Patrick Mahomes has never lost in the divisional round of the playoffs with the Kansas City Chiefs. On Saturday, he connected with Travis Kelce seven times for 117 yards and a touchdown in a 23-14 win over the Houston Texans. The defense sacked Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud eight times, and Houston’s special teams missed an extra point, a field goal, and a field goal attempt blocked in the fourth quarter.
The victory sends Kansas City, the two-time defending Super Bowl champions, to the AFC title game for the seventh consecutive season.
The Chiefs are the fourth team in NFL history to follow back-to-back Lombardi Trophies by advancing to the conference title game, and the three previous lost. They will try to change that at Arrowhead Stadium next weekend.
Andy Reid won his 300th game, joining George Halas, Don Shula, and Bill Belichick as the only coaches to reach that plateau.
Travis Kelce now has 20 career postseason touchdowns, one behind Emmit Smith and Thurman Thomas and two behind wide receiver Jerry Rice.
The game will mark the seventh-consecutive conference championship game for the Chiefs (2018-24), the second-longest streak of conference title game appearances in NFL history. It marks the sixth home conference title game (2018-22, 2024) in the past seven seasons and is the franchise’s eighth total AFC Championship Game since the AFL/NFL merger in 1970. A limited quantity of tickets for the game will go on sale to the public at 11 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 20. Fans can purchase tickets online at www.chiefs.com/tickets at that time.