The suffocating defense
The Chiefs came into the game having already proven capable of completely shutting down anything the Steelers wanted to do offensively—at least the first time around. The effectiveness of Steve Spagnuolo’s defensive game plan was readily apparent back in Week 16 and the proof was found in a final score of 36-10.
While Roethlisberger’s lack of arm strength is going to make this an easier matchup than, say, what might await the Chiefs in the next round or beyond, but the Steelers were a playoff team and they should have been better than this. The Chiefs were all over anything and everything the Steelers wanted to do from the outset, as evidenced by the inability of the Steelers to even get into Chiefs territory until the game was already decided.
In the end, the Chiefs allowed a mere 3.9 yards/play and that total was seriously inflated by a lot of garbage time stats put up by Big Ben down the stretch. Najee Harris and company only averaged 2.8 yards/carry all night long as well. It was a suffocating performance all around by the defense for the first three quarters.
The Chiefs defense has been a different unit entirely in the second half of the season and they look especially good against the Steelers. If they wanted to put their showing against the Bengals behind them and gain some postseason momentum, they found it in the opening round.