The Houston Texans will head to Kansas City to take on the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. This matchup with kick off the NFL divisional round on Saturday afternoon.
These two teams recently matched up in the regular season just a couple of weeks ago. The game took place in late December, also in Kansas City, and ended in a one-score Chiefs victory. This game was major for Houston as they lost their star wide receiver, Tank Dell, to a season-ending injury.
After this game, the Chiefs starters only participated in one more full game. Come this Saturday, a majority of the Chiefs starters will have not played a live snap of football in three and a half weeks. 24 days later, will this take a toll on the team looking to three-peat for the first time in the history of the NFL?
In the Mahomes era, it has been nearly impossible for a road playoff team to defeat Kansas City. It has only happened twice: to Tom Brady and the Patriots in 2019, and the Bengals in 2022. The Texans will most certainly be facing an uphill climb.
Despite the 15-2 record for Kansas City, the Chiefs had rarely any easy victories this season. 12 of their 15 wins came by just one possession. To add onto that, the Chiefs were one of the few teams to score at least 31 points in a single game this season. The others teams that did that are picking in the top 5 of the NFL Draft.
As mentioned before, injuries have baffled the Texans. Not only Tank Dell, but Stefon Diggs as well was lost to a season-ending injury. A receiving corps that was deemed one of the best to begin the season is now down to just one of their big three: Nico Collins.
Houston picked up a dominant win in the Wild Card round over the Los Angeles Chargers. The offense was slow to start, but once it came around, there was no looking back. The defense also put on arguably their best performance of the season.
They forced Justin Herbert to throw four interceptions after he only had three in 17 regular season games. The offense showed off its depth after CJ Stroud completed a pass to eight different receivers. Houston came full force against LA a week ago, but will it be enough to take down Kansas City?
Entering one of the most hostile environments in the NFL, I am taking the Chiefs to advance to their seventh consecutive AFC Championship. We all thought that once Tom Brady retired we would never see a quarterback as dominant as him, well it looks like we were mistaken because Patrick Mahomes will come one step closer to a three-peat on Saturday.
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