To me, the key to victory is for the Offense to strike early & often and then continue to pour it on for the entire game. This will take a lot of pressure off the Defense. If you look at some of the games played in the regular season, when the Chiefs Offense was able to do this, opposing Offenses didn’t have the luxury of just pounding the rock (the Steelers game comes to mind).

@matthewschiefs 346768 wrote:

I think our Run D is the key to this game.

If they are able to just run the ball down our throats all day they will keep the ball and keep Mahomes on the sideline.

The run d was a huge part of the playoff loss last year. Many talked about the offense not scoring and yeah that’s a big part two but their chances were so limited the Titans kept the ball most the 2nd half in that game. We can’t let that happen again. Run D is going to have to do something are we are going to see a repeat of last year

Matt, you are correct that Luck is a hard guy to sack, but the last time these two teams met, Dee Ford got to him 3 times, so I believe Ford will be the key man here.

As for the run D, perhaps Eric Berry may be a huge help in that regard, assuming he plays the entire game.

@jason1981 346771 wrote:

If ibwas a betting man. I’d bet Andy Reid makes thisba statement game. I bet with how we lost our past 2 playoff games with blowing big leads i bet Andy Reid says screw that were going to score 100 points and i dare you to try and come back to win. I think Andy wont let up on the gas until the game is over. Atleast for me thats what id do. Play every series as a must score. Id even go hurry up offense. Get them in a base you like and them keep them in it. I would love for Mahomes to get to the line with 20 seconds ledt on the play clock each snap. Let him see the defense. Need to stop this late playcalling and then scouring up to the line and trying to rush the line calls before the okay clock goes to zero. When you do that it helps the defense cuz they can tee off and guess your snap count

Good points, and I have to believe it was because of the last two playoff losses that Mahomes was made the starter this year & wasn’t made to sit behind Alex Smith for another year or 2, as Alex was ineffective in both those games. The question going into this season was just how ready Mahomes was to be the guy, and he’s answered that question WAY BEYOND what any of us ever dreamed of.

I’m still thinking the Chiefs should wear RED-ON-RED for this game, just to do something different.

I like the whole get an early lead and try not to let off the gas idea. Keeping them behind will limit their ability to rely on their run and our pass rush defenders can tee off on luck sitting in the pocket.
I don’t think Andy Reid has a choice. This is his best year he’s ever had to try to win his first Super Bowl. He’s sitting in the 1 seed with playoffs all coming through Arrowhead he’s got the number 1 offense with the most talent on an offense that he’ll ever see. Guys I hate to see it but if Andy can’t at least get us to a Super Bowl it’s ping to be a huge disappointment

if Mahomes can get us to even just the AFC championship I say he’s due for a new deal. So he won’t be cheap for very long

If you think about it, there has been some history that has been OVERCOME this season.

1) The Chiefs finally achieved success with a QB that they drafted & Mahomes performed way above and beyond expectations. He never really did have what you would call an “off day” throughout the season. The playoff game with Indy will be the first post-season game in Chiefs history where the starting QB is one that they drafted — this has never happened before (except for Blackledge starting the 1986 playoff game against the Jets, but we all knew by that time that Blackledge was a DUD).

2) The Chiefs had never won in Pittsburgh once the Steelers moved out of Three Rivers stadium and moved to Heinz field, but that changed this year, as Mahomes threw 6 touchdown passes (which was unprecedented, but DELIGHTFUL) and the Chiefs won for the first time EVER at Heinz field.

3) The Chiefs had never beaten the Baltimore Ravens at Arrowhead prior to this season, but they did it this season. It took overtime in a very tough ball game to do it, but they did it, nonetheless.

Do you see a trend here? I certainly do. Time to overcome history once again this Saturday & come away with a win.

@Eydugstr 346811 wrote:

1) Just some obersvations…Did anyone else find it odd when announcers would say “…That’s the first time a quarterback drafted by KC won since 1987…” but Blackledge was drafted in ’83, same year as Marino, Elway, and Jim Kelly. Naturally KC found the dud, but hey that was KC under Schaaf and Steadman.

2) The funny thing to note about that game, was watching Pittsburg’s reaction to getting spanked in their own stadium. They were so dead intent on all their own drama there was very little mention of what our team had done. I’m for certain if someone had asked Antonio Brown who had beaten them that day, the answer would’ve been “LaVeon Bell.”

3) It was really nice to see this team break that trend. We need to break another and beat the Colts this Saturday.

Excellent observations, Dougster and I’m going to rewind to another piece of history that occurred in November of 2015. This was going into that 2nd game against the Donkeys & at that time, I believed the Chiefs were at a real crossroads going into that game having lost to Horseface Manning and the Donkeys seven (7) straight times & simply could not afford to absorb another defeat to the Donkeys at that time. Fortunately, the Chiefs went into Donkeytown & decisively dominated the Donkeys (putting Manning through a career worst day) and got off of that schnide.

We are at that same type of crossroads going into this game against Indy.