Winners and Losers from the KC Chiefs' Divisional Round Victory Over the Texans

Another year, another trip to the conference title game for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Thanks to the right combination of just enough offense and some stout late-game defense, the reigning Super Bowl champions were able to take down the visiting Houston Texans on Saturday. In their 23-14 victory, Kansas City saw several players stand out on both sides of the ball – for good and bad reasons – with their play.

With that in mind, let's point out some of the Chiefs' biggest winners and losers from the divisional round.

WINNER: Trent McDuffie

In the days leading up to the weekend, cornerback Trent McDuffie spoke about how he embraced any and all matchups against a premier wideout in Nico Collins. Collins is a top-10 player at the position and the last time these two teams played, the All-Pro secondary piece got the best of the assignment. That was the case this time around, too, as McDuffie surrendered just one catch on three targets for 24 yards in 15 routes against Collins. McDuffie made a couple of tremendous pass breakups and also had quality coverage on players like Xavier Hutchinson early on. It was a standout game for one of football's best corners, and the timing of it couldn't have been much better.

LOSER: Isiah Pacheco

In five regular-season games back from injury, Isiah Pacheco averaged just 3.6 yards per carry in the backfield and recorded 25 receiving yards overall. Kansas City attempted to optimize its halfback rotation in the divisional round, but its former seventh-round pick toted the ball only five times all afternoon. Kareem Hunt got the bulk of the rushing workload, helping put the game on ice down the stretch and getting praised for doing so. The by-committee approach will undoubtedly continue as the playoffs unfold, but Pacheco isn't doing much to help his case for heavy involvement on offense.

WINNER: Travis Kelce

At this point, what can be said about Travis Kelce that hasn't already been repeated countless times? One of the game's best tight ends ever turned back the clock on Saturday, leading the team in receptions (7), receiving yards (117) and touchdowns (1) by a comfortable margin. For the first time in months, Kelce was able to make some defenders miss and create yardage post-catch. It was the best he's looked since last postseason. If the G.O.A.T. version of Kelce is what Kansas City gets moving forward, it will be difficult to bet against them regardless of the opponent they face.

LOSER: Guards playing for the Chiefs

With Joe Thuney starting at left tackle to open the playoffs, Mike Caliendo got yet another chance to showcase his skills as a potential long-term starting option. He didn't manage to do so on Saturday, however, surrendering multiple pressures and being a relative non-factor in the run game. Surprisingly, right guard Trey Smith also struggled and was charged with a few pressures of his own. That, combined with a penalty and a Pro Football Focus grade of just 48.6, highlighted a game to forget for someone who could reset the guard market in the spring when free agency begins. Neither Chiefs guard had a good showing in front of the home crowd.

WINNER: George Karlaftis

Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, even while banged up, was a lot more mobile on Saturday than many expected. Despite that, defensive end George Karlaftis did a masterful job of containing him throughout the game and also came away with a whopping three sacks in the divisional round. Two of them were on late downs, and all three were in the fourth quarter. Karlaftis is now up to seven sacks in just eight career postseason games, which is a fantastic pace. After he got past a slow start to the regular season, the former first-round pick is back to living up to his draft slot.

LOSER: DeAndre Hopkins

Back in Week 13, wideout DeAndre Hopkins turned in one of his best games of the season when he hauled in four passes for 90 yards and played 59% of available snaps. In the next four weeks, however, he averaged just 28 yards per contest and saw his workload get sapped a bit. Many expected him to be fully unleashed in the playoffs but on the contrary, he didn't catch a single pass against Houston and got out-snapped by JuJu Smith-Schuster (21 to 16). It seems that the back-to-back champs are siding with heavy involvement for the Xavier Worthy and Marquise "Hollywood" Brown duo, which is hard to argue against. But when Smith-Schuster sees the field more than you and Justin Watson is effectively phased out of the game plan, it's hard to do anything but wonder what Hopkins will do next Sunday.