It’s been said that a fool and his money are soon parted. If Houston’s 51-31 loss to Kansas City in Sunday’s AFC divisional playoff game is any indication, so are a foolish football coach and his Super Bowl dreams.
Maybe this result wasn’t a good thing for the upstart Tennessee Titans, who now travel to K.C. on Sunday for the AFC championship game with a spot in the Super Bowl on the line. Or maybe it was. The Music City Miracles 2.0 did beat both Houston and K.C. during the regular season, but they also lost to the Texans in Nissan Stadium.
However, there is little doubt that Houston coach Bill O’Brien’s foiled decision to fake a punt from his own 31 in the second quarter gave the Chiefs a lot of momentum when they trailed 24-7. By halftime it was 28-24 in favor of Kansas City. By the time the Texans scored again, the Chiefs had run off 41 straight points.
“Yeah, I think these games – games are momentum, momentum swings,” O’Brien said afterward. “We had momentum at that point, just felt like we were going to try to make a play there and it just didn’t work.”
No kidding.