Patrick Mahomes has never lost in the divisional playoff round with the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Houston Texans still have never won.
With Chiefs star quarterback hitting best friend Travis Kelce seven times for 117 yards and a touchdown and a pass rush dragging Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud to the ground eight times, Kansas City cruised to a 23-14 win on Saturday that sent the two teams into overdrive — it was time to defend the Super Bowl champion. Bowl in the AFC title game for the seventh straight season.
The Chiefs are the fourth team in NFL history to follow back-to-back Lombardi Trophies by advancing to the conference title game, the previous three having lost. They’ll try to change that at Arrowhead Stadium next weekend against the Bills or Ravens, who play Sunday in Buffalo for a chance to take down the defending champions.
“It was a special run,” said Mahomes, whose wife, Brittany, gave birth to their third child last Sunday. “I still remember moments from the World Series that my father played when I was five years old. These are the moments that I will cherish for the rest of my life.”
However, the race is not over yet. Not with the Chiefs (16-2), who are welcomed back by Kelsey’s girlfriend Taylor Swift and WNBA star Kaitlyn Clark, seeking an unprecedented third straight Lombardi Trophy.
Mahomes, who threw for 177 yards and a score, improved to 16-3 in the postseason, and tied Joe Montana for the second-most wins by a QB in NFL history behind Tom Brady. That includes his unparalleled 7-0 mark in divisional playoff games.
Meanwhile, Mahomes and Kelce helped Andy Reid become the fourth coach in NFL history with 300 career wins.
“I’ve joked with the guys, you know, if you get more weight, you might be able to equal my weight,” Reid said.
There was a lot of banter in the Kansas City Chiefs locker room on Saturday night. There’s not much in the Texans’ locker room. They still have never won six divisional games, losing twice to Kansas City in devastating fashion.
Stroud threw for 245 yards but was sacked eight times, while Joe Mixon — who was questionable to play due to an ankle injury — ran for 88 yards and their only touchdown.
Texans kicker Kaimi Fairbairn missed a 55-yard field goal attempt, a PAT attempt and another field goal attempt was 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 coming into this game, we can’t make the mistakes we made,” Texans coach DeMico Ryans said. “We had a lot of mistakes that we made ourselves, whether it was special teams not converting, not being defensively where we’re supposed to be in coverage, or not protecting our quarterback and keeping him clean.
“On top of everything else we have to deal with, this is going to be an uphill battle,” Ryans added.
The Texans’ special teams were a mess from the start. The Chiefs nearly broke the game open with a punt return, a bizarre play that ended with Houston assistant coach Chris Boyd being pushed to the ground.
The Texans dominated Kansas City with two early field goals, but their defense couldn’t stop them late in the first half, when a bruising Kareem Hunt blasted a shot into the end zone to give the AFC West champions a 13-3 lead.
Houston nailed a 48-yard field goal through a cold, swirling wind to make it a one-possession game at intermission, and that late kick appeared to revitalize the AFC South champions as they returned to the field for the second half.
Stroud brilliantly led a 15-play, 82-yard drive that consumed most of the third quarter, picking up four third-down conversions, including one in which the QB rushed to the sideline and absorbed a vicious hit. Mixon finished the drive with a 13-yard run, only to watch Fairbairn’s extra point that would have tied the game blow wide.
This error may have shifted momentum in the other direction.
Just as they’ve done so often in winning their last eight games in the playoffs, the Chiefs responded with a drive that took too long. Mahomes connected with Kelce four times on an 81-yard drive, including an 11-yard touchdown pass to his reliable tight end as the two-time NFL MVP was 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 chances to drive for the tied touchdown. The first ended when George Karlaftis Stroud was sacked on fourth down near midfield with about 10 minutes left in the game. The second goal was stopped when Stroud fumbled back-to-back passes and Houston was forced to punt with just over seven minutes left in the game.
Kansas City proceeded to drive inside the Texans 10, and Harrison Butker’s field goal with 4:32 left put the game away.
“We are fortunate to have so many great characters in the building,” Kelsey said. “Moreover, as the years have gone by, we’ve only gotten here by focusing on the task at hand. Now, that was great. We’re going to enjoy tonight. But the task at hand is going to be the AFC Championship.”
“You don’t get a three-peat by looking beyond that.”
Swift arrived much earlier than usual — about two hours before kickoff — and was dressed almost head-to-toe in Chanel, including a black-and-white tweed jacket, a quarter-zip romper, a pearl belt and drop earrings.
She spent some of the game sitting in a suite alongside the Indiana Fever’s Clark, who is also a big Chiefs fan.
Swift began her high-profile romance with Kelsey last season, when he invited the Anti-Hero singer to watch him play in a September game with the Bears. Since then, the two have spent a lot of time together, and cameras are often following them around.
She’s been spending more time in Kansas City recently after wrapping up her record-setting Eras Tour on Dec. 8 in Canada.