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Texas Tech Alumni Mahomes And Washington To Face Off In The AFC Championship Game

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Football

Patrick Mahomes II is heading back to the AFC Championship Game.

Despite facing his first non-Super Bowl playoff road game of his career, Mahomes threw for 215 yards and two touchdowns to push the Kansas City Chiefs back to the AFC Championship after a 27-24 victory over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night.

The Chiefs have reached the AFC Championship now in all six seasons since Mahomes was named Kansas City's starter prior to the 2019 season. He is 3-2 in his previous five appearances in the AFC title game, which all took place at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

Overall, Mahomes is now an impressive 12-3 overall in the playoffs, falling only to the New England Patriots (2018) and Cincinnati Bengals (2021) in the AFC Championship and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV. A win over the Ravens would push Mahomes back to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in his career at only 28 years of age.

Mahomes will see a former teammate in Broderick Washington Jr. staring at him when Kansas City faces the top-seeded Ravens at 2 p.m. CT next Sunday in Baltimore. The Ravens were the first team to advance to the championship round earlier Saturday as Baltimore downed the Houston Texans, 34-10, to host its first AFC title game since January 1971.

Washington is wrapping up his fourth season with the Ravens as a reserve on the defensive line. He made five starts during the regular season this year, totaling 18 tackles, including a pair of sacks. He registered one tackle Saturday in the Raven's victory over the Texans.

Mahomes and Washington spent two seasons together in the Red Raider locker room as Mahomes was a second-year sophomore in 2015 when Washington was a true freshman. Washington developed into one of Texas Tech's top interior defensive linemen the next season, all while Mahomes was in the process of his second-consecutive season with 5,000 passing yards.

Television coverage of the AFC Championship game will be provided on CBS.

The NFC Championship game features the Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers, the latter of which has two Red Raider alumnus on its coaching staff in Kris Kocurek and Anthony Lynn. That matchup will follow the Chiefs and Ravens with kickoff set for 5:30 p.m. CT on FOX.