History on Indy’s side
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Given the postseason history involving Indianapolis and Kansas City over the years, Andrew Luck and the Colts have every reason to feel confident heading to Arrowhead Stadium today.
The Chiefs have every reason to believe they’re due.
Four times the teams have met in the playoffs, twice in the wild card round and twice with a spot in the AFC title game on the line. Each time the Colts emerged victorious. All but one were down-to-the-wire nail-biters, one a record-setting shootout and another a defensive slugfest, and each left Colts fans feeling euphoric and Chiefs fans feeling cursed.
Asked whether he understood the magnitude of the next installment in the onesided series, Chiefs cornerback Kendall Fuller replied quite simply: “Oh yeah.”
“Especially what they’ve been going through over the years and things like that,” he said. “We definitely see how fans feel, what they’re expecting and stuff like that.”
The Chiefs earned the No. 1 seed with their third consecutive AFC West title, and have arguably the game’s best young quarterback in Patrick Mahomes. Tyreek Hill joins Travis Kelce, a healthy Sammy Watkins and running backs Spencer Ware and Damien Williams in giving him plenty of weapons, while a defense that’s been statistically poor also has more sacks than any other team.
Yet the Colts, the sixth and last seed in the playoffs, may be the hottest team playing. They rebounded from a 1-5 start to win nine of their last 10 games to reach the postseason, then dominated the Houston Texans last week with a bludgeoning ground game and stingy defense .
“The way this locker room has prepared,” Luck said, “it’s all about just getting better, getting better . ... It takes no heroes. You don’t need a hero, whether it’s a playoff game or a regular-season game. It’s just everybody doing their jobs that get things done.”
Of course, having a little playoff karma never hurts. The Colts certainly have that when it comes to Kansas City, while the Chiefs believe they long ago hit their quota of misfortune.
“All of us feel like we are here now and focused on the present day,” Mahomes said, “and we feel like we have a different team, and that we can go out there and win a big football game.”