Arrowhead Pride
To secure Saturday’s playoff win, the Kansas City offense had to overcome an aggressive Houston defense.
Even in the wintery conditions on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday, there was no easy sledding for the Kansas City Chiefs’ offense in their 23-14 Divisional round victory — because Houston Texans’ defense came to play, holding the Chiefs to the fewest total yards (212) in any game played by their starters this season.
One of the Texans’ big factors was winning the time of possession. The Chiefs were limited to 50 offensive plays — tied for the fewest run by the starters in any game this season. The low-scoring battle seemed to come down to quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce making plays in key moments.
Outside of Kelce’s 117 yards (and a big touchdown), Kansas City’s skill-position players combined for 60 receiving yards on 16 targets — and in Sunday’s AFC Championship against the second-seeded Buffalo Bills, such a lack of production will be much harder to overcome.
It started with the Texans’ aggressive defense against short, quick passes:
As the regular season neared its end, the Kansas City offense found a rhythm with quick passes. The Week 16 matchup with the Texans was one of the strongest examples: on passes thrown less than 2.5 seconds after the snap, Mahomes completed 17 of 19 passes for 155 yards and a touchdown.
But in Saturday’s game, Mahomes mustered on 31 yards on seven such completions, averaging 2.8 yards per attempt on those throws.
The Texans were clearly keyed into some of the Chiefs’ foundational passing schemes.
On this first down, the play-call is one of Kansas City’s typical drive starters: Y-stick. Kelce runs an option route based on coverage; Mahomes has a simple read that usually gains about five yards. Defenses rarely succeed against this play — but here, the Texans’ nickel defender anticipates the quick route and breaks it up.
On this third down, the Chiefs run Kelce and tight end Noah Gray on a high-low concept over the middle, trying to put stress on the middle linebacker in coverage.
At the snap, Houston linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair gains depth to pick up Kelce on the deeper pattern, triggering Mahomes to throw short to Gray. That’s likely to be just what Al-Shaair wanted; he immediately reacts to the throw, stopping Gray short of the first-down marker.
The Chiefs attempted to counter the Texans’ downhill aggressiveness with a few timing screens that put the offensive line out into space, but none were successful. The first two came on long downs — a predictable time for these plays — demonstrating that sometimes, the timing of the call can be just as important as its design.
Mahomes’ short accuracy wasn’t up to his normal standard, either. Against a defense with urgency toward the ball, that can make a big difference on quick-hitting throws. Mahomes made a handful of throws behind his target, lowering each play’s ceiling.
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