Chiefs advance with dominant 42-21 victory over Steelers

Posted by Myles Simmons on January 16, 2022, 11:22 PM EST
AFC Wild Card Playoffs - Pittsburgh Steelers v Kansas City Chiefs
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The Chiefs look primed for a postseason run.

Ben Roethlisberger’s career is likely over.

Such are the takeaways from Sunday night’s Wild Card matchup between Kansas City and Pittsburgh, which the Chiefs dominated for a 42-21 victory.

Both teams went scoreless with a combined seven punts in the first quarter. But after edge rusher T.J. Watt took a fumble back for a touchdown to give Pittsburgh a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter, Kansas City woke up and took off. The Chiefs scored five straight touchdowns between the second and third quarters to build a 35-7 lead with 9:14 left in the penultimate period.

When tight end Travis Kelce scored his 48-yard touchdown at the end of the second quarter, things looked good for Kansas City. But given Pittsburgh’s anemic output on offense — the club had just 44 yards and two first downs at halftime — it was all but over once receiver Tyreek Hill caught a 31-yard touchdown with 9:14 left in the third quarter.

Pittsburgh scored its first offensive points of the night with receiver Diontae Johnson’s 13-yard touchdown reception. But Kansas City wasn’t done, as head coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy pulled out another trick with Kelce’s 2-yard touchdown pass to receiver Byron Pringle early in the fourth quarter.

Receiver James Washington may have become the answer to a trivia question, catching a 15-yard touchdown from Roethlisberger with 7:36 left to make the score 42-21.

Roethlisberger’s final pass went to tight end Zach Gentry for an 11-yard gain as time expired in the contest. He finished 29-of-44 passing for 215 yards with two touchdowns.

Mahomes, however, was 30-of-39 for 404 yards with five touchdowns and an interception. He also added 29 yards rushing on three carries.

With Clyde Edwards-Helaire out and Darrel Williams dealing with a toe injury, Jerick McKinnon was the featured running back. He finished with 61 yards on 12 carries and caught all six of his targets for 81 yards with a touchdown. Kelce was the leading receiver with 108 yards on five catches.

With the win, the No. 2 Chiefs will host the No. 3 Bills for a rematch of last year’s AFC Championship Game next Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET.

For the Steelers, an offseason of transition awaits with Roethlisberger’s likely retirement.

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39 responses to “Chiefs advance with dominant 42-21 victory over Steelers”

  3. 3 and outs. Timely drops by Diontae Johnson. Took the winds out of our best weapon, defence. When you have a great team like Chiefs, well you can see where that gets you. Congrats Chiefs! Best team in the NFL this year!

    See ya later Ben!

  4. “One year dynasty”…”Defense sucks!”…”They’re in Cap Hell”…Sure, okay!

  5. The Steelers are so over-matched it is hard to fathom how Tomlin, Ben, Watt, and Heyward willed them to the playoffs. Of offense, the Chiefs are clearly better than the Steelers at 10 of 11 starters. Only Najee might get the nod at RB. And the defense gave up 6 straight Touchdowns. This team needs help at every position but RB, TE, and OLB. It’s a multi-year rebuild, but they’ll grapple for the 6 or 7 seed every year along the way. Thanks for the memories Ben.

  6. Steelers were abysmal. Worst team in the playoffs. Totally embarrassed themselves. The good news is they’ll have to wait all night to draft another mediocre QB.

  9. The Steelers should not have been in the playoffs. They were a fraud. How did they even get in? TJ Watt is so easily fooled.

  11. What a trash game. These #7 seeds are diluting the product. Thank goodness I’m smart enough to not waste my time on that junk between Chiefs-Steelers, Eagles-Buccaneers. What a bunch of mugs who will give the commissioner what he wants. The games to watch were Raiders-Bengals and Cowboys-49ers. Not every game is watchable.

  13. Great win by the Chiefs. Goodbye and good riddance to Ben Rothlessberger. You won’t be missed.

  14. Apparently, 7 teams should not make the play-offs. Because the Stillers were rusty and the Eagles did not fly.

  15. The Steelers need to draft some more receivers. Ju ju wants big $ & isn’t worth it. D. Johnson drops WAY too many balls. Claypool seems to have lost concentration. AND qb is a HUGE HOLE. Watching Ben throw deep on the FEW times was painful to watch. Steelers need some depth & more O line help. The game was fun for a few minutes. K.C. V Bills? Great match up.

  16. Steelers are going to be plagued by drops for the forseeable future even with a QB change. Chiefs did what everyone thought they would do now they get Buffalo again.

  17. The line about Bieniemy coming up with the Trick play with Reid had to be a joke right? We all know that was a Reid call.

  22. Just the Steelers, the real playoffs for KC begins next. Hold your horses on celebrating this one.

  23. I repeat, total embarrassment. Blow it all up. Colbert and Rothlisberger are retiring, send Mike Tomlin, Matt Canada, and Keith Butler all on their way. It’s time to start over. The team has underperformed way too long. Sad that Colbert is leaving, he has always provided a strong roster.

  25. The Steelers had zero chance in this one. The early defensive TD was a mirage of hope for a close game, but this Sreeler offense is SO bad. This offense makes 3rd and 2 look and feel like 3rd and 32.
    A good story with Ben winning the last two weeks, but the truth is, this team had no business even sniffing a playoff game. It would have been better if Ben’s final game was the Ravens win last week.

  26. As outmatched as the Steelers were, the Bill’s, Bengals and Titans will not fair much better… Titans may have a bit of a reprieve from home field but…

    The Chiefs offence was amazing. The defence is better than I thought.

  27. Since this game became a blowout I took that time to wonder why the Cowboys ran a QB sneak with 14 seconds left

  29. People forget Bettis almost retired a year earlier. Maybe Roethlisberger will hold out hope that the Steelers call Miss Marple and say lets do one more run.

  30. Where do the Steelers go from here? Squeaked into the playoffs only to get embarrassed, in a division that’s ripe with talent (but all belong to teams with a long history of squandering it) and now they have no QB. Add them to the list of AFC teams that once they finally beat the Chiefs will believe they’ve won their own personal Super Bowl.

  31. More proof that 7th seeds are a dumb idea, just greed. Eagles and Steelers didn’t belong in playoffs.

  32. The worst offense in the NFL. I have never seen a more basic offense than what I watched this year. No play action, no screens, no imaginations. Chiefs D pretty much just played tight man coverage. They know Ben can’t throw deep, and they are running simple routes. Seven plus punts in the first half. Without Watt, Highsmith, and Heyward, we would have lost by 50 plus points on defense. Instead, they generated enough pressure to trouble Mahones, and then Mahones remembered, oh yeah, this secondary is the worst, so let me throw a TD on 3rd and 20 to our TightEnd. I wish we only won like four games so we could pick good players in the draft. This team will win against mediocre teams, but this will keep happening when they play elite teams. The next few years are going to suck. We are about to become the next bottom dwellers in the North. O-line is garbage, No QB, Offensive philosophy is garbage, DTs are old, LBs are garbage, and DBs are garbage. Anyone wonder how Tomlin has been in the league so long and no one ever talks about a Tomlin tree of coaches. Arians doesn’t count, he was fired by the Steelers.

  36. Without a drastic change on the O line the Steelers will stink regardless of the QB. Ben took them as far as possible with that O line easy to look at the obvious but let’s not forget Ben had no time.

  37. Everybody knew the Steelers didn’t belong in the playoffs. They backed in. That was a joke.

  38. Sorry Steelers fans but its time for Tomlin to go … they have been blownout by the third quarter in their last three playoff games. The intensity just isnt there.

  39. The Steelers have given up 139 pts, I think, in their last 3 playoff games. That has to be some kind of a record. Terrible loss.

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