MAHOMES PUTS END TO STEELERS
Patrick Mahomes threw for 404 yards and five touchdowns, Travis Kelce caught a TD pass and threw another one, and the Kansas City Chiefs sent Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger into his anticipated retirement with a 42-21 blowout of the Steelers in the wildcard round of the playoffs Sunday night.
Byron Pringle caught touchdown passes from both Mahomes and Kelce, and Jerick McKinnon and Tyreek Hill also reeled in scoring catches as the Chiefs (13-5) began their pursuit of a third straight AFC championship in fine style.
They scored on six straight possessions during the middle part of the game, shut down Roethlisberger and the rest of the Pittsburgh offense, and turned next Sunday night’s divisional-round game against Buffalo into appointment viewing.
The Bills had a similarly easy time with their 47-17 victory over New England on Saturday. Buffalo and Kansas City met for the AFC title last season that Kansas City won before falling to Tampa Bay in the Super Bowl.
“When you’ve been to the Super Bowl the last two years and you walk off that field with a loss last year, you want to go back and get that revenge, get that win,” Mahomes said. “So for us, we understand it’s a hard division — the AFC (East), we have the Bills coming here this next week and we’re going to have to play our best football. We’re just excited for the journey, we’ll stay with the process and I’m glad we’re playing at Arrowhead next week.”
Roethlisberger, who admitted the Steelers (9-8-1) were “not a very good football team” this week, wasn’t very good in his own right. The 39year-old quarterback was 29 of 44 for 215 yards with two meaningless TD passes late in the game, providing the coda to a career that includes six Pro Bowl trips and two Super Bowl wins.
Judging by the final score, you’d never guess the first quarter was all about defense: The Steelers ran 14 plays and went 12 yards, while the Chiefs had more punt return yards (70) than they had from scrimmage (62).
Made sense that the first points would be scored on defense, too.
After the Steelers punted for a fifth straight time, the Chiefs inexplicably had wide receiver Mecole Hardman take a snap rather than their four-time Pro Bowl quarterback. Darrel Williams bobbled the exchange, the ball bounced to T.J. Watt, and the Steelers’ All-Pro pass rusher returned the fumble 24 yards for a touchdown.
The play must have awakened Mahomes, who earlier had thrown his first pick in six career home playoff games.
Or maybe it just made Mahomes angry.
He responded by completing his next six passes, capping a 76-yard drive with a nifty underhand flick to McKinnon that tied the game. Then the brilliant young quarterback found Pringle in the corner of the end zone for a score, and he put an exclamation mark on the half by hitting Kelce with a 48-yard touchdown strike.
In the span of less than six minutes, Mahomes and the Chiefs had turned a sevenpoint deficit into a 21-7 lead.
“I think we just came back with energy,” Mahomes said. “That first quarter, we were playing tentative, starting with me. And I think when we got into that second quarter, we kind of got back to who we are. Hopefully we keep this momentum going into next week.”