Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are moving on the AFC championship game.
The Chiefs defeated the Houston Texans 23-14 Saturday at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium to remain undefeated at home this year.
Kansas City’s won eighth straight playoff games. The AFC championship game has become the Chiefs invitational. The Chiefs are on their way to a seventh consecutive AFC championship game.
Mahomes is 7-0 in his career in the divisional round, which is the most wins without a loss in the divisional round by any quarterback in playoff history, per NFL Research.
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Here is what we learned from the Texans vs. Chiefs playoff game:
Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce rekindle connection
The Chiefs tight end had a vintage performance in the victory.
Mahomes found his favorite target routinely over the middle of the field. Kelce caught a 13-yard touchdown pass from Mahomes that gave the Chiefs a 20-12 lead in the fourth quarter.
The Chiefs tight end produced a game-high seven catches, 117 yards and one touchdown.
Kelce had 15 straight playoff games with at least five receptions and 14 consecutive postseason games with at least 70 receiving yards, both the longest such streaks in NFL playoff history.
Mahomes completed 16-of-25 passes for 177 and one touchdown. Kelce and rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy 12 combined for 12 receptions. Worthy was the only Chiefs wide receiver to record a reception. The Chiefs offense will need better games from receivers DeAndre Hopkins, Hollywood Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster next week.
Mahomes now has 16 career postseason wins. He’s tied with Hall of Fame QB Joe Montana (16 wins) for the second-most wins by a starting quarterback in postseason history. Tom Brady (35 postseason wins) owns the record.
Chiefs offense begin contest rusty
The questions of whether or not the extended rest would be detrimental for the Chiefs was both answered and not in the win.
Predictably, the Chiefs offense was rusty after they rested starters in Week 18 and enjoyed a bye week in the wild card round.
Nikko Remigio’s 63-yard return on the game’s opening kickoff, plus an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Houston, gave the Chiefs excellent field position to start the game.
Despite the Chiefs’ first offensive snap being on Houston’s 13-yard line, the offense went three-and-out and had to settle for a 32-yard field goal.
Kansas City’s concerning run defense
The Chiefs better shore up their run defense in a hurry.
Next week, Kansas City will either face a Baltimore Ravens team that boasts the No. 1 rushing attack in the league or a Buffalo Bills club with a top-10 rushing offense.
The Chiefs defense gave up 95 yards on the ground in the first half. Houston averaged over five yards a carry in the first half. Houston tallied 149 rushing yards in the loss. They averaged 5.1 yards per carry.
Texans RB Joe Mixon found running lanes in between the tackles and on outside runs. The Texans running back had a nice 13-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to trim Houston’s deficit 13-12.
Texans special teams played a big hand in loss
The Texans special teams unit had a terrible outing. They gave up a 63-yard kick off return to begin the game.
Kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn badly misfired on a 55-yard field goal in the second. He then missed a game-tying extra point in the third period. If that wasn’t bad enough, Fairbairn had his 35-yard field goal blocked with under two minutes to go in the game. A successful field goal would’ve made it a one-possession game.
Texans leaky offensive line
The Texans quarterback was sacked an AFC-high 52 times during the regular season. One of Houston’s priorities this offseason should be to invest in their offensive line.
Andy Reid joins rare company
Reid recorded his 300th career win (including playoffs). He joins Don Shula (347), Bill Belichick (333) and George Halas (324) as the only coaches in NFL history to reach 300 career victories.
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