Final: Chiefs 23, Texans 14
Good fight by the Texans, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Chiefs in the Divisional Round.
Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City will advance to the AFC Championship Game for the seventh straight season. They will await the winner of the Ravens and Bills, who face off Sunday.
Chiefs continue their recipe for success
Since 2018, Kansas City is 6-0 in divisional-round playoff games by protecting the ball, with just four turnovers combined in those six victories. Tonight against Houston, the Chiefs are on their way to a seventh consecutive divisional win by once again limiting their own mistakes. The Chiefs have yet to turn the ball over even though Houston’s defense this season had a track record of making several of the league’s most prolific quarterbacks look mortal. If the Chiefs stay turnover-free, it will be their eighth consecutive game without a turnover.
Chiefs take two-score lead with field goal
The Chiefs took advantage of a short field and after a seven-play, 36-yard drive Harrison Butker came on to kick a 27-yard field goal.
Kansas City now leads 23-12 with only 4:38 to go. Not sure if the Texans have enough time to mount a comeback.
Texans go three-and-out for the first time
Terrible time for the Texans to go three-and-out for the first time all day.
Houston picked up only four yards on a drive that started inside the 10. The Chiefs now have the ball back on the Texans’ 45.
Kansas City leads 20-12 with 7:35 to go.
Texans turn it over on downs
That could be a dagger.
The Texans tried to convert a 4th-and-10 from the Kansas City 40, but C.J. Stroud was sacked for a whopping 16-yard loss on the play. Houston had a nice drive going until three straight blitzes by the Chiefs stymied Stroud, who threw incomplete twice before the sack.
Kansas City now has the ball on the Texans 44 with a 20-12 lead. There’s 9:59 left in the fourth quarter.
Travis Kelce having season-best performance
Remember how much hand-wringing there was early in the season concerning Travis Kelce’s lack of production? Now that the playoffs are here, the future Hall of Fame tight end and quarterback Patrick Mahomes have established their unguardable connection yet again.
Kelce, who averaged a career-low 51.4 receiving yards per game this season, has caught five passes for a season-high 113 yards and a touchdown. That receiving total includes a 49-yard reception, his longest of the season.
Touchdown, Chiefs!
Mahomes magic!
What a play by Patrick Mahomes, who threw a pass while being tackled on 3rd-and-goal, finding an open Travis Kelce in the end zone for a touchdown. The play was the capper on 13-play, 81-yard drive that took over seven minutes off the clock.
We’ve only had two drives in the second half! The Chiefs now lead 20-12.
End of third: Chiefs 13, Texans 12
The Texans took over 10 minutes off the clock with their lone drive in the third quarter, but now the Chiefs are putting together their own long possession.
Kansas City will have a 4th-and-very-short with the fourth quarter begins. The Chiefs are on the Houston 37 after seven plays and 44 yards. The drive was aided by yet another controversial penalty for a hit on Patrick Mahomes.
Both defenses have been stingy so far. Let’s see which offense can make more plays down the stretch.
‘Cause you know I love the players, and you love the game’
Pop superstar Taylor Swift and WNBA rookie of the year Caitlin Clark are sitting next to one another at Arrowhead Stadium.
Difficult day for Texans special teams
It turns out that Kansas City’s long opening kickoff return was a bad omen for the Texans special teams unit. Since that return — which also saw Kris Boyd draw an unsportsmanlike penalty and push Houston special teams coordinator Frank Ross on the sideline — the Texans have left four points on the board, after Ka’imi Fairbairn missed a 55-yard field goal, then a point-after attempt that would have tied the game in the third quarter. Fairbairn was perfect on PATs this season through 14 games, but in his last four games, including today, has missed three PATs.
Touchdown, Texans!
That is EXACTLY the kind of drive you want to have against the Chiefs, especially in the playoffs.
The Texans went 82 yards in 15 plays — taking over 10 minutes off the clock — capped off by a 13-yard touchdown run by Joe Mixon. The possession included multiple third-down conversions, with Houston having to overcome a few penalties as well.
The only issue? Ka’imi Fairbairn missed the extra point. So the Chiefs still lead 13-12.
Texans had their opening early
Because the majority of Kansas City’s starters hadn’t played in nearly three weeks, given how early the Chiefs had wrapped up the AFC’s top playoff seed, the assumption entering today was that Houston’s opportunity to grab hold of the game would be in the first half as the Chiefs got back into rhythm.
Instead at times the Texans looked out of sync, no bigger than in the final minute before halftime when a penalty and sack on consecutive plays cost them 18 yards. With wideouts Tank Dell and Stefon Diggs injured and unavailable, can Houston find ways to get top receiver Nico Collins open and create lanes for running back Joe Mixon? At the half, Mixon has 46 yards on 11 carries and Collins has been targeted three times, with two catches for 27 yards.
Halftime: Chiefs 13, Texans 6
After a nine-play, 41-yard drive, Texans kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn hit a 48-yard field goal to cut into Chiefs’ lead with 20 seconds left in the second quarter.
That was a nice drive by Houston, which also killed enough clock to prevent Patrick Mahomes from trying to answer with a score.
It’s now a 13-6 game at half, and the Texans will receive to open the third.
Touchdown, Chiefs!
We have our first touchdown of the day.
Five plays after the Texans missed a field goal, the Chiefs got in the end zone courtesy of a one-yard run by Kareem Hunt. Kansas City was set up inside the 10 after a 49-yard pass to Travis Kelce.
Hunt then finally punched it in on 3rd-and-goal.
The Chiefs now lead 13-3.