NFL
By Bill Carroll
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity: A famous quote by Roman philosopher Seneca, has often been repeated and is quite fitting. Here are some others that may apply:
- People always call it luck when you’ve acted more sensibly than they have. A quote by Anne Tyler.
- Luck is the savior for the few but a demon for the masses. A quote by Michael Titorenko
Ah, the Kansas City Chiefs, the past masters of high drama and cardiac infarction football. Much like the holidays themselves, their games are a mix of joy, stress, and that one unpredictable uncle (or kicker) who either saves the day or sets the house on fire. With Andrew Walter Reid at the helm and Patrick Mahomes as his quarterbacking Rudolph, the Chiefs’ knack for eking out close victories has become as reliable as Mariah Carey’s return to the airwaves every December.
The Gift of Greatness
Let’s start with the obvious: the Chiefs’ close-game success is more than a yuletide miracle. It’s what happens when you combine an all-time great coach, a quarterback with more tricks than a holiday magician, and a team that understands the assignment. Kansas City has now won an astounding 15 straight one-possession games. It’s as if they’ve turned the final minutes of every contest into their eggnog-fueled recital of “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”
This year alone, they’ve claimed six victories on the game’s final play. Six! For context, that’s more buzzer-beaters than a December full of NBA highlight reels. Their latest thriller, a 19-17 victory over the Chargers featuring a field goal that just grazed the upright, was a masterclass in staying cool under pressure. If “miracle kicks” were a Christmas special, the Chiefs would be its recurring star.
Mahomes Under a Mistletoe (of Pressure)
Patrick Lavon Mahomes II is a generational talent, but even Santa needs a new sleigh now and then. Defensive coordinators have adjusted, decking their schemes with man coverage and daring Mahomes to dink and dunk. Gone are the days when he’d gleefully heave deep balls to Tyreek Hill like a kid tossing snowballs. Now, he plays the short game like a parent assembling a thousand-piece LEGO Death Star set at 2 AM, methodical, precise, and with fewer explosions.
Still, Mahomes finds ways to shine, even when the Chiefs are playing with the kind of offensive line shuffle that makes last-minute gift-wrapping look organized. Critics who touted the “Tampa Bay Blueprint” for beating Kansas City to drop seven in coverage, rush four, and with two deep safeties and pray. However, some forget that it only worked because the Chiefs’ offensive line that day was held together with duct tape and hope.
Facing the Chargers’ second-ranked 3rd down defense, the Chiefs were 8 of 15 and went three of three on the game-clinching drive. The emblematic conversion was that Mahomes made a defender miss and spied Travis Michael Kelce. Kelce was designed to run a Corner/Over route depending upon the coverage, however, as is his wont, he read the coverage, altered his route, and just settled down past the yardage needed for the first down.
The Kansas City Chiefs anticipated man coverage and a Cover Zero blitz from the Los Angeles Chargers on a pivotal post-two-minute warning play at Arrowhead Stadium.
“If they’d run it, it would’ve been a perfect call,” said coach Andy Reid.
But the Chargers tried to fool the kings of clutch football, breaking with their usual tendencies. The Chiefs’ play design was effectively neutralized, at least it was on paper. This only provided another stage for the improvisational duo of Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, a duo whose brilliance turns doomed plays into highlight-reel moments.
“It was a naked bootleg with a back on the slide,” Reid explained. “They zoned it off, but Pat had the ball in his hands, moving. That’s where he thrives.”
Kelce, instead of following the scripted route to the corner, recognized the defensive shift and relied on the instincts that will land him in Canton someday. What followed was vintage Mahomes to Kelce: a broken play salvaged by elite vision and unscripted chemistry.
On Monday night, left tackle DJ Humphries played his first game for Kansas City, he is their third player at the position so far. Not surprisingly, he struggled. The Chargers defense posted 13 hits on Patrick Mahomes, including three sacks. After a shaky start, he looked to be rounding into form when he left the game with a hamstring. So far this year, the Chiefs have started second-round rookie Kingsley Suamataia only to bench him for a redshirt season while second-year man Wanya Morris took over. However, Morris suffered a bone bruise in recent weeks and hasn’t been as effective and mobile as the team would prefer.
Something OL’d: With three games in 13 days, if he is going to miss a game, Donovan Cole Smith, a former Kansas City Chief and left tackle who has won Super Bowl rings with two franchises, including last season with the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII against the San Francisco 49ers.
Something New
Two special teams assets, Nikko Remigio performed well as a punt returner, including a 21-yarder and the Chief’s third place kicker, Matthew Wright returns and has a 91.67% percentage on field goals with a long of 50
Something Borrowed
As a kicker Wright is quite accurate, however he is not suited to booming kickoffs deep so they have borrowed safety Justin Reid kicked off five times against the Chargers. Why?
“Just his length of kickoffs,” coach Andy Reid explained, via Ed Easton of USA Today. “The ability to kick it into the end zone there consistently.”
Justin Reid kicked off five times, with one touch back, but most of his returns reached the end zone. Chargers returner Derius Davis averaged 26.5 yards on his four returns, with a long of 37.
Something [Someone] Grew
Tershawn Wharton is a 26-year-old former, un-drafted free agent from Missouri S&T. He had what may have been the best game of his Kansas City career with three solo tackles, two sacks and was a key part of Kansas City’s firm run defense that kept the Chargers under 100 rushing yards.
Dave Toub: The Secret Elf On The Shelf
Special teams often get the same attention as scalloped potatoes, forgotten until you realize how much they can save the day. But not in Kansas City. Special teams’ coordinator Dave Toub is like the ultimate holiday multitasker, the guy who builds the gingerbread house and lights up the neighborhood like Clark Griswold.
Toub’s contributions have been quietly pivotal. Need proof? His ability to extract excellence from every phase of the kicking and return game has made him one of Andy Reid’s most trusted elves. From his days coaching Devin Devorris Hester Sr. in Chicago to molding the Chiefs’ special teams into a perennial advantage, Toub has been crafting wins with the precision of a toy maker. There is a reason that not so long ago his was a name bandied about for head coaching jobs.
Close Wins: A Christmas Card from Destiny
The Chiefs’ penchant for nail-biters boils down to two things: they are very used to wins, and their opponents need near-perfection to beat them. While the margins are thin as a gingerbread man’s mustache made of frosting. That they need the occasional toe-tap on the sideline or a kicker who’s ice-cold under pressure, proves that fortune favors the prepared, doesn’t it?
Kansas City’s statistics back up their dominance. They’re first in third-down conversions (a tidy 51.96%), they top the league in double-digit drives resulting in touchdowns and boast the NFL’s sixth-best defense, holding opponents to 310.1 yards per game. It’s like they’re hoarding time of possession the way your great-aunt hoards wrapping paper.
The Bottom Line
The Chiefs march to the playoffs, as their close-game streak feels less like luck and more like the natural order of things. For every opponent dreaming of a Christmas miracle, Kansas City is there to remind them that it’s hard to be a Grinch when you’re up against the best closers in football.
So, here’s to more heart-stopping finishes, upright-caressing field goals, and last-second heroics. Because if the Chiefs are anything like the holidays, they’ll keep us all on our toes until the clock strikes zero.
