By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Since Patrick Mahomes became the starting quarterback for the Chiefs, Kansas City has made a habit of winning in the AFC Divisional game. On Saturday, the Chiefs advanced to their seventh straight AFC Championship game beating the Houston Texans 23-14 at Arrowhead Stadium.
In seven years as a starter, Mahomes has never gone to less than the AFC Championship game. Six of those seven were also hosted in the comforts of Arrowhead Stadium, the lone exception being last season when Kansas City won their second straight Super Bowl.
After three weeks of rest, things started out slow for the Chiefs offense. Their first drive started with a bang, a 63 yard kickoff return from Nikko Remigio, but went three and out, a total of negative one yard, ending with a 32 yard field goal by Harrison Butker.
Houston answered on the next drive with a field goal of their own, 30 yards by Ka'imi Fairbairn, but Kansas City took the lead back after a nine play drive, benefitting from a controversial roughing the passer call on the Texan's Will Anderson, before stalling in the redzone and again sending Butker out to nail a 36 yard field kick.
Both teams were forced to punt on their next drives before the Texans attempted to tie the game, but Fairbairn's kick sailed wide right, giving Kansas City the opportunity to extend their lead late in the second quarter, getting a one yard rushing touchdown from Kareem Hunt.
Houston closed out the scoring in the first half with another field goal, 48 yards by Fairbairn, bringing the game to within one touchdown at the halftime break, with Kansas City leading 13-6.
The Texans won the toss to open the game, and deferred to the second half, opening the half with a long drive that consumed most of the third quarter, going 15 plays and 82 yards, scoring a touchdown on an 11 yard run by Joe Mixon. The game looked like it would end up tied, but Fairbairn's kicking woes continued, missing the game tying extra point and leaving the Chiefs up by one.
Kansas City answered with a long drive of their own, taking over with 4:36 remaining in the third quarter, and finally ended up scoring early in the fourth on a play that involved that patented Mahomes magic. Feeling pressured, Mahomes begin to scramble up the middle, before Houston's Mario Edwards broke off his block, turning around to grab Mahomes by the ankles and start to drag him down.
But as he fell to the ground, in an almost Superman like pose, Mahomes launched the ball towards the endzone and straight into the hands of his top target on the day, tight end Travis Kelce, for an 11 yard touchdown, extending the Chiefs lead following the Butker extra point to eight.
Going for it all, Houston turned the ball over on downs on their next drive. After back to back punts, the Chiefs got another field goal by Butker, this time from 27 yards away. Houston looked to answer with a field goal of their own on the next drive, but for the second time this season, Leo Chenal came up with a big block to keep the Texans from scoring.
The final points of the game came in a bit of an unconventional way. Following the blocked field goal, Kansas City went three and out on kneel downs from Mahomes, sending Matt Araiza out to punt. The punt never happened though as Araiza took the snap and ran backwards into the endzone, rushing around and killing clock until going out of bounds for a safety.
With the game settled, in something that many people have not seen before, following the kickoff Texans quarterback CJ Stroud came out to kneel out the final seven seconds of the game, to send the Chiefs to the AFC Championship game.
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. Also in the game, head coach Andy Reid became the fourth coach in NFL history to reach 300 career postseason wins.
Hunt led the rushers with eight carries for 44 yards and his touchdown, Isiah Pacheco added five runs for 18 yards. Kelce caught seven catches for 117 yards and a score, breaking a tie with Hall of Famer Jerry Rice for the most postseason 100+ yard outings. The Chiefs defense also impressed along with the blocked field goal recording eight sacks, three by defensive end George Karlaftis.
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.
The AFC Championship matchup against either the Bills or Ravens will kickoff at 5:30pm at Arrowhead Stadium. Pregame will be at 4pm on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM) and Q Country 92.7.
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