There is no doubt that it’s in the Kansas City Chiefs‘ favor that the Washington Commanders‘ starting quarterback Jayden Daniels has been reported to be out for this weekend’s “Monday Night Football” matchup
between the teams.
But the Chiefs aren’t exactly congratulating themselves on their good fortune, either.
That’s because Kansas City has… uhhh… history with Washington’s backup quarterback Marcus Mariota. On January 6, 2018, he was the starting quarterback for the Tennessee Titans when they came into Arrowhead Stadium for a Wild Card playoff game.
The Chiefs started fast, jumping out to a 21-3 lead. But then we saw one of the wildest plays in NFL history.
The Titans were in the red zone — threatening to score — when Mariota scrambled left. For a moment, it looked like he was going to run the ball in for a touchdown. But at the last second, he pulled up to target wide receiver Corey Davis in the back of the end zone. This required forcing the ball over three Chiefs defenders. One of them was future Hall of Fame cornerback Darrelle Revis, who jumped up and batted it down.
Fortunately for Tennessee, the ball came right back into Mariota’s arms — and he ended up running it into the end zone for a touchdown after all.
It was the beginning of the end for Kansas City. That touchdown was the first of 19 unanswered points the Titans scored en route to a 22-21 win.
Since then, things haven’t gone well for Mariota. He’s now on his fourth team in five years, collecting a 15-20 record as a starter during that time. But the Chiefs vivdly remember the day Mariota came into their house and ended their season. Head coach Andy Reid began his Thursday remarks by referencing that .
“Mariota, we know, has come in here and won a game,” he told reporters, who probably didn’t need the reminder. “He’s a good football player, and we don’t slight that at all.”
Rookie quarterback Patrick Mahomes was watching from the sidelines that day. Just a week after his first NFL start — a meaningless (but thrilling) 27-24 win over the Denver Broncos — he was once again Alex Smith’s backup for the playoffs.
“It was such a crazy swing of momentum,” he recalled. “There were a couple of plays here and there that kind of changed the whole thing. If you talk about the Derrick Johnson sack-fumble that didn’t get called — and then Marcus making that crazy play.“
Oh, yeah. That crazy sack-fumble.
“There were plays that had so much momentum that we didn’t capitalize on — which I’ve learned from,” added Mahomes. “You can’t let those plays completely change the game. You have to find ways to manage that.”
Those moments were awful. But with the benefit of hindsight, it’s possible for Kansas City fans to be grateful for the loss that ended the 2017 season, which was Smith’s final start for the Chiefs. Mariota’s comeback helped usher in the Mahomes era.
“[Mariota’s] had a lot of great moments,” noted Mahomes, “and he’s had moments when he wanted to get back. But at the same time, he’s persevered — and gotten better and better. Now he’s in a great spot — where he’s obviously teaching Jayden. When he comes in the game, you can tell he is one of the top-tier backup quarterbacks who’s going to go out there and have success whenever his number is called.”
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo believes the Commanders’ offense won’t be much different with Mariota at the helm.
“I think they did a really good job for their team by getting a backup quarterback who fits exactly what they [do],” he observed on Friday. “Sometimes we play a dropback quarterback, [but] the backup is an athlete. [So] we’ve always got to talk about [that] — and maybe have a couple of reps in practice — in case this happens. [But] I don’t think they skip a beat in terms of what they’re doing offensively.”
Linebacker Nick Bolton sees the same thing.
“They do a great job of keeping the offense similar in the things that they do — [except] Mariota runs the ball a little bit more with his legs.”
In any case, Kansas City has enough information to be ready for Washington’s backup.
“He played a couple of games this year,” noted Bolton, “[and] played some games for them last year. So we’ve got some tape to look at — just figuring out what he does best and treating him as a regular quarterback.”
Still, the Chiefs’ institutional memory includes what happened on that dark day in 2018. Hopefully, that bad taste in their mouths will motivate them to shut Mariota down on Monday night.
