The Houston Texans are the preferred opponent for the Kansas City Chiefs in this weekend’s AFC Divisional Round playoff game.

Not that they need much help, but the breaks keeping falling in the direction of the Kansas City Chiefs. Enter the Houston Texans.

In a near-perfect season in which the Chiefs went 15-2, they made their own crunch-time luck and also received some good fortune in grabbing the AFC’s No. 1 seed. As they prepare for Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. Divisional Round game at Arrowhead Stadium, the preferred opponent is coming to town.

The possibilities were the Texans, whom the Chiefs comfortably beat by eight at home on Dec. 21 and have historically dominated. Or it could have been coach Jim Harbaugh’s pesky AFC West Los Angeles Chargers, who pushed K.C. in two close games this season with final scores of 17-10 and 19-17.

The Texans dominated the Chargers in their Wild Card game last weekend in Houston, 32-12.

Andy Reid and the players would never say it publicly, but almost assuredly they’d rather face the Texans than the Chargers. The Chiefs are 2-0 in the playoffs against Houston, by convincing margins of 30-0 and 51-31 in the 2019 playoffs when they erased a 24-0 deficit.

Again, Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes doesn’t need a lot of help this time of year. He’s 6-0 in Divisional Round games and has thrown 13 touchdowns and no interceptions.

The oddsmakers also believe the Texans present a better matchup, as the Chiefs are favored by a whopping 8.5 points. That spread is bigger than both games against the Chargers: 7.5 in Week 4 in L.A. and only 5 in Week 14 at Arrowhead.

Now, who would the Chiefs to prefer to play in the AFC Championship – Baltimore Ravens or Buffalo Bills – in an entirely different proposition.