The Pittsburgh Steelers aren't most teams. They've won six Super Bowls. Their quarterback has two and their coach has one. This isn't their first rodeo. While taking things one game at a time from a game-planning perspective is important, they can also afford to take a bit more of a holistic view of things when they watch other teams. Ultimately reaching the Super Bowl requires three wins against a combination of five teams. Some combinations of those teams are more favorable than others.

The combination that they are almost certain to face is the Los Angeles Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs. As the current No. 4 seed, they are going to host the Wild Card team with the best record. That is going to be either the Chargers or the Chiefs. In the second round, assuming the New England Patriots win their first-round home game as the No. 3 seed, the Steelers would have to face the No. 1 seed on the road. That is going to be... the Chiefs or the Chargers. As things currently sit, the winner of the AFC West is likely going to be 13-3, which would give them the best record in the conference. The loser might have the same record, but shouldn't fall further than 12-4. They are nearly guaranteed to be the No. 1 and No. 5 seeds, but it is still to be determined which team gets which slot. And the implications of their battle are enormous for the rest of the AFC.

What does this mean for the Steelers, specifically? It means that they are going to have to beat both the Chargers and the Chiefs in the playoffs if they want to reach the Super Bowl. One of them is going to come at home. One of them is going to come on the road. The Chiefs happen to have one of the most daunting home-field advantages in football. Arrowhead Stadium, for all of the success that the Steelers have had there, is a very difficult place to play. The Chargers play in a 27,000-seat soccer stadium that is largely populated by road fans.

Which sounds like an easier trip for the Steelers? Clearly, they would rather travel to Los Angeles than Kansas City. But which team would have a harder time in Pittsburgh? Both of them beat the Steelers there, but they did so under very different circumstances. The Chiefs did so at full strength, with Kareem Hunt on their team and before there was any tape on Patrick Mahomes for coaching staffs to pick apart. The Chargers did so with several major injuries, including their own running back, Melvin Gordon. Shockingly enough, there have been no major developments in Phillip Rivers' career that would change the way that the Steelers game-plan between November and January. The Chiefs won't have their running back for their first playoff game. The Chargers will. The scripts have been flipped.

And a bye week would give the Chiefs extra time to adjust their offense to life without Hunt. It would also give Andy Reid, notoriously strong after bye weeks, an extra week to prepare his quarterback for his first trip through the playoffs. Patrick Mahomes has never played in a postseason game. Don't the Steelers stand a better chance of beating him under those circumstances in their own home stadium, without giving him an extra week to prepare?

This is where the Seattle Seahawks come in. The Chiefs end their season with the Oakland Raiders. They are not going to lose that game. But if they win out, the Chiefs win the AFC West and the No. 1 seed. The Steelers should therefore be rooting for the Chiefs to lose on Sunday to the Seahawks in order to hand the division to the Chargers. That positions the Steelers to get the path through the playoffs that they should want: Mahomes and the Chiefs right away and on their home field, the Chargers on the road, with Steelers fans invading their stadium anyway.

In a perfect world, the Steelers wouldn't have to play both of these teams. If an easier first-round game was on the table, that would be the ideal option. But in all likelihood, a Super Bowl trip means beating both. It just so happens that the order in which they face them is absolutely critical.