Arrowhead Pride
The Chiefs defense recorded eight sacks on Saturday.
The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Houston Texans 23-14 in the Divisional round of the AFC playoffs. The No. 1 overall seed in the AFC put on a dominating defensive performance, and the team's pass rush showed up big when it was needed the most.
A combination of good individual performances and well-timed blitzes from defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo saw the Chiefs record an outstanding eight sacks, and punch their ticket to the AFC Championship game.
George Karlaftis had the best performance of the day for the Chiefs, finishing the game with three sacks, all of which came in the fourth quarter of the game. His first was on a critical fourth-down play, that the Texans desperately needed to keep their season alive.
Earlier in the game, the Chiefs had struggled some to create a pass rush against quarterback CJ Stroud. The Texans had effectively used the running game and play-action passes to keep the Chiefs' rush honest. On the few traditional drop-back passes that the Texans did run, they were quickly blown up by Chris Jones and Charles Omenihu.
By the time the fourth quarter had rolled around, the Texans had found themselves down by eight points in an obvious passing down — fourth-and-10. Spagnuolo had waited to bring the blitz, but he did so at the right time, and it gave Karlafits a free run at the quarterback.
With Jones on one side of the line and Karlaftis on the other, the Chiefs also walk up linebacker Nick Bolton and safety Justin Reid around the line of scrimmage. This causes the Texans to go to full slide-right protection.
At the last second, safety Jaden Hicks walks up inside Karlaftis and takes off after Stroud on the snap. The running back steps up to take Hicks but whiffs, and this leaves Karlaftis one-on-one with the tight end.
Stroud feels the pressure and starts to drift away, but Karlaftis quickly turns the corner on the tight end and shows off some impressive short-area bursts to chase down Stroud.
This stop got the Chiefs off the field, but it wouldn't be the last big play of the quarter for Karlaftis.
The Chiefs would take a field goal mid-quarter to put themselves up two scores. With little time left, the Texans were forced to throw the ball without help from the play-action game, and Karlaftis wasted no time getting back after it.
On the snap, the tight end gives a little, but for the most part, this is a one-on-one for Karlaftis. Slowly working his way around the tight end, Karlaftis hesitates for a moment and then quickly accelerates around the right tackle with the help of a well-timed rip move.
Stroud tries to escape, but Karlaftis wraps him up and ensures he doesn't get anything. This play would set the Texans back and take critical time off the clock, but they did manage to move the ball down...
