In the 2023 edition of the Mahomes greatest postseason victory tournament, Game 3 features the 8 seed 2023 Chiefs/Jaguars matchup vs. the 9 seed 2019 Chiefs/Colts matchup. This one is interesting to me, because it’s the first game of the tourney where I’m not super confident about which game will win going in. VOTE for your favorite game of the two, the winner (poll closes Friday), will advance to Saturday's first Round 2 matchup against the 1 seed 2023 Chiefs/Eagles Super Bowl.
Game A: 8 seed AFC Divisional Round: Chiefs vs. Jaguars: Arrowhead Stadium, January 21, 2023
Coming into this game, our fandom felt more cool and collected before a divisional round than the suddenly many divisional round matchups I can remember as a fan. This weekend was once the unquestionable place where our playoff dreams went to die. From the beginning of my fandom, it was the deepest place we could go and where our story ended. It was amazing how much changed in five years - because in spite of the Jags pulling off an equally heroic and hilarious comeback against the Chargers the week before, the only concern I saw in conversation were the late hits the Jaguars had put on KC players in the regular season. This comfort looked justified when Mahomes traipsed his way with an utterly brilliant first drive down to score 7. All of that comfort instantly disappeared when our worst fears came to life when Mahomes took a low (arguably intentional) blow and came up with a terrible limp. Like he did against the Browns 2 seasons ago, Chad Henne went into Chad mode, Pacheco went into franchise running back mode, and the Chiefs scored 7 in arguably the most important drive of the season. Chad then left in true Chad fashion, and Mahomes took the field against the odds after halftime and was asked to deliver the game with one leg.
While Mahomes second half heroics might be best remembered — the team had major players step up at critical moments (Watson, Henne, Pacheco, Clark, Kelce) and rally around our QB to deliver us final victory Mahomes needed to defeat every AFC South team in the playoffs and advance for the redemption game against the Bengals.
Watch Game Highlights Here:
Spoiler!
Game B: 9 seed AFC Divisional Round: Chiefs vs. Colts: Arrowhead Stadium, January 12th, 2019
There was an intense amount of nervous energy going into this game. It is difficult to remember now, but it seems fitting that Patrick’s first ever playoff test would be against who was, without a doubt, the rainmaker of our playoff past. A rematch that summoned memories of player KC fans are not even allowed to name, of a game that featured no punts, another that featured no KC first downs in an entire half, and one that featured the largest blown lead in playoff history (that personally put my fandom in purgatory for a year and change). The Chiefs were also staring down the very QB who recovered a stripped ball at the goal-line for a diving touchdown and orchestrated that comeback. Compounding those nerves was that our record-setting passing quarterback as a West-Texas boy who was scheduled to play in the snow for the first time (in the middle of a blizzard), against a team with a running game built to shred our defense. It had all the signs of being set-up to be a typical Kansas City disappointment. Mahomes crushed all of those fears, learned that the snow improved his game, and had an assassin like precision on his first two drives to make it 14-0 out of the gate. And despite your typical special teams blocked punt to give the Colts a TD and a turnover deep in our own territory, Mahomes coasted to a signature blowout win in his playoff debut. A win that buried the demons of our playoff past and signaled to all KC fans that we were in a new era in our franchise.
As an added note, Mahomes beating Luck in the playoffs soon would take a much deeper meaning in the NFL. This rivalry soon transformed as the first QB Mahomes was compared alongside to be the next Brady-Manning rivalry into Andrew Luck’s official retirement game from the NFL - ending Luck’s career in the exact place Big Ben would three years later.
Watch Game Highlights Here:
Spoiler!
VOTE for your favorite game!
For the complete bracket and rules, see here:
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Originally Posted by Chiefspants:
It's the offseason. I'm bored. It kind of hit me like a brick this weekend that assuming Patrick Mahomes wins the QB competition over Blaine Gabbert and starts the first game of the 2023 season, Patrick will officially have been the starting quarterback for KC longer than Alex Smith. That doesn't feel right, but nonetheless it's made me reflect on what Patrick has brought to this franchise that I had never experienced before him: postseason dominance. This best appreciated by the fact that in KC’s first 49 years of existence, they did not host a single AFC Championship Game. In Patrick’s first 5 years as a starter, they’ve hosted 5.
Thinking about this has led to me making a bracket of all of Patrick Mahomes' postseason wins with Kansas City. I will make each competition into a thread, and Chiefsplanet will vote on what their favorite postseason victory was in each round... until finally we get to a winner.
A thread like this would have been insane to even fathom here before the Mahomes era, so I wanted to make this in celebration of his time so far in Kansas City.
Seeding was determined as follows: the deeper in the postseason it was, the higher the seed. Tiebreakers were determined by how close the game was. The closer the game, the higher the seed. Overtime games, since ending at a tie in regulation, automatically went the highest in the seeding for that round in the playoffs..
If 1. Rain Man hasn't already done this, and 2. Chiefsplanet doesn't tell me to suck a big ol' chili dog, the first game in the bracket will start tomorrow (6 Seed Chiefs vs. Bills Divisional vs. 11 seed Chiefs vs. Steelers Wild Card). The matchups for Round 1 can be found below.
Originally Posted by siberian khatru:
Also, when Watkins fumbled deep in their own territory late in the third, that was a chance for the Colts to make things interesting. But two plays later, Dee Ford got a sack/fumble of Luck.
Previous Chiefs teams would've shit the bed in either/both situations.
Andrew Luck laying face down in the mud in defeat after that play is burned into my memory. It was like that moment signaled the sea change. [Reply]
Originally Posted by siberian khatru:
Also, when Watkins fumbled deep in their own territory late in the third, that was a chance for the Colts to make things interesting. But two plays later, Dee Ford got a sack/fumble of Luck.
Previous Chiefs teams would've shit the bed in either/both situations.
Vinatieri missing a chipshot right before halftime too.
That might be the first and last time an opposing kicker missed a FG against us in the playoffs. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Gary Cooper:
Vinatieri missing a chipshot right before halftime too.
That might be the first and last time an opposing kicker missed a FG against us in the playoffs.
Houston had a back breaking miss on a desperation field goal before half.
Those games have come to mirror each other in some funny ways. We had a punt block return for a TD, Hill fumbled a punt return, and both were built up to be major rivals to Patrick only for it to be the last time either opposing QB stepped on the field in the playoffs (so far). [Reply]
The Jaguars game is my favorite playoff game because the Henne full-field drive is legendary, along with the long Pacheco run. 14 catches by Kelce was impressive, and then Mahomes coming out onto the field proving that he's an immortal. And who can forget Butker's touchdown-saving tackle and Bolton's fumble recovery deep in the red zone and Jaylen Watson's one-handed leaping interception to effectively end the game? This game was an old-fashioned slugfest where we went nose to nose against a puncher and won. [Reply]
The Colts game is my favorite playoff game in part because I got to see it in person. First and foremost, it ended the Colts playoff curse, which was a very healing moment. The snow gave it a great old-school look, and holy cow! Check out that Tyreek touchdown at 1:45 in the highlights! It's too bad that he retired at his peak. We also saw Mahomes complete a pass to Gehrig Dieter, which was cool.
And something really awesome? Watch the drive blocking at 12:15 of the highlights. Mahomes is one of the drive blockers for a playoff touchdown. That's awesome. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Chiefspants:
One of the biggest moments in the Colts game came after the blocked punt TD. There was this like “ah man, here we go” type of feeling when that happened.
… and then Mahomes hit Kelce for 30 on the first offensive play after and drove down the field to get 7 more. It was like every time the Colts got a window it was slammed shut by Patrick and the team throughout the game.
Originally Posted by siberian khatru:
Also, when Watkins fumbled deep in their own territory late in the third, that was a chance for the Colts to make things interesting. But two plays later, Dee Ford got a sack/fumble of Luck.
Previous Chiefs teams would've shit the bed in either/both situations.
Originally Posted by Chiefspants:
Andrew Luck laying face down in the mud in defeat after that play is burned into my memory. It was like that moment signaled the sea change.
I don’t remember any of this.
Looks like I’m going to have to rewatch some game highlights of this one. [Reply]
Originally Posted by TwistedChief:
I went with the Jags game though I understand why many will choose the Colts. It was our first home playoff win in decades.
For me though, I just remember when Mahomes went down hurt, and I immediately thought, "Wow, season is gonna end like that. So many ways to NOT win a SB." And then that 98-yard drive from Henne puctuated by the long Pachecho run just kept enough of the door alive.
The only real drama in that Colts game was before it ever started when we were just worrying about whether the curse would get us again and why we had to face the hot "buzzsaw" team.
Pretty much my thoughts exactly. Went with Jags by a hair. [Reply]
Wow, figured I'd be in the minority, but didn't think it would be a 70/30 split.
I definitely get the monkey off their back and what not from the Colts game, but I feel like... 1) I never put nearly as much weight in the "because Chiefs" playoff losses as others, because who gives a shit if they win some brokedick divisional game against some brokedick Titans or Colts team, because they aren't beating the better teams in the league anyway.... and 2) yeah, the bar was set extremely low for Mahomes to step over at that point, but if you take away all of the pre-Mahomes garbage teams, that win is just another junk game that Mahomes could win on one leg.
Oh and speaking of... playing the Jags was basically on the same level. They looked awful against the Titans at the end of the year and awful against the Chargers for the first half. They aren't Steelers bad, but they were yet another team that wasn't worth the hype.
If it wasn't for Henne's 98 yard drive and Mahomes being able to beat them on one leg, I might vote Colts, as the two games would have been pretty equal in terms of entertainment value had Mahomes not been hurt... but, gotta go with the Jags, which is the far more important footnote in Mahomes' legacy. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
The Colts game is my favorite playoff game in part because I got to see it in person. First and foremost, it ended the Colts playoff curse, which was a very healing moment. The snow gave it a great old-school look, and holy cow! Check out that Tyreek touchdown at 1:45 in the highlights! It's too bad that he retired at his peak. We also saw Mahomes complete a pass to Gehrig Dieter, which was cool.
And something really awesome? Watch the drive blocking at 12:15 of the highlights. Mahomes is one of the drive blockers for a playoff touchdown. That's awesome.
The colts playoff curse has now transferred to the regular season in the Mahomes era. A worthy trade. [Reply]
Jags game. There was real concern about whether the training staff would allow Mahomes to return when he had to go to the locker room to get checked out. Getting to see his determination on the sidelines and playing fresh on that injury seals the Jags game for me. [Reply]