A plume of cigar smoke clouded the visiting locker room at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Sunday night. Music thumped, and Kansas City Chiefs defenders, still riding high after their conference championship game win over the Ravens, paraded around in custom T-shirts featuring images of their coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo, and a catchy slogan: “IN SPAGS WE TRUST.”

“I had these made just to show you how much we believe in Coach Spags,” safety Justin Reid said. “Coach Spags is the greatest defensive coordinator ever. I’ve played for five defensive coordinators. I love Coach Spags.”

The Chiefs had plenty of reasons to love Spagnuolo after they rattled a Ravens offense that converted only 3 of 11 third-down attempts, turned the ball over three times and rushed for just 81 yards, its lowest output since the first game of the 2022 season.

With Spagnuolo pulling the strings, the Chiefs did what so few teams have been able to do this season: frustrate probable MVP Lamar Jackson.

“We threw the book at Lamar,” Reid said. “Zone pressures, man pressures, fake pressures that look like pressures and end up being zone drops. So we tried to do as much as we could to confuse him and not give him the same look twice throughout the whole game.”

The Chiefs also left no doubt that Patrick Mahomes will return to the Super Bowl with his finest defense yet, a luxury he has learned to value even more this season.

Kansas City hired Spagnuolo in 2019 to improve an aging defense that ranked near the bottom of the league in many major statistical categories. With an influx of draft talent – including defensive back L’Jarius Sneed, linebacker Nick Bolton, cornerback Trent McDuffie and defensive end George Karlaftis – and key free-agent signings such as Reid, Spagnuolo turned the Chiefs into a top defense. In 2023, only the Cleveland Browns allowed fewer yards.

On Sunday, the Chiefs’ transformation was obvious.

Their defensive game plan centered on Jackson. They turned to their safeties, cornerbacks and linebackers to bring extra pressure, and the defense married its rush and coverage to try to take away Jackson’s deep options.

As the Chiefs celebrated with his teammates, Jackson trudged off the field and slammed his helmet in frustration.

“Is it one of the better defenses? Yeah, I’d say it’s one of the better defenses that I’ve been around,” Chiefs Coach Andy Reid said. “We had some real good ones in Philadelphia, and some of the early defenses here, I don’t want to slight those guys – they did a nice job for us. Surely, this is a defense that has helped guide this team along as the offense was growing, and now that both are playing well, that’s a tribute to everybody involved.”

SUPER BOWL BETS: And they’re off. The first $1 million bet on the first Super Bowl in Las Vegas was placed Tuesday by a Caesars Sportsbook bettor in Michigan.

The gambler wagered $1 million on the 49ers on the money line (-120) to win Super Bowl 58 at Allegiant Stadium. If the Niners beat the Chiefs, the bettor will profit $833,333.33.

Caesars also took a $200,000 wager to win $480,000 on San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy to win the Super Bowl MVP award (+240), and a $100,000 bet on the coin toss to land on tails.

“Tails never fails, and a customer is all in on the coin flip,” Caesars vice president of trading Craig Mucklow said in a text message.

The 49ers are consensus 1½-point favorites over Kansas City, and the consensus total is 47½. The Niners are -125 at Caesars on the money line, and the Chiefs are +105.

Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes is the +130 favorite at Caesars to be named Super Bowl MVP, and Purdy is now the 2-1 second choice. The coin toss odds are a toss-up, with heads and tails each priced at -105.

LIONS: Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson has decided to stay with the team and turn down potential opportunities to be an NFL head coach next season, leading the Washington Commanders and Seattle Seahawks to turn to other candidates.

Two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Johnson informed teams he would not be leaving the Lions. They spoke on condition of anonymity because Johnson’s plans had not been announced.

Johnson was considered one of the front-runners for the Commanders in their widespread coaching search and also interviewed twice with the Seahawks, most recently in person Monday. He was scheduled to talk to the Commanders on Tuesday.

BILLS: Buffalo promoted linebackers coach Bobby Babich to take over as the team’s defensive coordinator on Tuesday, filling a role left vacant last season after the team said Leslie Frazier elected to take the year off to pursue a potential head coaching job.

The hiring of a coordinator is also an indication that Coach Sean McDermott will relinquish the defensive play-calling duties in Frazier’s absence.

STEELERS: Pittsburgh will hire former Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith as its offensive coordinator, team sources told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Smith, who was fired after three seasons with the Falcons, was the offensive coordinator from 2019-20 with the Tennessee Titans. He replaces Matt Canada, who was fired in November after 21/2 seasons with the Steelers.

Smith, 41, comes off an uninspiring tenure as Falcons coach, going 7-10 in each of his three seasons. But prior to that, he helped lead a resurgence of the Titans as their offensive coordinator, building an offense around star running back Derrick Henry that had Tennessee in the top 10 in offense in 2019 and 2020.

CHARGERS: Joe Hortiz is going from assembling talent for John Harbaugh to leading the football operations with Jim Harbaugh.

Hortiz has agreed to terms to become the Los Angeles Chargers’ general manager. The team made the announcement Tuesday morning. Hortiz – who was one of the nine candidates to interview for the job – will replace Tom Telesco, who was fired on Dec. 15 after nearly 11 seasons as GM.

Hortiz has spent his entire NFL career with the Baltimore Ravens. He started as an area scout in 1998 and has been the Ravens’ director of player personnel for five seasons. Hortiz has overseen all aspects of pro and college scouting since 2019.

TV RATINGS: The television audiences for the NFL playoffs and last Sunday’s conference championship games are the highest on record going back to 1988.

According to the league and Nielsen, the first three weekends of the postseason averaged 38.5 million viewers on television and digital platforms, a 9% increase over last year.