Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce lead Chiefs over Texans, into another AFC title game
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes has never lost in the divisional round of the playoffs with the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Houston Texans still have never won.
With the Chiefs' star quarterback hitting best buddy Travis Kelce seven times for 117 yards and a touchdown and a pass rush that dragged Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud to the ground eight times, Kansas City rolled to a 23-14 victory Saturday that sent the two-time defending Super Bowl champions to the AFC title game for the seventh consecutive season.
The Chiefs are the fourth team in NFL history to follow back-to-back Lombardi Trophies by advancing to the conference title game, and the three previous lost. They will try to change that at Arrowhead Stadium next weekend against the Bills or Ravens, who play on Sunday in Buffalo for a shot at dethroning the defending champs.
“It's been a special run,” said Mahomes, whose wife, Brittany, gave birth to their third child last Sunday. “I still remember moments from the World Series my dad played when I was 5 years old. These are the moments that I'll cherish my entire life.”
The run isn't over yet, though. Not with the Chiefs (16-2), cheered on once more by Kelce's girlfriend Taylor Swift and WNBA star Caitlin Clark, chasing an unprecedented third straight Lombardi Trophy.
Mahomes, who threw for 177 yards and a score, improved 16-3 in the postseason, tying Joe Montana for the second-most wins by a starting QB in NFL history behind Tom Brady. That includes his peerless 7-0 mark in divisional playoff games.
Meanwhile, Mahomes and Kelce helped Andy Reid become just the fourth coach in NFL history with 300 career wins.
“I joked to the guys, you know, you get a couple of more and you might be able to equal my weight,” Reid said.
There was plenty of joking in the Kansas City locker room Saturday night. Not a whole lot in the Texans' locker room. They still have never won in six divisional games, twice losing to Kansas City in devastating fashion.
Stroud threw for 245 yards but was sacked eight times, while Joe Mixon — who had been questionable to play with an ankle injury — ran for 88 yards and their only touchdown.
Texans kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn missed a 55-yard field goal attempt, a PAT try and had another field-goal attempt blocked with 1:46 left, which would have kept their comeback hopes alive by making it a one-possession game.
“Knowing what we were up against in this game, we can’t make the mistakes that we made,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. "We had a lot of self-inflicted mistakes that happened, whether it was special teams not converting, defensively not being where we’re supposed to be in coverage, offensively not protecting our quarterback and keeping him clean.
“On top of everything else we have to deal with,” Ryans added, "that’s going to be an uphill battle.”
The Texans’ special teams were a mess right from the start. The Chiefs nearly opened the game with a kick return touchdown, a bizarre play that ended with Houston cornerback Kris Boyd nearly shoving his own assistant coach to the ground.
The Texans held Kansas City to a couple of field goals early, but their defense was unable to stop them late in the first half, when the bruising Kareem Hunt barreled into the end zone to give the AFC West champions a 13-3 lead.
Houston managed a 48-yard field goal through cold, swirling winds to make it a one-possession game at the break, and that late kick seemed to have revived the AFC South champions when they returned to the field for the second half.
Stroud deftly led a 15-play, 82-yard drive that soaked up most of the third quarter, picking up four third-down conversions, including one in which the QB scrambled to the sideline and absorbed a wicked hit. Mixon finished the drive with a 13-yard run, only to watch Fairbairn’s extra point that would have tied the game get blown wide right.
That miss just might have swung the momentum the other way.
Just as they have so often in winning their last eight playoff games, the Chiefs responded with a time-consuming drive of their own. Mahomes connected with Kelce four times on the 81-yard march, including the 11-yard touchdown pass to his trusty tight end as the two-time NFL MVP was getting dragged to the turf by Houston's Mario Edwards Jr.
“I thought it was going to be an interception,” Hunt said.
The Texans had two opportunities to drive for a tying touchdown. The first ended when Stroud was sacked by George Karlaftis on fourth down near midfield with about 10 minutes left. The second was stopped when Stroud misfired on back-to-back passes and Houston was forced to punt with just over seven minutes to go.
Kansas City proceeded to drive inside the Texans 10, and Harrison Butker’s field goal with 4:32 left put the game away.
“We’re fortunate we’ve got a lot of great character guys in the building,” Kelce said. "On top of that, as the years have gone on, we only got here by focusing on the task at hand. And right now, this one was great. We’re going to enjoy this one tonight. But the task at hand is going to be that AFC championship.
"You don’t you don’t get a three-peat by looking past that.”
Injuries
Texans: LB Azeez Al-Shaair hurt his knee in the first half. He had been questionable to play with a knee injury.
Chiefs: SS Bryan Cook missed most of the first half while being evaluated for a concussion, but returned. ... FS Justin Reid took a hard blow to the head breaking up a pass in the fourth quarter, but stayed in.
Up next
The Chiefs host the AFC title game a week from Sunday for the sixth time in seven years. They'll play either the Bills, one of two teams to beat them in the regular season, or the Ravens, who lost in Kansas City in Week 1.