How Kansas City reached Super Bowl LVII
Joseph Ossai and Zach Carter of the Cincinnati Bengals tackle Kansas City QB Patrick Mahomes in the AFC Championship Game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on January 29, 2023. Credit: Getty Images/Kevin C. Cox
REGULAR SEASON
Kansas City won the AFC East with a 14-3 record, a whopping four games ahead of the Chargers. The losses came to the Colts in Week 3 (20-17), the Bills in Week 6 (24-20, a game that came down to the final 65 seconds) and the Bengals in Week 13 (27-20).
In every way since he became the starter in 2018, QB Patrick Mahomes is the team leader. He led the league with 5,250 passing yards, more than 500 more than Justin Herbert, who was second. Mahomes’ 41 TD passes led the league. … Mahomes seems to have a telepathic relationship with TE Travis Kelce, his most trusted target and a 10-year veteran
who caught 110 passes for 1,338 yards with 12 TDs. An intriguing addition for KC has been RB Isiah Pacheco, a rookie out of Rutgers who was drafted in the seventh round. … Defensively, Chris Jones is the leader with Steve Spagnuolo as the defensive coordinator.
The Chiefs are currently on a streak of eight consecutive NFL playoff appearances (2015-2022).
DIVISIONAL ROUND
Chiefs 27, Jaguars 20
Mahomes gutted through a serious ankle injury sustained in the first half. Kelce came up huge with a career-high 14 receptions for 98 yards and 2 TDs. The Jags had a chance to make it 27-24 with just under 6 minutes left in the game, but a Jamal Agnew fumble at the KC three-yard line was brutal.
AFC CHAMPIONSHIP
Chiefs 23, Bengals 20
What could have been a classic instead included controversial officiating and a bad penalty. With the score tied 20-20 and facing a 3rd and 4 at Cincinnati's 47-yard line, Mahomes scrambled to the first-down marker and was shoved by Joseph Ossai a couple of yards out of bounds. The resulting flag set up KC's game-winning 45-yard field goal on the next snap,
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
