Kansas City Chiefs 27, Houston Texans 19
9-6-0
14-1-0
- REWATCH: Texans-Chiefs on NFL+ Premium
- READ: Texans' Dell suffered 'significant' knee injury, to stay in hospital
Bobby Kownack's takeaways:
- Mahomes eats nails for breakfast. If there were any lingering questions about whether Kansas City should play Patrick Mahomes on Saturday with a high ankle sprain, he answered them posthaste. The two-time Most Valuable Player scrambled nine plays into the Chiefs’ first drive for 12 yards on a third-and-13 to set up a reasonable fourth-down conversion, then shortly after ran for another 15 yards and a score despite meeting an angry cluster of Texans players at the goal line. The gritty end-zone trip, his longest regular-season rushing touchdown of his career, set the tone. He ended up leading the team in rushing until its last possession, and even though he didn’t look fully himself, he consistently navigated the pocket and found open targets. Xavier Worthy was especially good. Similar to Rashee Rice last year, the rookie has delivered an uptick in production late in his first year, as he saw double-digit targets for the second consecutive game (and second time in his career), turning it into 65 yards and a score. Marquise Brown also looked capable of providing another dimension to the offense. His output was a modest 45 yards on five receptions, but on his very first catch as a Chief he converted a fourth down. On his next, he moved the chains on a third-to-go. There’s something here to build on for K.C., with the tough-as-ever Mahomes leading the way.
- Houston is too sloppy in costly loss. Teams won’t beat the reigning Super Bowl champions while sabotaging themselves. The Chiefs have made that abundantly clear by going 14-1, even during a season in which they’ve never seemed at their best. Houston hung tough in this one, adding another one-possession victory to Kansas City’s ledger, but by game’s end hadn’t come close to winning football. C.J. Stroud threw two ugly picks, with the most egregious being an airborne throw that stopped a Houston drive in enemy territory and allowed K.C. to steal a field goal right before half. He also committed two delay of games, required a timeout to avoid another and took a red-zone sack when he chose to run out of bounds instead of throwing the ball away. The Texans defense had multiple blown coverages and routinely didn’t set the edge against scrambles, perhaps expecting Mahomes would be more stationary with his ankle injury. Worst of all, the tenor of the game -- and perhaps the Texans’ season -- changed on the team’s best play. Tank Dell nabbed a beautiful 30-yard toss from Stroud for a score but suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury in the process, leading to an emotional scene among his teammates. It’s especially devastating considering Dell also suffered a bad late-season injury last year and was starting to look back to himself. The Texans scored just three more points over the ensuing 27 minutes, and their vaunted WR trio to start the season could now be down to Nico Collins.
- Chiefs D keeps turnover party going. Kansas City’s defense followed up its six-turnover performance last week with two picks against the Texans. Although two interceptions doesn’t necessarily leap off the stat sheet, creating takeaways has been something the Chiefs were lacking until recently. Saturday marks just their third game forcing multiple turnovers. Both interceptions, one by Jaden Hicks on the first drive and one by Trent McDuffie with 52 seconds remaining in the first half, led to points -- 10 in total in a game decided by eight. The D became increasingly effective at keeping Stroud uncomfortable, too. Chris Jones and George Karlaftis were key in that regard with six and five pressures, respectively, while Joshua Williams helped end Houston’s comeback attempt with a sack on a corner blitz. Any time the Chiefs gave up a big play, they seemed to respond with a bigger one. It was a complete effort, and they’re now one win or a Bills’ loss away from clinching the AFC's No. 1 seed.
Next Gen Stats Insight from Texans-Chiefs (via NFL Pro): The Chiefs generated pressure on nine of 16 dropbacks in the second half (56.3% pressure rate), pressuring C.J. Stroud just over half as often as in the first half (eight of 27 dropbacks, 29.6%).
NFL Research: Kansas City’s 14 wins with 30-or-fewer points this season is now the most in NFL history, breaking a tie with the 1925 Frankford Yellow Jackets.
Baltimore Ravens 34, Pittsburgh Steelers 17
10-5-0
10-5-0
Michael Baca's takeaways:
- Ravens defense stiffens in fourth quarter to secure win, playoff berth. After the offense secured a seven-point lead to conclude the third quarter, Baltimore's defense finished the job in the final frame, stifling the Pittsburgh offense to the tune of zero points and 34 total net yards allowed in four possessions. Highlighting that dominance was Marlon Humphrey's 37-yard pick-six, which not only gave the Ravens a two-touchdown lead but essentially erased what could have been a costly interception by the Ravens two plays earlier. It was in that moment the wind seemed to be taken out of Pittsburgh's sails, and while Lamar Jackson and the offense proceeded to seal the game on their next possession with an 11-play, 81-yard scoring drive (6:09 TOP) to make it a three-score game, Baltimore's defensive stand late was an overwhelming tone-setter. Kyle Van Noy, Michael Pierce and Nnamdi Madubuike each notched sacks in the win, and the play of do-it-all safety Kyle Hamilton (eight tackles, one pass break-up, forced fumble) was essential for the Ravens' late-game success. Now having secured a playoff berth with the win on Saturday, the Ravens are also alive and well in the AFC North divisional race.
- Turnovers -- and lack thereof -- haunt Steelers. Russell Wilson's poor throw on the pick-six wasn't the only turnover that resulted in points for the Ravens. The Steelers quarterback coughed up a fumble on a scramble near the red zone early in the second quarter -- halting Pittsburgh's chance at seeing a lead in this game. Baltimore proceeded to take advantage of that momentum, driving the ball 81 yards downfield on a TD drive, and from then on, the Steelers unsuccessfully scrambled toward squaring the score. They also jumbled when getting opportunities to secure loose balls. On three separate occasions the Steelers failed to hop on would-be fumbles -- one coming on an Alex Highsmith strip-sack in the first quarter and the other two via Desmond King on punt returns in both halves. With the Steelers' normally consistent rushing attack gone missing on Saturday, amounting to an uncharacteristic offensive performance, Pittsburgh was left taking chances late because of the inability to snag that oblong ball.
- Baltimore owns an ace in the hole for the playoffs. Beware to those allowing the Ravens to have a late-game lead going forward, because Saturday's performance also proved they have a clear advantage in that scenario. The Ravens leaned on the rushing attack heavily against Pittsburgh and it wasn't the result of their dynamic QB. Derrick Henry was a menace, totaling 162 rushing yards (189 total scrimmage yards) and wearing down what had been a hard-hitting Steelers defense down the stretch. After the defense forced a turnover on downs to open the fourth quarter, Henry's 44-yard rumble to open the subsequent drive seemed to be the backbreaker before Jackson's INT on the very next play. But that long run down the sideline was reminiscent of something we've seen this season when the Ravens are in need of closing out games. They are preparing Henry to be that closer, keeping him fresh with just 16 carries through the first three quarters in order to deliver the knockout punch that has been missing in previous playoff runs for Baltimore.
Next Gen Stats Insight from Steelers-Ravens (via NFL Pro): Derrick Henry rushed 24 times for 162 yards and seven explosive runs, the most by any player in a game this season. Henry ran between the tackles on a season-high 62.5% of his carries, where he had five of his seven explosive runs. Henry forced 10 missed tackles and gained 66 yards after missed tackles, both of which were his third most in a game this season. Henry has now gained 678 yards after missed tackles this season, 144 more than the next closest player.
NFL Research: Derrick Henry had his 17th career game with 150-plus rushing yards (seventh-most in NFL history) and now has four seasons with 1,500-plus rushing yards (tied for second-most in NFL history).
