KC Chiefs: Winners and losers from Divisional Round vs Texans

LOSER: EVERYTHING IN THE FIRST QUARTER

This isn’t an exaggeration. Anything that could have gone wrong in the first quarter went wrong for the Chiefs. The defense allowed the Houston offense to go right down the field and score a touchdown, making it 7-0.

After that, the Chiefs went three and out, attempted to punt it, and BOOM! Blocked for a touchdown by the Texans, making it 14-0.

Once the Chiefs finally forced a Houston punt, Tyreek Hill muffed the punt return, which was recovered by the Texans on the Chiefs six-yard line. Two plays later, it was 21-0 Texans.

The Texans got a field goal on their next possession, making it 24-0, and that would be all of the points they’d score until the third quarter.

There’s a reason football is four quarters long and even though a lot of fans (myself included) were incredibly worried early on, the Chiefs bounced back and did what needed to be done. While they came out victorious in this match-up, the team cannot afford to make those kind of mistakes again.

LOSER: RUN GAME

I know the run game ended up with over 100 yards rushing (118 to be exact), but subtract Patrick Mahomes’ 53 yards from that total, and the Chiefs had just 65 yards on the ground. Damien Williams did have two rushing touchdowns, which were huge, but the run game as a whole was disappointing.

The Texans had a bad run defense, so the Chiefs not being able to get much done against that unit was a little disappointing. They’ll have their work cut out for them next week against Tennessee, who have a very good defense.