AFC Playoff Betting – Pittsburgh Steelers at Kansas City Chiefs

By Charles Jay
The Pittsburgh Steelers really know how to close; in fact, they ended the regular season on a seven-game winning streak, nailing down the AFC North championship. Then it was no sweat against a Miami Dolphins team that was too cold for comfort. But now the Steelers must travel to face a team that is hell bent on revenge. The Kansas City Chiefs took it on the chin at the hands of the Men of Steel earlier in the campaign, and that was before they went on a hot streak of their own. This game will begin at 8:20 PM ET, a change from the original 1:05 PM ET start, and takes place at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. It will be televised in prime time by NBC, and BetAnySports customers, who get reduced juice against the AFC playoff betting odds before the game starts, will be able to stay in the action after the opening kickoff as they access what is available through Live Betting Ultra.
It was an absolute disaster for the Chiefs when they ran into the Steelers in the fourth week of the season. Pittsburgh had lost by 31 points to the Philadelphia Eagles the week before, and they knew they had to come out with a vengeance. They did. Fifteen minutes into the game, they were had 22-0. And the final of 43-14 was highlighted by 144 rushing yards on the part of Le’Veon Bell, who is making his first start of the season after sitting out the first three games on a suspension. Ben Roethlisberger had five touchdown passes, but it wasn’t long after that rousing victory that the Steelers went into a tailspin. Of course, it didn’t help that big Ben got himself injured, but they did lose four games in a row, including a real heart-breaker to the Dallas Cowboys. They have been spotless since, and one of the characteristics of this current eight-game streak is that the pass rush has become resurrected. Through the first seven games of the season, Pittsburgh had just eight sacks. In the last 10 games, they had 35 sacks. So let’s see how much peril Kansas City quarterback Alex Smith can get himself into by holding onto the ball too long.
In the AFC playoff betting odds that have been posted on this game by the folks at BetAnySports, KC is the slight favorite at home:

Kansas City Chiefs -1.5
Pittsburgh Steelers +1.5

Over 44.5 points -110
Under 44.5 points -110

The Chiefs have won 10 of their last 12 games, and two of those victories came against the Oakland Raiders, and that became quite useful, because they wound up in a tie for the division title with Oakland at 12-4, so they wanted on a tiebreaker. That gave them the first-round by and the #2 seed in the AFC. They will be operating without inside linebacker Derrick Johnson, who has an Achilles injury, but Justin Houston, an important edge rusher who had come back from knee surgery this year but sat down the last couple of games because of inflammation, is going to be a part of the festivities.
As BetAnySports patrons are well aware, Roethlisberger concentrates most of his efforts on two principal offensive weapons. We already mentioned Bell, who had 1268 rushing yards and 616 receiving yards during the regular season. And of course Antonio Brown is one of the premier wide receivers in all of football, playing a big part in putting away the Dolphins early last week with two catch-and-run touchdowns of great length.
Kansas City will concentrate its efforts on running the football, throwing short passes to tight end Travis Kelce (85 catches, 1125 yards) and trying to create turnovers. They took the ball away 33 times this season, more than any other team in the NFL, and that led to a +16 ratio, which tied for the top of the heap. If they can’t create turnovers, there could be trouble, because this is a team that hasn’t done a very good job of getting their opponents off the field on third down (allowing 43.2% in those situations), and they are rather pedestrian in defending the run, giving up 4.4 yards per carry. Roethlisberger has sometimes been careless with the football, throwing 13 interceptions, but the Steelers have lost only three fumbles all season long.
BetAnySports has to take it for thrilling Sunday NFL playoff action, including reduced juice, which gives you a lot of value by helping you avoid laying the customary -110, and Live Betting Ultra, which allows for real-time wagering while the game is in progress…… There are plenty of ways you can open up an account, or replenish it, using your Visa card, person-to-person transfers or Bitcoin, the virtual currency that is fast and easy with their automated system, and never incurs a transaction fee…… Remember that when these people pay out, they do it with lightning speed!