January 16, 2025 • 38 mins
Voice of the Chiefs, Mitch Holthus and senior team reporter, Matt McMullen preview the upcoming AFC divisional round matchup, featuring the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Houston Texans at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday. TUNE IN to the AFC Divisional Round matchup 👇 📺: #HOUvsKC at 3:25pm CT | ESPN / ABC 📻: 96.5 The Fan (eng) & TICO Sports (esp)
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We all know when the NFL goes into the postseason,
everything goes up a notch. Well, in this Houston Kansas
City game, that a visional playoff game at Geha Field
at Erahead Stadium, it goes up even more than a notch.
And we'll get into it in this edition of Defending
the Kingdom. Of course, all of them brought to you
by Ticketmaster. They become your best friend during the postseason.
(00:24):
And the Kansas City Chiefs against the Houston Texans, little
bit of room slings insider into the end zone, touchdown,
Chansas City. How everybody, I'm Mitchulta's voice the Chiefs along
with senior team reporter Matt McMullen. It's playoff time here
we are. We even sensed it watching those wild card games.
(00:45):
Just everything rises. This goes to high tide in every
one of these games in the National Football League, but
this one with Houston, with the Chiefs being the one
seed getting the buy There's some extra history involved in
this game that makes it even more intriguing than a
normal playoff game. But that being said, in the playoffs
everything Coach Reed's talked about it ever since he drove
(01:07):
into town twelve years ago. Everything goes up a notch.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
And here we go.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
We've talked about this opportunity for a long time, and
now we can finally start the journey, at least the
postseason portion of the journey. Here at this game against
the Texans. Think the stadium is going to be electric
on Saturday. It's going to be chilly, but we wouldn't
have it any other way. We've talked about this moment
for a long time and the team has checked off
every box to get to this point. Think about back
(01:32):
like an Ota is, we didn't want to get too
far ahead of ourselves. It was like, all right, well,
first time we got to do is go attack the
first couple games of the season. We did that, all right,
make the playoffs, did that? When the division again, did that?
Get that one seed, did that, and then you talked
about it really beginning in October. You were like, if
the Chiefs can wrap this thing up by Christmas, then
(01:53):
we can have this twenty four day kind of grace
period where we can almost have a second training camp.
We've had that now and now it's finally time to go.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, the whole Rest versus Russ thing. I just I'm
firing back on that if the Houston wins this game,
it'll be because they won a divisional playoff game and
they're a good team, and it's one and out. It's
like the nca basketball tournament. It's one and out. There's
no best of three, best to five, best to seven.
I don't think it's going to be because of rust
this team, and we've lived it here, especially the last
(02:25):
three years. Now. One thing of note, Patrick Mahomes will
have the longest time period from his last snap of
the regular season to the first snap of the postseason
of any quarterback in NFL postseason history. The previous was
Warren Moon in nineteen ninety three. I believe it was
twenty two days and this would be twenty three days now.
(02:46):
I only bring that up because, oh hey, that's something
to think about. Does it cause me worry or concern
about Patrick Mahomes. No. I think the fact that his
mental rest, even though he's a new daddy again, another
girl to add to the three kids, which is awesome
and I love it. The fact that he's twenty nine
years old and has three kids. I just think it's cool.
(03:08):
But that being said, his mental rest and emotional rest
to get him revved up and that and all the
disrespect really, whether it's director Sublime, has got this cat
revved up and ready to go where he performs best.
And I know you've got numbers here, as do I
about playoff Pat, But then also the physical rest, getting
guys healthy, getting Chris Jones up, full up and running,
(03:29):
Jawan Taylor up and running, maybe Pacheco up and running,
get them all revved up and ready to go. To me,
this has been a godsend and attack the playoffs because,
as we say, goes up a notch.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
If there's one person I'm not worried about when it
comes to a layoff, it's Patrick Mahomes, who's one of
the greatest playoff performers of all time. Don't want to
get too far ahead of ourselves here, but there's just
some incredible numbers with Mahomes. He's won fifteen career playoff
games as a starting quarterback. That's third most already in
NFL postseason history. Only Tom Brady with thirty five and
(04:01):
Joe Montana was sixteen have more. So if we win
this game, Mahomes will tie Joe Montana for the most
or the second most playoff victories by starting quarterback and
NFL postseason history.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And let me keep going because I could go all day.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I'm gonna try to truncate it.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Mahomes, I called you in my office earlier when I
saw this one because I wasn't aware of it, and
it's just crazy. Mahomes has forty one career passing touchdowns
in the postseason. That's already fifth most in NFL playoff history.
Tom Brady has eighty eight. Okay, but number two is
Joe Montana, tied with Aaron Rodgers each with forty five,
and Brett Favs forty four. So Mahomes is five passing
(04:42):
touchdown shy of passing Joe Montana and Aaron Rodgers for
the second most in NFL postseason history.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
It still kind of feels like he just got here.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
This is crazy, Like it's just absolutely nuts, and go ahead.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I'm sure you have some as well.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well. No, he'll have an eleventh straight playoff win at home.
That'd be second to Tom Brady and seven straight playoff wins.
Brady had ten seven straight playoff wins. If he gets
this one, No, he has already got it. So if
the point is he's closing in on Brady's record on
a lot of these, and his QBR is the best
in NFL history in the postseason at one oh five
(05:19):
point eight. We look at last year, his completion percentage
of Buffalo was seventy four percent. In the AFC Championship game,
it was seventy seven percent. In Super Bowl fifty eight,
it was seventy four percent. These are numbers that are
off the scale, and they're win that matters the most
in the biggest of games.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
He's just the ultimate playoff performer. I can't wait to
see what he does here on Saturday. Kind of feels
like every single postseason game is another opportunity for Mahomes
to add to his postseason legend, and then for the
guys around him. We talked about the kind of second
training camp, right, You've been saying this for a long time. Now, Well,
here are the Chiefs top six leaders this season in
terms of scrimmage yards. So Kareem Hunt led the team
(05:59):
in scrimmage yards.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
It's nuts.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
If I told you that in September, you'd be like
what he had nine hundred and four. Number two was
Travis Kelce with eight hundred and twenty four. Number three
was Xavier Worthy seven hundred and forty two. Number four
was DeAndre Hopkins who joined this team in October. He
had four hundred and thirty seven. Noah Gray was fifth,
and then samajp Ryan was sixth. So why do I
say all this, Well, three of your top six leaders
(06:20):
in terms of scrimmage yards we're not here for training camp.
They joined the team mid season and I'm not even
including Hollywood Brown or Jujus ms Schuster in that. So
to have this time off, the team was practicing last week.
It's not like everyone went away and they were just
all gone. The entire time the team has been practicing,
So it's an opportunity to get ready and to prepare
for this moment for the postseason together. It's like a
(06:43):
true second training camp with these guys that have helped
us get to this point, but we're kind of learning
on the fly. Well, now they've had this time where
they can actually really hammer in on the playbook get
ready for this game plan specifically. That's a big time
advantage that I don't think people are talking about enough,
you know.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
And I think sometimes it's fans or those who are
around the game or around sports and love sports don't
realize the tyranny of the urgent of the NFL. Week
to week basketball, there's eighty two games in one hundred
and sixty two. In baseball and hockey there's eighty two games. Well,
in the NFL there's only seventeen. And so when de
Hop joins the team or Samaja was even a crash
(07:20):
course because it's right before the opening game, after a
camp had left Saint Joseph. There's always this tyranny of
the urgent, like we've got to get you up and
run it as fast as we can now with this
breath being taken. That's why Santa was a second training camp,
not necessarily physically other than the recovery, but to go
through the iPad, which has something north of eight hundred plays,
refining what you have without the tyranny of the urgent,
(07:43):
and going, let's add to it, because you're going to
see stuff in this game we haven't seen yet. And
that is the genius of Andy Reid and this offensive
staff putting stuff in there, but having the time to
do it, to rep it, to mentally rep it, to
walk through it, to put it in as an install
and you just do not get that think about the
teams that did not have the buy and did not
(08:04):
have the Week eighteen where they didn't have to worry
about winning that game. So if you're doing it like
the Chiefs did. Although that's what the Week eighteen last
year helped this team, and Matt Naggy agrees with me,
we wouldn't won the super Bowl without it. But think
about the teams that had to grind to get to
Week eighteen, grind to the wild card game. You're just
stay in that tyranny of the urgent. You don't get
a chance to like lift out and look and say
(08:25):
how do we get better? So to me, that's a
real key here for the Chiefs if they can pull
this off. So that takes care of the rest versus
rust argument before we get into the additional history of
this specific game and what it means. Let's go around
the world. What do you go?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
And I just add one more thing because it applies
to us as well, because we're here every day, we're
traveling with the team, we're doing all this stuff. How'd
you feel on December twenty sixth versus how you feel now?
I'm ready to go, Like I'm excited. I'm fired up.
That three games in eleven days stretch was tough, brutal.
You're cramming all this stuff into just eleven days, and
(09:02):
for the players it's tenfold. So I don't know how
we feel we're ready to go.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
It was interesting that plane ride home from Pittsburgh. It
should have been youph it got the buy ready to go,
but everyone was so tired. There was hardly a word
on that plane. Did you know? Everybody just slept and
if they were kind of watching movies, they didn't even
know what they were watching, like they're just zombied out.
And I thought, wow, And Coach, you've ben mentioned it
like I wouldn't want to do this all the time.
But I'm really proud of what we did. But yeah,
(09:28):
I mean even the twenty sixth you were just like,
I can't even move, like it's so yeah. But now
to have this span of twenty plus days for the
guys to arrest and get ready, I think is huge.
If the Chiefs pull off history here, it'll be because
of what they got done to earn that bye, but
also that timeframe where you get some time that you
(09:53):
rarely get in the National Football League and it's going
to be even more rare as the years going.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
And the team is healthy. We're shooting us on Tuesday.
Coach Read spoke earlier today. For the first time this week.
Everybody's practicing today. So that's all you can ask for
this time of year. Let's go around the world. I
got a bunch today just because we've kind of accumulated here. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
we're gonna get through this. So last week I mentioned
Mikey from Edgerton who went to North Platte High School,
(10:18):
and after what I was like, I probably screwed that up.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I did.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
So he's from Edgerton, Missouri. Oh yeah, not Edgerton, Kansas.
I had Bubba Starling on my mind. Sure are you
familiar with Edgerton, Missouri?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I am? And Cashville, Missouri, by the way, has weighed
in here. That's on there all right, because here you come.
But yeah, yeah, North Platte, so Deerburn that's the there's
West Platte, the Blue Jays that's Weston. But then you
go the next school district up, which is all these
little towns like Edgerton and Deerburn, that's North Platt.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Okay, so now we know, uh, Carlos is from the
Dominican Republic, but originally from New York. We have a
listener in Pittsburgh, Kansas.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Purple Dragons or the colgan as the private School.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Okay, Purple Dragons, it's pretty good. You like that one,
not just the Dragons. Yeah, the Purple Dragons. Terry is
from Murray, Kentucky. We've heard from Terry.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Before Murray State Racers.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
There we go.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
J C currently lives in Cleveland, but grew up in Parkville.
We've kind of activated Parkville. Everyone's letting us an they're
from Parkville. I love Parkville.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Thank you. Yeah. Is he a park hillo Trojan or
is he a park Hill South Panther?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Oh man, he might have told me. I didn't write
it down.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Let us know.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
JC.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Henry is in lattis Smith, South Africa. I think that's
a new one. This was his first full season watching
the Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
That's terrific.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, Lattsmith, South Africa.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
How far from Joe Burgh?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
You know, I don't have to open up the map.
We'll figure that one out. Can we do our Grand
tour of the world. Randy is in Albany, Missouri. Heard
from Randy before felt then is from k c K
but now lives in Chicago. Katie is in Mountain Home, Arkansas.
We've heard from Katie before Home of the I don't
know the Bombers, the Bombers, Mountain Home Bombers. He don't
(11:59):
want to why the Mountain Home Bombers.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
We'll love that. Or the Wakefield, Kansas Bombers. That's good,
and they're named that. I think because of B twenty
nine landed on the main street of Wakefield one day
because it had to.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Have emergency landing. That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I think a B twenty five or B twenty nine,
B twenty nine, it'd be pretty big. But yeah, that's
headed the land emergency landing. So we land on main
street at Wakefield and all right, let's be the bombers
at the high school.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
It's like the opening scene in Top Gun Maverick where
he like walks into the diner wearing like a spacesuit.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Abe is an Elkton, Maryland. You mentioned Casville, Missouri. The
defenders help us with that one. It's by Roaring River
State Park. Oh yeah, does that help? Oh yeah, okay, okay,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Defenders.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
They always let us know.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Gail's listening via starlink while sailing the Caribbean near Granada.
So Gal's having a tough time, rough time, Gale, let
us know if we can join you on your boat.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
What if they saw my nephew. He's a performer. It
depends on the cruise line they're on. He's like one
of the lead writers singers on a cruise boat.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I could be wrong. I took it like they're sailing
them themselves, like they have their own boat.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Oh no, that takes talk about up a notch. Yeah, okay, Yeah,
there's no comedians when you're out there, yeah, or singers
when you're on your own boat.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Or their own ship.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I realized this one time. I was talking to a
World War Two veteran who was there in Tokyo Bay
when World War II ended. Amazing, right, But on.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
The USS Missouri when they signed the surrender terms.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
I think so yeah, And I think I asked him.
I referred to the USS Missouri as a boat, and
he laughed at me, So it's a ship, now, I know,
so yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
You know he would know. But when you talk to
navy guys, they'll go, what boat were you on? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
So I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I'm confused now Anyway, Gayl's having a great time. Walter
is from Hayes but now lives in Banjewel, Gambia.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Oh my goodness, that's a big, a big that's a
big move to Hayes. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
I've been to Hayes. Haven't been to Gambia. They haven't
been to Gambia. Yeah, I'll make it there one day.
Willie is in Terrell, Texas, which is twenty five miles
east of Dallas and seventy eight miles west of White House,
of course, where Patrick Mahomes is.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
From East Texas. Baby the Pines.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yeah, we've a listener in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Dean is
in Northern New York, Benefan since nineteen sixty eight. He
mutes the TV and sinks up the Cheers radio network
with the broadcast. Thought you'd like that, appreciate that. Lots
of people do that. Tana is an Independence Kansas Bulldogs.
Chad is in Papillion, Nebraska.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Papillion, Okay, yep, south of you remember the movie Papillion
like it's famous, like way back when. Yeah, so Papillions
in the southern end of Omaha. Okay, and so their
high school's Papellion La Vista, and I don't know what
the nickname is. We'll hear from him soon.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Let us know.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, not far from off at Air Force Base. Oh
uh yeah, okay, Yeah, Papillion's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Well, Chad wanted to shout out his brother Jared as well,
So shout out to you, Jared. We have a listener
in Rockford, Michigan. Tyler was born in Freeburg but now
lives in Westphalia, Kansas, home.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Of the The school is called Fatima Fatima.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
That's Missouri. I think it might be Missouri. Fatima is Missouri?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Do you know who it is?
Speaker 1 (15:07):
No, okay, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
It's the comets.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, you know what conference promising Fatima. So, Barry and
Kim invited Ellie and I to Okinawa to hang out.
I'm sure you could come to with Hammy if you
mean okay, so we'll see you so and Barry and Kim,
I'm serious, I want to come.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
How long have a drive is it to Okinawa?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
We need one of those amphibious vehicles. I'm not sure
how long it takes to drive on the ocean floor, but.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
We need the ship of the the people that are
off the coast of whatever the coast they're off of.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Let us know.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Then.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Lastly, Christopher is in Wisbaden, Germany, which is near Frankfurt,
so he's originally from Parkville. Parkville once again wanted to
shout out as boys Carter and Dylan their lifelong Chiefs fans,
even though they're Army brat kids, so they've never actually
lived in Kansas City, but they often stay up late
and watch all the Chiefs games. It's a great hearing
from you, Christopher. He wanted to add that you are
the absolute best in the business, which I agree with.
(15:59):
I had a chance to go.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Vs.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Boden is an awesome place, like I said, near Frankfurt
when we were getting ready to play the Dolphins in Germany.
Remember I went out there a few months early and
spent a week in Germany, and wis Boden was on
the list. There's an Army garrison there, obviously, I'm guessing
that's whe Christopher is. And it's near Ramstein Air Base too,
not too far away, a couple hours away. So anyway,
a lot of Americans over there, a lot of Germans
who love football, a lot of Europeans in general who
(16:25):
love football, and Chiefs football specifically. So anyway, it's all
I got here today.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
That's a lot. That's good. And yeah, Wisbaden and Ramstein
one of the most critical locations on the earth. Oh yeah,
to protect what we value not only the Chiefs Kingdom,
but freedom loving countries around the world and our allies. Okay,
this game against the Houston Texans in the Divisional playoff
game three thirty Saturday, gha Field at Arrowhead Stadium is
(16:51):
even bigger than a normal Divisional round game for both franchises.
Now we know with the Chiefs what's at stake. Have
to say it, we've talked about it. We haven't talked
about it. We've inferred it ever since the Chiefs and
Patrick brought it up like ten minutes after winning Super
Bowl fifty eight. But you're chasing something that's never ever
(17:12):
been done. And so this is the step you said,
it's so very perfectly we're here. Now we're here and
this is the next stage going up a notch. But
that being said, you attack this game. But for the
Houston Texans, who became a franchise in two thousand and two.
They have never ever ever won a divisional playoff game,
(17:35):
they have never been in the AFC Championship, and they've
had good teams. Think about it, right, JJ Watt, we
can go down the line, d hot And so for them,
you could argue this is the biggest game for the
Texans in their franchise history. And for the Chiefs, we
know what they've got going. That just puts a whole
lot more chips on the table than even a normal
(17:56):
take it up, a notch playoff game in the divisional round.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Yeah, the green more. This is a Texans team. It's
feeling really good after a big win over the Chargers.
And when I was watching that game and I was
thinking about doing our podcast this week, one word kept
popping in my head, and it's confidence and the power
and the amazing nature of confidence and how it can
influence us as humans and how it can influence football teams.
(18:22):
And I know you wanted to get into this as well,
but look at the Texans first five possessions against the
Chargers last week. So they go fumble on the very
first play of the game, a punt on their next
possession following a three and out, then another punt, then
an interception, then another punt. They had fifty four yards
on sixteen plays on their first five possessions, averaging three
(18:43):
point four yards per play. Then on third and sixteen
at their own seventeen yard line, the snap goes over
Stroud's head. It's like, oh man, here we go.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Well, let's pause here for a second.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
What's the score after all of that six to nothing
nothing Chargers?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
And it could have been.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Fourteen nothing at least maybe twenty one nothing. They didn't
capitalize at all like they could have. To the Texans credit,
we'll talk all about their defense, they prevented it from
getting a lot worse than it could have been. But
it looked like it was going to be bad. The
ball is bouncing behind, strike it off, pause, here you go.
He picks it up and makes just a fantastic play,
a play that we're kind of used to seeing in
Kansas City because Patrick Mahomes has made those kinds of plays.
(19:23):
Incredible play, picks up the first down, they go ninety
nine yards and score a touchdown, and they outscore the
Chargers from that point on thirty two to six the
rest of the way. Confidence vibes momentum. I know a
lot of people don't believe in momentum. We do because
we can feel it when you're in the stadium, you
can feel it. These are human beings. These aren't computers,
(19:44):
these aren't This isn't a video game. It's not like
everything occurs in the vacuum. And the Texans were not
playing well. Things were not going well at all, and
then they had a miraculous play and they got kind
of that momentum going and the snowball just kept going.
The rest of the game couldn't recover. So we can
get into our keys for this game and the nitty
(20:04):
gritty of it all. But my biggest thing going into
this one against the Houston team that's playing with house money,
that feels really good. They had a lot of momentum
last week. The Chiefs have got to get off to
a hot start in this game and maintain that throughout
because this Houston team is they're hungry, they're young, and
like they showed last week, when things start getting going
well for them, they're hard to stop.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, and the slow start to that game for them
is not their mo They were second in the league
and scoring on first possessions in the regular season. But
if you're a red blooded card carrying Kingdom defender and
the Chiefs Kingdom turn that card in. If you don't
believe in momentum.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
And sports, yeah, it's real.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
It's so real, and especially in the playoffs when you
take it up a notch and everything is amplified. A
play like that, which is so unusual and I'm going
to get into Stroud here in a second, then all
of a sudden, it has this double effect on both
teams and a lot of discussion. Everybody is looking for
the next Mahomes. Ever since Patrick blew up in twenty eighteen,
(21:03):
the league has had a witching stick out to look
for the next Patrick Mahomes who can make the spectacular
off schedule play and basically ruin a defensive coordinator's life.
It is six to nothing, the Chargers are basically in
control of that game. You just laid it out perfectly.
I see the bad snap and I go, oh, at
the least, this is going to be Chargers nine to nothing,
and that's a two possession lead. Late in the second quarter,
(21:26):
it's two twenty four to go in the second quarter.
He finds Xavier Hutchinson Iowa State cyclone for thirty four yards.
That ends a ninety nine yard drive because he goes
to Nico Collins for the slant where they're not getting
anything at all up to that point. Now it's seven
to six, so the mentality up a notch. It's like
that incredible drive, which would be incredible in Week five
(21:48):
or week twelve when it's the first round or wild
card game of the playoffs, or any playoff level round.
It's like the Mahomesy in plays that we have seen
all throughout Patrick's march. To do what he has done
was an unusual, incredible play. It changed the entire game.
I'll give you another one. The game's still on the line.
It's ten to six, and it's early in the third quarter,
(22:10):
and the they're going for a field goal thirteen to six,
and I'm sorry, and I'm thinking if the Houston Texans
get here there, they'll take a two possession lead. It's
sixteen to six. They get second and forty.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Their second reminded me I remember Terrell Prior with the
Raiders years ago. It's like third and fifty or something.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Third and fifty. The field's only one hundred yards long
from goal line to go line. It's second and forty
and in the offside on Bosa whoop, give them five
three yards, but thirty two yards gained enough to get
Fairbairn and fieldgal field goal territory to change the game completely.
C J. Stroud of the young gun quarterbacks in my opinion,
(22:51):
and I'll put maybe Jayden Daniels in here too. Yeah,
they're not Mahomes, don't get me wrong, but they can
make Mahomes the in plays off scheduled dynamic plays. You
do not see that from a lot of guys who
are talked about in comparison to Mahomes. Sorry, you just don't.
But Stroud has that ability. The quick release that was
(23:11):
those were dynamic plays.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
He can make plays after the play as well, like
if something doesn't go well initially, or if everything was covered,
or if offensive line has a mishap, he can make
plays after the fact. We've seen that all year from
him and really during his career. Not everyone has that.
I know Stroud's numbers are down overall for the season,
like last year, I think he led the NFL in
passing yards per game or something. He's like middle of
(23:33):
the pack this year, but still a really good player
who can make plays. And I know we just saw
this guy a couple weeks ago. Could we jump in
the strad a little bit, Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
And then I'm going to add to that the fact
that he was the youngest quarterback last year to win
a playoff game in NFL history. Yeah, now he has two.
Let's compare that to a lot of quarterbacks that we
talk about nationally that have zero playoff wins, and they've
been in the league longer than Stroud. So CJ. Stroud
gets my attention. In your numbers will make it even
more so.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
It's not easy to win playoff games, no, and he's
done it, and he's going to be a challenge on Saturday.
One thing with them all year long, though, has been
he's been under a lot of pressure and he's been
sacked fifty five times this year, including last week. Only
Caleb Williams was sacked more times than CJ.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Stroud.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Now, we only got him twice in our game against
them in Week sixteen. We still pressured him though, in
forty eight percent of his dropbacks. Chris Jones had eight
pressures in that game. George Carloft has had seven pressures.
Hopefully we can turn some of those pressures into sacks
here in this one. What's kind of funny though, is
going into that game. I love finding the narratives that
have a very clear demarcation line, and going into that game,
(24:39):
it are many of those the four sack mark. So
this year for Stroud, when he's been sacked four or
more times at Texans are just two and six. When
he's been sacked less than four times, they're nine to one.
They're only lost being to us. Now, I remember in
that game we weren't getting sacks on him, and that
was a concern of mine, like, we're not getting him
on the ground enough. Still find a way to win,
(25:01):
but hopefully we can get after him a bit more
here in this game. Even though we had all the
pressures last time, didn't have a lot of sacks. Hopefully
we'll have more sacks this time around.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
And on your bingo card, if you said in the
Houston game the two sacks would come from Joshua Williams
and Mike Panell, you would have bingo.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yes, those two guys got the sacks.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
That's what's nutty about that. Let's jump into the Houston
defense and transition here because this is where they also
just yanked the game away from the Chargers. And now
we know with Justin Herbert only three interceptions all regular season,
he throws four in this game. But this has been
the Houston mo This is a team that and coach
was talking to me on The Kingdom Show on Monday
(25:40):
night about it. This team is so fast upfront. Defensively,
we talk about Will Anderson Junior, we talk about Daniel Hunter,
but there's guys in the middle too. That Deserve mentioned
Denico Autrey, who blocked the pat that they returned for
two points, which is also a crushing blow psychologically in
that game up a notch. But this is a team
that was second the ENFL in interceptions. Not only do
(26:02):
they get interceptions, Matt, they're dynamic with the interceptions. Former
chief Eric Murray gets the pick six, but they had
one hundred and eight return yards on those interceptions. And
Lassiter had maybe the most athletic interception I have seen
all season long. He looked like d Hop playing dB
in d Hop's first or second year in the league.
(26:23):
Because Lassiter's interception extended snatches the ball, I was like,
oh my gosh, what just happened? We know about Stingley.
He's the only guy in the league that has had
five plus interceptions over the past two seasons. You can
go around the horn here, but comprehensive speed up front
and quickness. We know how they can attack the quarterback.
But on the back end you have a bit of
(26:44):
a gambling group of the secondary. Extremely athletic and I
think comprehensive. Nothing against our guys, but comprehensive, athletic, explosive.
This might be the most explosive secondary defensively in the league. Now.
I think a term is choosed in basketball a lot
is turning defense into offense. You'll hear a steal that
(27:04):
leads to a breakaway, and you hear that all the
time in basketball. Hawku's got the really good defense. It
turns defense into offense. That's what the Texans have done.
That's why they won their division, that's why they beat
the Chargers. And that's what the Chiefs have to counterattack
or attack them to go after these guys, you know,
fear nothing, attack everything. That's what the Chiefs will do.
But if we're talking Texan football, that's Techsan defensive football.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
That basketball analogy is perfect for these guys. It's similar
to what we talked about a handful of weeks ago.
This is what they do. They take the football away
and they score points off those takeaways. Twenty nine takeaways
this year. That's fifth most of any team in the
NFL at four last week against the Chargers, and the
one hundred points off those takeaways, that's twenty seven percent
of their point total for the season overall. That's the
(27:50):
highest rate of any team in the league. If you
remove the takeaway points, they score just sixteen points per
game on average. That's the fifth lowest rate in the NFL.
It's a little bit unfair because if you're scoring a
lot of takeaway points, you lose possessions overall. I get
all that, but still the point is they take the
football away and they score points off those takeaways. That's
how they beat you. Twelve of their thirty two points
(28:13):
last week, like you alluded to, were off takeaways.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
From the Chargers. Now, the Chiefs have not turned the
ball over in seven consecutive weeks.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Knock on wood. That has tied for an NFL record.
The Patriots in twenty ten went seven weeks without a turnover.
Don't turn the football over against these guys, and I
like the Chiefs chances and we saw that back in
Week sixteen. Obviously part of that stretch no turnovers against
this group. Don't turn the football over. These guys feast
on them.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
And another reason the Chiefs were able to win that
game on December the twenty first was one sackle out. Yeah,
and it wasn't Daniel Hunter or Will Anderson Junior. And
that's when Joe Toney was outstanding out there, wrestling above
his weight class and Mike Kelly into as well. But
the Texans the first team when they did this last
week in the wildcard round, the first team since the
(28:58):
twenty fourteen Packers to have four plus sacks and four
plus interceptions in a playoff game. Doesn't happen much. And
since twenty eleven now the Texans have four pick sixes
in the playoffs. No other team including the Chiefs, have
more than two in a span that covers fourteen seasons
in the postseason. So it's kind of been the texanm
(29:20):
but really is on this team well?
Speaker 3 (29:22):
And what was kind of strange last week about the
Chargers game plan is they know that the Texans have
a great pass rush. I mean forty nine sacks this year,
fourthmost in the NFL, and Hunter and Anderson, like you mentioned,
they're responsible for forty seven percent of that, I mean
two beasts. Hunter has twelve sacks, Anderson has eleven going
into the playoffs. But what's weird is that Herbert's average
(29:43):
time to throw last week was two point eight seconds.
And if you don't really study this kind of stuff,
that doesn't sound very long, that's pretty long. That's above
average for the most part, two point eight seconds. And
its average depth of target last week was twelve yards.
So a lot of long developing routes, kind of sitting
back there waiting for things.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
To open up.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
You don't want to do that against a great pass
rush because that gives those pass rushers an opportunity to
blow up the play. So what did the Chiefs do
in Week sixteen? Well, Patrick mahomes average time to throw
was only two point four to eight seconds, third quickest
release all season for him. His average depth of target
was six yards and also when they blitzed, it was
just two point three to four seconds on average. And
(30:25):
I mean, consider this, the Texans have allowed the highest
average yards after the catch of any team in the NFL.
This year at an average six point five yards after
the catch. It's a perfect formula for the quick passing game.
And let your athletes to a Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown,
Travis Kelce, DeAndre Hopkins, make magic happen after the catch,
because all Will Anderson and Daneil Hunter can do at
(30:45):
that point is turn around and watch the play. And
the Chiefs did that masterfully in that Week sixteen game.
Look at the yards after the catch in that game,
Xavier Worthy had fifty nine yards after the catch, smaugp
Rynd fifty yards after the catch, Hollywood at thirty five
year yards after the catch, and Kareem Hunt had twenty
six yards after the catch. So not only did the
Chiefs spread the ball around and seven players had double
(31:07):
digit receiving yards in that game, well, four different players
had at least twenty five yards after the catch. I
love to see a similar kind of game plan here
in this one where those pass rushers are really really
good and they blew up the game for the Chargers,
you can take them out of the game too with
that quick.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Release, and as the Chiefs, those receivers, whoever's touching the
ball on those quick passes or However, you going to
get the ball have got to be worthy of the
high and tight because of those takeaways nineteen are interceptions.
But this is a team and part of the yards
after contact is that this is a team like a
(31:44):
pressing team in basketball. They'll press you, but if you
break the press, you can get dunks. This is a
team that loves to get forced fumbles. They're going to
hack it out on you, all of them. And el
Shire is going to play in this game. He did
not play in the game on December the twenty first,
he was still in the middle of that three game
suspension for his hit on Trevor Lawrence of the Jaguars.
He is a guy that wants to poke the ball out,
(32:06):
so does Eric Murray, the former chief, and the other
dbs and linebackers. So you catch the ball in a
six or seven or eight yard route, protect it, move
up the field because if you miss a hack out,
you're gonna get maybe fifteen or twenty more yards. This
is really an interesting team in Houston. You nailed it.
They live off the takeaway. If you take care of
the football and protect, you can have a really good
(32:29):
day against these guys. I'm gonna close out this way,
and let's talk Chiefs defense. You and I are both
heartbroken about the only bad thing about Week eighteen was
the fact that give them Bronco's credit, they get thirty
eight points, but it so convolutes the stats. It's made
me look at every team's stats and go, what did
they have week eighteen that would have messed it up?
Like these guys being fourth in the league in sacks, right, Houston? Okay,
(32:51):
well they played Tennessee, but the thirty eight points took away,
So the Chiefs end up four points allowed? How many
times did you see graphics during the wildcard weekend? Points allowed?
Points allowed? I'm gonna go, well, wait a minute, if
the Chiefs would have played their guys in Week eighteen,
they would have been ahead of this stat but taking
(33:13):
it up a notch. We saw the defense of the
Kansas City Chiefs take it up a notch and run defense.
And Joe Mixon only he and Saquon Barkley this year
the number of one hundred yard rushing games and a
rushing touchdown in those one hundred yard rushing games tied.
Joe Mixon was Saquon Barkley. We saw him explode in
the second half on the Chargers, and it was his
(33:34):
second one hundred yard rushing game in his postseason career.
He had won with Cincinnati back in twenty twenty two
in a divisional playoff win before they came here and
lost with the Butker field goal. So defending the run,
if you look at last year and what the Chiefs
were able to do against the run CMC three point
six yards per carry in Super Bowl fifty eight, Baltimore
(33:56):
only had eighty one rushing yards that caused congressional inquiries
in the Belt. And then also James Cook for the
Baltimore I'm sorry for the Buffalo Bills in the divisional
playoff game only had three point four yards to rush.
The Kansas City Chiefs took it up a notch defending
the run last year in the playoff run to the Super.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Bowl, and they did it all season long as well.
You know, we've only allowed one one hundred yard rusher
all year. Do you know who it was, Lamar Jackson. Yeah,
it was Lamar Jackson in Week one. It's the only
one hundred yard rusher we've allowed all season long. We
were tracking it for a while and then I think
it just kind of got mundane, like we were saying
the same thing every week that we were shutting down
(34:39):
the opponent's running game, and it's been true all season long.
We've been really good against the run. And as much
as we talk about CJ. Stroud and Nico Collins as well,
deserves mentioned because Nico, despite missing five games this year,
as accounted for twenty percent of the Texans receptions and
twenty five percent of the receiving yards just by himself.
But still, it all starts with stopping Joe Mixon. You've
(35:00):
got to stop Joe mix and when he gets going,
we've seen him over the years, he's one of the
better running backs in the league. You're right, the Chargers
could not stop him in the second half, and it's
just demoralizing. We kind of saw that, Like the Chargers
weren't totally out of it in the second half, but
the Texans on their last touchdown drive, Mixon was getting
like six or seven yards per carry, and it's just like, man,
we're running out of time. It's burning clock. You can't
(35:21):
get him off the field and he ends it with
an explosive touchdown run. You can't let that happen here
in this game again, it's going to be cold, kind
of like running football kind of weather. If you're the
Chiefs defense, just keep doing what you've done all year long.
Shut down the running game and make the Texans one
dimensional with their passing game. And it's really sad in
a bummer because we saw what happened to Tank Dell
(35:42):
when he was here. But the football aspect, that's a big,
big loss because I mean, Tank Dell was having a
game in that week's sixteen matchup. He had what eight
catches for ninety eight yards and a touchdown in less
than three quarters. Just a big, big part of their offense.
That puts more pressure on Nico Collins and puts more
press sure on Joe Mixon. The Chiefs have got to
shut down those two guys specifically and make someone else
(36:04):
beat you.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
I'm going to give Demiko Ryan's credit, who, by the way,
was on Coach Read's last Philadelphia team. He was a
linebacker on the twenty twelve Eagles. Coach reminded me of that.
But he's done an excellent job, so as c J. Stroud,
I'm gonna give him credit in this. We saw how
the Tank Dell injury affected those guys. I mean it
literally knocked the wind out of them. Yeah, and his
rehab is going to take probably most of next year.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
It's really sad. He's an awesome players.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Good and we loved him coming out of the draft.
You and I we talked about him. But there now
have overcome that. And you saw that mental and emotionally
in the Charger game. I thought that it. I mean
the game after they played us, when they had they
were on the three games in eleven days too, they had.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
To play Christmas Day, played Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yet they didn't have any life against the Ravens, got
a little bit back against the Titans, but they they've
dealt with tankdll do so give them credit and give
coach Tomiko Ryan's credit for getting this team back on track.
I'll close out this way that here we are taking
it up a notch. The historical part of this game,
(37:06):
this is just it's a fascinating game. There's just more
to this game than a divisional playoff game.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, there is.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
There's a lot to it.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
And I want to add two. We've been in a
lot of these games now, I mean, over the last
several years, we've been to the divisional round, every single
year in the AFC Championship Game, every single year since
Mahomes became a starter in twenty eighteen. You can't take
it for granted.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
You just can't.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
I mean, we talked last week about how the Divisional
round used to be kind of a really big deal.
I mean, I think about two thousand and three, I
think about twenty sixteen, twenty fifteen. I mean, going to
the Divisional round, you're one game away from the AFC
Championship Game.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
That's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
And just because we've accomplished a lot over the last
several years and seen a lot of champions you can't
take it for granted because every season is different and
every journey is difficult. It's really hard to get to
this point. It's even harder to advance, and it's going
to be a challenge on Saturday against a very good
Texans team. But don't take it for granted and enjoy
the moment because this is really really fun. We get
to see our team with a chance to make some history,
(38:05):
kind of begin that postseason journey here against a very
worthy opponent, and it's going to be an awesome atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I'll close this way. DeAndre Hopkins has had a thirteen
year National Football League career. He's going to the Pro
Football Hall of Fame. He started his career at the
Houston Texas. DeAndre Hopkins has played one hundred and eighty
four games and never won a divisional playoff game. He's
got that shot this week against his former team, as
(38:32):
everybody in the NFL takes it up a notch
We all know when the NFL goes into the postseason,
everything goes up a notch. Well, in this Houston Kansas
City game, that a visional playoff game at Geha Field
at Erahead Stadium, it goes up even more than a notch.
And we'll get into it in this edition of Defending
the Kingdom. Of course, all of them brought to you
by Ticketmaster. They become your best friend during the postseason.
(00:24):
And the Kansas City Chiefs against the Houston Texans, little
bit of room slings insider into the end zone, touchdown,
Chansas City. How everybody, I'm Mitchulta's voice the Chiefs along
with senior team reporter Matt McMullen. It's playoff time here
we are. We even sensed it watching those wild card games.
(00:45):
Just everything rises. This goes to high tide in every
one of these games in the National Football League, but
this one with Houston, with the Chiefs being the one
seed getting the buy There's some extra history involved in
this game that makes it even more intriguing than a
normal playoff game. But that being said, in the playoffs
everything Coach Reed's talked about it ever since he drove
(01:07):
into town twelve years ago. Everything goes up a notch.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
And here we go.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
We've talked about this opportunity for a long time, and
now we can finally start the journey, at least the
postseason portion of the journey. Here at this game against
the Texans. Think the stadium is going to be electric
on Saturday. It's going to be chilly, but we wouldn't
have it any other way. We've talked about this moment
for a long time and the team has checked off
every box to get to this point. Think about back
(01:32):
like an Ota is, we didn't want to get too
far ahead of ourselves. It was like, all right, well,
first time we got to do is go attack the
first couple games of the season. We did that, all right,
make the playoffs, did that? When the division again, did that?
Get that one seed, did that, and then you talked
about it really beginning in October. You were like, if
the Chiefs can wrap this thing up by Christmas, then
(01:53):
we can have this twenty four day kind of grace
period where we can almost have a second training camp.
We've had that now and now it's finally time to go.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, the whole Rest versus Russ thing. I just I'm
firing back on that if the Houston wins this game,
it'll be because they won a divisional playoff game and
they're a good team, and it's one and out. It's
like the nca basketball tournament. It's one and out. There's
no best of three, best to five, best to seven.
I don't think it's going to be because of rust
this team, and we've lived it here, especially the last
(02:25):
three years. Now. One thing of note, Patrick Mahomes will
have the longest time period from his last snap of
the regular season to the first snap of the postseason
of any quarterback in NFL postseason history. The previous was
Warren Moon in nineteen ninety three. I believe it was
twenty two days and this would be twenty three days now.
(02:46):
I only bring that up because, oh hey, that's something
to think about. Does it cause me worry or concern
about Patrick Mahomes. No. I think the fact that his
mental rest, even though he's a new daddy again, another
girl to add to the three kids, which is awesome
and I love it. The fact that he's twenty nine
years old and has three kids. I just think it's cool.
(03:08):
But that being said, his mental rest and emotional rest
to get him revved up and that and all the
disrespect really, whether it's director Sublime, has got this cat
revved up and ready to go where he performs best.
And I know you've got numbers here, as do I
about playoff Pat, But then also the physical rest, getting
guys healthy, getting Chris Jones up, full up and running,
(03:29):
Jawan Taylor up and running, maybe Pacheco up and running,
get them all revved up and ready to go. To me,
this has been a godsend and attack the playoffs because,
as we say, goes up a notch.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
If there's one person I'm not worried about when it
comes to a layoff, it's Patrick Mahomes, who's one of
the greatest playoff performers of all time. Don't want to
get too far ahead of ourselves here, but there's just
some incredible numbers with Mahomes. He's won fifteen career playoff
games as a starting quarterback. That's third most already in
NFL postseason history. Only Tom Brady with thirty five and
(04:01):
Joe Montana was sixteen have more. So if we win
this game, Mahomes will tie Joe Montana for the most
or the second most playoff victories by starting quarterback and
NFL postseason history.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And let me keep going because I could go all day.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I'm gonna try to truncate it.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Mahomes, I called you in my office earlier when I
saw this one because I wasn't aware of it, and
it's just crazy. Mahomes has forty one career passing touchdowns
in the postseason. That's already fifth most in NFL playoff history.
Tom Brady has eighty eight. Okay, but number two is
Joe Montana, tied with Aaron Rodgers each with forty five,
and Brett Favs forty four. So Mahomes is five passing
(04:42):
touchdown shy of passing Joe Montana and Aaron Rodgers for
the second most in NFL postseason history.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
It still kind of feels like he just got here.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
This is crazy, Like it's just absolutely nuts, and go ahead.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I'm sure you have some as well.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well. No, he'll have an eleventh straight playoff win at home.
That'd be second to Tom Brady and seven straight playoff wins.
Brady had ten seven straight playoff wins. If he gets
this one, No, he has already got it. So if
the point is he's closing in on Brady's record on
a lot of these, and his QBR is the best
in NFL history in the postseason at one oh five
(05:19):
point eight. We look at last year, his completion percentage
of Buffalo was seventy four percent. In the AFC Championship game,
it was seventy seven percent. In Super Bowl fifty eight,
it was seventy four percent. These are numbers that are
off the scale, and they're win that matters the most
in the biggest of games.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
He's just the ultimate playoff performer. I can't wait to
see what he does here on Saturday. Kind of feels
like every single postseason game is another opportunity for Mahomes
to add to his postseason legend, and then for the
guys around him. We talked about the kind of second
training camp, right, You've been saying this for a long time. Now, Well,
here are the Chiefs top six leaders this season in
terms of scrimmage yards. So Kareem Hunt led the team
(05:59):
in scrimmage yards.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
It's nuts.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
If I told you that in September, you'd be like
what he had nine hundred and four. Number two was
Travis Kelce with eight hundred and twenty four. Number three
was Xavier Worthy seven hundred and forty two. Number four
was DeAndre Hopkins who joined this team in October. He
had four hundred and thirty seven. Noah Gray was fifth,
and then samajp Ryan was sixth. So why do I
say all this, Well, three of your top six leaders
(06:20):
in terms of scrimmage yards we're not here for training camp.
They joined the team mid season and I'm not even
including Hollywood Brown or Jujus ms Schuster in that. So
to have this time off, the team was practicing last week.
It's not like everyone went away and they were just
all gone. The entire time the team has been practicing,
So it's an opportunity to get ready and to prepare
for this moment for the postseason together. It's like a
(06:43):
true second training camp with these guys that have helped
us get to this point, but we're kind of learning
on the fly. Well, now they've had this time where
they can actually really hammer in on the playbook get
ready for this game plan specifically. That's a big time
advantage that I don't think people are talking about enough,
you know.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
And I think sometimes it's fans or those who are
around the game or around sports and love sports don't
realize the tyranny of the urgent of the NFL. Week
to week basketball, there's eighty two games in one hundred
and sixty two. In baseball and hockey there's eighty two games. Well,
in the NFL there's only seventeen. And so when de
Hop joins the team or Samaja was even a crash
(07:20):
course because it's right before the opening game, after a
camp had left Saint Joseph. There's always this tyranny of
the urgent, like we've got to get you up and
run it as fast as we can now with this
breath being taken. That's why Santa was a second training camp,
not necessarily physically other than the recovery, but to go
through the iPad, which has something north of eight hundred plays,
refining what you have without the tyranny of the urgent,
(07:43):
and going, let's add to it, because you're going to
see stuff in this game we haven't seen yet. And
that is the genius of Andy Reid and this offensive
staff putting stuff in there, but having the time to
do it, to rep it, to mentally rep it, to
walk through it, to put it in as an install
and you just do not get that think about the
teams that did not have the buy and did not
(08:04):
have the Week eighteen where they didn't have to worry
about winning that game. So if you're doing it like
the Chiefs did. Although that's what the Week eighteen last
year helped this team, and Matt Naggy agrees with me,
we wouldn't won the super Bowl without it. But think
about the teams that had to grind to get to
Week eighteen, grind to the wild card game. You're just
stay in that tyranny of the urgent. You don't get
a chance to like lift out and look and say
(08:25):
how do we get better? So to me, that's a
real key here for the Chiefs if they can pull
this off. So that takes care of the rest versus
rust argument before we get into the additional history of
this specific game and what it means. Let's go around
the world. What do you go?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
And I just add one more thing because it applies
to us as well, because we're here every day, we're
traveling with the team, we're doing all this stuff. How'd
you feel on December twenty sixth versus how you feel now?
I'm ready to go, Like I'm excited. I'm fired up.
That three games in eleven days stretch was tough, brutal.
You're cramming all this stuff into just eleven days, and
(09:02):
for the players it's tenfold. So I don't know how
we feel we're ready to go.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
It was interesting that plane ride home from Pittsburgh. It
should have been youph it got the buy ready to go,
but everyone was so tired. There was hardly a word
on that plane. Did you know? Everybody just slept and
if they were kind of watching movies, they didn't even
know what they were watching, like they're just zombied out.
And I thought, wow, And Coach, you've ben mentioned it
like I wouldn't want to do this all the time.
But I'm really proud of what we did. But yeah,
(09:28):
I mean even the twenty sixth you were just like,
I can't even move, like it's so yeah. But now
to have this span of twenty plus days for the
guys to arrest and get ready, I think is huge.
If the Chiefs pull off history here, it'll be because
of what they got done to earn that bye, but
also that timeframe where you get some time that you
(09:53):
rarely get in the National Football League and it's going
to be even more rare as the years going.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
And the team is healthy. We're shooting us on Tuesday.
Coach Read spoke earlier today. For the first time this week.
Everybody's practicing today. So that's all you can ask for
this time of year. Let's go around the world. I
got a bunch today just because we've kind of accumulated here. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
we're gonna get through this. So last week I mentioned
Mikey from Edgerton who went to North Platte High School,
(10:18):
and after what I was like, I probably screwed that up.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
I did.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
So he's from Edgerton, Missouri. Oh yeah, not Edgerton, Kansas.
I had Bubba Starling on my mind. Sure are you
familiar with Edgerton, Missouri?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I am? And Cashville, Missouri, by the way, has weighed
in here. That's on there all right, because here you come.
But yeah, yeah, North Platte, so Deerburn that's the there's
West Platte, the Blue Jays that's Weston. But then you
go the next school district up, which is all these
little towns like Edgerton and Deerburn, that's North Platt.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Okay, so now we know, uh, Carlos is from the
Dominican Republic, but originally from New York. We have a
listener in Pittsburgh, Kansas.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Purple Dragons or the colgan as the private School.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Okay, Purple Dragons, it's pretty good. You like that one,
not just the Dragons. Yeah, the Purple Dragons. Terry is
from Murray, Kentucky. We've heard from Terry.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Before Murray State Racers.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
There we go.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
J C currently lives in Cleveland, but grew up in Parkville.
We've kind of activated Parkville. Everyone's letting us an they're
from Parkville. I love Parkville.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Thank you. Yeah. Is he a park hillo Trojan or
is he a park Hill South Panther?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Oh man, he might have told me. I didn't write
it down.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Let us know.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
JC.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Henry is in lattis Smith, South Africa. I think that's
a new one. This was his first full season watching
the Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
That's terrific.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, Lattsmith, South Africa.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
How far from Joe Burgh?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
You know, I don't have to open up the map.
We'll figure that one out. Can we do our Grand
tour of the world. Randy is in Albany, Missouri. Heard
from Randy before felt then is from k c K
but now lives in Chicago. Katie is in Mountain Home, Arkansas.
We've heard from Katie before Home of the I don't
know the Bombers, the Bombers, Mountain Home Bombers. He don't
(11:59):
want to why the Mountain Home Bombers.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
We'll love that. Or the Wakefield, Kansas Bombers. That's good,
and they're named that. I think because of B twenty
nine landed on the main street of Wakefield one day
because it had to.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Have emergency landing. That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
I think a B twenty five or B twenty nine,
B twenty nine, it'd be pretty big. But yeah, that's
headed the land emergency landing. So we land on main
street at Wakefield and all right, let's be the bombers
at the high school.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
It's like the opening scene in Top Gun Maverick where
he like walks into the diner wearing like a spacesuit.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Abe is an Elkton, Maryland. You mentioned Casville, Missouri. The
defenders help us with that one. It's by Roaring River
State Park. Oh yeah, does that help? Oh yeah, okay, okay,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Defenders.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
They always let us know.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Gail's listening via starlink while sailing the Caribbean near Granada.
So Gal's having a tough time, rough time, Gale, let
us know if we can join you on your boat.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
What if they saw my nephew. He's a performer. It
depends on the cruise line they're on. He's like one
of the lead writers singers on a cruise boat.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I could be wrong. I took it like they're sailing
them themselves, like they have their own boat.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Oh no, that takes talk about up a notch. Yeah, okay, Yeah,
there's no comedians when you're out there, yeah, or singers
when you're on your own boat.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Or their own ship.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
I realized this one time. I was talking to a
World War Two veteran who was there in Tokyo Bay
when World War II ended. Amazing, right, But on.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
The USS Missouri when they signed the surrender terms.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
I think so yeah, And I think I asked him.
I referred to the USS Missouri as a boat, and
he laughed at me, So it's a ship, now, I know,
so yeah, but.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
You know he would know. But when you talk to
navy guys, they'll go, what boat were you on? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
So I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I'm confused now Anyway, Gayl's having a great time. Walter
is from Hayes but now lives in Banjewel, Gambia.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Oh my goodness, that's a big, a big that's a
big move to Hayes. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
I've been to Hayes. Haven't been to Gambia. They haven't
been to Gambia. Yeah, I'll make it there one day.
Willie is in Terrell, Texas, which is twenty five miles
east of Dallas and seventy eight miles west of White House,
of course, where Patrick Mahomes is.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
From East Texas. Baby the Pines.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Yeah, we've a listener in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Dean is
in Northern New York, Benefan since nineteen sixty eight. He
mutes the TV and sinks up the Cheers radio network
with the broadcast. Thought you'd like that, appreciate that. Lots
of people do that. Tana is an Independence Kansas Bulldogs.
Chad is in Papillion, Nebraska.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Papillion, Okay, yep, south of you remember the movie Papillion
like it's famous, like way back when. Yeah, so Papillions
in the southern end of Omaha. Okay, and so their
high school's Papellion La Vista, and I don't know what
the nickname is. We'll hear from him soon.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Let us know.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, not far from off at Air Force Base. Oh
uh yeah, okay, Yeah, Papillion's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Well, Chad wanted to shout out his brother Jared as well,
So shout out to you, Jared. We have a listener
in Rockford, Michigan. Tyler was born in Freeburg but now
lives in Westphalia, Kansas, home.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Of the The school is called Fatima Fatima.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
That's Missouri. I think it might be Missouri. Fatima is Missouri?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Do you know who it is?
Speaker 1 (15:07):
No, okay, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
It's the comets.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, you know what conference promising Fatima. So, Barry and
Kim invited Ellie and I to Okinawa to hang out.
I'm sure you could come to with Hammy if you
mean okay, so we'll see you so and Barry and Kim,
I'm serious, I want to come.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
How long have a drive is it to Okinawa?
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:25):
We need one of those amphibious vehicles. I'm not sure
how long it takes to drive on the ocean floor, but.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
We need the ship of the the people that are
off the coast of whatever the coast they're off of.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Let us know.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Then.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Lastly, Christopher is in Wisbaden, Germany, which is near Frankfurt,
so he's originally from Parkville. Parkville once again wanted to
shout out as boys Carter and Dylan their lifelong Chiefs fans,
even though they're Army brat kids, so they've never actually
lived in Kansas City, but they often stay up late
and watch all the Chiefs games. It's a great hearing
from you, Christopher. He wanted to add that you are
the absolute best in the business, which I agree with.
(15:59):
I had a chance to go.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Vs.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Boden is an awesome place, like I said, near Frankfurt
when we were getting ready to play the Dolphins in Germany.
Remember I went out there a few months early and
spent a week in Germany, and wis Boden was on
the list. There's an Army garrison there, obviously, I'm guessing
that's whe Christopher is. And it's near Ramstein Air Base too,
not too far away, a couple hours away. So anyway,
a lot of Americans over there, a lot of Germans
who love football, a lot of Europeans in general who
(16:25):
love football, and Chiefs football specifically. So anyway, it's all
I got here today.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
That's a lot. That's good. And yeah, Wisbaden and Ramstein
one of the most critical locations on the earth. Oh yeah,
to protect what we value not only the Chiefs Kingdom,
but freedom loving countries around the world and our allies. Okay,
this game against the Houston Texans in the Divisional playoff
game three thirty Saturday, gha Field at Arrowhead Stadium is
(16:51):
even bigger than a normal Divisional round game for both franchises.
Now we know with the Chiefs what's at stake. Have
to say it, we've talked about it. We haven't talked
about it. We've inferred it ever since the Chiefs and
Patrick brought it up like ten minutes after winning Super
Bowl fifty eight. But you're chasing something that's never ever
(17:12):
been done. And so this is the step you said,
it's so very perfectly we're here. Now we're here and
this is the next stage going up a notch. But
that being said, you attack this game. But for the
Houston Texans, who became a franchise in two thousand and two.
They have never ever ever won a divisional playoff game,
(17:35):
they have never been in the AFC Championship, and they've
had good teams. Think about it, right, JJ Watt, we
can go down the line, d hot And so for them,
you could argue this is the biggest game for the
Texans in their franchise history. And for the Chiefs, we
know what they've got going. That just puts a whole
lot more chips on the table than even a normal
(17:56):
take it up, a notch playoff game in the divisional round.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Yeah, the green more. This is a Texans team. It's
feeling really good after a big win over the Chargers.
And when I was watching that game and I was
thinking about doing our podcast this week, one word kept
popping in my head, and it's confidence and the power
and the amazing nature of confidence and how it can
influence us as humans and how it can influence football teams.
(18:22):
And I know you wanted to get into this as well,
but look at the Texans first five possessions against the
Chargers last week. So they go fumble on the very
first play of the game, a punt on their next
possession following a three and out, then another punt, then
an interception, then another punt. They had fifty four yards
on sixteen plays on their first five possessions, averaging three
(18:43):
point four yards per play. Then on third and sixteen
at their own seventeen yard line, the snap goes over
Stroud's head. It's like, oh man, here we go.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Well, let's pause here for a second.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
What's the score after all of that six to nothing
nothing Chargers?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
And it could have been.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Fourteen nothing at least maybe twenty one nothing. They didn't
capitalize at all like they could have. To the Texans credit,
we'll talk all about their defense, they prevented it from
getting a lot worse than it could have been. But
it looked like it was going to be bad. The
ball is bouncing behind, strike it off, pause, here you go.
He picks it up and makes just a fantastic play,
a play that we're kind of used to seeing in
Kansas City because Patrick Mahomes has made those kinds of plays.
(19:23):
Incredible play, picks up the first down, they go ninety
nine yards and score a touchdown, and they outscore the
Chargers from that point on thirty two to six the
rest of the way. Confidence vibes momentum. I know a
lot of people don't believe in momentum. We do because
we can feel it when you're in the stadium, you
can feel it. These are human beings. These aren't computers,
(19:44):
these aren't This isn't a video game. It's not like
everything occurs in the vacuum. And the Texans were not
playing well. Things were not going well at all, and
then they had a miraculous play and they got kind
of that momentum going and the snowball just kept going.
The rest of the game couldn't recover. So we can
get into our keys for this game and the nitty
(20:04):
gritty of it all. But my biggest thing going into
this one against the Houston team that's playing with house money,
that feels really good. They had a lot of momentum
last week. The Chiefs have got to get off to
a hot start in this game and maintain that throughout
because this Houston team is they're hungry, they're young, and
like they showed last week, when things start getting going
well for them, they're hard to stop.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, and the slow start to that game for them
is not their mo They were second in the league
and scoring on first possessions in the regular season. But
if you're a red blooded card carrying Kingdom defender and
the Chiefs Kingdom turn that card in. If you don't
believe in momentum.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
And sports, yeah, it's real.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
It's so real, and especially in the playoffs when you
take it up a notch and everything is amplified. A
play like that, which is so unusual and I'm going
to get into Stroud here in a second, then all
of a sudden, it has this double effect on both
teams and a lot of discussion. Everybody is looking for
the next Mahomes. Ever since Patrick blew up in twenty eighteen,
(21:03):
the league has had a witching stick out to look
for the next Patrick Mahomes who can make the spectacular
off schedule play and basically ruin a defensive coordinator's life.
It is six to nothing, the Chargers are basically in
control of that game. You just laid it out perfectly.
I see the bad snap and I go, oh, at
the least, this is going to be Chargers nine to nothing,
and that's a two possession lead. Late in the second quarter,
(21:26):
it's two twenty four to go in the second quarter.
He finds Xavier Hutchinson Iowa State cyclone for thirty four yards.
That ends a ninety nine yard drive because he goes
to Nico Collins for the slant where they're not getting
anything at all up to that point. Now it's seven
to six, so the mentality up a notch. It's like
that incredible drive, which would be incredible in Week five
(21:48):
or week twelve when it's the first round or wild
card game of the playoffs, or any playoff level round.
It's like the Mahomesy in plays that we have seen
all throughout Patrick's march. To do what he has done
was an unusual, incredible play. It changed the entire game.
I'll give you another one. The game's still on the line.
It's ten to six, and it's early in the third quarter,
(22:10):
and the they're going for a field goal thirteen to six,
and I'm sorry, and I'm thinking if the Houston Texans
get here there, they'll take a two possession lead. It's
sixteen to six. They get second and forty.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Their second reminded me I remember Terrell Prior with the
Raiders years ago. It's like third and fifty or something.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Third and fifty. The field's only one hundred yards long
from goal line to go line. It's second and forty
and in the offside on Bosa whoop, give them five
three yards, but thirty two yards gained enough to get
Fairbairn and fieldgal field goal territory to change the game completely.
C J. Stroud of the young gun quarterbacks in my opinion,
(22:51):
and I'll put maybe Jayden Daniels in here too. Yeah,
they're not Mahomes, don't get me wrong, but they can
make Mahomes the in plays off scheduled dynamic plays. You
do not see that from a lot of guys who
are talked about in comparison to Mahomes. Sorry, you just don't.
But Stroud has that ability. The quick release that was
(23:11):
those were dynamic plays.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
He can make plays after the play as well, like
if something doesn't go well initially, or if everything was covered,
or if offensive line has a mishap, he can make
plays after the fact. We've seen that all year from
him and really during his career. Not everyone has that.
I know Stroud's numbers are down overall for the season,
like last year, I think he led the NFL in
passing yards per game or something. He's like middle of
(23:33):
the pack this year, but still a really good player
who can make plays. And I know we just saw
this guy a couple weeks ago. Could we jump in
the strad a little bit, Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
And then I'm going to add to that the fact
that he was the youngest quarterback last year to win
a playoff game in NFL history. Yeah, now he has two.
Let's compare that to a lot of quarterbacks that we
talk about nationally that have zero playoff wins, and they've
been in the league longer than Stroud. So CJ. Stroud
gets my attention. In your numbers will make it even
more so.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
It's not easy to win playoff games, no, and he's
done it, and he's going to be a challenge on Saturday.
One thing with them all year long, though, has been
he's been under a lot of pressure and he's been
sacked fifty five times this year, including last week. Only
Caleb Williams was sacked more times than CJ.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Stroud.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Now, we only got him twice in our game against
them in Week sixteen. We still pressured him though, in
forty eight percent of his dropbacks. Chris Jones had eight
pressures in that game. George Carloft has had seven pressures.
Hopefully we can turn some of those pressures into sacks
here in this one. What's kind of funny though, is
going into that game. I love finding the narratives that
have a very clear demarcation line, and going into that game,
(24:39):
it are many of those the four sack mark. So
this year for Stroud, when he's been sacked four or
more times at Texans are just two and six. When
he's been sacked less than four times, they're nine to one.
They're only lost being to us. Now, I remember in
that game we weren't getting sacks on him, and that
was a concern of mine, like, we're not getting him
on the ground enough. Still find a way to win,
(25:01):
but hopefully we can get after him a bit more
here in this game. Even though we had all the
pressures last time, didn't have a lot of sacks. Hopefully
we'll have more sacks this time around.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
And on your bingo card, if you said in the
Houston game the two sacks would come from Joshua Williams
and Mike Panell, you would have bingo.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yes, those two guys got the sacks.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
That's what's nutty about that. Let's jump into the Houston
defense and transition here because this is where they also
just yanked the game away from the Chargers. And now
we know with Justin Herbert only three interceptions all regular season,
he throws four in this game. But this has been
the Houston mo This is a team that and coach
was talking to me on The Kingdom Show on Monday
(25:40):
night about it. This team is so fast upfront. Defensively,
we talk about Will Anderson Junior, we talk about Daniel Hunter,
but there's guys in the middle too. That Deserve mentioned
Denico Autrey, who blocked the pat that they returned for
two points, which is also a crushing blow psychologically in
that game up a notch. But this is a team
that was second the ENFL in interceptions. Not only do
(26:02):
they get interceptions, Matt, they're dynamic with the interceptions. Former
chief Eric Murray gets the pick six, but they had
one hundred and eight return yards on those interceptions. And
Lassiter had maybe the most athletic interception I have seen
all season long. He looked like d Hop playing dB
in d Hop's first or second year in the league.
(26:23):
Because Lassiter's interception extended snatches the ball, I was like,
oh my gosh, what just happened? We know about Stingley.
He's the only guy in the league that has had
five plus interceptions over the past two seasons. You can
go around the horn here, but comprehensive speed up front
and quickness. We know how they can attack the quarterback.
But on the back end you have a bit of
(26:44):
a gambling group of the secondary. Extremely athletic and I
think comprehensive. Nothing against our guys, but comprehensive, athletic, explosive.
This might be the most explosive secondary defensively in the league. Now.
I think a term is choosed in basketball a lot
is turning defense into offense. You'll hear a steal that
(27:04):
leads to a breakaway, and you hear that all the
time in basketball. Hawku's got the really good defense. It
turns defense into offense. That's what the Texans have done.
That's why they won their division, that's why they beat
the Chargers. And that's what the Chiefs have to counterattack
or attack them to go after these guys, you know,
fear nothing, attack everything. That's what the Chiefs will do.
But if we're talking Texan football, that's Techsan defensive football.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
That basketball analogy is perfect for these guys. It's similar
to what we talked about a handful of weeks ago.
This is what they do. They take the football away
and they score points off those takeaways. Twenty nine takeaways
this year. That's fifth most of any team in the
NFL at four last week against the Chargers, and the
one hundred points off those takeaways, that's twenty seven percent
of their point total for the season overall. That's the
(27:50):
highest rate of any team in the league. If you
remove the takeaway points, they score just sixteen points per
game on average. That's the fifth lowest rate in the NFL.
It's a little bit unfair because if you're scoring a
lot of takeaway points, you lose possessions overall. I get
all that, but still the point is they take the
football away and they score points off those takeaways. That's
how they beat you. Twelve of their thirty two points
(28:13):
last week, like you alluded to, were off takeaways.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
From the Chargers. Now, the Chiefs have not turned the
ball over in seven consecutive weeks.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Knock on wood. That has tied for an NFL record.
The Patriots in twenty ten went seven weeks without a turnover.
Don't turn the football over against these guys, and I
like the Chiefs chances and we saw that back in
Week sixteen. Obviously part of that stretch no turnovers against
this group. Don't turn the football over. These guys feast
on them.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
And another reason the Chiefs were able to win that
game on December the twenty first was one sackle out. Yeah,
and it wasn't Daniel Hunter or Will Anderson Junior. And
that's when Joe Toney was outstanding out there, wrestling above
his weight class and Mike Kelly into as well. But
the Texans the first team when they did this last
week in the wildcard round, the first team since the
(28:58):
twenty fourteen Packers to have four plus sacks and four
plus interceptions in a playoff game. Doesn't happen much. And
since twenty eleven now the Texans have four pick sixes
in the playoffs. No other team including the Chiefs, have
more than two in a span that covers fourteen seasons
in the postseason. So it's kind of been the texanm
(29:20):
but really is on this team well?
Speaker 3 (29:22):
And what was kind of strange last week about the
Chargers game plan is they know that the Texans have
a great pass rush. I mean forty nine sacks this year,
fourthmost in the NFL, and Hunter and Anderson, like you mentioned,
they're responsible for forty seven percent of that, I mean
two beasts. Hunter has twelve sacks, Anderson has eleven going
into the playoffs. But what's weird is that Herbert's average
(29:43):
time to throw last week was two point eight seconds.
And if you don't really study this kind of stuff,
that doesn't sound very long, that's pretty long. That's above
average for the most part, two point eight seconds. And
its average depth of target last week was twelve yards.
So a lot of long developing routes, kind of sitting
back there waiting for things.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
To open up.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
You don't want to do that against a great pass
rush because that gives those pass rushers an opportunity to
blow up the play. So what did the Chiefs do
in Week sixteen? Well, Patrick mahomes average time to throw
was only two point four to eight seconds, third quickest
release all season for him. His average depth of target
was six yards and also when they blitzed, it was
just two point three to four seconds on average. And
(30:25):
I mean, consider this, the Texans have allowed the highest
average yards after the catch of any team in the NFL.
This year at an average six point five yards after
the catch. It's a perfect formula for the quick passing game.
And let your athletes to a Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown,
Travis Kelce, DeAndre Hopkins, make magic happen after the catch,
because all Will Anderson and Daneil Hunter can do at
(30:45):
that point is turn around and watch the play. And
the Chiefs did that masterfully in that Week sixteen game.
Look at the yards after the catch in that game,
Xavier Worthy had fifty nine yards after the catch, smaugp
Rynd fifty yards after the catch, Hollywood at thirty five
year yards after the catch, and Kareem Hunt had twenty
six yards after the catch. So not only did the
Chiefs spread the ball around and seven players had double
(31:07):
digit receiving yards in that game, well, four different players
had at least twenty five yards after the catch. I
love to see a similar kind of game plan here
in this one where those pass rushers are really really
good and they blew up the game for the Chargers,
you can take them out of the game too with
that quick.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Release, and as the Chiefs, those receivers, whoever's touching the
ball on those quick passes or However, you going to
get the ball have got to be worthy of the
high and tight because of those takeaways nineteen are interceptions.
But this is a team and part of the yards
after contact is that this is a team like a
(31:44):
pressing team in basketball. They'll press you, but if you
break the press, you can get dunks. This is a
team that loves to get forced fumbles. They're going to
hack it out on you, all of them. And el
Shire is going to play in this game. He did
not play in the game on December the twenty first,
he was still in the middle of that three game
suspension for his hit on Trevor Lawrence of the Jaguars.
He is a guy that wants to poke the ball out,
(32:06):
so does Eric Murray, the former chief, and the other
dbs and linebackers. So you catch the ball in a
six or seven or eight yard route, protect it, move
up the field because if you miss a hack out,
you're gonna get maybe fifteen or twenty more yards. This
is really an interesting team in Houston. You nailed it.
They live off the takeaway. If you take care of
the football and protect, you can have a really good
(32:29):
day against these guys. I'm gonna close out this way,
and let's talk Chiefs defense. You and I are both
heartbroken about the only bad thing about Week eighteen was
the fact that give them Bronco's credit, they get thirty
eight points, but it so convolutes the stats. It's made
me look at every team's stats and go, what did
they have week eighteen that would have messed it up?
Like these guys being fourth in the league in sacks, right, Houston? Okay,
(32:51):
well they played Tennessee, but the thirty eight points took away,
So the Chiefs end up four points allowed? How many
times did you see graphics during the wildcard weekend? Points allowed?
Points allowed? I'm gonna go, well, wait a minute, if
the Chiefs would have played their guys in Week eighteen,
they would have been ahead of this stat but taking
(33:13):
it up a notch. We saw the defense of the
Kansas City Chiefs take it up a notch and run defense.
And Joe Mixon only he and Saquon Barkley this year
the number of one hundred yard rushing games and a
rushing touchdown in those one hundred yard rushing games tied.
Joe Mixon was Saquon Barkley. We saw him explode in
the second half on the Chargers, and it was his
(33:34):
second one hundred yard rushing game in his postseason career.
He had won with Cincinnati back in twenty twenty two
in a divisional playoff win before they came here and
lost with the Butker field goal. So defending the run,
if you look at last year and what the Chiefs
were able to do against the run CMC three point
six yards per carry in Super Bowl fifty eight, Baltimore
(33:56):
only had eighty one rushing yards that caused congressional inquiries
in the Belt. And then also James Cook for the
Baltimore I'm sorry for the Buffalo Bills in the divisional
playoff game only had three point four yards to rush.
The Kansas City Chiefs took it up a notch defending
the run last year in the playoff run to the Super.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Bowl, and they did it all season long as well.
You know, we've only allowed one one hundred yard rusher
all year. Do you know who it was, Lamar Jackson. Yeah,
it was Lamar Jackson in Week one. It's the only
one hundred yard rusher we've allowed all season long. We
were tracking it for a while and then I think
it just kind of got mundane, like we were saying
the same thing every week that we were shutting down
(34:39):
the opponent's running game, and it's been true all season long.
We've been really good against the run. And as much
as we talk about CJ. Stroud and Nico Collins as well,
deserves mentioned because Nico, despite missing five games this year,
as accounted for twenty percent of the Texans receptions and
twenty five percent of the receiving yards just by himself.
But still, it all starts with stopping Joe Mixon. You've
(35:00):
got to stop Joe mix and when he gets going,
we've seen him over the years, he's one of the
better running backs in the league. You're right, the Chargers
could not stop him in the second half, and it's
just demoralizing. We kind of saw that, Like the Chargers
weren't totally out of it in the second half, but
the Texans on their last touchdown drive, Mixon was getting
like six or seven yards per carry, and it's just like, man,
we're running out of time. It's burning clock. You can't
(35:21):
get him off the field and he ends it with
an explosive touchdown run. You can't let that happen here
in this game again, it's going to be cold, kind
of like running football kind of weather. If you're the
Chiefs defense, just keep doing what you've done all year long.
Shut down the running game and make the Texans one
dimensional with their passing game. And it's really sad in
a bummer because we saw what happened to Tank Dell
(35:42):
when he was here. But the football aspect, that's a big,
big loss because I mean, Tank Dell was having a
game in that week's sixteen matchup. He had what eight
catches for ninety eight yards and a touchdown in less
than three quarters. Just a big, big part of their offense.
That puts more pressure on Nico Collins and puts more
press sure on Joe Mixon. The Chiefs have got to
shut down those two guys specifically and make someone else
(36:04):
beat you.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
I'm going to give Demiko Ryan's credit, who, by the way,
was on Coach Read's last Philadelphia team. He was a
linebacker on the twenty twelve Eagles. Coach reminded me of that.
But he's done an excellent job, so as c J. Stroud,
I'm gonna give him credit in this. We saw how
the Tank Dell injury affected those guys. I mean it
literally knocked the wind out of them. Yeah, and his
rehab is going to take probably most of next year.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
It's really sad. He's an awesome players.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Good and we loved him coming out of the draft.
You and I we talked about him. But there now
have overcome that. And you saw that mental and emotionally
in the Charger game. I thought that it. I mean
the game after they played us, when they had they
were on the three games in eleven days too, they had.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
To play Christmas Day, played Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yet they didn't have any life against the Ravens, got
a little bit back against the Titans, but they they've
dealt with tankdll do so give them credit and give
coach Tomiko Ryan's credit for getting this team back on track.
I'll close out this way that here we are taking
it up a notch. The historical part of this game,
(37:06):
this is just it's a fascinating game. There's just more
to this game than a divisional playoff game.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Yeah, there is.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
There's a lot to it.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
And I want to add two. We've been in a
lot of these games now, I mean, over the last
several years, we've been to the divisional round, every single
year in the AFC Championship Game, every single year since
Mahomes became a starter in twenty eighteen. You can't take
it for granted.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
You just can't.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
I mean, we talked last week about how the Divisional
round used to be kind of a really big deal.
I mean, I think about two thousand and three, I
think about twenty sixteen, twenty fifteen. I mean, going to
the Divisional round, you're one game away from the AFC
Championship Game.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
That's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
And just because we've accomplished a lot over the last
several years and seen a lot of champions you can't
take it for granted because every season is different and
every journey is difficult. It's really hard to get to
this point. It's even harder to advance, and it's going
to be a challenge on Saturday against a very good
Texans team. But don't take it for granted and enjoy
the moment because this is really really fun. We get
to see our team with a chance to make some history,
(38:05):
kind of begin that postseason journey here against a very
worthy opponent, and it's going to be an awesome atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I'll close this way. DeAndre Hopkins has had a thirteen
year National Football League career. He's going to the Pro
Football Hall of Fame. He started his career at the
Houston Texas. DeAndre Hopkins has played one hundred and eighty
four games and never won a divisional playoff game. He's
got that shot this week against his former team, as
(38:32):
everybody in the NFL takes it up a notch
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