Texans-Chiefs Divisional Round: Offense, defense and…

Texans-Chiefs Divisional Round: Offense, defense and special teams snap counts

Much like last season, the Houston Texans are still looking to get over the hump.

Patrick Mahomes’ 11-yard diving touchdown pass to Travis Kelce in the fourth quarter marked the beginning of the end for the Texans at Arrowhead Stadium. That pass would be the deciding factor as the Kansas City Chiefs advanced to their seventh consecutive AFC title game appearance with a 23-14 win in the divisional round.

“We knew it was going to be us against the refs going into this game,” defensive end Will Anderson said postgame.

Kansas City, which becomes the fourth team in NFL history to follow back-to-back Lombardi Trophies by advancing to the conference title game, did have some calls land in their favor. Mahomes was hit twice with a roughing the passer call that led to scoring drives.

The two-time MVP also was “tackled” late while going down as an open-field runner, which led to a 15-yard penalty and a fresh set of downs in the fourth quarter. Six plays later, Mahomes found Kelce for the score to extend Kansas City’s lead by eight.

“We knew going into this game, that it was us vs. everybody,” said Ryans, before clarifying a bit. “When I say everybody, it’s everybody. All the naysayers, the doubt, everybody we had to go against today. Knowing going into this game what we were up against, we can’t make the mistakes that we made. We had a lot of self-inflicted mistakes that happened.”

C.J. Stroud tried to make the most of his afternoon, but the pressure was powerful from Kanas City’s front seven. He was sacked eight times, including three times on fourth down.

Outside of a 13-yard touchdown run in the third quarter from Joe Mixon, Kansas City held Houston’s offense mostly in check. Special teams also were far from dynamic from the get-go.

Kris Boyd was flagged for a 15-yard penalty after Houston gave up an opening 63-yard return. Ka’imi Fairbairn missed two kicks and a PAT.

Here are the snap counts from Saturday’s showcase at Arrowhead Stadium.