{"id":47829,"date":"2026-01-19T00:11:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=47829"},"modified":"2026-01-19T00:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:11:28","slug":"c5y294wl480oat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2026\/01\/19\/c5y294wl480oat_mediumrssat_campaignrss\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL play-offs: New England Patriots beat Houston Texans to reach AFC Championship game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">The New England Patriots continued their remarkable turnaround this season by beating the Houston Texans 28-16 to reach the AFC Championship game.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">After winning just four games in his rookie season, quarterback Drake Maye led the Patriots to a 14-3 record and an unexpected play-off appearance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 23-year-old is a leading contender to be named the NFL&#8217;s Most Valuable Player and overcame both snow and the vaunted Texans defence to win Sunday&#8217;s Divisional Round game in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That secured the Patriots&#8217; first AFC Championship game since 2019, when legendary quarterback Tom Brady and New England claimed their sixth Super Bowl victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Houston&#8217;s defence was ranked as the NFL&#8217;s best this season and although the Texans claimed their first play-off win on the road last week, they have suffered a third straight Divisional Road exit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Patriots will hit the road next week to visit the Denver Broncos, the AFC&#8217;s top seed, for a place in Super Bowl 60 on Sunday, 8 February.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">More to follow.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#NFL #playoffs #England #Patriots #beat #Houston #Texans #reach #AFC #Championship #game<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New England Patriots continued their remarkable turnaround this season by beating the Houston Texans 28-16 to reach the AFC&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47831,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47829\/revisions\/47831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}