Five things I'll be watching in Chiefs vs Texans
Looking at some of the matchups I'll be looking for in the Divisional Round of the playoffs.
Kansas City Chiefs playoff football is finally upon us.
I love playoff football. I love the way that the competition level is raised. I love the one-off nature that makes every performance do or die. I love the way that it brings out the best in some players and gives us an opportunity to marvel over the ethreal yet real “it” factor… while others aren’t able to handle the pressure and shrink from the moment. I love, especially the way that it lays bare the “styles make fights” nature of football and the layers of schematic and personnel matchups that become SO important in single elimination games where every team has to take their best shot every week against every opponent.
That last part, in particular, is one of the most fun things about playoff football for me. The chess match nature of football is often under-discussed (because, you know, huge dudes are running at incredible speeds and hitting each other incredibly hard), but it becomes so much more important in January and February. Individualized game plans become so much more important, which helps separate the wheat from the chaff both in terms of personnel (weak links get attacked, great players are weaponized) and scheme (coaches are throwing everything at their opponents now, no more “wait for January”).
It’s a time where great coaches are able to set themselves apart with their gameplans (think Andy Reid discovering the Eagles can’t handle a certain presnap motion, or Spags messing with gap numbers against the Ravens to force them into a pass-happy performance). It’s also a time where matchups across the board become even more interesting. And so, just like I have every season, I thought it would be fun to talk about a few of the things I’ll be watching most closely in the Chiefs’ playoff matchup(s). Starting with the Houston Texans.
(NOTE- You should also check out, if you haven’t already, the LENGTHY piece I wrote detailing what non-star players I think will have an outsized impact on these playoffs)
Let’s talk playoff football, shall we?
How the Chiefs attack HOU’s (presumably) man coverage
Saturday is a bit of an unusual situation in that Patrick Mahomes and Company JUST played the Texans in Week 16 of the regular season. A lot of Chiefs fans are looking at that game as a sound indicator of what to expect on Saturday.However, played during the regular season, even late in the year, aren’t necessarily informative of how a matchup of the same teams will look in the playoffs. It’s important to remember that when considering how Kansas City and Houston will match up.
That said, teams also have their identities. And for the Texans, part of their identity is that they play a fair amount of man coverage with a single high safety. They have a really solid group of corners and a pass rush they trust, so it makes sense that they’d lean into that. We saw them suffocate the Chargers’ receivers (besides Ladd McConkey, who went off) in the Wild Card round.
When Kansas City played Houston in the regular season, the Texans played quite a bit of man coverage (with plenty of zone mixed in as well, to be clear… no team plays man coverage more than half the time at most in today’s league). And Andy Reid was able to make them pay in a variety of ways. Here’s an example on a 3rd and 7.
