The Kansas City Chiefs secured the top spot in the AFC with a dominant 29-10 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Christmas Day, thanks to three touchdown passes from Patrick Mahomes. This victory means the Chiefs (15-1) will have a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the playoffs.
For the Steelers (10-6), it was their third straight loss, which means they no longer control their future in the AFC North division race, even though they have already clinched a playoff spot.
The Chiefs seem to be peaking at the right time, while the Steelers are now behind the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North after their recent losses. Mahomes had an impressive performance, passing for 320 yards on 29 of 38 attempts.
He got the Chiefs going early, throwing a seven-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Worthy and an 11-yard touchdown to Justin Watson in the first quarter, giving Kansas City a 13-0 lead.
The Steelers thought they had a chance to get back in the game when Jaylen Warren ran into the end zone, but a holding penalty nullified the touchdown. Things got worse for Pittsburgh when quarterback Russell Wilson threw an interception to Justin Reid on the very next play.
The Steelers did have some hope in the second quarter when Wilson capped off a 72-yard, 11-play drive with a one-yard touchdown run. The teams traded field goals in the third quarter, but the Chiefs pulled away in the fourth.
A two-yard touchdown run by Kareem Hunt made the score 22-10, and then Mahomes threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to his favorite target, Travis Kelce, to put the game out of reach.
Kelce had a great game, catching eight passes for 84 yards and surpassing 1,000 career receptions, becoming only the third tight end in history to reach that milestone after Tony Gonzalez and Jason Witten.
“I thought it was a full team performance,” Mahomes said. “Defense stepped up, offense stepped up, everybody had their imprint on the game. We are getting healthy at the right time, the big guy (Kelce) leads us off but we have got guys everywhere so it’s nice,” he added.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was blunt about his team’s performance. “That sucked, to be blunt,” Tomlin said. “Not the type of ball we wanna play and really kind of eerily similar to our last performance in that we are not doing the fundamental things well enough. The bottom line is that it’s junior varsity. Not good enough. We need to own that but also look at what we need to do different,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Baltimore Ravens, led by reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, continued their strong finish to the season with a 31-2 win at Houston. Jackson threw two touchdown passes and ran for another, completing 168 passing yards and rushing for 87 yards on four carries.
Jackson’s performance helped him break the NFL record for most rushing yards by a quarterback, surpassing Michael Vick, who had 6,109 career rushing yards. Jackson achieved this feat in 41 fewer games than Vick.
The Texans, who have already secured the AFC South title, struggled throughout the game. Derrick Henry opened the scoring with a touchdown, but a safety gave the Texans just a 10-2 lead before Jackson quickly turned the game around.
He threw a touchdown pass to Isaiah Likely, making it a 15-point lead. Jackson then ran 48 yards for a touchdown to put the game out of reach. A one-yard touchdown pass to Mark Andrews completed the rout.
The Ravens’ third win in 11 days was sealed, and they now look to their final regular season game against the Cincinnati Bengals, where a victory would clinch the AFC North title.
