Chris Mueller: Loaded Chiefs will ensure Steelers' playoff stay is brief

They’ll be playing football at Arrowhead Stadium later tonight, and all week I’ve tried to answer a simple question: How can the Steelers win this game?

I’ve seen answers ginned up all week, mostly through sheer force of hopeful, optimistic will. Near as I can tell, these are the most popular of the bunch:

• T.J. Watt should be at full health for this game. The NFL’s single-season co-record holder with 22.5 sacks was anything but in the teams’ first meeting, dealing with broken ribs that severely limited his effectiveness.

• In addition to Watt’s health, the Chiefs will start Andrew Wylie at right tackle. Wylie, if you’ll recall, played the same position in last year’s Super Bowl, when, per Pro Football Reference, Patrick Mahomes was sacked three times, hit seven times, hurried 11 times, and pressured 21 times, that last number representing nearly 40 percent of his dropbacks.

• J.C. Hassenauer is a better option at center than Kendrick Green, who was pushed around mercilessly by Chris Jones and other Chiefs linemen in the first meeting. Chris Morgan is also a better offensive line coach than the departed Adrian Klemm, and the Steelers’ line has looked inarguably better since Hassenauer and Morgan assumed their new roles.

• Najee Harris will give the Steelers a Le’Veon Bell-like force on offense, one that carries them to a win, the way Bell did the last time the Steelers played Kansas City in the postseason, which, coincidentally, was their last playoff win.

• Kansas City’s Clyde Edwards-Helaire is out for this game, backup running back Darrel Williams is dealing with a toe injury, and Tyreek Hill has been slowed by a nagging heel problem. Hill will play, but Williams is questionable.

• The Chiefs have been sloppy at times this season, and Mahomes, while he is still at worst a top-three quarterback in the league, has not played the position in a god-like manner, as he has in past seasons.

• The team will be inspired to win one for Ben Roethlisberger the way they were inspired to win for Jerome Bettis in 2005.

The first six reasons all have a basis in reality. The last one is an insult to the 2005 team, a group that was loaded with veteran, proven talent on both sides of the ball, had gone 15-1 the prior season, and had a unique talent at quarterback, who was also just 23 years old.

The whole exercise of trying to come up with reasons why the Steelers can pull of a historic upset – no team in Wild Card round history has gone on the road as a double-digit underdog and won – has one fatal flaw: It requires those conducting it to imagine Kansas City as they want them to be, not as they are.

Here are some hard truths:

• Edwards-Helaire is out, but Williams, even if he’s banged up, was ultimately the team’s most productive back this season, with 1,010 yards from scrimmage and 5.3 yards per touch. By comparison, Harris averaged 4.4 yards per touch.

• Hill definitely doesn’t look like himself, and can only summon his usual explosiveness for maybe a handful of plays, but he’s always been underrated as a route-runner, and still has to be honored as a threat on every single play. That in and of itself is valuable for Kansas City.

• Travis Kelce will play in this game. That alone is a huge item. He piled up 1,125 yards and nine touchdowns on 92 receptions, and not only can he turn short throws into long touchdowns – just ask the Chargers – but his ability to get open quickly is an antidote to Watt’s blitzing. Hill might be Mahomes’ most dangerous target, but for my money, Kelce presents the biggest problem. If Kansas City won by 26 without him, what can they do with him?

• Mahomes has been more turnover-prone this year, yes, but that was limited to early in the season. Nine of his 13 interceptions came in the Chiefs’ first seven games, when they started 3-4. Since their 27-3 loss to the Titans, Mahomes has thrown 19 touchdowns and just four picks. As a team, the Chiefs have just three turnovers in their last six games.

• Wylie being on an island would be a wonderful situation for the Steelers, and one that Watt would likely exploit, but unlike last year’s Super Bowl, the rest of the Chiefs’ line is more reliable. There is no way Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy will put together a game plan that leaves Wylie alone very often, if at all.

Simply put, there’s a reason the Chiefs are such heavy favorites and so few people outside of Pittsburgh are giving the Steelers a chance to keep the game close, let alone win. Kansas City looks like a good bet to advance to their third-straight Super Bowl, and the Steelers are only in this game because of a remarkable series of outcomes over the season’s final two weeks.

Yes, strange things have happened to even make this game possible, but that doesn’t mean they’ll keep happening. Week 18’s wild finish extended Ben Roethlisberger’s career by one week, but his career, and the Steelers’ season, ends tonight.

Chiefs 36, Steelers 20.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Mueller: Loaded Chiefs will ensure Steelers' playoff stay is brief