Brister Back Early to Beat Chiefs, 23-17

Bubby Brister, returning earlier than expected from a sprained knee, threw two touchdown passes to Louis Lipps, including a 64-yarder in the fourth quarter, as the Steelers blew a 16-point lead Sunday before rallying for a 23-17 victory over Kansas City.

Brister completed 17 of 27 passes for 253 yards and Lipps made seven catches for 130 yards against the American Conference’s top-rated pass defense.

“They have as good a secondary as you’ll ever face, but I felt like if our guys could get open, I’d hit ‘em,” said Brister, the first quarterback to throw for more than 170 yards against the Chiefs this season. “Their defense likes to dictate, but we didn’t want them to dictate to us, we wanted to dictate to them.”

Kansas City (3-5) limited Pittsburgh (4-4) to Lipps’ 64-yard touchdown catch in the second half. But the Chiefs couldn’t score in the fourth quarter on three possessions inside the Pittsburgh 20-yard line, including a first-and-goal from the two.

The Steelers’ defense was set up by assistant coach Rod Rust, Kansas City’s defensive coordinator last season before moving to Pittsburgh when former Chiefs coach Frank Gansz was fired and replaced by Marty Schottenheimer.

“We moved the ball well, had a lot of yards, but we had opportunities to get points and didn’t get any,” Schottenheimer said. “Those will come back to haunt you.”

The Chiefs, who once trailed 16-0, took a 17-16 lead when defensive lineman Bill Maas returned Dwight Stone’s fumble on a reverse four yards for a touchdown with 3:51 left in the third period.

On first-and-10 from their own 36 after Kelly Goodburn’s shanked 25-yard punt, Brister pump-faked once, then hit Lipps a step ahead of cornerback Albert Lewis, making it 23-17.

Brister threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Brister in the first-quarter and Anderson kicked field goals of 41, 47 and 29 yards. But the Chiefs got a lift late in the first half when quarterback Steve DeBerg hit Todd McNair for 44 yards on two completions to set up Nick Lowery’s record-setting 50-yard field goal as time expired.

The field goal was Lowery’s 18th from 50 yards or longer, breaking the NFL record of 17 set by former Chief kicker Jan Stenerud.