Texans fall to the Chiefs to remain winless in 6 tries at reaching the AFC title game

By Canadian Press on January 18, 2025.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — C.J. Stroud just about had to be scraped off the field inside Arrowhead Stadium by the time the Kansas City Chiefs had sacked him for the eighth time Saturday, the Houston quarterback’s jersey stretched and torn and covered in grass and mud.

It pretty much summed up another trip to the divisional round of the playoffs for the Texans.

They rode a roller-coaster of brilliant performances and bitter flops into the postseason, but seemed to be gathering some momentum in the wild-card round, when they soundly beat the Chargers in a game many expected them to lose.

That performance last weekend merely set up a showdown with the Chiefs, though. And with Patrick Mahomes finding Travis Kelce wide open all day and Kansas City’s pass rush making life miserable for Stroud, the two-tie defending Super Bowl champs methodically pieced together a 23-14 victory to deny the Texans a spot in the AFC championship game yet again.

They’ve had six tries to get through the divisional round. They have failed all six times.

Two have been in Kansas City.

“I’m walking out of here discouraged. This one hurts,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “In postseason football, you’ve got to be at your best. You’ve got to operate on all cylinders. We didn’t do that today, so that’s what’s discouraging.”

This loss to Kansas City was every bit as bitter as the last, when the Texans blew a 24-0 lead in a 51-31 defeat in January 2020 that would ultimately catapult Mahomes, Kelce and Chiefs coach Andy Reid to the first of their three Super Bowl titles.

Houston’s Ka’imi Fairbairn missed a 55-yard field goal attempt that would have tied it at 6 late in the first half, but instead gave the Chiefs a short field. Five plays later, Kareem Hunt powered into the end zone for a touchdown.

In the second half, after the Texans spent more than 10 minutes driving 81 yards for a touchdown that should have tied it, Fairbairn missed the PAT in the cold, swirling winds. It not only left the Chiefs clinging to a 13-12 lead but also seemed to sap all the energy and excitement that Stroud, running back Joe Mixon and the rest of the offense had built up.

Kansas City proceeded to drive 81 yards for a touchdown of its own to take a 20-12 lead early in the fourth quarter.

The Texans still had chances to drive for a tying TD. But the first opportunity ended with three straight incompletions by Stroud and one of George Karlaftis’ three sacks on fourth down, and the second with back-to-back incompletions and a punt.

By the time the Chiefs added a late field goal, and conceded a safety in the closing seconds, the game was over.

“It’s all about execution. I’ve talked about that all year,” said Mixon, who ran for 88 yards and a touchdown on a sore ankle. “Unfortunately, it was two or three critical moments we didn’t execute the way we should have. I think we had opportunities out there that we didn’t capitalize on. The margin of error, especially in the playoffs, is small.”

The Texans can still look back on a second consecutive AFC South title and that win over the Chargers. But they still have never won consecutive playoff games in a season, something that is sure to fester within Ryans, who was part of the first team to win a playoff game for the franchise when it beat Cincinnati in January 2012.

“To me it was frustration in all three phases: special teams, offense, defense. We didn’t get it done,” said Ryans, whose team was able to reach the divisional round despite season-ending injuries to stars such as Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell.

“Again, congrats to Andy (Reid) and the Chiefs. They deserve it,” Ryans added. “They’ve done a great job over the past few years being consistent and that’s why they’ve been champions.”

Meanwhile, Stroud has done just about everything except make it to the AFC championship game. The 23-year-old starting QB — the youngest to face a defending Super Bowl champ in the playoffs — is only the sixth quarterback to win a playoff game in each of his first two seasons. And he’s the first Texans quarterback to win two playoff games.

Yet there was nothing he could do against Kansas City and its brutal pass rush Saturday.

There wasn’t much the rest of the Texans could do against the Chiefs, either.

“Hopefully this game is a good step for what is a very young core,” Texans tight end Dalton Schultz said. “When you’re able to go through a game like this and coming up short, sometimes you really need that to grow and to move forward as a team, as a core.

“You’ve got to know what that is like,” Schultz added. “You’ve got to know what those moments feel like when you’re training, what you’re training for, how to train for this moment. There’s a lot of wisdom that comes with the experience of playing in these types of games that I think’ll be good for the core of this team.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Dave Skretta, The Associated Press