When the Kansas City Chiefs walked into Acrisure Stadium on Christmas Day, the primary goal was to claim the AFC's No. 1 postseason seed with a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But there was more on the line than that. In a welcome departure from the Christmas Day loss to the Las Vegas Raiders one year ago, the game turned out to be a one-sided contest. The defending champs rolled to a 29-10 victory, proving that it's going to take a lot more than a mediocre playoff team to dethrone the NFL's current king.

Here are five things we learned from the Chiefs thumping the Steelers.

Kansas City was playing on just a few days' rest against the second playoff team in two weeks. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes was only a week removed from spraining his ankle. The team was without pass rusher Chris Jones -- its best defensive player -- and was fielding an offensive line that was continuing to struggle.

In such circumstances, a normal NFL team might look tired and sluggish -- and struggle to get going. But the Chiefs aren't normal. Looking very much like a team that had been there before, Kansas City started fast, took control of the game and never relinquished it.

It was just the sort of performance we should expect from a team seeking its third consecutive Super Bowl title. As usual, this battle-tested team had its finger right on the pulse of the season -- and is now peaking at exactly the right time.

We knew the Steelers were going to run the ball against the Chiefs. It's what they do.

Coming into Wednesday's game, Pittsburgh ranked 10th in average rushing yards at 130 per game. While some better rushing teams (like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baltimore Ravens) have had little success while trying to tote the rock against Kansas City, Pittsburgh ran all over the Chiefs' defense, averaging 6.5 yards per attempt as it claimed 202 yards.

Part of this can be attributed to the Steelers playing from behind. Kansas City preferred to emphasize its pass defense rather than stack the box against the run. Still, it's routine for the Chiefs to play with a lead.

The big difference in this game was being without Jones. While he is sometimes criticized for his run defense, his impact on it goes beyond tackling opposing running backs. Since he is double-teamed on almost every down, his teammates are free to run downhill and make plays on the ball.

The Chiefs missed No. 95 in the middle. But he is expected to be back for the playoffs.

It's never good when your placekicker -- who is already struggling as he comes back from surgery -- has to attempt two extra points from 48 yards. But the Chiefs committed two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on touchdown plays, putting Butker in just that situation -- and for the second time in three weeks, Butker missed a kick.

After his previous miss -- a chip shot against the Cleveland Browns -- special teams coordinator Dave Toub insisted it was a process error that was not connected to Butker's knee injury. If that's true, Toub and his assistants have a few weeks to knock the rust from Butker's leg before the playoffs.

However it's happened, Butker just doesn't look right -- and in the postseason, he must be locked in.

For the third straight week, the Chiefs' rookie safety stepped up to make a big play on defense -- this time breaking up a deep fourth-down pass against the Steelers' star wide receiver George Pickens. Over the last month, Hicks' performance on the field (and his playing time) have been on the rise. We've now reached the point that Hicks has become one of the defense's top players.

In recent weeks, second-year safety Chamarri Conner has struggled. So we have to wonder whether the Chiefs will prefer to play Hicks after Conner clears the concussion protocol. When Hicks is paired with fellow safeties Justin Reid and Bryan Cook, the Chiefs have a trio of hard-nosed safeties who can make plays all over the field.

This season, a lot has been made about the Chiefs' passing game lacking explosion. So you might think that by favoring a quicker West Coast-style passing attack to offset issues on the offensive line, the deep ball might -- once and for all -- be dead in Kansas City.

But the opposite is actually true. One of the primary principles of the West Coast offense is that the quick passing game forces defenses into single-high secondary looks. Once the opponent is forced to commit an extra defensive back to the line of scrimmage to stop the bubble screens and quick slants, the offense can hit them over the top with the deep ball. That's exactly what the Chiefs did against the Steelers.

With Xavier Worthy's emergence as more than a gadget deep-shot artist -- and with Hollywood Brown returning to the lineup -- Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid have lots of levers they can pull to set up explosive plays in the passing game.