Leg to stand on
Mahomes fights injury to lead Chiefs to win
Patrick Mahomes pleaded with Chiefs coach Andy Reid to let him stay in the game on Saturday.
He argued with trainers, assistant coaches and anyone else within earshot on the Chiefs sideline to let him play through an injured right ankle.
“I’m not coming out of a playoff game,” Mahomes would say later, “unless they take me out.”
Well, the Chiefs did, forcing him to get X-rays late in the first half of their divisional game against Jacksonville.
But when they came back negative, and Mahomes proved he could protect himself in the halftime locker room, Reid decided to let his All-Pro quarterback back on the field — and he gamely led them to victory.
Mahomes finished with 195 yards passing and two touchdowns, the second capping a 75-yard drive late in the fourth quarter, and lifted the Chiefs to a 27-20 victory over the Jaguars and a spot in a fifth straight AFC championship game.
Mahomes also vowed to be ready for next week against the winner of Sunday’s game between the Bengals and Bills. If the Bengals win, they will be back at Arrowhead Stadium; if the Bills
win, they’re headed to Atlanta.
Chad Henne led a 98-yard touchdown drive while Mahomes was out. Travis Kelce had a career-high 14 catches for 98 yards and two scores. Marquez Valdes-Scantling hauled in the eventual clinching TD pass with about 7 minutes left in the game.
“It’s a credit to the team I have around me, the coaches around me and the organization in general,” Mahomes said. “We try to do whatever we can to be in this position, to get to the AFC championship game and find a way to the Super Bowl.”
The Jaguars, who rallied from a 27-0 deficit to beat the Chargers in the wild-card round, squandered two chances to mount another late rally. The first ended when Jamal Agnew had the ball pop loose inside the Chiefs 5 with about 5 ½ minutes to go, and the second when Jaylen Watson made a leaping, one-handed interception near midfield.
The Jaguars’ last-gasp chance ended when the Chiefs recovered an onside kick with 24 seconds to go.
Trevor Lawrence finished with 217 yards passing with a touchdown toss to Christian Kirk, who was briefly hurt midway through the fourth quarter but returned to finish the game. Travis Etienne added 62 yards rushing and a touchdown.
“When you get this far you don’t want to only go this far,” the Jaguars’ Foyesade Oluokun said. “You want to keep going.”
“I don’t really have the words right now,” Lawrence added. “The Chiefs did more today than we did.”
Long before Mahomes hobbled to the sideline in pain, he was at his creative best, driving the Chiefs downfield on their opening possession.
There was a shortstop-style sidearm sling to JuJu Smith-Schuster, a key third down pass to Kelce as he was being dragged to the turf, and the flip pass to his tight end that gave the Chiefs a 7-0 lead.
The Jaguars came right back, taking advantage of a big kickoff return and a short field.
Lawrence, whose four touchdown throws helped to stun the Chargers last week, proceeded to hit Kirk for the matching touchdown.
Then, the complexion of the game changed.
Mahomes was moving up in the pocket when Arden Key brought the full weight of his body down on the quarterback’s ankle. Mahomes hobbled to the huddle and managed to get through three more plays to end the first quarter, then was on the field two more plays before Harrison Butker kicked a 50-yard field goal.
During the Jaguars’ ensuing possession, Mahomes got into a heated argument with Reid and the training staff. He then threw down his coat and headed to the locker room, forcing Henne to take over midway through the second quarter, just as the 37-year-old journeyman did two years ago in a playoff win over the Browns.
“Yeah, I did not want to go, and they kind of gave me the ultimatum that I wasn’t going back in unless I went in there,” said Mahomes, who cheered on Henne’s 98-yard drive from the sideline, wearing a puffy winter coat on a cold, sleeting night.
As the second half began, though, that familiar red No. 15 jersey was trotting back onto the field.
“It was a short leash,” Reid acknowledged. “If I felt like he wasn’t able to handle it, he would have been out.”
His right ankle heavily taped, Mahomes struggled to move around, but simply his presence seemed to calm the Chiefs — and their angst-filled fan base. Butker added a second 50-yard field goal late in the third quarter to extend the lead to 20-10, and when the AFC South champs answered with a touchdown of their own, so did the Chiefs.
Mahomes drove them downfield for one last score that proved to be the margin of victory.
“We know that if it’s up to Pat, he’s going to be in there. I’m sure he had some words with everyone on the sideline that he wanted to be in there as fast as possible,” Kelce said afterward.
“It’s just a different feeling when one-five is in there. He can make anything happen, even on one ankle.”.
Disrespected Bengals, driven Bills set for playoff showdown: Joe Mixon and the Bengals feel disrespected. Josh Allen and the Bills have plenty to motivate them — starting with safety Damar Hamlin’s remarkable recovery — in a season of overcoming adversity.
Two teams that bonded three weeks ago in Cincinnati in deciding their since-canceled game could not proceed after Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated on the field have much to prove in an AFC divisional-round playoff showdown in Buffalo on Sunday.
For the Bills, the mere sight of Hamlin making regular visits to their facility this week was uplifting. What’s more, the Bills believe they’re battle-tested and capable of surmounting any remaining obstacles to achieve their preseason Super Bowl aspirations.
“I think it gives you a more sturdy foundation. The more struggle, the more adversity that you can see over the course of the year, it just makes you stronger,” Allen said. “We’ve been in some really weird situations this year that not a lot of teams maybe have ever gone through. Being able to have that under our belts, understand those emotions in those situations, and just try to use it to our advantage.”
The Bills have weathered two winter storms that disrupted their schedule, mourned the death of tight end Dawson Knox’s younger brother Luke in August, and rallied to their community’s aid in the aftermath of a racist shooting that left 10 Black people dead at a Buffalo supermarket in May.
Hamlin’s collapse and recovery is but the latest — and most personal.
In Cincinnati, Mixon might speak for all the Bengals in expressing his unhappiness over his team getting the short end of the stick from the NFL.
Already annoyed over the Bengals being placed at a disadvantage to finish higher than the AFC’s third seed, Mixon added another chip to his broad shoulders this week once the NFL began selling tickets for a potential Bills-Kansas City Chiefs matchup in the AFC championship game, which would be played in Atlanta.
“To be honest, it’s disrespectful,” Mixon said, after the NFL’s ruling to go to a neutral site kicked in once the Bills (13-3) finished the season a half-game behind the Chiefs (14-3). The Bengals (12-4) were left out of the picture even though they defeated the Chiefs this season, and missed out on their opportunity to pass the Bills in the standings once their game was called off.
An AFC championship between the Bengals and Chiefs will instead be played at Kansas City.
No matter, said Mixon.
“We got a game to play on Sunday, right? So you can’t count us out,” he said. “We’re going to go out there on Sunday and do what the hell we gotta do to get that dub. Then we’re going to see what they’re talking about.”
As if the Bengals need more to drive them, the Bills are favored.
“We know that we’re defending AFC champions, and so there’s an edge to this team. We’re not an underdog to anybody,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “I just think that’s the feeling we’ve had all season. We don’t really care what anybody else says about us.
“We know we belong on the field with every team in this league.”
Prescott, Purdy playing at high level heading into showdown: Dak Prescott shook off some late-season struggles and once again looked in top form in the Cowboys’ playoff opener.
Brock Purdy looked just as good as he has ever since stepping in as the starter in San Francisco, part of his improbable journey from seventh-round pick to playoff quarterback.
With both QBs coming off impressive games in the wild-card round, the Cowboys (13-5) and 49ers (14-4) look like offensive juggernauts heading into Sunday’s matchup in the divisional round.
Presott threw for 305 yards and four TDs and ran for another score in the Cowboys’ win at Tampa Bay, setting a franchise by accounting for five TDs in a playoff game.
It was a far cry from the way Prescott ended the regular season with 11 interceptions in his final seven games.
“Dak has always been a challenge,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “(He’s) a pure pocket passer who can make all the throws in there and read the defense really well and get the ball to the right spots and do it accurately. That’s why he’s had the career he has and when things do break down, he’s got a knack for how to get out of that pocket and make some off-schedule plays and that’s why he has had such a successful career so far.”
While Prescott getting back to that form should be little surprise, Purdy’s performance has been less expected.
The player picked last in April’s draft has played like a star since replacing an injured Jimmy Garoppolo in Week 13. Purdy has thrown at least two TD passes in seven straight games and has won all six starts while running an offense filled with playmakers like Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle, and a solid offensive line.
He threw for 332 yards and three TDs and ran for a score in a win over the Seahawks, becoming the first rookie QB to account for four TDs in a playoff game and throwing for the most yards by a rookie in a playoff win since Sammy Baugh in 1937.