The Steelers will face the AFC's No. 1 offense this Sunday in the Kansas City Chiefs, led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
And one thing quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said they have to make sure they don't do is try and matchup with what the Chiefs are doing on Sunday and instead just focus on themselves.
"It isn't always the easiest thing to do," said Roethlisberger. "When you watch an offense like that, taking care of the ball is obviously huge. Not turning it over, which we didn't last week, is key to victory. A team like this, you say okay, we possess the ball, that helps. But they can obviously score really fast and do some amazing things. We've just got to be smart, play our game and that's going to be the key no matter what's happened."
The Chiefs have an explosive offense, and while the Steelers have struggled early on in games, the one thing they haven't done is stop fighting.
"No one really ever panics," said Roethlisberger. "It's like okay, let's find a way to get back into it. Guys aren't really stressing, which I think shows a lot of growth for a young team.
"We just have to find a way to get in the end zone. We can't beat ourselves with penalties or negative plays. That's a big key to score early."
With some of the ups and downs the team has had this season, the Steelers are still in the playoff hunt with three games to play. The AFC North is still completely up for grabs, and anything can happen on any given Sunday.
"If you've been doing this for a while, obviously rookies won't understand, but really you've just got to get in," said Roethlisberger of the postseason. "You got to peak at the right time. And I'm not saying we're peaking or close to it. But we're winning the games, the close games, or we're coming back or fighting so we know that there's a little bit of life and we'll just keep fighting one week at a time.
"The whole AFC kind of feels like it's a jumbled mess at times. I'm not really sure why. I think our division could be argued as one of the toughest in the NFL, so we're constantly beating each other up. Playing some of our competition that we're playing this year, obviously we have the No. 1 schedule (in the AFC North). It's not easy."
