KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (9-7)
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS (12-4)
SATURDAY, JAN 6, 3:30 PM
RCA DOME - INDIANAPOLIS
VIDEO PREVIEW: Real / Windows
AFC Playoffs (PDF)
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS (12-4)
SATURDAY, JAN 6, 3:30 PM
RCA DOME - INDIANAPOLIS
VIDEO PREVIEW: Real / Windows
AFC Playoffs (PDF)
TV: NBC National Coverage (KSHB-41 in Kansas City) – Tom Hammond, Cris Collinsworth and Bob Neumeier.
NATIONAL RADIO: CBS Radio/Westwood One – Dick Enberg, Bob Trumpy and Bonnie Bernstein.
RADIO: KCFX-FM (101.1) – Mitch Holthus, Len Dawson, Bob Gretz and Bill Grigsby.
THE MATCH-UP
The Chiefs will make their first playoff appearance since 2003 when Kansas City travels to Indianapolis for an AFC Wild Card Playoff Game at the RCA Dome on Saturday. The contest will mark Kansas City’s first road postseason outing since an AFC Wild Card contest at Miami (12/31/94) and will be the club’s first playoff game to be played indoors since a 28-20 win at Houston (1/16/94).
Kansas City owns a two-game winning streak entering the playoffs. The Chiefs are coming off a 35-30 victory vs. Jacksonville (12/31) in the club’s regular season finale that helped propel Kansas City to a 9-7 regular season record and an invitation to the postseason.
Herm Edwards is the initial head coach in Chiefs history to guide the franchise to the postseason in his first season at the franchise’s helm. Edwards has now led two different clubs (Chiefs and Jets) to the playoffs in his first season with those teams, becoming just the fifth coach in NFL history to accomplish such a feat. Edwards has now compiled four playoff berths in six seasons as an NFL head coach.
Edwards will square off against his longtime friend Tony Dungy. In the only previous postseason meeting between these two coaches, Edwards’ N.Y. Jets squad claimed a 41-0 victory vs. Indianapolis (1/4/03). Dungy’s squad enters the 2006 postseason with a 12-4 record as Indianapolis claimed its fourth straight AFC South crown.
Indianapolis has twice ventured to Arrowhead to knock a pair of 13-3 Kansas City squads out of the playoffs, doing it in AFC Divisional Playoff Games in both ‘95 and 2003. Indianapolis will become the fourth franchise the Chiefs have met three times in the postseason, joining Buffalo, Miami and Oakland.
Kansas City will seek to avenge those two previous postseason setbacks against the Colts with an offense powered by the legs of two-time Pro Bowl RB Larry Johnson, who set an NFL single-season record with 416 rushing attempts in 2006 and broke his own franchise single-season rushing record with 1,789 yards. Johnson has also compiled a franchise-record 11 100-yard rushing games in 2006.
THE SERIES
Since the AFL-NFL merger in ‘70, the Chiefs and Colts have squared off 17 times in regular and postseason play, with Indianapolis holding a 10-7-0 advantage. In regular season action, the Colts hold an 8-7 edge against Kansas City. Indianapolis also owns victories in the two previous postseason outings between the teams, a 10-7 victory at Arrowhead in a ‘95 AFC Divisional Playoff Game (1/7/96) and a 38-31 win at Arrowhead in a 2003 AFC Divisional Playoff Game (1/11/04). The Chiefs won the most recent regular season meeting between the two clubs by a 45-35 count at Arrowhead (10/31/04).
Kansas City posted a 5-3 record against the Colts while they were stationed in Baltimore, but has just a 2-7 mark against them since the franchise relocated to Indianapolis in ‘84. Kansas City claimed a 20-7 win in the team’s first-ever meeting against the Indianapolis incarnation of the Colts on 11/24/85 and snapped a six-game losing streak against the franchise in 2004. The Chiefs are 0-2 on the road against the Colts since the team relocated in Indianapolis, with the Colts winning the last meeting by a 25-17 count at the RCA Dome (11/7/99).
The two AFC Divisional Playoff tilts in this series at Arrowhead are unquestionably the most memorable contests in Chiefs-Colts history. In both 2003 and ‘95, the Chiefs had a 13-3 campaign derailed by Indianapolis. For only the third time in NFL postseason history, neither team was forced to punt as the Colts registered a 38-31 victory (1/11/04) despite a 92-yard KOR TD from WR Dante Hall and a franchise playoff record 176 rushing yards from RB Priest Holmes. Three Kansas City interceptions and three missed FGs doomed the Chiefs to a 10-7 setback (1/7/96) in a contest played with a -9 windchill as the Colts advanced to the AFC Championship Game at Pittsburgh (1/14/96) to come within a game of Super Bowl XXX.
