Stunning Stat Puts Texans' Postseason Loss to Chiefs in Historical Perspective

Houston fans will despair at this bummer of a factoid.

C.J. Stroud during the Texans' 23–14 loss to the Chiefs in an AFC divisional-round game on Jan. 18, 2025. / Denny Medley-Imagn Images

There's a durable joke among NBA fans in which someone announces plans to skim box scores and argue with people who watched entire games.

Well, trying that approach for the Kansas City Chiefs' 23–14 win over the Houston Texans on Saturday would land that fan in trouble.

Saturday's AFC divisional playoff game was among the great deceptive-box-score games in recent NFL history. The Texans outgained the Chiefs by north of 100 yards, and they didn't turn the ball over once.

Houston still lost—becoming the first team ever to do so in the playoffs after checking off that pair of boxes. As ESPN's Benjamin Solak points out, 49 other teams who did so ended up winning their playoff matchup.

Per @ESPNStatsInfo, the Texans are the first team to out-gain their opponent by 100+ yards (336-212), not turn the ball over, and lose a postseason game.

Previous such teams were 49-0 in the playoffs.

— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) January 19, 2025

How did Kansas City pull it out? Its usual blend of skill (tight end Travis Kelce in particular was excellent), opportunism and dumb luck. Eight penalties for 82 yards also severely hindered the Texans.

The Chiefs will need all three of those weapons Sunday when they meet the Baltimore Ravens or Buffalo Bills in the AFC championship.

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