Titans visit Chiefs with both hoping to end playoff futility,
Titans visit Chiefs with both hoping to end playoff futility
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chiefs linebacker Reggie Ragland was in swaddling blankets when Kansas City most recently won a home playoff game. Wide receiver Tyreek Hill was nestled comfortably in the womb.
It was January 1994, Joe Montana was the quarterback and the Chiefs beat the Steelers on an overtime field goal by Nick Lowery to advance.
It’s hard to believe anybody packed inside Arrowhead Stadium that day imagined a quarter of a century would pass without another such victory.
“It would be nice to break that, but you can’t add any extra motivation once you get to this stage,” said quarterback Alex Smith, who has helped the Chiefs to a 10-6 record this season. “This is all the work we’ve been putting in as this team from day one — this team — when we were putting in our goals and talking about that. It’s tough to add any more motivation with historic streaks or things like that.”
Besides, the Tennessee Titans (9-7) are trying to end their own maddening stretch of playoff futility. Tennessee rumbles into Kansas City for a wild-card matchup this afternoon in its first postseason appearance since 2008, when the Titans were the AFC’s top seed.
If they can waltz out of Arrowhead with a win, as they did during a regular-season game in mid-December 2016, it would be their first playoff victory since January 2004.
“It’s playoff time,” Titans safety Kevin Byard said. “I dream about … matchups, about going up against guys like (Travis) Kelce and going up against Andy Reid, a Hall of Fame-level coach. He’s a great coach. And going into Arrowhead Stadium, one of the louder stadiums, I don’t think there’s better you can ask for in the first week of the playoffs.”
Indeed, there are angles galore in a game that could be overshadowed by higher-profile matchups this weekend — or perhaps overlooked because of the Chiefs’ midseason swoon and the Titans’ late slump.
Smith is trying to validate the best season of his 13-year NFL career in what could be his final game for the Chiefs. Hill is hoping to show off his world-class speed on a national stage. And running back Kareem Hunt, who won the NFL rushing title this season, will have a chance to etch his name alongside the likes of Todd Gurley of the Los Angeles Rams and Le’Veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers as one of the league’s best.
“If you lose, you go home,” Hunt said simply. “Everybody is giving their all not to go home.”
Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota will try to rewrite the story of an up-and-down season with his playoff debut in his third year as a pro. Second-year running back Derrick Henry — who will have to step up with veteran starter DeMarco Murray out with a knee injury — and his supporting cast will help. And embattled coach Mike Mularkey will try to prove he was the right man for the job all along.
“The intensity and everything goes up when you get to this point,” Mularkey said.
Mariota is about to experience that for the first time. He struggled down the stretch in the regular season as the Titans lost three straight games to fall off the playoff pace. But while his numbers against Jacksonville last week to help clinch a postseason berth were modest, several teammates said Mariota got his swagger back.
“It was just me being me,” he said. “Again, I’m going to do whatever it takes to win. This is the time in the season when you’ve just got to lay it all on the line.”
This won’t be the first trip to Arrowhead for most of the Titans, who also played a preseason game in Kansas City this past August.
Tennessee’s 19-17 victory there in December 2016 came on a game-ending field goal by Ryan Succop, who had spent most of his career with Kansas City. Succop came up short on his first attempt at the 53-yarder, but Reid had called time out just before to give him another shot. Succop made the mulligan for a victory in the coldest game in franchise history.
The weather should be in the 40s for kickoff today, or about 40 degrees warmer than that meeting. That should make it more comfortable for players as well as fans, many of them with plans to be noisy enough to make things uncomfortable for the Titans.
“There’s nothing like Arrowhead Stadium when that place is packed, and it’s a little cold and the ground is shaking a little bit,” Reid said. “It doesn’t get any better.”