Mahomes shines as the Chiefs clinch the AFC’s top seed with a march past the Steelers | NFL

Patrick Mahomes rushed for 320 yards and three touchdowns and the Kansas City Chiefs secured first place in the AFC for the fourth time in seven seasons with a 29-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday.

The two-time defending Super Bowl champions jumped out to an early 13-point lead and were never really threatened by the Steelers (10-6), who have lost three straight as their chances of winning the AFC North took another hit.

Mahomes scored in the first half with shots to Xavier Worthy and Justin Watson, and Kansas City’s defense did the rest, even though longtime All-Pro defenseman Chris Jones was sidelined with a calf injury. The Chiefs sacked Russell Wilson five times, forced two turnovers and hardly looked gassed as they played for the third time in 11 days.

Travis Kelce caught eight passes for 84 yards, joining Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez and Jason Witten as the third tight end in NFL history to reach 1,000 receptions. Kelce secured Kansas City’s fifth straight win with a 12-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

The 35-year-old celebrated by throwing the ball over the goal post, drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and eliciting groans from a sold-out Acrisure Stadium, which had become accustomed to seeing Mahomes play with his hometown team . Mahomes is now 4-0 in his career against the Steelers, with 17 touchdowns against one interception.

Russell Wilson threw for 205 yards for Pittsburgh. George Pickens finished the game with three balls for 50 yards after missing three games with a hamstring injury. It wasn’t nearly enough for the Steelers, as they lost 3-0 in brutal three games against Super Bowl contenders Philadelphia, Baltimore and Kansas City.

Perhaps more worrying than the losses is the way they unfolded. The Steelers dropped at least 14 points in every game and were able to start the playoffs on the road after holding a two-game lead in the division just three weeks ago.

Mahomes, little bothered by the ankle injury he suffered against Cleveland, led the Chiefs to touchdowns on their first two drives, finding Worthy in the flat for a seven-yard score and hitting Watson in the far corner of the end zone, to score 13th -0.

A sequence late in the first quarter symbolized a frustrating day for Pittsburgh. A holding penalty negated a short touchdown run by Jaylen Warren, and Wilson threw into triple coverage in the end zone on the next snap. Kansas City’s Justin Reid had little trouble grabbing the ball and ending the threat.

The Steelers pulled within six points twice at 13:7 and 16:10, but never had a chance to take the lead in the second half. Instead, the Chiefs — who spent most weeks of the first three months of the season falling short — methodically pulled away.

Kareem Hunt ran over the ball from 2 yards on the first snap of the fourth quarter to make it 22:10. Pat Freiermuth then fumbled on Pittsburgh’s next possession. Kansas City linebacker Nick Bolton pounced on it and it took Mahomes just four plays to place a pass to a wide-open Kelce and put him out of reach.

The NFL’s Christmas Netflix debut begins without a hitch

Mariah Carey opened Wednesday’s doubleheader with a taped performance of “All I Want for Christmas is You” before Mahomes, Kelce and the Chiefs took on the Steelers.

The Houston Texans host the Baltimore Ravens in game two, while the NFL features four of the AFC’s top five teams.

Netflix agreed to a three-year deal to broadcast Christmas games in May. The streaming giant is expecting one of its biggest days since the site launched in 1998.

Netflix’s 282.3 million subscribers in more than 190 countries can stream the games. This is the first time a network will distribute an NFL game worldwide. Netflix offers the games in five languages ​​– English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German.

Netflix had problems streaming the fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul on November 14th. The fight peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, including 38 million concurrent streams in the United States. According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers reported issues with outages or streaming leading up to and during the fight.

There were no signs of trouble early in the game on Wednesday after a few blunders were made during the pregame show. The broadcast began with about 10 seconds of silence as it appeared studio host Kay Adams’ microphone was not turned on.

The biggest test may come at halftime of the Ravens-Texans game, when Beyoncé performs live at NRG Stadium.

According to NFL Media, viewers in all 50 states tuned in within minutes of the pregame show going live, and viewers from nearly 200 countries watched the introduction until kickoff.

The NFL will play its first games on Wednesday since the Steelers and Ravens were forced to play on December 2, 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The only time the league played on a Wednesday since 1948 was in 2012, when the Giants and Cowboys met in the season opener.