Give up an opening drive TD to a wide open Kenny Stills.
Drop the ball on 3rd down. Get the punt blocked for a TD.
Drop the ball on 3rd down. Get a stop on D and then muff the punt on your own 6. TD.
It's 21-0 in the first quarter. The crowd is silent. I mean the Chiefs can't catch a single pass. They can't catch a punt. They can't even punt. It's a disaster in every phase.
Mark and I are texting. At 21-0, I remind him that last year in the AFC Championship Game, Chiefs were down 14-0 at the half and got it to overtime. At that point, I'm hoping to cut it to a 14 point deficit by halftime. I texted Mark, "Need this quarter to end so we can start going the good way."
In early 2nd quarter, Texans have a 3rd and 9. Sorenson makes the tackle a foot short of the first down. Texans line up to go for it but aren't ready and call timeout. This was the turning point of the game. The Chiefs needed some momentum. I was hoping Texans would go for it and get stopped and they would be the spark the Chiefs needed. Mark (also rooting for the Chiefs) wanted them to kick because he didn't think Chiefs could get the stop. After the timeout, O'Brien decides to kick on 4th and 1 and make it 24-0.
Mecole Hardman catches the ensuing kickoff at the goal line. He's a rookie. He's also in the Pro Bowl as a returner.
He takes it 58 yards and everything changes. The crowd is into it.
Next play: Mahomes to Kelce is the first good offensive play.
Next play: Mahomes to Williams for the score. It took less than a minute once Hardman touched the ball.
Chiefs force a 3 and out. And you can feel that the momentum has shifted.
On 4th and 4 from the Texans 31, they call a fake punt. As soon as it's snapped, my heart sinks. They only needed 4. It looks like the runner has the edge easily. But Dirty Dan Sorensen makes the tackle of his life.
With a short field, Mahomes goes to Kelce twice in a row and finds the sweet nectar of the end zone.
At 24-14 I said now it's a normal game again. We don't have to panic, just play our game, try to get stops.
Ensuing kickoff...Sorensen pops the ball out of the returners' hands. The ball did something that you never see happen. It pops up. And floats directly into the hands of Darwin Thompson. Like out of a movie.
On 3rd and goal, Mahomes rolled out and found Kelce again.
In less than 5 minutes, the Chiefs scored 3 touchdowns and turned a blowout into anybody's game.
Chiefs D forces a punt and KC takes over on their own 10. Most of the time in the NFL, that's a recipe for a punt. But most of the league doesn't have Patrick Mahomes.
90-yard drive before the half ends with Mahomes dragging his toe across the line of scrimmage for a legal pass.
21 points was the largest deficit Mahomes had faced in his career. He erased it one quarter.
Halftime: 28-24 Chiefs. The most first half points in playoff history.
Oh yeah, the Chiefs would open the 2nd half with an 85-yard TD drive.
On 3rd and 5, Frank Clark was down on the ground after missing Watson, but then got up and still sacked him.
Chiefs come back and score another TD. That's 41 in a row.
The Texans finally score. So the Chiefs score again to make it 48-31. That's seven straight touchdowns. Yeah, that's never happened in the playoffs.
So what happens when Mahomes faces a huge deficit? He reels off more TD drives than anyone in playoff history. This is something I've noted before. Like at the end of the Pats game last year, the Titans game this year, when he's in a hole and desperately needs to manufacture something...he delivers. We just don't noticed how incredibly clutch he is because they've often built a huge lead early.
The Chiefs close the game out by stopping them on 4th down and adding a field goal to hang a 50-burger on them.
How rare is a 50-burger in the playoffs? Since the merger, there have been 8.
All winners by the way. So that's a surefire way to win a playoff game. Just score 50.
Where does this rank on playoff comebacks?
1. Bills 41, Oilers 38, OT, in AFC Wild Card (Jan. 3, 1993)
Biggest deficit: 32 points. Houston led 35-3 with 8:53 remaining in the third quarter.
2. Colts 45, Chiefs 44 in AFC Wild Card (Jan. 4, 2014)
Biggest deficit: 28 points. Kansas City led 38-10 with 11:48 remaining in the third quarter.
3. Patriots 34, Falcons 28, OT, in Super Bowl 51 (Feb. 5, 2017)
Biggest deficit: 25 points. Atlanta led 28-3 with 2:07 remaining in the third quarter.
t-4. 49ers 39, Giants 38 in NFC Wild Card Round (Jan. 5, 2003)
Biggest deficit: 24 points. New York led 38-14 with 2:08 remaining in the third quarter.
t-4. Chiefs 51, Texans 31 in AFC Divisional Round (Jan. 12, 2020)
Biggest deficit: 24 points. Houston led 24-0 with 9:56 remaining in the second quarter.
Now we're on the list of top 5 playoff comebacks in a good way. Just one point behind 28-3.
Oh yeah, it was also the best comeback in Chiefs franchise history. Previous record was 21 points set by the 2016 Chiefs vs the Chargers on opening day.
The other cool record is only team to ever win by 20 in the playoffs after trailing by 20. Turned a blowout into a blowout for them.
In the first half, I had a flashback to the feeling I had on March 26, 2005. All of that season I had been expecting Illinois to go to the Final Four. And then Illinois was losing by 15 late in the second half and I had to come to terms with the fact that Illinois was not going to the Final Four.
When the Chiefs were down 21-0 and Brittany is asking me what is happening, I had no answers. I thought this team could go to the Super Bowl and they're getting their doors blown off, just like the Ravens had the night before. I felt dumb for making a big deal of taking a picture of my kids in our Chiefs gear. I felt dumb for thinking this team was special.
My mental flashback wasn't related to the comeback. It was about processing disappointment.
And then all of a sudden, I was right back there on Bash Court Apartment 3 for a different reason. Watching the best comeback in my team's history. For both games, Mark and I were rooting for the same team, watching each play together. Just this time he was on the other side of the world.
- - -
On Sunday, January 19th, the 50th AFC Championship Game will be played.
In the 48 seasons without Patrick Mahomes: Chiefs made the game 1 out of 48 times.
In the 2 seasons with Patrick Mahomes: Chiefs are 2 for 2.
(Also, the one without him was on the road. Both with him are home games. Just neat.)
He becomes first player under 25 to throw 5 TDs in the playoffs.
- - -
Fun Frank Clark Facts: He set the Chiefs playoff record for three sacks. And makes it to the Conference Championship round, something he never did with the Seahawks. Seeing them get eliminated last night, he probably felt pretty good about signing with KC.
- - -
The Chiefs are one game away from the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs are one home game away from the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs are one home game vs the 6-seed away from the Super Bowl.
Oh my God.
Breathe.
- - -
And now we're on to the AFC Championship Game.
Win and you advance to a Super Bowl. A chance for Reid to secure his legacy. A chance for Mahomes to make the ultimate mark on his resume.
Lose and people start to talk. They'll bring up Reid's string of losses in the NFC Championship Game as Eagles coach. That Reid and Mahomes can't win the big one, ignoring how difficult it is to reach the Championship Game in the first place.
No pressure.
- - -
The Chiefs went from a team that couldn't catch a pass, catch a punt, or even punt the ball to a team that rewrote the history books.
Hardman with the return.
Sorensen with the fake punt tackle and forced fumble.
Travis Kelce couldn't be stopped.
Frank Clark got pressure by himself.
Mathieu making plays in the secondary.
Damien Williams scored three times.
And Patrick Mahomes played perfectly from start to finish. Didn't force a pass when trailing big. Made plays with his feet when they took away the receivers. Played lights out.
Last year when previewing the Colts playoff game, my confidence was founded in the fact that we have Patrick Mahomes and you don't. And that is even truer today.
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