A common refrain rang true again on Saturday: The Chiefs are at their best in the clutch.
Despite bending often against the Texans, Kansas City's defense not only refused to break, but broke back, shattering Houston's best-laid plans for an upset victory thanks to eight sacks from coordinator Steve Spagnuolo's smothering pass rush in a narrow 23-14 Divisional Round win.
“They’re good players that love to play the game," head coach Andy Reid explained postgame when asked how his team seems to produce more big plays in crucial moments, per team transcript. "We’re sitting here, it’s that time of the year, guys stepped up and did just a nice job. Spags puts them in position to be able to do that and then they take advantage of that, that’s how that goes."
Parts of the Chiefs' first playoff game of the campaign, a Week 16 rematch, followed the same blueprint seen in many of Kansas City's victories during the regular season.
Patrick Mahomes and the offense spun their wheels but made just enough plays, counting on the defense to limit scoring on the other side.
But while Spagnuolo's unit proved up to the task by holding Houston to 14 points, the group was undeniably leaky.
Kansas City gave up 336 total yards compared to 212 and allowed both quarterback C.J. Stroud and running back Joe Mixon to do damage on the ground. Stroud picked up multiple first downs with his legs and had 42 yards, while Mixon averaged 4.9 a carry for 88 yards and a touchdown.
Coming out of halftime, Houston sustained a 15-play touchdown drive that took 10:24 off the clock, failing to knot the score at 13 only due to an errant extra point. What had been a 10-point margin until 16 seconds remained in the second quarter turned into a razor-thin lead late in the third quarter, all without the Chiefs touching the ball.
As Reid alluded to, it was that time of the game, during that time of the year.
After amassing three sacks in the first half, Kansas City was blanked in the third quarter before going into hyperdrive -- none more so than defensive end George Karlaftis, who tallied three sacks of his own in just the final frame.
"Spags has been there and done that," Karlaftis said. "He has all of this experience and he knows what to call in critical situations."
On Saturday, those critical situations called for extra rushers, as Spagnuolo dialed up blitz after blitz to rattle the Texans' operation and shrink the coverage time required on the back end.
Karlaftis got his first sack on such a play, roaring around the edge past tight end Dalton Schultz on a fourth-and-10 before corralling a dancing Stroud in the pocket.
“When you get a sack, it’s a big thing, it’s a big deal -- both as a play and as a stat, but also for the morale," Karlaftis said. "When multiple guys are able to do that, when you have 8.0 sacks, that usually gives you a pretty good chance to win.”
Two Texans possessions later, with Kansas City's lead having swelled once more to 23-12, Karlaftis began and ended Houston's final drive with his other sacks. Chamarri Conner and Felix Anudike-Uzomah joined the party, too, giving the team six different players to log a sack along with Chris Jones, Tershawn Wharton and Charles Omenihu earlier in the contest.
It was Karlaftis' final one, though, done in back-to-back tandem with Anudike-Uzomah's, that stalled yet another prolonged march by Houston at Kansas City's 17-yard line. The Texans attempted a field goal just under the two-minute warning to make it a one-possession game, only to see the try blocked by Leo Chenal.
Thus ended any further dramatics, the Texans having been vanquished with just 12 offensive points despite venturing to or beyond the Chiefs' 40-yard line on six of eight drives (not counting a kneel-down).
The only points Kansas City allowed to Houston after things became tenuous at 13-12 was a safety in which punter Matt Araiza eventually gave himself up as part of a time-wasting effort.
The victory marked the Chiefs' 16th this season without eclipsing 30 points and 10th holding an opponent under 20.
It's been an approach that has generated countless close games and required individuals such as Karlaftis to take turns stepping up, along the way fueling doubt over whether such risky living can result in a championship.
Now with only two more games in the way of proving it will, Mahomes has every faith in Kansas City's process.
"Everybody’s winners on this team and I think that’s what makes us special," he said. "So, it doesn’t always have to be an offensive explosion, it doesn’t always have to be the defense locking it down, it’s just who can find a way to get a win and how can we do that? I think that’s what makes us a special football team and we’ll try to carry that into next week."