KANSAS CITY, Mo. – It was so fitting that in order for the Kansas City Chiefs to advance to Super Bowl 59 and seize the chance to make a special kind of history, they had to sweat it out at crunch time in the AFC title game. Been that way all season.
It’s the unmistakable M.O. of these Chiefs: Be clutch – or even blessed, fortunate, lucky, opportunistic, poised, resilient – when it matters most.
“For us to go through the season and win the games the way that we won them, I’m proud of the team,” Patrick Mahomes said, after the Chiefs became the first back-to-back champion to advance to a third consecutive Super Bowl. “We’re not to the ultimate goal yet. It’s going to be a great challenge for us with Philadelphia.”
That was so 2022.
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This time, the Chiefs – even with the magnificent Mahomes – didn’t score more than 30 points in a game until finishing off the Buffalo Bills (again) with a 32-29 verdict at Arrowhead Stadium. They ranked just 15th in the league in averaging 22.6 points per game during the regular season, yet with a defense that gave up the fourth-fewest points in the NFL, they still claimed the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.
More revealing than any of the stats about points, though, the Chiefs carry a streak of 17 consecutive victories in one-possession outcomes – including 12 this season. This team knows how to pull out the close ones.
“We’ve done it over and over again, it becomes habit,” Mahomes said. “Obviously, we want to win by more. But I think the regular season, winning all those close games, has prepared us for moments like today.”
If the Chiefs go on to become the first three-peat Super Bowl champion, you can’t say they didn’t withstand a gauntlet. Kansas City is 17-2 by the official measure, yet in what-ifs and but-only-how moments, they could be tapped out at 12-7 if they didn’t, well, know how to win. And how not to lose. I mean, Andy Reid and Co. have navigated some whale of a dramatic obstacle course.
On Sunday night, the Chiefs needed a fourth-down stop in the final two minutes – complete with a drop of a near-miracle catch – to survive and inflict more misery on those poor Buffaloes.
In Week 14, it took a “doink” field goal from emergency kicker Matthew Wright to edge the Chargers. In Week 10, Leo Chenal thwarted a Broncos upset with a blocked field goal as time expired. In Week 9, the Bucs played for a tie at the end of regulation…then KC won the overtime coin toss and promptly drove for a TD. In Week 2, Harrison Butker nailed a 51-yard kick as time expired – set up by a 29-yard pass interference penalty – to beat the Bengals. In Week 1, they won when replays showed Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely’s right big toe on the chalk line in the back of the end zone, nullifying an apparent game-tying TD catch as the clock struck zeroes.
In other words, it’s been one nerve-wracking way or another.
“I think the guys kind of thrive on that,” contended coach Andy Reid.
He recalled the conversation on the sideline before the dramatic finish against the Broncos. Chenal told special teams coordinator Dave Toub that he would block the kick.
“Toub goes, ‘Let’s go! Let’s go! We can get there,’ ” Reid said.
“He goes, ‘No, it’s done.’
“That’s kind of the attitude that these guys have. It’s not just him,” Reid added of Chenal. “It’s all of these guys. So, when given an opportunity, they’ve stepped up in those situations. As a coach, you love that part. And you know that’s a rare thing. These games could have gone either way. No different than (Sunday) night. Guys, they take so much pride in stepping up. They don’t shrink in those situations.”
The backbone also reflects a bigger picture. Last season’s unit certainly demonstrated grit in winning back-to-back games at Buffalo and Baltimore – the first road playoff games during the Mahomes era – to advance to the Super Bowl. Yet this unit has faced a different set of adversities brought on by key injuries.
Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, the fast, veteran receiving target signed last spring, suffered a shoulder injury during the preseason that sidelined him until late December. Running back Isiah Pacheco suffered a broken fibula in Week 2 and returned in late November. Rashee Rice, the second-year receiver, and Mecole Hardman, a Super Bowl hero last year, were finished with season-ending knee injuries.
The setbacks forced GM Brett Veach to aggressively fill voids. Kareem Hunt, who began his first Chiefs tenure as an NFL rushing champ and ended it with the controversy of an assault against a woman, was signed for a second chance. Former All-Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins and linebacker Josh Uche were obtained in trades. Left tackle D.J. Humphries, coming off a career-threatening torn ACL, was a late-season free agent signee in an effort to bolster an O-line that has struggled at the tackle posts.
In all, with injury-related moves added to the typical transactions, roughly 20 players on the Chiefs’ Super Bowl roster were not on the team last season.
“Every season is its own season,” Mahomes said. “Every team is different. You get new guys; you get guys who have to step up in different roles.”
It’s no wonder that Jones, the defensive tackle pillar, chuckled when someone asked the ninth-year pro if these repeated Super Bowl trips have become old hat.
“No, it don’t feel like old hat, routine,” Jones said. “I wish it was that easy.
“The challenge is, Brett Veach has got to bring in new guys every year. And with success, you have a lot of coaches, a lot of players, go to other teams, whether it’s for money, whether it’s for better opportunities. So, it’s like a start-over.”
That’s why Mahomes, in acknowledging the significance of a potential three-peat achievement, doesn’t go so far as to consider it a package deal. The superstar quarterback said, “You treat it as one season, one Super Bowl run, which is always hard to do.”
Still, it seems that the Chiefs – who won last year’s crown against the 49ers in a fashion, 25-22 in overtime, that foreshadowed what was to come this season – can at times tap into their championship heart and poise. Maybe that’s what carries over.
And for all of the grumbling in some circles about the purported favor the Chiefs get from close officiating calls, a bigger swing factor comes with the identity of a disciplined team that typically does not beat itself by committing self-inflicted mistakes in crunch time.
Why do the Chiefs keep winning the close ones?
“Because it’s everybody,” Mahomes said.
Which sounds a lot like the perfect formula.