Chiefs advance to seventh straight AFC Championship with win over Texans

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Chiefs have completed step one of three on their quest for the NFL's first three-peat.
Kansas City defeated Houston 23-14 to reach the AFC Championship for a seventh consecutive year. The Chiefs have advanced to the AFC title game every season since Patrick Mahomes took over as the franchise's starting quarterback in 2018.
With Saturday's win, Mahomes tied NFL hall-of-famer Joe Montana for the second-most all-time playoff wins by a quarterback in league history. Andy Reid also became just the fourth head coach in NFL history to earn 300 wins in his career, joining Don Shula, George Halas and Bill Belichick.
Both teams traded field goals on their opening possessions. Nikko Remigio set up a successful 32-yard field goal from Harrison Butker with a 63-yard kickoff return to put the Chiefs ahead 3-0. Then, the Texans answered with a 10-play, 68-yard drive, which ended with a short field goal from Ka'imi Fairbairn to tie the game.
Butker drilled the second of his four field goals on Kansas City's next possession to retake a three-point lead. Then, the Chiefs took advantage of good field position from a missed game-tying field goal to march down the field for the first touchdown of the evening. After Mahomes connected with Travis Kelce for a 49-yard catch, his longest reception of the season, Kareem Hunt found the end zone on a one-yard run to give Kansas City a 13-3 advantage.
Houston added a field goal before halftime to cut its deficit down to seven points and had an opportunity to tie the game to start the second half. The Texans manufactured a 15-play touchdown drive that lasted more than 10 minutes, ending with a 13-yard touchdown run from Joe Mixon. However, a special teams miscue kept Houston from tying the contest as Fairbairn missed the extra point to keep Kansas City in the lead 13-12 late in the third quarter.
However, the Chiefs responded on their next drive to take an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter. Mahomes led his team on a 13-play, 81-yard drive that ended with an 11-yard touchdown connection with Kelce to extend Kansas City's lead to 20-12. From there, the Chiefs added one more field goal and held the Texans off the scoreboard, with the exception of an intentional safety, to punch their ticket to the AFC Championship.
Mahomes finished the game 16-for-25 with 177 passing yards and one touchdown. The two-time NFL MVP also connected with Kelce seven times for 117 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Defensively, the Chiefs sacked opposing quarterback CJ Stroud on eight occasions, led by a three-sack effort from George Karlaftis.
Collectively, Houston's offense did produce more total yardage than Kansas City, though. The Chiefs posted 212 total yards while the Texans recorded 336 total yards. The visitors also posted more first downs, were more efficient on third down and finished the contest with a higher time of possession than the home team.
Up next - The Chiefs will host the winner of Baltimore and Buffalo's AFC Divisional Round matchup on Sunday, Jan. 26 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Kickoff for the AFC Championship Game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.