Hello friends. It’s Geoff Ulrich, filling in for Peerless Pete Overzet this week to bring you the latest edition of Pete's Pick 6—a weekly recap column where we spotlight the best and (worst performances) from this weekend’s games.

With just eight teams to choose from I’m just going to devote my six bullets to the biggest performers and storylines of the Divisional Round, regardless of whether they won or lost

Let's dig in …

Houston we have a (Patrick Mahomes) problem

Phew. What can you say about the Texans vs Chiefs? Houston outgained the Chiefs by 124 total yards while committing zero turnovers. In most cases, that would be enough to get you a win (or at least lose in agonizing fashion on a last-second FG or Hail Mary). 

In fact, via @JamesPalmerTV, teams that outgained their opponent by 100-plus yards and committed zero turnovers were 46-0 in the playoffs, before Saturday. You can now make that 46-1. 

Unfortunately for the Texans, Patrick Mahomes is just different. He makes impossible plays look easy—like throwing TD passes as he’s doing the Superman pose—and is just a master strategist. 

Mahomes knows the league wants to protect QBs when they are out of the pocket and isn’t above baiting opposing teams into penalties when he’s carrying the ball. As a three-time Super Bowl winner and the most prolific player in the league, he’s also just going to have more calls fall his way than the average QB (it was the same for MJ and Brady).

That was again the case on Saturday when the Texans had multiple roughing the passer calls go against them, at least one of which seemed like a complete blown call.

C.J. Stroud played a great game, considering he was under constant duress and took eight sacks, but the Texans' defense and special teams self-destructed. They allowed 35-year-old Travis Kelce to go mental and their FG kicker, Ka'imi Fairbairn, missed an extra point and had a FG blocked (along with another miss from 55 yards). 

Will Anderson went and vented his frustration about the calls all going the Chiefs' way but therein lies the problem for the Texans—and everyone else who has fallen victim to the Chiefs the last few seasons.

When you focus on the refs instead of executing on the field (and not making mistakes) you leave the door open for Mahomes, Kelce, Reid, Spagnuola et al. to beat you.

Usually, all they need is a crack and on Saturday the Texans left the door wide open which led to their unsightly demise. 

Jayden Daniels, Mr. Clutch (part deux)

It’s getting harder and harder to find the proper words to describe Jayden Daniels.

I mean, in his first playoff game the man completed 68% of his passes for 268 yards and two TDs, with zero INTs and an 80.3 QBR rating.

So what does he do for an encore in the Divisional Round?

Complete 71% of his passes for 299 yards, and two more TDs (91.8 QBR), while rushing for an extra 51 yards. Daniels has now passed for four TDs in these playoffs and turned the ball over ZERO times.

For contrast, his counterpart this week Jared Goff, threw three INTs and lost a fumble.

The sickest part about all this might be that Daniels predicted this when he was just a teenager.

I don’t know about you, but at 13 years of age, I barely had the confidence to raise my hand in class let alone go out and proclaim that one day I’d be so good at something that I’d become a household name.

The good news for us average folk is that Daniels’ tweet does prove that he is at least somewhat human, as he got done in by a simple grammar mixup. I know he was only 13 but come on Jayden: hear = sound (verb), here = place (adverb, noun, etc).

That’s probably the only time I’ll get to criticize Daniels over the next decade so I had to get my shot in. Maybe next season, the Lions should hire an English teacher to help game plan against Washington. 

Travis Kelce. F*%& dem Regular Season 

In case there was still any doubt, or you’ve just been living under a rock the last couple of years: 

Playoff Travis Kelce >>>>>> Regular season Travis Kelce.

Coming off a regular season where he posted his lowest yardage total (823) and lowest yards per catch (8.5) of his career, Kelce came in and demolished the Texans.

Houston, who ranked second in yards per pass attempt against this season and had allowed the seventh-fewest yards to opposing TEs, allowed old-man Kelce to go for 117 yards on seven catches (16.7 yards per reception) and a TD.

Kelce also set a record in the process. The 100+ yard effort was the ninth 100+ yard effort in a playoff game of his career, which helped break a tie with Jerry Rice for most 100+ yard playoff game efforts.

I’m sure some of the people who drafted Kelce high in the fantasy streets were rolling their eyes after some of these big plays, but if there was any doubt as to whether Kelce is done being an elite receiver, we can now put those doubts to bed.

Hopefully, if Kelce came up short for you during the regular season you got some of that back on his anytime TD props. If not, you’ll have at least one more week (potentially two) to claw back some of those fantasy bucks. 

Barkley Batters the Rams. Again.

The Rams put up a solid effort on Sunday. Not many people gave them a chance to win this game and they had the ball inside the Eagles 20, down six with under a minute to go with a shot at the win.

The Eagles defense put the final nail in the coffin with a late sack on Matthew Stafford but the reason they were ahead in the first place was the fact that Saquon Barkley went nuclear.

Coming off a game in the first round where he was held out of the end zone by the Packers, Barkley rushed for an absurd 205 yards and 2 TDs, while also adding in four catches and 27 yards receiving.

For the season, Barkley’s line vs the Rams reads as follows:

  • 2 games played
  • 52 carries
  • 460 yards rushing
  • 4 rushing TDs 
  • 8 receptions and 84 receiving yards

Barkley averaged 8.84 yards per rush vs the Rams and over 10 yards per reception. 

In some ways, just the fact they were able to keep the game within a TD is a huge accomplishment by Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford. 

However, there is little doubt the Rams defenders might be seeing Barkley in their dreams (aka, nightmares) in Cancun next week as they try to get over the two soul-crushing performances he dropped on them this season.

Josh Allen, Triumphant 

Despite throwing for just 127 yards and no TDs, Josh Allen managed to do something that his counterpart, Lamar Jackson, didn’t in the Bills 27-25 win—he didn’t turn the ball over. 

Allen committed zero turnovers while Jackson, who completed 75% of his passes for 254 yards and two TDs, had two crucial turnovers. 

Allen didn’t just game manage either as he was again unstoppable in the red zone rushing for two TDs inside the 20-yard line in the contest. 

Critized often over the last couple of seasons for his high INT rate, Allen went about another career metamorphosis this year as he ended the 2024 regular season with just 3,731 passing yards (his lowest total in years) but only had 6 INTs—a career-best. 

Just given the mistakes the Ravens made it’s hard to say Allen went out and won the game for the Bills, but the point is, he didn’t have to.  Allen’s clean game put his defense in a great spot down the stretch and allowed them (and Mark Andrews) to win the game for him. 

It’s a clear change in character for Allen who will likely need to be even better next week to take down the Chiefs, who are the kings of letting their opponents beat themselves. 

Mark Andrews becomes the villain 

Every story needs a villain. 

The Lion King has Scar.

Star Wars has Darth Vadar.

The Karate Kid has Daniel Larusso (no seriously, Google it).

The AFC Conference Championship lived up to its hype as a cinematic masterpiece and part of the reason why is that it created its own villain— and the honors unfortunately went to Ravens TE Mark Andrews, who made two crucial mistakes in the second half of the game. 

First, Andrews fumbled the ball on a play where he was trying to gain extra yards downfield by juking a defender.

That was a killer, and a bit of a bad idea to begin with, but the Ravens somehow made their way back from that mistake and set themselves up to tie the game late with a two-point conversion. Andrews, who made a big 19-yard reception on the drive to set up the Isaiah Likely TD, then had a chance for redemption when he found himself wide open within a yard of the end zone on the play.

We all know what happened next.

The Ravens outplayed the Bills for large parts of this game but the mistakes by Andrews (and Lamar Jackson) gave Buffalo the edge. 

Unfortunately for Andrews, who doesn’t have two MVP awards to help people forget his mistakes, he’ll be the one remembered for blowing this game and the villain of what was a great end to Divisional Round weekend.

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