The Kansas City Chiefs are headed back to the Super Bowl. This is their third appearance in four years. Arguably this is their least talented team of the three trips. No Tyreek Hill. No Tyrann Mathieu. No Charvarius Ward. In this year’s AFC Championship, the Chiefs featured seven rookies. SEVEN! Skyy Moore, Isiah Pacheco, George Karlaftis, Jaylen Watson, Trent McDuffie, Bryan Cook and Joshua Williams all played meaningful minutes to help the Chiefs get to the Super Bowl. That is great scouting, development, and coaching.
Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Mecole Hardman came into the championship hurt. Hardman played but had to exit the game due to injury. Unfortunately, Kadarius Toney and JuJu Smith-Schuster also exited the game due to injury. L’Jarius Sneed exited the game early due to a concussion. Sneed, a key cog in Coach Spagnuolo’s defense was arguably the biggest loss of the game for the Chiefs. Once again Patrick Mahomes had to carry the team. Who else was going to step up?
Despite the Chief’s loss of Sneed, the defense gave the offense chances securing two interceptions. Rookie Jaylen Watson picked off Joe Burrow late in the 2nd quarter. Unfortunately, Mahomes and company went three and out after the turnover. Midway thru the fourth quarter, Bryan Cook tipped a pass to Joshua Williams for the Chiefs second interception of the night. Still, the Chiefs could not convert the turnover into points. However, Chris Jones stepped up to the plate sacking Joe Burrow at two critical points in the game. His first sack came on a 3rd and 18 late in the first quarter. On the Chiefs next offensive possession they drove to 4th and goal on the Bengal’s six-yard line and settled for a field goal. Jone’s second sack came at the most critical point in the game.
With 44 seconds left in the game, Chris Jones sacked Joe Burrow for a seven-yard loss on a 3rd and 8 call, forcing the Bengals to punt. Jones lined up outside the left tackle, bull rushed him and took Burrow down. This set up the Chiefs game winning field goal drive.
Skyy Moore returned the punt 29 yards to the Chiefs 47-yard line. Isiah Pacheco took the handoff and battered six tough yards out, failing to get even sniff the sidelines forcing Coach Andy Reid to spend his last timeout. The next play was an incomplete pass. On 3rd and 4, Mahomes takes the snap, seeing no open receivers, he pulls the ball down and runs for the first down marker. As he crosses the marker and goes out of bounds, Joseph Ossai pushes Mahomes into the bench area causing a penalty flag to fly. With the penalty yardage tacked on the Chiefs were now in field goal range with 8 seconds left on the clock. Harrison Butker nailed the game winning kick sending the Chiefs to the Super Bowl.
Chris Jones last sack set the Chiefs up to get the go-ahead score. Credit the Bengals. Tee Higgins and Jamar Chase showed off their ball skills as they routinely timed jumps to pull down contested balls for critical receptions. Burrow was unflappable and unphased. He made difficult throw after difficult throw. Remarkably he threw the ball down field for receptions when he was backed up against his own goal line.
The Bengals played tough, physical defense stuffing the Chiefs run game. They also did a good job harassing Mahomes. In the second half Mahomes was forced to flow to his left out of the pocket to find open receivers. This put tremendous strain on his high ankle sprain, but Mahomes battled thru the pain. He wasn’t perfect. He missed a few open receivers. He fumbled a snap away in his one and only turnover. Still, Mahomes was the reason the Chiefs offense was in the game. Mahomes was the reason they were in position to win.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling stepped up big in the AFC Championship, snagging six receptions for 116 yards and a touchdown. Kelce played thru pain and snagged seven passes for 78 yards and a touchdown. While Isiah Pacheco was ineffective as a runner, he caught five passes for 59 yards helping the Chiefs move the chains at critical points in the game. Mahomes’s game cannot be understated. The Bengals held the Chiefs to 42 rushing yards forcing Mahomes to throw the ball 43 times. He connected on 29 of those passes for 326 yards and 2 touchdowns. This is a heroic effort for a player who is playing thru the pain of a high ankle sprain. You could Mahomes hobbling around the field at different points in the game. It was a gutsy performance.
Now the Chiefs must rest, recover and heal up for a largely untested Eagles team. The Super Bowl will feature a topflight passing attack versus a top flight pass defense. The Eagles are riding high on their NFC Championship win. However, don’t let the point spread fool you. It’s easy to play and win against a team that lacks a quarterback throwing the ball down the field. I will have more thoughts on the Super Bowl matchup in a week. For now, the Chiefs are on to another Super Bowl.
