KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Needing a hot start to ward off the record-setting cold, the Chiefs marched 69 yards after receiving the opening kickoff for the go-ahead touchdown and never trailed Saturday during a 26-7 victory against the Miami Dolphins in an AFC Super Wild Card showdown at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is tied for the home postseason wins by any QB in NFL history, converted a key third-and-long to tight end Travis Kelce, who powered the nine-play drive along with running back Isiah Pacheco.
Kelce caught two passes for 19 yards and Pacheco had four carries for 39 yards before Mahomes capped the game-opening drive with an 11-yard TD toss to rookie wide receiver Rashee Rice, who also had a huge game in his playoff debut.
Kelce finished with seven catches for 71 yards, though his six-game postseason touchdown streak was snapped, and Pacheco racked up 24 carries for 88 yards with a touchdown in the lopsided win.
The Dolphins, who wilted down the stretch to give away the AFC East title, lost for the 11th consecutive time in a game with a kickoff temperature of 40 degrees or below.
Of course, most are not minus-4 with a minus-27 wind chill, which is what the Chiefs officially reported as the on-field conditions at the start of the game.
“It’s the first time I’ve experienced weather that cold, but it was fun, though,” center Creed Humphrey said. “When you’re winning, when you’re playing well, you tend to not feel the things like that as much.”
Mahomes didn’t throw a touchdown after that opening drive, but he finished 23 of 41 for 262 yards, including eight passes for 130 yards to Rice.
“Pat had a nice day just right from the get-go,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid said. “I don’t think they were anticipating us throwing the ball quite as much as we did. We were able to come out and sling it. A lot of quarterbacks can’t do that, what he did in that kind of weather.”
With the Chiefs leading 7-0 early, and after an exchange of punts, safety Mike Edwards picked off a overthrown Tua Tagovailoa pass intended for Jaylen Waddle, which led to another Kansas City scoring drive.
Harrison Butker’s 28-yard field goal made it 10-0 before Tyreek Hill turned an underthrown deep Tagovailoa pass into a 53-yard touchdown on the next drive for Miami’s first points roughly a minute into the second quarter.
The Chiefs appeared to answer the Dolphins’ first score with another TD when Mahomes hooked up with Rice on a quick screen, but right tackle Jawaan Taylor (unnecessarily) blocked former Kansas City outside linebacker Justin Houston in the back.
Houston signed with Miami this week after a rash of injuries at defensive end.
The penalty erased the touchdown and led instead to a 26-yard Butker field goal and a 13-7 lead.
Trent McDuffie, who was victimized on the deep throw to Hill earlier in the quarter, delivered another critical defensive stop by breaking up a fourth-down slant intended for Hill near midfield.
The Chiefs’ offense couldn’t capitalize on the field-position gift, but George Karlaftis ended the ensuing drive with a sack to preserve the good field position after a punt.
Kansas City turned it into three more points — on Butker’s 32-yard field goal with 18 seconds left — and led 16-7 at halftime.
The Chiefs tacked on another Butker field goal, a 21-yarder this time, for the game’s only third-quarter points, then took a commanding lead less than four minutes into the fourth quarter when Pacheco plowed into the end zone on a 3-yard run off a direct snap.
Pacheco’s touchdown pushed Kansas City’s lead to an insurmountable 26-7 with 11:06 remaining.
The Chiefs racked up 408 total yards and 25 first downs despite the painfully cold temperatures.
“It was cold; I’m not going to lie,” said Mahomes, whose helmet cracked when he was hit at the end of a 13-yard run on Kansas City's first drive in the second half. “It was cold, but, at the end of the day, you’ve got to mentally tough enough to just say that it’s not going to affect how we play, that’s not going to affect my effort.”
DOMINANT DEFENSE AGAIN: Led by Nick Bolton, who had a game-high 10 tackles, and George Karlaftis, who recorded 1 1/2 sacks, the Chiefs' defense bottled up the Dolphins, who only managed 264 total yards and 13 first downs.
“(Defensive coordinator) Steve (Spagnuolo) had an unbelievable plan and I thought the guys executed it well,” Reid said. “That’s not an easy defense to learn, so, for Bolton to be able to get everybody lined up and ready to go on the front end and the back end, he does great with that.”
Miami only converted one of 12 third downs and struggled to decipher the ever-morphing coverages and concoctions Spagnuolo threw at Tagavailoa, who finished 20 of 39 for 199 yards with a touchdown and interception, and the Dolphins offense.
Mahomes said the defense looked imposing back in training camp — with quality players at every level, depth throughout the defense and versatility for Spagnuolo to utilize.
“All the guys are so well-coached in the scheme that they use it to their advantage,” Mahomes said. “... It’s hard to get a bead on what they’re doing, so that’s why I knew in training camp I was like, ‘I’m glad I don’t have to play those guys, because that would be tough.’”
The win marked Kansas City's first against Miami in four postseason meetings, which made braving the cold worth the pain and effort.
“We’re still playing; another guaranteed week,” Chiefs wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling said. “Those things don’t come easy in this league.”
HISTORY FOR MAHOMES: Only seven seasons into his NFL career, including six as the Chiefs’ starting quarterback, Patrick Mahomes has as many home playoff wins as any NFL quarterback not named Tom Brady.
With Saturday’s win against Miami, Mahomes improved to 10-2 in the postseason at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, which ties him with Peyton Manning and Joe Montana for the second-most home playoff wins by a starting QB.
Brady owns the NFL record with 21, so Mahomes has a long way to go to catch up with the former New England and Tampa Bay star.
ICE COLD IN THE RED ZONE: Kansas City scored on its first red-zone trip against Miami, but the Chiefs settled for a succession of short field goals on the next four trips.
The Chiefs wouldn’t taste the sweet nectar of the end zone again until there was 11:06 remaining in the fourth quarter when Pacheco scored a back-breaking touchdown of a direct snap for a 26-7 lead.
But the overall red-zone struggles continued a pattern during the last two months.
The Chiefs scored two touchdowns on six red-zone trips in dispatching the Dolphins.
Excluding Week 18 at the Los Angeles Chargers, when Mahomes sat along with more than a dozen other Chiefs regulars, that makes Kansas City 12 of 25 converting red-zone trips into touchdowns since the start of December.
“We’ve got to continue to get better in the red zone,” Mahomes said. “We’re getting down there, but we’ve got to get in the end zone. If that’s running, throwing — whatever that is.”
The Chiefs do have 10 short field goals from Butker on those non-touchdown drives, so they’ve scored on 22 of 25 possessions inside the opponents’ 20-yard line, but better efficiency in the red zone moving forward may be critical in determining how far Reid’s team goes in the playoffs.
“Every time we get to the red zone, we expect ourselves to score a touchdown,” Rice said. “Obviously, Harrison does a great job at what he has to do when we don’t score down there. But we’re going to get back to practice and figure out a way to score down there, because scoring touchdowns wins games.”
PENALTY-PRONE TAYLOR: The Chiefs’ priciest offseason signing, right tackle Jawaan Taylor, was flagged 19 times — including 17 penalties that were accepted, both the worst in the NFL — during his first season in Kansas City.
Things didn’t get better for Taylor, who signed a four-year deal worth $80 million after four seasons with Jacksonville, in his first playoff game with the team.
Taylor committed a block in the back that erased a Mahomes-to-Rice touchdown in the first half and had a false start on the Chiefs’ next drive.
WAS TAYLOR SWIFT AT THE GAME?: Indeed, Taylor Swift, who is dating Kelce, attended yet another game.
She arrived wearing a sweet, extra-long winter jacket customized to look like her boyfriend’s home jersey.
Taylor Swift is in attendance for #Chiefs-Dolphins pic.twitter.com/RYu7t802aJ
— Aaron Ladd (@aaronladdtv) January 14, 2024
The Chiefs are now 7-3 overall, including the playoffs, when Swift attends a game, which she did frequently during the regular season — making appearances at home games against Chicago (Sept. 24), Denver (Oct. 12), the Los Angeles Chargers (Oct. 22), Buffalo (Dec. 10), Las Vegas (Dec. 25), Cincinnati (Dec. 31) and now Miami (Jan. 13).
INJURY REPORT: Defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi left the game with an elbow injury and linebacker Cam Jones, a core special teams player, left with a chest injury.
NEXT UP: The Chiefs now await their AFC Divisional opponent, which will be determined by the outcome of Monday’s postponed Pittsburgh at Buffalo game.
If the Steelers pull the upset, Kansas City will host Houston — a game likely to be played next Saturday at Arrowhead.
If the Bills win, Kansas City will play at Buffalo — a game that likely will be on Sunday if that’s the result of the snowstorm-delayed Wild Card win.
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