Kansas City, Mo. ? A handy beating of San Diego showed the Kansas City Chiefs they’re better.

As Dick Vermeil says, the Pittsburgh Steelers will show them this week “if better is good enough.”

The Steelers, who will be in Arrowhead Stadium Sunday, were just as sharp in a 34-15 opening-day win over Baltimore as Kansas City was in dispatching the Chargers, 27-14.

The Chargers are going through the pains of a second-season rebuilding program under Marty Schottenheimer. The Steelers, in Bill Cowher’s 12th season, have no reason to think they won’t contend for the AFC title.

“They’re a team coming in here off of playoffs,” Vermeil said Tuesday. “They’re a team led by a guy who used to coach in Kansas City. He’s been here, and his team will know what it’s like. He’ll be able to communicate the passion with which the fans enjoy the team and intensity and the problems the crowd creates for a visiting team.”

If Vermeil had been making out the schedule, the Steelers would have been pushed back to November or December.

“Here’s a team that you would like to play a little later in the season. It’ll be a very, very firm test for us,” Vermeil said. “As we all know, they have a very outstanding group of receivers, the quarterback is hot right now, and it’s a great, great story.”

Tommy Maddox, who was 21-of-29 against Baltimore for 260 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, reminds Vermeil of one of his old quarterbacks.

“It’s another Kurt Warner story,” he said. “A young man I watched play college football his sophomore year and have an opportunity to get to know when he was just a puppy. He left college early and had an unbelievable up-and-down career with three years out of football. Now, he’s a got a quarterback efficiency rating of over 130 in one football game.

“They’re tough, and they will test us in different ways than the San Diego Chargers did.”

Cowher — who was a Chiefs assistant when Schottenheimer was Kansas City’s head coach — is not the only member of the Pittsburgh party who’s familiar with the famous Arrowhead Stadium atmosphere. The Steelers have been here seven times since 1992, winning four.

“I know this: Cowher’s probably excited to come here,” Vermeil said. “He loved Kansas City. He loved working in the organization. I’m sure he spent some time talking to Marty because they’re very, very close. He won’t come here with any excuses.”

Vonnie Holliday, the defensive end whom the Chiefs signed away from Green Bay over the offseason, had three sacks in the opener. He raved about the Arrowhead crowd, declaring that it was even more intimidating to visitors than Green Bay’s Lambeau Field.

Yet, could Pittsburgh’s success in Kansas City diminish the mystique of Arrowhead?

“I think it does,” Vermeil said.

“I’ve been in the league a long time and my observation about teams that win on the road is they take the best team along with them on the trip. When we used to win on the road I took a real good team along with me.

“I don’t think there’s anything magic about it. You have to be able to handle adversity. We talk about it all the time.”