Stroud leads Texans past Browns, Chiefs defense puts Dolphins in deep freeze

In the NFL’s Wild Card Round doubleheader, the exciting Joe Flacco experiment came to an abrupt halt in Houston. Meanwhile, his counterpart, rookie CJ Stroud, picked up in the playoffs where he left off from his sensational regular season.

Houston’s 45-14 Wild Card blowout of the Browns featured, as Hall of Football founder Frank Cooney succinctly descibed, “one quarterback supposedly too young to be there and another who became too old before our eyes.”

And out in brutally cold Kansas City — a minus-4 degrees — the Chiefs announced to remaining AFC contenders that they still collect playoff wins like Andy Reid’s mustache does ice. 

Houston 45, Cleveland 14

Quarterback CJ Stroud threw three touchdowns and the Houston defense scored on back-to-back pick-sixes in the third quarter to lead the host Texans to a convincing 45-14 win over the Browns.

A back-and-forth first half saturated with big plays gave no indication as to the rout that would follow. After Houston jumped on top with an early field goal, the teams traded the lead three times in the first 30 minutes. Cleveland took a 7-3 lead on a six-play 75-yard drive, capped by a short Kareem Hunt run and highlighted by a 30-yard strike from Flacco to tight end David Njoku. But right back came the Texans. A 26-yard run by Devin Singletary and Stroud’s scrambling 27-yard throw from to John Metchie to set up a 15-yard TD toss to Nico Collins. 

Flacco and the Browns answered. The veteran QB hit Harrison Bryant on a crossing route that the backup tight end took for 47 yards, deep into Houston territory. Hunt scored his second TD on a Flacco shovel pass, but it took the Texans all of one play to regain the lead, for good: Stroud floating a short pass to Brevin Jordan, who outran the Cleveland defense for a 75-yard score. The Texans opened up a 24-14 before halftime when Houston tight end Dalton Shultz caught a 37-yard TD pass on 2nd-and-20.

The vaunted Browns defense was nowhere to be found.

It was a thrilling first 30 minutes that saw the Texans record seven plays of 20-plus yards. Houston WR Nico Collins continued his scintillating play of recent weeks, catching four passes for 86 yards in the first half. Stroud finished the half 11-of-16 for 236 yards against the NFL’s top-ranked pass defense in 2023. You need not ace an S2 cognition test to understand that the rookie from Ohio State dazzled in his first ever NFL playoff start.

Houston’s first half stats are significant, because the Texans’ offense was not needed in the second half. And you can thank Joe Flacco for that.

In the first half, the grizzled vet pretty much matched Stroud blow for blow, completing 15-of-19 for 176 yards. It was the version of Flacco who improbably won the hearts of Browns fans since stabilizing over a rudderless quarterback situation. 

But the second-half Flacco had observers wondering if the 38-year-old played his last NFL game. 

After the Browns forced a punt on the opening drive of the third, the offense marched to Houston’s 34-yard line. But on 1st-and-10, Flacco, under pressure, threw an ill-advised pass that safety Steven Nelson returned 82 yards to put the Texans up 31-14. On Cleveland’s next drive, coach Kevin Stefanski went for it on 4th-and-2 from Cleveland's own 33. Flacco again was intercepted, this time by linebacker Christian Harris, who took it back 36 yards to blow the game open.

In the fourth quarter, Singletary scored on a 19-yard TD run as part of his 66 yards rushing. That made the score 45-14. 

True, Flacco capsized the Browns' chances in the second half, but the Cleveland defense came up immeasurably small — or Stroud and the Texans’ offense were just that impressive.

Up next, Houston likely draws Buffalo, provided the Bills take care of visiting Pittsburgh Monday. The question coming out of its demonstrative win is whether this upstart Texans' team can transfer their big-play abilities to weather conditions likely far different than those found this weekend in Houston.

Kansas City 26, Miami 7

In one of the coldest games in NFL playoff history, rookie WR Rashee Rice gained 130 receiving yards and the Kansas City defense put the explosive Miami offense on ice as the Chiefs advance to the Divisional Round. 

Rice's yardage total set a Kansas City franchise playoffs record for most receiving yards by a first-year player.

Patrick Mahomes put up another top-shelf postseason performance at home. The two-time Super Bowl-winning QB passed for 262 yards, and his one TD upped his playoff touchdown numbers at home to 34 TDs against just three interceptions.

That scoring throw came on the game’s opening drive, as Mahomes led the Chiefs 75 yards on nine plays. A 3rd-and-10 completion to tight end Travis Kelce extended the drive, which Mahomes finished off with an 11-yard catch and run by Rice. 

One is tempted to say it was a breakout game for the rookie Rice, but his 127 yards in the season finale against the Bengals hinted at his big day yesterday. Running mostly shallow crossing patterns, Rice carved up the middle of the Dolphins' defense. His next big play came with just over a minute in the first half, when he converted a 3rd-and-7 with a 38-yard catch and run that set up a Harrison Butker’s field goal and a 16-7 halftime lead.

Butker was true to his history as a clutch, cold-weather performer. The veteran kicker was a perfect 4-of-4 on field goal attempts, though none of the four attempts were longer than 32 yards. That Butker was tasked with kicking so many short field goals reflected poorly, as it has all season, on the Chiefs’ red-zone and third-down offense.

After the impressive opening touchdown drive, the Kansas City attack would penetrate the Miami 25 on each of Butker’s attempts. One of the red-zone failures came when a penalty wiped out Mahomes’ second TD pass to Rice. The Chiefs finished 6-of-15 on third down. 

The seemingly solitary bright spot for the Dolphins came from former Chief Tyreek Hill, who caught an underthrown Tua Tagovailoa pass and scampered 53 yards to cut the KC lead to 10-7 in the second quarter. 

But that was pretty much it for Hill and the heralded Miami passing attack. The Chiefs formidable defense limited the All-Pro wideout to just nine yards on his other four receptions. Tua threw a pick and barely completed 50 percent of his passes (20-of-39). Raheem Mostert (33 yards) and the Miami running game could never untracked. Steve Spagnuolo's unit once again got the job done.

Meanwhile, Kansas City RB Isiah Pacheco ran for 89 yards on 24 carries, helping the Chiefs move the chains and control the clock. The Chiefs held an eight-minute advantage in time of possession.

If No. 2 Buffalo beats Pittsburgh as expected, the Chiefs travel to Baltimore to take on the top-seed Ravens. Expectations are that by next weekend, coach Andy Reid’s mustache will have thawed, but the Chiefs efficiency in finishing off drives needs to improve dramatically if they want to go even deeper in the postseason. For Miami, in losing so resoundingly, Mike McDaniel and the Dolphins will be hearing questions all offseason about whether this offensively geared team is built to win in the playoffs.