‘That’s what you come here for, for moments like this,’ Texans look to make history against Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – For a proud football team and a city that has endured so many frustrating moments, so many prime opportunities that eluded their grasp, Saturday represents a chance to make history against one of the toughest opponents in the modern NFL era.

The AFC South champion Texans have reached his stage of the playoffs five times previously, and are winless in five previous AFC divisional round games. They are the lone team in the AFC South that has never advanced to the AFC championship game.

Exactly a year ago, in the cold in Baltimore, the Texans’ resurgent season ended against the Ravens. It was four years after the Texans lost in the most painful of manners, squandering a 24-0 lead and being blown out 51-31 in the divisional round as the Kansas City Chiefs went on to win the Super Bowl.

And, now, a Texans franchise galvanized by the leadership of coach DeMeco Ryans, the skill of quarterback C.J. Stroud and one of the most aggressive, athletic and opportunities defenses in the game gets another chance against the defending Super Bowl champion, top-seeded, 15-2 Chiefs team headlined by star quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

For a team rebuilt in Ryans and general manager Nick Caserio’s shared vision, including a dominant pass rush led by Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr. and a ballhawking secondary boosted by the presence of All-Pro corner Derek Stingley Jr., this moment, Saturday’s AFC divisional round playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium, represents an incredibly important moment.

“That’s what you come here for,” said Anderson, a former NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year drafted third overall last year, one selection after Stroud. “That’s what they’ve been rebuilding for is moments like this. It’s not for the regular season. It’s for moments like this. We’ve got all the right pieces. We’ve got all the right guys and coaching staff. We’ve just got to go out there and make it happen.”

What’s happened in the past doesn’t have to be prologue for the Texans, even though few outside of their locker room have predicted a victory. They’re an 8 1/2 point underdog to the Chiefs, whose dominance has been defined by Mahomes’ excellence and uncanny ability to find a way to make plays from the most difficult of angles regardless of personnel or opponent.

“We’re excited about the opportunity we have,” Ryans said. “We understand what’s in front of us. Great team, KC has done a great job for the past few years of really dominating the league, being there at the end. Great coaching staff, great players, great team, all the way across the board, so it’s a really tough challenge for us.

“We know it’s a tough, tough team to beat. It’s going to take everything that we have. It’s going to take all four quarters. Similar to our last game, we just have to stay the course, remain persistent throughout the game, and find a way to win in those critical moments.”

Halting the Chiefs’ pursuit of a third consecutive Super Bowl and Vince Lombardi trophy begins and ends with combating the elusiveness, rocket arm and relentless will of Mahomes, a former NFL and Super Bowl Most Valuable Player who always seems to find a way to remain a step ahead of the most talented of defenses.

And his track record in the AFC divisional round is as spotless as the Texans’ history is spotty.

Mahomes is 6-0 in divisional round games with 16 touchdown passes and zero interceptions.

No player in NFL history with 10 or more postseason starts has a better career playoff quarterback rating than Mahomes’ 105.8 mark, numbers that show his efficiency, big plays and ball security. No player in NFL history has a better playoff winning percentage than Mahomes’ .833 record. He’s 15-3 in the playoffs. A win over the Texans would surpass Joe Montana for the second most playoff wins in NFL history behind Tom Brady’s 35 playoff victories.

And Mahomes has 41 playoff touchdown passes, just eight interceptions, five less than Brady and Aaron Rodgers behind Brady’s 88 touchdowns.

Another Super Bowl victory would tie him with Terry Bradshaw, second behind Brady’s seven Super Bowl rings.

The Texans are well aware of what they’re facing against Mahomes with his mobility and penchant for delivering impressive off-script plays.

During the first game against Mahomes, he completed 28 of 41 passes for 260 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. He was only sacked once.

“Whenever you’re tasked with what we call playing 11-on-11 football with a quarterback who is able to run the ball, it just presents different challenges,” said Ryans, the Texans’ defensive playcaller. “You have to be sticky in coverage. You have to plaster. That is the thing, you think you cover guys once and the play is still going on, and you have to look to cover them twice. So, guys have to be very disciplined when you’re playing in coverage versus when you are playing Mahomes, because we know his escapability.

“Not just him running the ball, but also the threat of the run and him still being able to keep his eyes downfield and make passes. Guys are wide open a lot on their film because of the threat he poses, and he just requires so much attention because he is such an elusive guy in the pocket. He is such a unique playmaker with the different angles and the way he can throw the football, the way he gets the ball out. Whether it is underarm, sidearm, however he wants to get it out he has the confidence to get the ball to his playmakers.”

Disrupting Mahomes’ trademark timing means getting him on the ground and containing his rare improvisational abilities.

The strategy is simple, and hard to accomplish: contain a quarterback for the ages.

“Don’t let him step up in the A and B gaps,” Anderson said. “We have to do a really good job of rushing him, making sure he’s not stepping up, making sure he’s not getting out of the pocket. We’ll have to rush as one. We’ll have to rush together as a group and not let him escape and make plays with his legs. We do that by just being ourselves.”

The Texans were competitive with the Chiefs in a December loss at Arrowhead Stadium, falling 27-19 as the game ended on an emotional downturn for them after wide receiver Tank Dell suffered a devastating knee injury.

“Different game, I don’t take much from it,” Ryans said. “It was that game, that was that week. It’s different circumstances that happened in that particular week. Now it’s a new game for me, fresh start, new game. We will attack it just like it’s our first time playing these guys again. So we’ll go in with a fresh set of eyes and see the things we need to do to be better, the things we need to do that close out the game. I always go into each game with a first set of eyes, not really harping on a lot of what happened in the previous game.”

Ryans preaches a swarming approach on defense built around a steadfast mentality: the football belongs to them, not the offense.

A former NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and Pro Bowl linebacker who was the architect of top-ranked defenses with the San Francisco 49ers, Ryans has the buy-in form his team and the personnel he needs to run his schemes.

The Texans had a franchise record 49 sacks during the regular season, with 12 sacks from Hunter, a Morton Ranch graduate signed to a two-year, $51 million free agent deal in the offseason to build a formidable tandem with Anderson, who had 11 1/2 sacks this season.

The defense, led by team captain and linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, who didn’t play in the first game against Kansas City while serving an NFL suspension, has a singular mentality.

“You really can’t go out there if you’re not about it,” Ryans said. “And that’s what’s unique about our defense. It’s not one guy. If you want to talk about one guy, you can talk about Will as the guy who leads you. You talk about Azeez as the one guy. You can talk about Sting. I can name all those guys because each one of our guys, when you play defense the way I believe in playing defense, if you’re not about the swarm mentality, then it’s going to be hard for you to play defense for me because I see it one way.”

What does the swarm mentality mean to the players?

“Do whatever it takes to get the ball, attacking the ball,” Anderson said. “We’ve got this saying in our D-line room; ‘Who’s gonna pop it off?’ Whoever pops it off first, that’s swarming. Like who’s gonna make the big play? And I feel like there’s a lot of guys on defense that pop it off, who swarm.”

The Texans have a history this season of making top quarterbacks look very ordinary against them.

They intercepted Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert a career-high four times with safety Eric Murray running it back for a touchdown in an AFC wild-card win after he threw an NFL-low three interceptions during the regular season.

The Texans had 19 interceptions during the season.

And the Texans’ 29 turnovers during the regular season ranks fifth overall.

Stingley intercepted Herbert twice and has seven total interceptions this season, including five interceptions during the regular season.

“It really just comes down to if I was to tell you this is the last time you’re gonna do something, how you gonna do it?,” Stingley said. “It’s simple as that. Just do that every single play.”

The Texans intercepted Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff five times. They picked off Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa three times. They held Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen to 9 of 30 passing for 131 yards in a win at NRG Stadium.

“That’s our main thing that we go into every week is talking about attacking the football, taking the football,” Ryans said. “Because we know, when you take the football away, it just raises your percentages of winning the football game. It’s the defense helping the team win the game.”

It’s about attack, attack and attack some more.

“That’s just that swarm mentality and we just feeding off each other,” Anderson said. “This person can’t do it by themselves so who is gonna be next and that just generates that contagious energy.”

Historically, the Texans defense is in good company.

Only five teams since 1963 have at least four sacks, four interceptions and returned an interception for a touchdown in a playoff game. All of those previous teams won Super Bowls: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002, Baltimore Ravens’ Ray Lewis led defense in 2000 and the San Francisco 49ers in 1989 led by Ronnie Lott.

Before the Texans’ playoff game against Los Angeles, Anderson had a long conversation with three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt that inspired him.

Anderson had plans to talk with Watt again.

“I told him that talk really helped,” Anderson said. “He gave me a sense of calmness before the game. I’m like, ‘I got to go out there and do this’ He was like, ‘No, do the same thing that you’ve been doing all regular season. You’ve got to go out there and do the same thing in this game and just be yourself. Have fun, man.’ And you know the plays are going to come. You don’t try to go out there make plays because that’s when you take yourself off the game. "

Being counted out is nothing new for the Texans. Former NFL coach Rex Ryan had to eat his words and apologized for charactering the Chargers as having a bye week against the Texans, who blew out Los Angeles 32-12 after a rough start.

Ignoring what’s said and focusing on actions over words is another reason why the Texans are on this stage and have this shot to knock off the champs.

“All the outside noise, none of that stuff really matters,” Anderson said. “When you know the special group of guys you have in the building and how much hard work they’ve put in. I told the guys we do not owe it to them. We owe it to ourselves. We’re the ones who put in all the hard work, the blood, sweat and tears. So, now, we owe it to ourselves to prove we belong here and we can win this game”

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Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com