Pittsburgh Steelers reporter Jeremy Fowler and Kansas City Chiefs reporter Adam Teicher take an in-depth look at Sunday's AFC divisional playoff game in Kansas City.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS

Record: 12-5

First place, AFC North

James Harrison has 6.5 sacks in his last nine games for the Steelers. AP Photo/Don Wright

No team outside of Foxborough, Massachusetts, is hotter or healthier than the Pittsburgh Steelers. Winners of eight straight, the Steelers can beat teams in a variety of ways. They can win with sacks and pressures from a defense that's allowing less than 17 points per game in its last eight matchups. They can win with the ground game and Le'Veon Bell, who has rushed for 1,002 yards and eight touchdowns in his last seven games. They can win with the pass, as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and wide receiver Antonio Brown reminded us with two quick-strike touchdowns in the first quarter against the Miami Dolphins in the AFC wild card.

Save tight end Ladarius Green (concussion), the Steelers have a fully stocked roster for the first time in the last three playoff appearances. Roethlisberger rarely takes a sack behind an offensive line worth more than $140 million. The only thing the Steelers haven't done during this eight-game winning streak is play -- and defeat -- a playoff-level team on the road. That's the next challenge.

STEELERS X FACTOR

Linebacker James Harrison. It's wild to consider that a 38-year-old linebacker might be the Steelers' best defensive player right now, but that's exactly the case in Pittsburgh. Harrison and linebacker Ryan Shazier have been the Steelers' most reliable playmakers on a suddenly stout defense. The Steelers let Harrison loose at the midseason mark, and he has rewarded their faith with 6.5 sacks in his last nine games. Harrison and linebacker Bud Dupree terrorized Miami off the edge last week. Harrison going head-to-head with offensive lineman Eric Fisher is considered a favorable matchup for Pittsburgh. If Harrison can duplicate his late-season explosiveness and savvy on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, that will settle down the Steelers and provide an edge they so desperately need in a raucous environment.

WHY STEELERS WILL WIN

The Chiefs' 26th-ranked rushing defense is not a good matchup against Pittsburgh, which has found new life with its ball-control offense while utilizing Bell as the focal point. Steelers offensive tackles Marcus Gilbert and Alejandro Villanueva are playing well enough to at least contain the Chiefs' pass rush of Justin Houston and Tamba Hali. Roethlisberger is due for a bounce-back game after seven interceptions in his last four games and just one 300-yard game on the road this season. The Brown-Bell duo looks determined to win a championship after combining for 298 yards and four touchdowns last week. Since Week 9, the Steelers' defense is averaging 3.5 sacks per game with consistent pressure from traditional pass rushers or timely blitzes.

WHY STEELERS WILL LOSE

The Steelers haven't been a dynamic road team. Since 2015, they've lost eight games away from Heinz Field (including the playoffs). Turnovers are crucial in playoff settings, and while the Chiefs lead the league with a plus-16 give/take differential, the Steelers rank tied for ninth in that category with a plus-5 differential. Kansas City's secondary averages at least one interception per game. Coach Andy Reid is excellent when he has more than a week to prepare for an opponent; he's 19-2 all-time coming off bye-week scenarios. The Steelers have had breakdowns on special teams this year, which is untimely considering they are facing explosive returner Tyreek Hill. In the last two-plus years, Roethlisberger averages about three touchdown passes per home game compared to just over one per game on the road.

STEELERS PREDICTION

Though the lack of consistent road production is concerning, the Steelers remain the AFC’s biggest threat to the New England Patriots because of the big three -- Bell, Brown and Roethlisberger -- and healthy contributions all over the field. The Steelers have the league's fourth-ranked red zone defense (46 percent), which is a good setup against quarterback Alex Smith, who isn't known to torch teams downfield with his arm. The defense will hold the Chiefs to a reasonable score and let Bell do the rest. Steelers 30, Chiefs 24

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS

Record: 12-4

First place, AFC West

Alex Smith threw for 264 yards and two touchdowns in the regular-season finale as the Chiefs finished 12-4 and won the AFC West. AP Photo/Rick Scuteri

The Kansas City Chiefs chased the Oakland Raiders down the regular-season stretch in quest of the AFC West championship and finally caught them with a 12-4 record on the final Sunday. The prize was not just a first-round bye, but a divisional-round playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium. It's the first postseason home game for the Chiefs in six years and the first in the divisional round in 13 years.

"The big difference right off the bat is that you don't have to travel," quarterback Alex Smith said. "And you have a lot of routines here. And then there's the benefit of Arrowhead. For us, offensively, being able to use cadences to our advantages. It goes the other way defensively, where we can take advantage of the noise. Being able to lean on the crowd at times for energy is big."

CHIEFS X FACTOR

Smith has the well-earned label of game manager in the regular season, but it's unfair to call him that for his five career postseason games. Smith has been at his best in the playoffs with a career passer rating of 99.1, as opposed to 85.3 in the regular season. He has 11 postseason touchdown passes and one interception. Three of his five playoff games have come as a member of the Chiefs. Kansas City lost to the Colts in the wild-card round three years ago, but that wasn't Smith's fault -- he threw for 378 yards and four touchdowns. Last year, he helped the Chiefs break an eight-game losing streak in the playoffs with a win over the Texans. The Chiefs, with a depleted lineup, went to New England the following week and heaped the load of beating the Patriots onto their quarterback. He threw 50 passes and rushed nine times and, without much help, kept the Chiefs close. Smith's preparation and approach don't change in January. Those things are impeccable any time of year. But for whatever reason, the results are better in the playoffs.

WHY CHIEFS WILL WIN

Everything the Chiefs accomplished this season helped prepare them for this moment. To win 10 of their last 12, they had to survive a three-game, late-season gauntlet that included wins at Denver and Atlanta and against the Raiders at home. That was a playoff-like run. Their AFC West championship gave the Chiefs a week off in the first round in the playoffs and a home game against the Steelers, who had to beat the Dolphins last week in order to advance to the divisional round. The Steelers won seven straight to end the regular season, but they had no test similar to the one they will get from the Chiefs. Just one of those seven Pittsburgh victories came over an eventual playoff team, and that game, against the Giants, was played at home.

The Chiefs' offense will present more for the Steelers to worry about than it did when the teams met in October. Tyreek Hill caught five passes and scored a touchdown against the Steelers then in only 18 snaps, about half of what he has been getting in more recent games. Tight end Travis Kelce has emerged late in the season as a consistent threat. The Chiefs are playing as well offensively as they have at any time this season. They scored 70 points combined in their final two regular-season games, so they might be peaking at the right time.

WHY CHIEFS WILL LOSE

The Chiefs have had some bad games this season, but nothing like the rotten egg they laid on a Sunday night in Pittsburgh in early October, when they lost 43-14 to the Steelers. Was it just a bad night for the Chiefs, or do they have some matchups against the Steelers that are pure poison? It's probably some of both, which is why it's not the final score that's troubling to the Chiefs but how the game arrived to that point.

From their first offensive snap, the Steelers showed no fear of cornerback Marcus Peters, the strength of the Kansas City pass defense. Despite starting at their 5-yard line, the Steelers had Roethlisberger drop into the end zone and heave a deep throw down the right sideline, where Sammie Coates made the catch, beating Peters for a 47-yard gain. Things didn't improve after that for the Chiefs or Peters, who had one of his worst games of the season. Bell rushed for 144 yards on just 18 carries, revealing another phase of the game that looked like a severe mismatch. On offense, the Chiefs were so utterly confused by the variety of fronts and blitzes employed by the Steelers that they didn't score until the fourth quarter, when the outcome had long been decided.

CHIEFS PREDICTION

There's plenty for the Chiefs to be concerned about in this matchup. They were dominated by the Steelers in October in Pittsburgh, and that was at a time when the Steelers weren't otherwise rolling. They are now, having won eight straight, including last week's playoff game against the Dolphins. On defense, the Chiefs will put up a better fight than they did the last time. Inexplicable coverage breakdowns led to a couple of long Steelers pass plays.

The bigger concern for the Chiefs is on offense, where they went long stretches during the regular season with little production. The Chiefs were in the midst of one of those stretches when they went to Pittsburgh earlier in the season, and they were shut out for the first three quarters. The variety of different fronts and blitzes employed by the Steelers gave the Chiefs plenty of problems. But the Chiefs are playing better on offense of late. Their best back-to-back offensive games of the season came in their last two.

And then there's this: The Chiefs were 7-1 against teams that finished the regular season in the top 10 in scoring, the one loss coming against Pittsburgh. The Chiefs didn't collect those seven wins by trying to win low-scoring games. In six of those seven wins, they scored more than their season average of 24.3 points. So, other than the glaring hiccup three months ago, they know how to handle these kinds of games. Chiefs 27, Steelers 24