SI:AM | Patrick Mahomes’s First Road Playoff Game

Can the Chiefs make it to a sixth straight conference championship game?

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. It‘s currently snowing, and temperatures aren’t expected to crack the freezing mark this weekend here in the New York area. Sounds perfect for staying in to watch four NFL playoff games.

In today’s SI:AM:

???? ​​The Chiefs hit the road

???? Purdue basketball’s “offensive coordinator”

???? RGIII’s ugly fight with his old coach

Can K.C. make it six in a row?

Patrick Mahomes will do something Sunday he’s never done in his NFL career: play a playoff game in front of a hostile crowd.

Mahomes has made 15 starts in the postseason in his six seasons as the Kansas City Chiefs’ primary starter, but none of them have come on the road. The Chiefs earned one of the top two seeds in the AFC in each of the past five seasons, which has helped them reach five straight conference title games. But if they want to make it six in a row, they’ll have to knock off the Bills in Buffalo.

Kansas City’s regular-season brilliance has paved a smoother path through the playoffs over the past half decade, but its relative struggles this season (an 11–6 record, its worst since Mahomes took over for Alex Smith in 2017) mean that it will likely have to win two games on the road to go back to the Super Bowl.

There’s no reason to believe that Mahomes isn’t prepared for a road playoff game. He’s a veteran who’s played big games away from home before and has a 12–3 record in the postseason. But the added challenge of going on the road is something this Chiefs team doesn’t need right now. The reason they slipped to the No. 3 seed is that they have serious issues on offense. They ranked 15th in the NFL in scoring this season, the first time during Mahomes’s tenure that they’ve ranked lower than sixth.

Everyone is familiar by now with the struggles of the Chiefs’ receivers. They led the NFL this season in drops (44) and drop percentage (6.9%). But Mahomes found a winning formula in last week’s game against the Miami Dolphins, primarily targeting just two receivers. Rashee Rice was targeted 12 times and caught eight passes for 130 yards and a touchdown. Travis Kelce was targeted 10 times and caught seven passes for 71 yards. No other Chiefs player caught more than two passes or was targeted more than three times.

Rice, a rookie second-round pick out of SMU, has emerged as a reliable target for Mahomes, averaging 92.6 yards in his last seven games. That’s a positive development for the Chiefs, who have been in desperate need of someone to complement Kelce. But what happens if the Bills, who boast one of the best pass defenses in the league, are able to shut down Rice? That would leave Mahomes leaning more on his second-rate options.

The other thing that makes this matchup difficult is that the Bills have been on a tear lately. After a middling start, they’ve won six in a row and seven of their last eight. The Buffalo offense has been humming, averaging 27.5 points per game over its last eight, and moving the ball in a variety of ways. In the division-clinching win over the Dolphins, Josh Allen threw for 359 yards. In Monday’s playoff win over the Steelers, Buffalo ran for 179 yards. The Chiefs, though, have been winning with defense this season. They ranked second in the league in both points and yards allowed. Buffalo also has a stout defense, ranking in the top 10 in both categories. So while this game does feature two of the best quarterbacks in the league, it probably won’t be a shootout.

The best of Sports Illustrated

• Greg Bishop spoke with Jared Goff’s former teammate Andrew Whitworth about why Goff’s personality makes him a perfect fit for the Lions.
• Matt Verderame previews the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.
• Purdue men’s basketball coach Matt Painter has taken an idea from football and added an “offensive coordinator” to his coaching staff. Kevin Sweeney has more on why Painter made the move and how it’s working out thus far.
• Robert Griffin III and his former coach Jay Gruden are involved in a nasty social media fight that got even uglier yesterday.
• Again, the Bills still need help shoveling out the stadium before Sunday’s game.
• Ohio State is hiring Bill O’Brien to be its next offensive coordinator.
• Former NFL head coach Jerry Glanville, 82, has been hired as the defensive coordinator at a Division II school.
• Miami tight end Cam McCormick has received approval to play a ninth year of college football.

The top five...

… things I saw yesterday:

5. This announcer’s ear-splitting call of a Division III buzzer beater.

4. Antoine Griezmann’s dribbling and shot from a tight angle to give Atletico Madrid the win over Real Madrid.

3. Álvaro Gómez’s stunning volley to give third-tier Spanish club Unionistas the lead over Barcelona in the Copa del Rey. (Barça came back to win 3–1.)

2. Anthony Edwards’s lob off the backboard to himself.

1. Owen Tippett’s spinning backhand shot that will probably go down as the goal of the year in the NHL.

SIQ

Which team snapped the UCLA men’s basketball team’s record 88-game winning streak on this day in 1974?

• USC
• Cal
• Kentucky
• Notre Dame

Yesterday’s SIQ: On Jan. 18, 1973, who became the first player in MLB history signed specifically to play as a DH?

• Frank Robinson
• Orlando Cepeda
• Harmon Killebrew
• Ron Blomberg

Answer: Orlando Cepeda. Just a week after American League owners voted to approve a three-year trial of the designated hitter rule, Cepeda signed with the Boston Red Sox. His Hall of Fame career had appeared over when he had been released by the Oakland Athletics after the previous season. Injuries to both knees had limited him to 31 games in 1972 because he was unable to play the field.

But Cepeda, 35, could still swing the bat, and the new DH rule provided an avenue for him to contribute to a team. Cepeda made the most of his second chance and hit 20 homers with a .289 batting average. His .793 OPS was the third highest on the Red Sox. He even earned a few MVP votes. He was cut by Boston after the season, though, after a new manager took over. He spent some time the following year playing in Mexico before catching on with the Kansas City Royals. He played 33 games for them until he was released in the final week of the season.