Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce earn Kansas City another Super Bowl berth with AFC title game win over Ravens

BALTIMORE — Anyone who drives the same route to and from work each day knows how monotonous it can be. You make the same turns, see the same road signs, pass the same landmarks. Sometimes it’s refreshing to change things up a bit. Maybe you take the tunnel instead of the bridge. Perhaps there are some back roads that provide a change of scenery.

It’s a different way of getting to the same place. It even makes the destination feel a little more fresh and new.

That’s been what this season has been like for Kansas City.

It didn’t take the path to the Super Bowl it generally has followed in recent years, the one that has the team rolling effortlessly through the regular season, dominating the postseason with all the comforts of its home stadium, then showing up for the biggest game of the year as the favorite.

But here Kansas City is again, for the fourth time in five years, after a season in which it looked ragged and out of sync, in which its defense had to carry it while the offense sputtered, in which it had to win a pair of playoff games on the road.

It’s off to Las Vegas to face the 49ers on Feb. 11 with a chance to win a third championship in the Patrick Mahomes-Andy Reid era.

Sunday’s 17-10 win over the top-seeded Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium gave us that latest taste of the changes.

While Kansas City

technically will be defending the title it won a year ago, all with mostly the same cast of characters (plus, this time, a world-famous love interest!), this one will have the feel of something rather new.

Even during the struggles, Kansas City remained focused on this time of the year.

“I don’t like losing any games, so every loss was tough,” Mahomes said of the six regular-season defeats, “but we always had everything we wanted in front of us.”

There were parts that would have fit in with Kansas City championship blueprints of the past. Tight end Travis Kelce’s 11 catches set a record for most receptions in the postseason with 156, surpassing Jerry Rice’s mark of 151. Mahomes was able to dazzle with his footwork and his arm strength; he completed a critical third-down pass to Kelce in the second quarter in which he scrambled 25.9 yards over 9.78 seconds before releasing the pass, according to NextGen stats. Isiah Pacheco and Kelce each scored a touchdown and Harrison Butker kicked a 52-yard field goal.

But the biggest reason Kansas City is back in the Super Bowl was its defensive effort against presumptive MVP Lamar Jackson, holding the Ravens to one touchdown and recording two takeaways in their own end zone in the fourth quarter. Baltimore averaged 32.1 points per game at home, including last week’s 34-10 win over Houston in the divisional round.

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s schemes let the Ravens convert only three of 11 third downs and make only one visit to the red zone. It’s why many of the players were wearing T-shirts in the postgame locker room that read: “In Spags We Trust.”

“It’s super-sweet, man, super-sweet,” said safety Deon Bush, who had a key interception midway through the fourth quarter.

Yet even he quickly fell hard back into the trope of crediting the offense. It’s a hard habit to break.

“There were so many doubters this season,” he said, “but it is hard to doubt Pat. It’s hard to doubt Andy. We’ve got Hall of Famers in the building and we have a bunch of character people. We worked hard and we always believed. We never doubted ourselves at all.”

The Ravens did have a few moments of excitement to offer, including a stunning play in which a Jackson pass was batted in the air, so he ran up and caught it for a 13-yard completion to himself. And Baltimore’s lone touchdown, which tied the score at 7 in the first quarter, came on a dazzling 30-yard pass to rookie Zay Flowers after Jackson eluded what seemed to be a sure sack.

But Flowers was flagged for a penalty for taunting late in the third quarter and fumbled into the end zone on the first play of the fourth, and Jackson threw into triple coverage on Bush’s interception.

Kansas City may not be the powerhouse it has been in the past, but it was the more polished and disciplined team.

“You don’t take it for granted,” Mahomes said, wearing one of what must be a cumbersome collection of caps touting his various titles and achievements. “You never know how many you’ll be able to get to. It’s truly special. After what we’ve been through all season long, it really is special.”

That Kansas City sealed the game with the kind of play that has been missing all season long — a deep pass from Mahomes to Marquez Valdes-Scantling for 33 yards on third-and-9 when KC was on the verge of punting the ball back and giving the Ravens a chance to win the game — made it all the sweeter. It may even have been a reason for the eventual success.

“We battled through adversity all year,” Valdes-Scantling said. “[The Ravens] weren’t really tested in many adverse situations and we were, so we were able to handle it a little bit better than they could.”

Reid noted how difficult this journey has been, beginning with the opening night loss to the Lions.

“What you get is everybody’s best shot,” he said. “You’ve got to bring it every week. To be in this position again, that tells you a little bit of something about the mental makeup of this football team.”

Kansas City found a new way to get to the Super Bowl. But the important part is that it is going to be there.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.