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PREMATCH
HOUSTON – The Houston Texans will return to playoff excitement for the first time since 2019 on Saturday afternoon when they host the Cleveland Browns.
Rookie quarterback CJ Stroud said this week that the Texans’ rookie group created a focus group shortly after the draft.
“We said to ourselves: ‘Guys, we will be the foundations of this new era within the team,’ and that’s exactly what ultimately happened,” Stroud said.
Perhaps even earlier than expected for Houston (10-7), which is the only NFL team qualified for the post-season schedule with a rookie quarterback.
Stroud, 22, will face the oldest quarterback in these playoffs on Saturday in Joe Flacco, who will celebrate his 39th birthday in four days.
This will be Stroud’s first time facing Cleveland (11-6) since he had to sit out the Dec. 24 game while recovering from a concussion.
The Browns then won 36 to 22.
Houston was also without rookie defensive end Wil Anderson Jr., the third overall pick, and linebacker Blake Cashman.
It will be a challenge for the Browns to contain Stroud, after a season of 4,108 yards through the air, as well as 23 touchdowns.
Stroud’s rapid emergence has completely transformed a team that had won just seven games total in the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
Flacco has gone 4-1 since being named Cleveland’s starting quarterback shortly after the season-ending injury to Deshaun Watson, the man who was behind center the last time the Texans played in the playoffs.
This will be the 17th playoff game of Flacco’s career, and his 16th start. His first experience of the post-season schedule dates back 15 years, on January 4, 2009.
The Baltimore Ravens then beat the Miami Dolphins 27 to 9… And Stroud was only 8 years old at the time.
Hill wants to spoil the party when he returns to KC
Dolphins c. Chiefs (20 h)
The Miami Dolphins certainly would have liked to enter the playoffs with more confidence.
After an almost flawless start to the season, the Dolphins (11-6) concluded their regular season with defeats of 56-19 against the Baltimore Ravens (13-4) and 21-14 against the Buffalo Bills (11 -6). It was this last defeat that allowed Buffalo to dislodge the Dolphins from first place in the American East division.
Thus, the Dolphins will have the Kansas City Chiefs as their first obstacle on Saturday night, they who are the reigning Super Bowl champions and champions of the American West division. Miami lost 21-14 against the Chiefs (11-6) in the only clash this season.
Speaking of a difficult end to the season, the Chiefs didn’t escape it either. Patrick Mahomes and his men have lost three of their last six outings and they needed all their little change to overcome the Los Angeles Chargers by a score of 13-12 in the last game of the season.
Despite checkered results on both sides to end the season, we must not close our eyes. Each team has the ammunition necessary to do damage offensively at any time.
In the Dolphins camp, Tua Tagovailoa is fresh off his most prolific career season with more than 4,600 yards and 29 touchdowns, while Tyreek Hill’s 1,799 yards also represent a personal high. If he hadn’t missed a match, Cheetah could have become the first player in NFL history with 2,000 passing yards in a season.
The meeting will have an even more special character for Hill, who will be back in Kansas City for the first time since he changed addresses.
“We are competitors. You saw me – I have the sacred fire – and it’s the same for him. That’s what makes it so great. We’re still friends in the offseason, but once we get on the field, we want to win,” Mahomes explained of his friendship with his former receiver.
The Dolphins are now crossing their fingers for the participation of Raheem Mostert, who missed his team’s last two games. If he is in uniform, he will be a significant threat against the Chiefs. Mostert had the best season of his career with 21 total touchdowns, including 18 on the ground.
However, we should not fall asleep against the Chiefs. Mahomes and his trusty tight end Travis Kelce have a proven track record of being at their best when the stakes are high. Even though he was limited to less than 1,000 passing yards in a season for the first time in eight campaigns, Kelce will be a constant threat.
“We play a lot of big games – games with little rest and night games – and that experience will help,” Mahomes admitted. Several players on our team have done it, so the difference you see in the playoffs, we make it smaller since we have already played these kinds of games. We can rely on our experience and the best team we can be. »
Will Mahomes and the Chiefs reach those standards? The response from 8 p.m.
2024-01-13 12:30:00
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