Kansas City Chiefs: No reason to worry about Colts
By Mike Norris
When the Kansas City Chiefs play host to the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday in an AFC Divisional Round matchup at Arrowhead Stadium, ghosts of playoff pasts will certainly be on fans’ minds.
In simple terms, the playoffs have not been kind to the Kansas City Chiefs. Since winning Super Bowl IV in January of 1970, the franchise is 4-16 in the postseason with losses in ten of their past 11 tries.
Four of those losses have come at the hands of the Colts. A three-point loss following the 1995 season with a kicker who missed three field goals, a 38-31 loss in the 2003 playoffs where neither team punted, a 23-8 loss three years later while clearly over-matched and a 45-44 defeat six years ago that included blowing a 38-10 second-half lead, a team record.
After you stop crying and wipe off your tears, regain your composure and realize one thing: those games have nothing to do with Saturday. Only nine players remain on the roster from 2013 — Anthony Sherman, Jeff Allen, Eric Fisher, Justin Houston, Eric Berry, Dustin Colquitt, Allen Bailey, Frank Zombo, and Travis Kelce. Outside of Zombo, most Chiefs fans should be happy these guys are still on the team while the likes of Alex Smith, Donnie Avery, Sean Smith and others are not.
And of course, missing from the roster five years ago but ever so present today is a young gunslinger who is the major reason Chiefs fans should be confident this weekend: Patrick Lavon Mahomes II.
A near lock for league MVP (and please stop reading if you don’t think so), Mahomes finished with more than 5,000 yards passing and a league-high 50 touchdowns. The paydirt passes were so high only Tom Brady (50) and Peyton Manning (55) can claim they’ve done the same. But dig deeper than those stats and you’ll find many more reasons while Mahomes should give you hope, and not despair.