Oct 3, 2016 5 min read

Isn’t it funny what one week will do in the NFL? Coming off a 34-3 trouncing at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles, the Steelers put a similar beating on Kansas City Sunday at Heinz Field, winning 43-14 in a game that wasn’t that close.

How does that happen?

“I think you guys forget that we’re in the NFL. These guys get paid a lot of money to play the sport,” Steelers center Maukrice Pouncey said. “Every team is good. You have to respect every team you play.”

While that’s true, the Steelers showed that they quickly got over the loss to the Eagles. Cam Heyward stopped the Chiefs’ opening possession with a sack – remember those? – and Ben Roethlisberger got the Steelers out of starting deep in their own end with a long pass to Sammie Coates working against cornerback Marcus Peters.

While the Steelers didn’t score off of that possession, it set them up for what was to come.

Fumble. Touchdown.

Interception. Touchdown.

Poor punt. Touchdown.

By the time the Chiefs figured out what was going on, it was 22-0.

By the time the Chiefs finally scored, it was to make it 36-7.

Kansas City is a good football team, just as the Steelers are a good football team despite getting blown out last week in Philadelphia. Sometimes a game just gets away from you,

@ Anyone questioning if the Steelers should re-sign Le’Veon Bell at the end of this season need only look at this game.

And I’m not talking only about his play on the field, which was great. Watch how he interacts with his teammates.

They like him. There are no lingering issues between Bell and his teammates regarding his suspension. They truly don’t believe it will happen again because they have seen how hard he works to be the player he is. They know it means something to him.

“It felt good to have him out there,” said Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. “We asked him to do a lot, not just be a running back and run the ball, we put him in motion. We put him at wide receiver. We threw screens to him. We did a lot. And that’s the confidence and faith we have in him and his ability and how he can help this team and how he is a selfless player willing to do whatever it takes to help us win.”

As much as Antonio Brown is a game-changing talent, Bell is his equal in that regard.

Fans might not trust Bell. But I get the feeling the Steelers and his teammates do.

The question will be whether they can afford to pay both Bell and Brown at the end of this season. I’d find a way to do it. Both are generational-type players.

@ The Steelers did some interesting things mixing and matching things on defense in this game, in part because they were missing some pieces.

We saw cornerbacks at safety. We saw three defensive linemen on the field in the nickel.

We saw the Steelers do whatever it takes to be successful. More importantly, they didn’t make the mistakes they did a week earlier in Philadelphia.

“We didn’t beat ourselves. Last week, we beat ourselves with some of the penalties that we had and some of the plays that we normally don’t give up,” said cornerback Ross Cockrell. “I think that is the biggest difference between this week and last week, the execution of our game plan.”

@ The people who wanted to see Bell and DeAngelo Williams on the field together got a big dose of that this week.

But Bell is still the main cog. He had 23 touches compared to five for Williams. Look for more of that moving forward.

@ Roethlisberger finished with as many incompletions as touchdown passes in this game. Two of the incompletions were on the opening drive when he looked a little off.

After that, Roethlisberger had three incompletions.

He hit nine different receivers.

He picked the Chiefs apart.

@ There was some concern the Chiefs would really hurt the Steelers with tight end Travis Kelce without Ryan Shazier and Robert Golden on the field.

Kelce was a non-factor in this game.

The Steelers have done a good job of shutting down opposing tight ends this season after it was a major issue last year. Kelce had five catches in this game, but for just 23 yards.

Vince Williams and Jordan Dangerfield were more than adequate replacing Shazier and Golden, respectively.

@ Marcus Gilbert (ankle), Darrius Heyward-Bey (shoulder), Jarvis Jones (ankle) and Anthony Chickillo (knee) all left this game early. Obviously Gilbert’s injury is the most dire.

He’s a tough guy and is already playing through an elbow injury. Jones doesn’t think his injury will be a long-term issue.

@ The Steelers went for a two-point conversion after their first score in this game, the first time this season they’ve done that. Don’t think for a second that the return of Bell didn’t have something to do with that.