In the end, in spite of a bit of a fight – and we do mean bit – the Kansas City Chiefs were, in fact, too much for the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Wild-Card Game on Saturday evening.
But if the Chiefs were too much for Miami, then the playoff-newbie Houston Texans simply overwhelmed Cleveland.
Houston, hosting Saturday afternoon’s first AFC Wild-Card battle at NRG Stadium, thanks to its surprising AFC South Division title, had two pick-sixes of Browns quarterback Joe Flacco en route to a 45-17 win.
And then Kansas City sailed past the Dolphins, 26-7, in a game where the team from South Florida couldn’t find its offensive rhythm.
Here’s the Associated Press’ recap of both: Mahomes leads Chiefs past Dolphins 26-7 in frigid conditions; Texans rout Browns | AP News.
First up was both Cleveland and Houston returning to the postseason, although fans were robbed of what would’ve been a really-tasty matchup: former Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, traded to the Browns a few seasons ago, was unable to play, having missed most of the season due to injury.
Flacco started in Watson’s place, one of four quarterbacks to get starts for the Browns this year, and threw interceptions returned for touchdowns by Houston’s Steven Nelson and Christian Harris. That blew open a 24-14 game, into a 38-14 game, and Houston never looked back.
Flacco, 38, still finished with 307 passing yards, but the Texans were just far too much for Cleveland on this day.
Houston rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, the second overall pick of last April’s NFL Draft out of Ohio State, became the youngest quarterback to win an NFL playoff game. Stroud threw for 274 yards and three touchdowns (to Nico Collins, Brevin Jordan and tight end Dalton Schultz).
Saturday night, both the Chiefs and Dolphins, and fans, of course, braved subzero temperatures in what would be a one-sided game, as well, although the score was not really indicative of just how one-sided it was.
KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes, hoping to get the Chiefs back into the Super Bowl for a defense of their championship, threw for 262 yards and a touchdown (to Rashee Rice) in the win. Rice had eight catches for 130 yards and the score.
Harrison Butker kicked four field goals for KC, whose defense held Miami in check. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa did connect with receiver Tyreek Hill, the former Chief, on a 53-yard touchdown, but that was all the scoring for the Dolphins, who had only 264 yards in the game.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that the game – available only on the NBC-Universal-owned streaming service Peacock – averaged 23 million viewers (Dolphins-Chiefs playoff game on Peacock sets streaming record with average of 23 million viewers | AP News), passing by far the previous record on a streaming service, a game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowboys that averaged 15.3 million viewers on Amazon Prime back on Nov. 30.
Next weekend, the Texans will play at either top AFC seed Baltimore or at Kansas City, depending upon the outcome of Monday afternoon’s Pittsburgh-Buffalo game. That game had been planned for noon Sunday, but due to winter weather conditions, the league moved it to a Monday-3:30 p.m. Central time kick.
Kansas City will either host Houston, or it will play at Buffalo or Baltimore.
