Since 2016, the Kansas City Chiefs have led the Houston Texans 3-0 all-time in head-to-head playoff matchups. Each one obviously led to a disappointing playoff exit for Houston, but one loss stands above the rest as being especially disastrous. It was so terrible, in fact, that it took the Texans three years and a complete franchise overhaul to recover from it. 

The date was Sunday, January 12, 2020, and the event was the AFC Divisional Playoff Round at Arrowhead Stadium.

Quarterback Deshaun Watson and the #4 seed Texans (10-7) were facing off against signal caller Patrick Mahomes and the #1 seed Chiefs (12-4).

It was the second quarter, and the Texans just went up 24-0 on the Chiefs on the right leg of kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn from 31 yards out to silence every Chiefs fan in attendance that afternoon and create real concerns about a quick playoff exit after a 12-4 regular season record. 

Little did we know that this moment in time would be forever etched into the hearts and minds of multiple generations of Houston's fanbase and in NFL history as a whole.

Not because the underdog Texans found a way to topple a myriad of future Hall of Famers and All-Pro's in the Chiefs, but because these resilient Chiefs found a way to overcome their largest deficit in franchise history by ripping off a 51-7 run to flip the game, extinguish Houston's playoff hopes and go on to win quarterback Patrick Mahomes the first Super Bowl ring of his career. 

The sad part is that wasn't even the worst that would happen to the Texans during the Bill O'Brien era (head coach). What followed that historically devastating day was an equal, if not more so, amount of turbulence and uncertainty that would form a dark cloud over the franchise for the next three seasons.

At the risk of re-traumatizing the Texans faithful, we at the Texans Roundtable will give you the truncated version that includes trajectory altering benchmarks for the club (for the sake of timeline effectiveness, we'll have to backdate a bit):

- 2019 offseason (April): Texans hire Jack Easterby as Executive Vice President of Team Development

- 2019 offseason (June): Texans fire general manager Brian Gaine

- 2019 offseason (June): New England Patriots file a grievance against the Texans for possible tampering when the team tried interviewing Nick Caserio for their open general manager position while he was still on staff as New England's director of player personnel. 

- 2020 offseason (January: Texans elevate Bill O'Brien to become both head coach and general manager

- 2020 offseason (March): Texans stun the fanbase and NFL world by trading wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and a 2020 fourth-round pick to the Arizona Cardinals for running back David Johnson, a 2020 second-round pick and a 2021 fourth-round pick

- 2020 regular season (October): Bill O'Brien fired by the Texans after an 0-4 start to the season (Houston finished 4-12 that year)

- 2021 offseason (January): Texans Hire Nick Caserio as General Manager

- 2021 offseason (January): Texans hire David Culley to be their next head coach (Culley was the assistant head coach, pass-game coordinator and wide receivers coach for the Baltimore Ravens at the time)

- 2021 offseason (January): Quarterback Deshaun Watson requests a trade out of Houston

- 2021 offseason (March): Deshaun Watson's legal troubles begin with first lawsuit filed against him for sexual misconduct

- 2021 Draft (April): Texans draft quarterback Davis Mills in the third-round out of Stanford

- 2022 offseason (January): Texans fire David Culley after posting a 4-13 record in his lone season as head coach

- 2022 offseason (February): Texans hire then defensive coordinator Lovie Smith to be their next head coach and promote Pep Hamilton to be offensive coordinator (There was also much controversy over reports that Houston wanted to hire former quarterback Josh McCown for the role)

- 2022 offseason (March): Texans trade Deshaun Watson and a 2024 sixth-round draft pick to the Cleveland Browns in exchange for a 2022 first-round pick (No. 13 overall), 2023 and 2024 first-round picks, a 2022 fourth-round choice (No. 107), a third-round pick in 2023 and a fourth-round pick in 2024

- 2022 regular season (October): Texans and executive vice president of football operations Jack Easterby mutually agree to part ways 

- 2023 offseason (January): Texans fire Lovie Smith as head coach after posting a 3-13-1 record in his lone season (including a 32-31 win vs. the Colts in week 18 that lost the Texans the #1 overall pick in the 2023 draft to the Chicago Bears)

- 2023 offseason (January): Texans hire then San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Demeco Ryans as the new head coach, who then hired then 49ers pass-game coordinator Bobby Slowik as his offensive coordinator

- 2023 Draft (April): Texans select quarterback C.J. Stroud (Ohio State) and outside linebacker Will Anderson Jr.  (Alabama) with the second and third overall picks respectively in the first round

The rest is history, as the old saying goes. Two AFC South titles later, and the Houston Texans have an opportunity to turn the page on a very painful chapter in the franchise's very short story. 

While the Chiefs are not directly responsible for the myriad of trials, both of self and circumstantially, that happened to the Texans after their 2020 playoff matchup, that meeting still represented a crucial turning point in the club's operational arc. 

The Texans went from a team that was two quarters away from their first AFC Championship game in franchise history, to a team that couldn't get out of its own way both on the field and off of it. 

They stumbled through the NFL wilderness for three seasons, accumulating a 11-38-1 record, burning through two coaches in two years and finishing as a bottom-five team in the NFL in every campaign. 

Now, Houston has a 24 year old franchise quarterback, a 24 year old franchise defensive game wrecker, arguably their best cornerback in team history (also 24) and an electric homegrown head coach. They have established a culture of grit, determination, tenacity and S.W.A.R.M. mentality.  

Winning their last four games straight, they now have a chance on Sunday to help snuff out the title hopes of the Chiefs in 2025 and prove to the NFL landscape that they are a team to be respected in the AFC. 

The Texans couldn't close the deal in 2020, but a season defining win against Kansas City for their fifth win in a row, their eighth victory on the season, a chance at the playoffs and knocking off the Chiefs in the process is a decent consolation prize.