Why Chiefs’ Hollywood Brown isn’t concerned with no-catch game to start NFL playoffs

Kansas City Chiefs receiver Hollywood Brown played 34 snaps but had no catches in KC’s first playoff game on Saturday.

One person completely unconcerned about that 0-fer, though? That would be Brown himself.

“You always want to catch passes. But I felt like I had a really good game, ran really good routes,” Brown told The Star on Wednesday in the Chiefs locker room. “So the ball will come. But I was glad I was able to just play and put some good stuff on film.”

Brown’s production was part of a strange statistical game for the Chiefs pass-catchers in Saturday’s 23-14 win over the Houston Texans.

Tight end Travis Kelce was dominant with seven catches for 117 yards. But in a low-possession contest, veteran receivers DeAndre Hopkins and JuJu Smith-Schuster also went without a reception.

It’s unlikely to happen again this week when the Chiefs host the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship game on Sunday.

“We want to use all of them. They’re all good players,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “There’s just one ball, so it happened to go the other direction.”

Brown’s usage was most notable. In his two games back with the team following injury, the Chiefs had force-fed him; he had eight targets on 20 snaps against Houston in the regular season, then seven targets on 25 snaps the following contest against Pittsburgh.

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said the Texans’ playoff game plan partially limited Brown and Hopkins’ production. Mahomes said Houston often put a defensive shell over the top to limit big plays on the outside, which gave Kelce lots of room to operate over the middle.

“That’s how you have to do (it) in this league,” Mahomes said, “is whenever certain matchups are working for you, you go to those.”

Mahomes said KC still needed to improve at giving Brown and Hopkins more opportunities downfield, even if one of those shots Saturday still ended up helping the offense.

Though Brown failed to come down with a deep throw from Mahomes in the second quarter — the Texans’ Eric Murray knocked it away at the last second — Mahomes believed displaying that sideline threat directly led to the Chiefs completing a pass to Kelce for 49 yards on the next play.

Overall, Brown said Wednesday he believed the Chiefs “had a good game plan” while going against the Texans defense.

“Obviously, we left a lot of plays out there,” Brown said, “but feel like we executed and got the job done.”

Brown praised Murray for the poke away on the long pass attempt, saying he needed to find a way to secure the catch to the ground next time.

Overall, though, he wasn’t discouraged by the lack of production.

“I feel like if I play how I played last week, the ball will find me,” Brown said. “Just got to do my job.”

Hopkins didn’t have as many chances against the Texans; he played 16 snaps and was unable to bring down his only target.

Brown and Hopkins also share another commonality: This will be their first career conference championship game. The 32-year-old Hopkins, in his 12th season, never advanced past the Divisional Round while previously playing with the Texans. Similarly, the sixth-year pro Brown earlier made a Divisional Round game with Baltimore, but never went past that.

Hopkins said the chance to win Sunday — and make his first Super Bowl — would fulfill a “childhood dream.”

“That’s a lifelong goal,” Hopkins said. “I don’t like looking ahead, so gotta go out and practice today and be perfect. It’s the preparation that I enjoy about it more so than anything.”

Meanwhile, Brown said he appreciated this opportunity in the AFC Championship Game after a preseason shoulder injury threatened to sideline him for the season.

“A blessing. Thank God getting to this moment,” Brown said. “But for me, it’s really just being who I am, playing my game and being available and ready for the moment.”