What took place in Saturday’s AFC Wild Card game was a long time coming for the Kansas City Chiefs franchise.
The Chiefs put together a comprehensive 30-0 rout of the Houston Texans to advance to the AFC Divisional round. The win marks the team’s first in the playoffs since January 16, 1994, a 28-20 triumph over the then Houston Oilers. Depending on the result of tonight’s game between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, they will face either New England (if the Steelers win) or Denver (if the Bengals win) next week.
Here at Last Word on Sports, we’ll be handing out post game awards immediately after each NFL playoff game. In particular, we’ll be naming a game MVP, most surprising performance, an unsung hero and the biggest disappointment.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at which players distinguished themselves (both good and bad) with their performance today.
Chiefs vs. Texans Post Game Awards
Game MVP
Alex Smith
Smith didn’t exactly put up enormous numbers but all he needed to do today was play efficiently and not make too many mistakes. His final numbers are indicative of this, finishing with 190 yards passing with a touchdown and an interception. He also proved effective as a runner on zone read plays at times, adding five rushes for 27 yards.
But what really set Smith’s performance apart was his accuracy. He finished with a 77.3 percent completion percentage which was exceeded just once during the regular season. And it can’t be doubted that Smith completely outplayed his counterpart for the Texans in Brian Hoyer. We’ll get to him a little bit later.
All in all, Smith has taken on the game manager role quite well. It’s been a crucial aspect of the Chiefs now 11-game winning streak. And he did it against the league’s third-best pass defense.
Surprise Performance
Spencer Ware
Ware came into this game as the team’s third leading rusher. But against the Texans, he took on an expanded workload, getting 16 carries and led KC with 67 rushing yards. His five-yard scamper into the end zone to start the fourth quarter gave the Chiefs a 27-0 lead and pretty much put the nail in the coffin of Houston’s chances if it hadn’t already been done so already.
Unsung Hero
Knile Davis
Davis had just five touches of the ball Saturday. But his first really set the tone for what turned out to be a lopsided game. Fielding the opening kickoff six yards deep in his end zone, Davis would take it the distance for a 106-yard touchdown that turned out to be the second longest kickoff return in NFL playoff history.
Biggest Disappointment
Brian Hoyer/J.J. Watt
If we’re going to hand out a few Oscars, we’d be remiss if we didn’t also include a Razzie. I think for this game, two might be necessary. The first goes out to J.J. Watt. Watt tallied 17.5 sacks and averaged nearly five tackles per game during the regular season. However, he was largely anonymous today before a nagging groin injury in the third quarter forced him to miss the remainder of the game. He ended up finishing with just a single tackle which was also assisted. Credit Chiefs head coach Andy Reid’s game plan which used a lot of multiple tight end sets to get bodies on Watt to combat his effectiveness.
But the real goat of this game was Brian Hoyer. Now it must be said he had battled a concussion late in the season and perhaps it played a role in his performance. But, nevertheless, Hoyer was atrocious, throwing four interceptions and also fumbling the ball twice, with the Chiefs defense recovering one of them. And he walked off the field at halftime to a chorus of boos which continued to cascade throughout the stadium during the third quarter.
Inspiration Award
Eric Berry
This award’s only being given out for this game, because I don’t think you can completely put a wrap on this game without mentioning Eric Berry. The Chiefs strong safety was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma in December of 2014 and spent the first few months of 2015 undergoing chemotherapy. But he was declared cancer-free in July, played in all 16 regular season games, and had the first of Hoyer’s four interceptions today. His story is certainly an inspiring one of perseverance and he’s undoubtedly the overwhelming favorite for NFL Comeback Player of the Year.
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