The Kansas City Chiefs’ road to a historic Super Bowl three-peat has led to a familiar postseason stop.
The top-seeded Chiefs handled the Houston Texans 23-14 on Saturday in a divisional-round playoff game, sending the team to its seventh consecutive AFC championship game. Kansas City will host the winner of Sunday’s game between the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills.
Travis Kelce powered the two-time defending champions with seven catches for 117 yards and a touchdown. His ninth career postseason game of at least 100 yards set an NFL record, as the tight end broke a tie with Hall of Famer Jerry Rice for the most all time.
‘You know 8-7 was gonna show up whenever it’s a big-time moment, and he did that,’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes said in a postgame interview. ‘Everybody was asking ‘where’s Travis Kelce at?’ I think he showed the world where he’s at.’
With Kelce and a bulk of the Chiefs’ stars and starters having sat the Week 18 contest against the Denver Broncos after already having wrapped up home-field advantage, many Kansas City players were in action for the first time in 24 days. Despite displaying some early rust, the champs once again shook off the team they beat just four weeks earlier.
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The Chiefs entered the fourth quarter with just a 13-12 advantage after Texans running back Joe Mixon capped a 15-play, 82-yard drive with a 13-yard scoring scamper (Houston kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn missed the extra point that would have tied the game). But Kansas City responded with its own long march, with Mahomes managing to find Kelce for a 13-yard touchdown connection as the quarterback fell to the ground to punctuate a 13-play, 81-yard drive.
Kelce provided a spark in the second quarter when he ripped off a 49-yard catch-and run for the 35-year-old’s longest gain of the season. Three plays later, Kareem Hunt dashed into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown.
Despite outgaining the Chiefs and controlling the ball in the first three quarters with a hard-charging rushing attack, the Texans struggled with self-inflicted mistakes. Fairbairn missed a field goal and what would have been a game-tying extra point, and another attempt was blocked. The team had eight penalties for 82 yards. Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, meanwhile, was sacked eight times.
This story has been updated with new information.
