Chiefs eliminate Texans, 23-14

By Elwyn Henderson

The Houston Texans advanced to the Divisional Round of the AFC playoffs Saturday as they traveled to Kansas City to take on Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.
Houston won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half. The kick was returned down to the Houston 26 by Nikko Remigio. He fumbled but the Chiefs recovered the ball to maintain possession. Unfortunately, Gilmer’s Kris Boyd was flagged for a personal foul for taking his helmet off in the field of play, moving the ball down to the 13.
Fortunately, the Texans defense rose to the occasion, forcing a 32-yard Harrison Butker field goal with 13:58 left in the first quarter, putting the Chiefs up 3-0. The drive was 4 plays, -1 yard and took 1:02 off the clock.
Houston began their first possession at their 20 after Butker’s kickoff. CJ Stroud led the offense on a 10-pay, 68-yard drive over 5:17 that ended with a 30-yard Ka’Imi Fairbiarn field goal with 8:41 left in the opening framer, tying the game 3-3.
Fairbairn’s kick was returned after the field goal up to the KC 31 where Mahomes led his offense back on the field.
Mahomes led the offense down to the Houston 18 before Butker came in and kicked a 36-yard field goal to put the home team back up 6-3with 3:59 left in the quarter.. The drive was 9 plays, 51 yards and took 4:42.
Butker’s ensuing kickoff resulted in a touchback up to the 30 and Houston went back on offense.
The team was moving the ball until Kris Jones sacked Stroud back at the Houston 42 on a 3rd and 8, forcing a punt by Tommy Townsend that was returned from the 10 to the 20.
Mahomes moved the team to midfield where Patrick was sacked on 3rd down, forcing a Matta Ariza punt that went into the end zone resulting in a touchback out to the 20 where Houston took over once again with 11:22 left in the first quarter.
Stroud moved the team down to the Chiefs 38 where Fairbairn came in to attempt a 55-yard field goal. The kick was wide right as the wind caught the ball and pushed it far to the right, turning the ball over to KC at their 34 with 7:01 left in the first half.
Mahomes hit Travis Kelce on a 49-yard pass on the second play of the possession, moving the ball to first and goal at the Houston 6. On 3rd and goal from inside the 1 Kareem Hunt ran into the end zone with 4:36 left in the half. Butker added the extra point and Kansas City led 13-3. The drive was 5 plays, 55 yards and took 2:25.
Butker’s kick after the TD went out of the end zone and the Texans took over on their 30.
Stroud led the offense down to the KC 30 and on 4th down Fairbairn came in and booted a 48-yard field goal with 16 seconds left in the first half, cutting the Texans deficit to 13-6. The drive was 9 plays, 41 yards and took 4:20.
KC took the kickoff and ran one play and the half ended with Houston set to receive the second half kickoff.
You always hear that the first drive of the second half sets the tone for the rest of the game. Houston did exactly what they needed to do. The held onto the ball for 15 plays and 10:24, moving the ball 82 yards into the end zone with 4:36 left in the third quarter. The drive ended with a 13-yard TD run by Joe Mixon. For the second time a Fairbairn kick for points, this one for a tying extra point was blown right by the wind and no good, leaving the visitors still trailing by the score of 13-12.
The kickoff after the TD was returned up to the Chiefs 39 but they were called for holding on the return, backing the ball up to their 19. It was time for the Houston defense to shine and force a 1-series possession by KC.
Mahomes had other ideas and he led the Chiefs on a 13-play, 81-yard drive that consumed 7:44. The drive ended when Mahomes hit Kelce on an 11-yard TD pass with 11:52 left in the game just before he was about to be tackled. Butker split the uprights on the point after and the KC lead moved out to 20-12.
Xavier Hutchinson returned the Butker kickoff up to the Houston 34 and Stroud and the offense hit the field knowing they desperately needed to find a way to get into the end zone.
It was not in the cards even though Houston moved down to the KC 40 facing 4th and 10. Stroud was dropped for a 16-yard loss on the play and Mahomes brought his guys back on the field at the Houston 44 with a chance to put the game on ice and put the final nail in the Texans coffin.
The defenses rose to the occasion and forced a punt. The ball was fair caught at the Houston 7 and Stroud and company got the ball back with 8:32 left in the game with another chance to stay in the game.
The offense managed to gain only 4 yards on the possession, forcing a punt from their 11. The punt only traveled to the Texans 45 and KC got another chance to put the game away.
They did just that, moving down to the Houston 10. Butker came in kicked a 27-yard field goal with 4:38 left in the game, pushing the score to 23-12 and effectively ending any chance Houston had to pull out a victory. The drive was 7 plays, 36 yards and took 2:57.
Houston moved down inside the 15 and looked like they might narrow the gap, but Stroud was sacked on third down, leading to a 45-yard field goal attempt by Fairbairn. The kick was blocked by Leo Chenel and KC took over at their 13.
They ran the clock down to 15 seconds and took a time out before Ariza came in to punt the ball away on fourth down. Ariza instead ran 4 seconds off the clock and ran out of the end zone resulting in a safety that brought the score to 23-14. Houston had one play. Stroud took a knee and the Chiefs claimed the victory.
The Texans season ended at 11-8 while the Chiefs moved to 16-2. They will now host the AFC Championship game next Sunday, January 26th when they will host the winner of the Baltimore Ravens/Buffalo Bills game to be played tomorrow.
We went over to the Chiefs postgame presser to ask Coach Andy Reid what it felt like to get to 300 wins and become just the 4th coach in NFL history to reach that plateau. His response was epic!
“A lot of people go into that so it’s not – I joke to the guys that you get a couple more, you might be able to equal my weight.”
The Mirror noticed on Facebook a few days ago after Patrick and Brittany Mahomes welcomed Golden, their newest daughter to the family that Patrick’s mother Randi Mahomes had taken a picture in Tyler by the street sign at the corner of Golden Road and Sterling Drive in tribute to Golden. We asked Patrick when he came out for his presser about what his mother meant to him as far as a grandmother.
“I mean, first off, it’s her (Randi Mahomes) birthday, so happy birthday mom. She’s grams – she’s ‘Grandi’ is what she calls herself and our kids love her. She’s been a huge part of – an instrumental part of my life in my entire life and taking me to those baseball games. She takes a picture by that sign, I mean, Golden Road’s (Baseball Park) where I played baseball growing up. Those are the things that you’ll forever remember, those moments that you have with your parents. She’s here today and I’m sure she’ll be ready to take care of these grandkids tonight.”
It wasn’t nearly as cheerful when Texans Coach DeMeco Ryans faced the media after another disappointing loss to the Chiefs after falling at Arrowhead on December 21st by the score of 27-19, but as always he began by giving thanks to God.
“First off, I always want to give honor and glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the many, many blessings He has blessed me with and blessed our team with. I am proud of our guys. Good year. It was good to be here in this spot. Unfortunately, we didn’t get it done today. Congratulations to the Chiefs. They beat us today. Those guys deserve it, and they did a good job.”

Ryans was asked about a couple of controversial calls in the game and responded,
“We knew going into this game that it was us versus everybody. When I say everybody, I mean everybody. The naysayers that doubt, everybody we had to go against today. With that knowledge going into this game and who we were up against, we can’t make the mistakes that we made. We had a lot of self-inflicted mistakes that happened. Whether it was special teams not converting our kicks, defensively not being where we were supposed to be in coverage, offensively not protecting the quarterback and keeping him clean. You marry that on top of everything else that we had to deal with, it was a really tough uphill battle.”

This was the second year in a row Houston has fallen in the Divisional round but they definitely are moving in the right direction and they will now look forward to begin preparations for the 2025 season and try to make additional improvements that will help them go further next season.