Colts have been trouble for Chiefs in the playoffs
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 on Saturday.
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 recordsetting 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.”
There was the 1996 wildcard matchup in which Chiefs kicker Lin Elliott missed three field goals and the Colts won 10-7. The divisional showdown in 2003, when the Colts won 38-31 in a game featuring no punts. The 23-8 whitewashing three years later and, most recently, the 45-44 shootout in which Luck led the Colts from a 38-10 second-half hole to beat Andy Reid’s first Chiefs team in 2013.
There are still more than a dozen players around who were involved in that game five years ago, yet each acknowledged this week that history has no bearing on what will transpire Saturday.
“Obviously, they are a great team,” said Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri, who has played in the past two playoff games against Kansas City. “They’ve won a lot of games. They’ve got a very explosive offense. They’ve got probably the best returner in the National Football League with [Tyreek] Hill. We are going to have to play our best game, to try to keep up with them.”
The Chiefs happen to believe the same thing.
Yes, they earned the No. 1 seed with their third consecutive AFC West title, and have arguably the game’s best young quarterback in Patrick Mahomes. 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 past 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.”
Colts coach Frank Reich played 13 seasons in the NFL, and has spent most of the past decade working with quarterbacks. And he had high praise for Mahomes, who shattered just about every Chiefs passing record this season.
“I’ve heard people use the term ‘generational arm talent.’ I think that’s really true,” he said. “As a former quarterback, I don’t say that about too many people. I don’t throw that term out real easily. I think he’s a legit generational arm talent.”
Colts running back Marlon Mack ran for a franchise playoff record 148 yards in their 21-7 win over the Texans. Now, he gets to face a Chiefs rush defense that was last in the NFL in just about every statistical category. would be the pick.
Multiple sources say both these men were highly prepared during their Dolphins interview, showed leadership — something the Dolphins badly want out of the next coach — and left the Dolphins excited at the prospect of getting either man.
A source said the Dolphins also liked the football acumen displayed by Allen, the New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator, during his interview.
No candidate involved in the playoffs can be hired until his team loses. That includes Flores at New England, Richard with the Cowboys, Dennis Allen with the New Orleans Saints and Eric Bieniemy with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Flores, 37, is in his 11th season as a coach with the New England Patriots. He is in his third season as linebackers coach after serving as safeties coach for four seasons.
Flores is the de facto defensive coordinator but has not yet earned the title. New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick has previously kept that title back until a coach proves himself calling the plays on defense.
Flores is in his first season calling defensive plays for New England.
The Dolphins declined to comment on Flores or their coaching search in general.
QB RUDOCK SIGNED
The Dolphins added a second developmental quarterback to their roster on Friday night, signing former Detroit Lions quarterback Jake Rudock.
Rudock, 6-3, has thrown five passes in his threeyear NFL career, all in 2017, when he served as Matt Stafford’s backup. He completed three of those passes for 24 yards and an interception.
Rudock, who signed a one-year deal with the Dolphins, led St. Thomas Aquinas to a state and national championship in 2010 and enrolled at Iowa, where he threw 34 touchdowns and 18 touchdowns and completed 60 percent of his passes in two years at a starter.
He then transferred to Michigan in 2015, where he threw 20 touchdowns, nine touchdowns and completed 64 percent and won MVP of the Citrus Bowl in a win against the Gators.
The Lions selected him in the sixth round of the 2016 draft. He was initially on the practice squad, then joining the 53-man roster in late November.
He beat out former University of Miami quarterback Brad Kaaya to be Stafford’s backup in 2017.