nothing to lose.

Ben Roethlisberger is practising humility ahead of the clash against the Chiefs © getty
Munich/Pittsburgh – That the Pittsburgh Steelers ended the regular season with a positive record (9-7-1) came as a surprise to many experts.

However, the fact that they qualified for the playoffs with a narrow overtime victory over the Baltimore Ravens on game day 18 resembled a small miracle.

Franchise quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who will most likely end his career after the season, was basically already on his farewell tour. Instead of celebrations around “Big Ben”, the veteran now suddenly gets another chance to make a Super Bowl run – but rarely have the signs been so clearly against him.

Pittsburgh Steelers: Underdog would be an understatement

Accordingly, the Steelers’ glaring underdog role in the 2021 playoffs doesn’t just stem from the team’s own weaknesses. Although the Steelers have the worst offence of all play-off participants with just 20.2 points scored per game, this is not the main reason why they are rated so low by the bookmakers with a win rate of 6.5.

Rather, it is the upcoming opponent that makes a potential advancement of Pittsburgh seem extremely unlikely. The Kansas City Chiefs enter the playoffs as one of the top Super Bowl favourites for the third year in a row.

The team led by mega-star Patrick Mahomes won nine of their final ten games of the season after a stumbling start. So when the two teams meet at the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night, it will be the famous battle between David and Goliath.

The duel in the regular season in Week 16 also clearly went to the Chiefs. Mahomes and Co. gave the Steelers a 36-10 thrashing. Big Ben” also sees the Steelers as the only chance for his team to benefit from the circumstances.

Pitsburgh Steelers: What are we actually doing here?

While press conferences before playoff games usually send fighting messages in the direction of opponents, Roethlisberger turned the tables Wednesday. Instead of talking about his own strengths, the 39-year-old relentlessly exposed his team’s weaknesses.

“I think they understand that we’re not supposed to be here as a team,” he told the journalists present: “We’re probably not a good football team. For that, we are playing against the number one team. Even though they’re not in first place, they’re probably the best team in the league right now,” “Big Ben” was extremely meek about it.

Because the Steelers had nothing to lose anyway, one point should therefore be in the foreground: “We don’t have a chance anyway. That’s why we should just go out there and have fun,” the two-time Super Bowl champion said as a match plan.

Head coach Mike Tomlin’s team could use a game from almost exactly one year ago as a model.

Pittsburgh Steelers: learning from their own mistakes

When the Steelers entered the playoffs last season in second place in the AFC with a record of 12 wins and four losses, they were heavy favourites against the then playoff-inexperienced Cleveland Browns.

After an unprecedented debacle, the Steelers went down 37-48 and were eliminated from the playoffs. “Big Ben” threw 501 passing yards and four touchdowns, but was not entirely uninvolved in the defeat with four disastrous interceptions.
It quickly became clear in which direction Roethlisberger’s lesson in psychological warfare was to develop. True to the motto “If you’re going to suck, go with momentum”, the experienced quarterback took himself and his team out of the firing line before the game even started.

That the Browns’ approach at the time, to pass primarily with a physical and nasty defence, can also be a tool for the Steelers in 2021 is something Coach Tomlin also knows. “We’re looking forward to being ready this time. We should be more physically prepared,” said the winning coach.

“We realise how short our options are in this regard. But that doesn’t mean we won’t take advantage of them,” the 49-year-old concluded. Should the Steelers, contrary to expectations, record a success against the Chiefs, Roethlisberger and Co. could suddenly be in for the big time.

Steelers in the Super Bowl? Why not actually

No one really knows yet where the Steelers’ journey will take them in the 2021 season. But in a year in which the Tennesse Titans suddenly find themselves in the playoffs as the first-place team in the AFC, in which the Green Bay Packers are brimming with dominance despite all the infighting surrounding Aaron Rodgers, and in which the New England Patriots have made an impressive comeback, anything seems possible.

And the longer the Steelers are bandied about in one’s head as a potential Super Bowl winner, the question becomes: ‘Why not?’ Why wouldn’t “Big Ben” have it in the tank for two or three games to once again become the former big-play machine so feared by opposing defenses in the past.

Roethlisberger reminisced about his first Super Bowl triumph with the Steelers in 2005, when they upset the first-place Indianpolis Colts led by superstar Peyton Manning, among others: “I wanted to win it then for running back Jerome Pettis, who was about to retire. Maybe some players will feel the same way this season,” the quarterback said.

Even if the team of that time cannot be compared to the one of today, Roethlisberger does not want to give up: “As always, everything is possible,” the 39-year-old said with a smile at the end.

Before dreaming of the Lombardi Trophy in the “Steel City”, the not entirely insignificant game against the Chiefs is first on the agenda. There is not much to lose for Roethlisberger and Co. but even more to win.

And who knows? Maybe Sunday will be one of those days …