Can the Chiefs stop Le’Veon Bell who had 144 rushing yards on them earlier in the season?
It was a one-sided affair the last time the Steelers and Chiefs met in Week 4, but the late game on Sunday (1:05 pm ET) could be a different story. The Chiefs will be happy to have Justin Houston who didn’t play in their first matchup, a 43-14 blowout loss, and will do their best to stop the explosive plays of Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown. They’ll also have the benefit of playing in front of the home crowd, albeit they haven’t won any of their last four playoff games at Arrowhead.
Alex Smith isn’t the air-it-out QB that Roethlisberger is, but he’s more than capable of playing well and he’s done so in the playoffs in the past (5 games, 11 touchdowns, 1 interception). Wish such a low point spread, the experts are just slightly leaning towards the Steelers to cover. See their reasoning below.
More Game Picks:
Seahawks at Falcons (-5) | Texans at Patriots (-16) | Packers at Cowboys (-4.5)
Pittsburgh Steelers (+1.5) |
Kansas City Chiefs (-1.5) |
54%of Experts |
46%of Experts |
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“The Pittsburgh Steelers trio of QB Ben Roethlisberger, RB Le’Veon Bell and WR Antonio Brown allow the Steelers to score points in bunches. When these teams met in the regular season, the Steelers won in Pittsburgh 43-14. I think this game will be closer and the Steelers are not great on the road, but their defense is playing at a very high level. Even if the offense is not as crisp as it is in Pittsburgh, they should still score enough points to win the game and pull the upset.”
– Derek Lofland (Fantasy Football Maniax) “The Steelers have a chance to play spoiler here, but they need to be smart with the football and understand that the Chiefs are conservative and want to win the field position battle. Special Teams will play a large factor in this game.”
– Mike Rigz (Gridiron Experts) “Going against the Chiefs has burned me plenty this year and Arrowhead Stadium is always a tough place for a road team to grab a win. I am going to go with Big Ben’s playoff experience over his recent struggles away from the friendly confines of Heinz Field. I’m going with Pittsburgh here.”
– Dan Clasgens (Get Sports Info) “The Kansas City Chiefs are good, but they’re not really #2 seed good. The Steelers have the better offense, the better quarterback, the better coaching and their defense is starting to play lights out. That’s about to be a problem for the Chiefs.”
– Kevin Roberts (Breaking Football) “As well as the Steelers offense is playing right now, I am shocked that Vegas has the team as dogs even though this is the playoffs and they are on the road. Heavily reliant on special teams, the Chiefs rely too much on a game-manager QB and under-sized playmakers, which opens the door for Pittsburgh’s defense to simply slow down the Chiefs as long as they control the over-the-middle slants.”
– Tony Mauriello (ProjectRoto) “In what should be a fantastic matchup in questionable weather conditions, look for this game to come right down to the wire. That being said, Kansas City’s defense against the run and the pass are below both the Steelers’ and the league average in terms of yards allowed per game, so I’m fully expecting Pittsburgh’s playmakers to give Kansas City major issues. If Kansas City wants to advance, they’ll need a few big plays via special teams (Tyreek Hill) and defensive turnovers, which are their strong suits. However, behind Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell’s dynamic abilities and a seemingly rejuvenated defensive unit, the Steelers move onto the next round.”
– Robert Kohnfelder (Fake Teams) “All 4 divisional games are rematches of games that took place during the regular season. Previous game: Pittsburgh 43 Kansas City 14 in Pittsburgh. Here’s an interesting stat: After a bye week in either the regular season or in the playoffs, Andy Reid is a combined 19-2. If you give Reid time to prepare, he can figure out a way to beat you. But in the last 10 playoff games, Kansas City is 1-9. So what will the Chiefs do to stop the run as they gave up 144 rushing yards to Le’Veon Bell? What will the Chiefs to do stop the pass as they gave up 300 passing yards and 5 TD passes to Ben Roethlisberger? This is a lot to ask of the Kansas City Chiefs to limit the 43 offensive points that they gave up to Pittsburgh back in week 4. Once again, too many offensive weapons for the Pittsburgh Steelers for Kansas City to compete in this game. I’m taking Pittsburgh and the 1.5 points.”
– Jeff Boggis (Fantasy Football Empire) “While the home/road splits for Roethlisberger are troubling, the Steelers, winners of eight straight, simply have too much firepower for an average Chiefs offense to keep pace with.”
– Matthew Hill (DataForce Fantasy Football) “KC is undefeated coming off a bye under Reid and Ben stinks on the road. Lev Bell should have a day, but I think KC is creative enough to keep the Steelers defense on their heels all day.”
– Kevin Wheeler (NFL Mock) “With a spread this small it’s essentially a pick ’em game. Everyone will be talking about the Steelers’ offense and their killer B’s heading into this matchup, but the impressive performance of their defense of late is what will get them the win this weekend.”
– Daniel Marcus (Fantasy-Phenoms) “This game should be closer than the first game. The Chiefs might have a chance if they can figure out how to shut down Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell. But that’s probably not going to happen.”
– Jack Delaney (Your Fantasy Football Coach) “Toughest selection of the weekend but the Steelers will pull through.”
– James Hatfield (Hatty Waiver Wire Guru) “This is going to be a great game, but the Steelers offense has been clicking on all cylinders lately. I’m still not a firm believer in the Chiefs offense despite the continued emergence of Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce, so I think Pittsburgh squeaks by with this one.”
– Donald Gibson (Fantasy Fusion) “With the potential for sloppy conditions, I’ll take the team with the better O-Line and run game.”
– R.C. Fischer (Fantasy Football Metrics) “I don’t think that the Steelers will blow the Chiefs out as they did earlier this year but they will win by at least three points even on the road. The big three of Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown will be too much for a solid Kansas City defense to keep in check.”
– Walton Spurlin (FantasySharks) “Pittsburgh is one of the hottest teams in the NFL right now rattling off eight straight wins. Kansas City will get a lot of the action because of Reid’s record after a bye week, but the talent on offense clearly sides with Pittsburgh, and they don’t need a non-offensive touchdown to score 30+ points in any game like the Chiefs.”
– Anthony Staggs (Pyromaniac) “Can Big Ben stop his downward spiral on the road? Bell will cover the spread like butter on a biscuit.”
– Staff Rankings (Fantasy Knuckleheads) “The Steelers are on a 4-0 roll on the road vs the point spread and walloped the Chiefs 43-14 at Pittsburgh in Week 4. Both teams are better since then, but I still feel Steelers have the edge. The weaponry of the Steelers is more than enough to overcome the Chiefs by the 4th quarter. The Chiefs need to get Maclin involved because Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce are just not enough fire power against these Steelers. Without good first down production from Spencer Ware, the rest of it falls apart.”
– Richard Savill (Fantasy Six Pack) “I have the Steelers winning this game, so a Steelers pick against the spread is the obvious choice”
– Nick Raducanu (ProjectRoto) |
“Ben Roethlisberger has been a bad quarterback on the road the last three years and he’s going to Arrowhead Stadium, which is known as one of the toughest places to play in the NFL. If the Steelers win, it will be because of Le’Veon Bell. This game will be a defensive struggle, and the Chiefs have the better one.”
– Mike Tagliere (Pro Football Focus) “Definitely the toughest game of the weekend to call. Arrowhead is a tough place to play, and we know Ben is a different QB on the road.”
– Sean Beazley (EDSFootball) “Toughest game on the weekend to pick. Going to KC in DEC and JAN usually doesn’t go well for the road team. The KC Defense is for real and have the ability to slow down the three B’s. I like the home team by a FG.”
– Ken Zalis (Pressbox) “It’s Ben on the road. Sure, Le’Veon Bell could make up for Roethlisberger’s road deficiencies, but let’s remember that Andy Reid is Bill Belichick-ian after a “bye”.”
– Jake Ciely (RotoExperts) “A lot of the bettors relying on internal GPS will arrive at a Chiefs victory via Narrative Street, figuring that Ben Roethlisberger on the road coupled with Andy Reid off a bye will bode ill for the Steelers. Frankly, I’m finding this matchup difficult to untangle, so I’m throwing up my hands and going with the home side.”
– Pat Fitzmaurice (The Football Girl) “While the defense has certainly been better lately, the Steelers offense struggles on the road, and it has been going on long enough to be more than a coincidence. The Chiefs offense is a different beast with Tyreek Hill dropping big plays for fun, and they should have enough to win this game going away.”
– Raymond Summerlin (Rotoworld) “Pittsburgh’s offense truly is a different unit on the road, and the Chiefs should take advantage of the extra week.”
– Jon Collins (Fantasy Sports LR) “Big Ben just isn’t playing at a high enough level to go into arrowhead and get an upset.”
– Andrew Ferris (FFLockerRoom) “I can’t ignore the home/away splits for the Steelers in this one and I think Tyreek Hill may be more explosive than Antonio Brown and LeVeon Bell. I’ll take Andy Reid coming off the “bye” at home.”
– Scott Whitfield (Roto Rankings) “Big Ben’s foot issues don’t seem too severe, but the Chiefs don’t get enough respect. I’ll take them at home over the trendy Steelers.”
– John Halpin (Fox Sports) “In a battle between two of the hottest teams in the AFC, I think the home-field advantage puts Kansas City over the top in a close contest.”
– Jason Willan (Gridiron Experts) “The Chiefs will have the benefit of playing at home, which is an intangible that they will gladly welcome against a streaky team like the Steelers. It doesn’t feel right leaning on Alex Smith over Ben Roethlisberger, but it’s the way I’m going this week.”
– Adam Sutton (DraftStars) “Arrowhead Stadium is a different animal, especially compared to the Roethlisberger-friendly confines of Heinz Field. With Justin Houston ready to rejoin his comrades on defense alongside an offense that has finally embraced the talent of Travis Kelce — not to mention the game-breaking abilities of Tyreek Hill — I’ll take the Chiefs.”
– Nick Mariano (RotoBaller) “This is the toughest game to pick on the week as the Steelers have really struggled on the road. The edge goes to Andy Reid at home and coming off the bye week.”
– Wayne Bretsky (BretskyBall) “Flip a coin, pick your favorite color combination, pull out the ouija board, make one of those origami paper games, get a magic 8-ball… Whatever your preference, good luck calling this one. I’m going KC based on home field, but that hook is scary! Take the money line.”
– Leonard Francis (Maximize Your Odds) “I think the Chiefs win this game rather easily. Andy Reid is 16-2 following the bye week and we all know the struggles that Roethlisberger has on the road.”
– Kaz Kalita (DraftStars) “Steelers don’t play as well on the road and Andy Reid is a ridiculous 19-3 after a bye.”
– Rich Piazza (Fantasy Shed) “The Steelers struggles on offense, especially Big Ben, this year on the road are pretty drastic. The Chiefs have a tough defense that won’t make it easy for him to change that. Don’t forget he left Miami wearing a walking boot. Even though he returned to practice, one wrong hit could knock him out easily.”
– Joe Bond (Fantasy Six Pack) “Big Ben is not the same on the road as at home. Now he’s hobbled and Justin Houston is back. I like the Chiefs at Arrowhead Field.”
– Jason Moore (The Fantasy Footballers) – Bill Enright (FFChamps)
– Sean Koerner (STATS)
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Thanks to the experts for giving us their picks. Agree or disagree? You can discuss in the comment section below. Be sure to also check out and subscribe to our latest podcast.
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