Patrick Mahomes threw three touchdown passes as the Kansas City Chiefs clinched the top seed in the AFC with a dominant 29-10 Christmas Day win on the road against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday.

The defending Super Bowl champions will now have a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, while a third straight loss for the Steelers means they no longer control their own destiny in the race for the AFC North division title.

"I thought it was a full team performance," Mahomes said.

"Defense stepped up, offense stepped up, everybody had their imprint on the game.

"We are getting healthy at the right time, the big guy (tight end Kelce) leads us off, but we have got guys everywhere so it's nice."

The Chiefs (15-1) look to be hitting their prime form at just the right time, but the Steelers (10-6), who have also clinched a postseason berth, have now lost three in a row and sit behind the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North.

The Steelers need the Ravens, who dominated the Houston Texans 31-2 in the late game on Wednesday, to lose their final game of the season to have any chance of taking the division.

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was frank in his assessment of his team's loss, which follows defeats to the Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore.

"That sucked, to be blunt," Tomlin said. "Not the type of ball we wanna play and really kind of eerily similar to our last performance in that we are not doing the fundamental things well enough.

"The bottom line is that it's junior varsity. Not good enough. We need to own that but also look at what we need to do different," he added.

Mahomes, who threw for 320 yards on 29 of 38 passing, was in charge from the outset, finding Xavier Worthy with a seven-yard touchdown pass before connecting with Justin Watson on an 11-yard pass to open up a 13-0 lead in the first quarter.

The Steelers thought they had gotten back in the game when Jaylen Warren ran into the end zone, but the score was nullified because of a holding penalty.

The frustration was increased on the next play when Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson was picked off by Justin Reid.

Pittsburgh gave itself some hope in the second quarter with Wilson finishing off a 72-yard, 11-play drive, with a one-yard run for a touchdown.

The teams exchanged field goals in the third quarter before the Chiefs ran away with the game in the fourth.

A two-yard rush from Kareem Hunt made it 22-10, and then Mahomes found his trusted target Kelce in the end zone with a 12-yard pass to put the game away.

Kelce caught eight passes for 84 yards and became the third tight end to reach 1,000 career receptions, joining Tony Gonzalez and Jason Witten.

He also broke Gonzalez's record for most receiving touchdowns in Chiefs history.

"It's everything to me," Kelce said after the game. "Tony's been a mentor for me. I feel like I'm still trying to fill that guy's shoes."

Gonzalez previously promised to pay any potential fine if the 35-year-old Kelce celebrated with a signature Gonzalez "dunk" of the ball over the goalpost. Kelce did just that. Celebratory dunks were once routine but have more recently been punished with fines.

In the day's other game, there was no sign of the Ravens stumbling at the finishing line, with reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson at his dynamic best against the Texans.

Jackson threw for two touchdowns and 168 yards and brilliantly ran in another score as he made a strong case for a third MVP award.

Jackson also ran 87 yards on four carries which ensured he replaced Michael Vick as the NFL's all-time leading quarterback in rushing yards.

Vick ran for 6,109 yards in his career, but Jackson broke that record despite having played in 41 fewer games than the former Atlanta Falcons star.