Coming into their divisional round matchup against the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium, the Texans had never scored a first-quarter touchdown in the postseason. Bill O’Brien’s team took care of that very quickly when Deshaun Watson found several holes in Kansas City’s coverage and hit Kenny Stills for a 54-yard touchdown with 12:07 left in the first quarter. The Chiefs were reading receiver Will Fuller too aggressively on a receiver screen, and that left opportunity open for Stills downfield.
The Chiefs went three-and-out on their subsequent drive, and with 10:13 left in the first quarter, Dustin Colquitt tried a punt, which was blocked by linebacker Barkevious Mingo and returned by cornerback Lonnie Johnson for a 10-yard touchdown.
In their 28-12 upset of the Ravens yesterday, the Titans went up 14-0 in a big hurry, while Baltimore’s receivers were dropping multiple passes. So far, this game seems to be playing to a very similar script.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar previously covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”
