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 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.
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.






