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Chiefs, Steelers advance with contrasting road wildcard wins
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KANSAS City and Pittsburgh advanced in the National Football League playoffs with wildcard road wins achieved in contrasting fashion on Saturday, with the Chiefs cruising past a disappointing Houston and the Steelers needing a late field goal to beat playoff-jinxed Cincinnati.
Kansas City had gone 22 years without a playoff victory but secured this one early thanks to a touchdown from the opening kickoff and a harassing defense that forced five turnovers and beat the Texans 30-0.
The Chiefs have won 11 straight games since starting the season 1-5, and advance to a divisional playoff game at the New England Patriots next weekend.
The Steelers will travel to Denver after winning a bad-tempered encounter against the Bengals 18-16, with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger returning from a shoulder injury sustained in the third quarter and leading his team on a final drive which set up a 35-yard field goal by Chris Boswell with 14 seconds left.
Kansas City began in ideal fashion when Knile Davis took the opening kickoff, got three good blocks around the 10-yard line and then simply outran the rest of the defenders for the 106-yard kickoff return score; the second-longest kickoff return TD in postseason history.
The defense took over after that, forcing Houston quarterback Brian Hoyer into a fumble and three interceptions in the first half as the Chiefs took a 13-0 lead.
Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith threw a TD pass late in the third and Spencer Ware added a 5-yard TD run on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it 27-0.
The victory breaks a streak of eight straight playoff losses by the Chiefs and is their first postseason win since beating the then Houston Oilers in 1994.
Hoyer had a miserable game, getting booed by his owns fans, as he completed only 15 of 34 passes for 136 yards as Houston lost a home playoff game for the first time.
Pittsburgh was in control for much of a rain-sodden contest at Cincinnati, but was forced to find a late winner after the Bengals turned it into a contest late.
After Martavis Bryant somehow clung on to a somersaulting TD reception, the Steelers led 15-0 heading into the final quarter, but Bengals quarterback AJ McCarron put together a late rally.
Cincinnati ripped off 16 straight points, the last six on a 25-yard pass from McCarron to AJ Green that put the Bengals in front. They missed the 2-point conversion.
When Vontaze Burfict intercepted on Pittsburgh’s ensuing possession, Cincinnati appeared set to record its first postseason win in 25 years; the sixth-longest postseason drought in NFL history.
However the team that said it would keep it together then completely fell apart. Jeremy Hill saw the ball knocked out of his grasp for a fumble which the Steelers recovered at the Pittsburgh 9-yard line with 1:23 left.
Roethlisberger, who had been carted off the field after injuring his throwing shoulder in a third-quarter sack by Burfict, returned for the game-winning drive.
He received some help from some costly Bengals indiscipline, as they gave up two 15-yard penalties.
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