On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs found a way to escape the grave for at least one more week.
A week ago, I pointed out that the game against the Denver Broncos was as close as you could get to a do-or-die game in the regular season — but that wasn’t entirely true. Last week was do-or-die if Kansas City wanted to win the AFC West for a 10th consecutive season.
But the Week 12 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts was arguably more important, because this one was about making the playoffs at all. With
a loss, it would have been a long shot for Kansas City to make the playoffs — but with Sunday’s 23-20 overtime victory, NFL.com currently shows the team has a 54% chance to make the postseason.
Through much of the game, it seemed that the offense would waste a courageous defensive performance and let the season slip away; despite moving the ball well, Kansas City struggled to find the end zone. But the defense shut down the Colts (and put the ball back in the offense’s hands) often enough that quarterback Patrick Mahomes found a way to lead the offense to victory.
Yes… there is still a lot of work to be done. But the Chiefs are still in the fight.
Here are five things we learned from Sunday’s big home win.
1. Steve Spagnuolo has black magic voodoo
I don’t know if he sacrifices a chicken at midfield or puts amnesia-inducing substances in the opposing coaches’ Gatorade at halftime — but somehow, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo can make head coaches with superstar running backs forget about their bread and butter.
Despite leading until the final second of regulation, Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen decided to stop handing the ball off to the NFL’s leading rusher: running back Jonathan Taylor.
The Colts ran the ball just three times on their final four drives — all of which ended in three-and-outs, giving the ball back to Kansas City.
When you make a team like Indianapolis one-dimensional — and that dimension is Daniel Jones trying to pass his way to victory — you stand a pretty good chance of winning the game.
Spagnuolo has said that defenses have to earn the right to rush the quarterback. That’s exactly what Kansas City did on Sunday, holding Taylor to just 58 yards on 16 carries. Once Taylor was an afterthought in his coach’s mind, the team was free to blitz — and that forced Jones into making bad throws.
2. The Chiefs can actually run the ball
Kansas City’s running game was not exactly explosive on Sunday, but the team stayed committed to moving the ball on the ground, handing the ball off to running back Kareem Hunt 30 times. Through sheer will, he found a way to grind his way to 104 yards rushing.
While 3.5 yards per carry isn’t very impressive, committing to the run has never been about putting up big numbers. Instead, it’s about making Mahomes’ job easier by making play-action passing and RPOs more effective.
And that worked. To be clear, this wasn’t one of Mahomes’ best games. But he still passed for 352 yards in a game of attrition that eventually chipped through the Colts’ defense.
3. One of these things is not like the other
Coming off an embarrassing performance against Denver, two of the team’s three units stepped up. On offense, Kansas City committed to running the ball — and decided it was okay to trust its defense to get the ball back. Meanwhile, the defense took the game into its own hands, completely decimating the Colts’ offense in the second half.
But the special teams unit — also known as the redheaded stepchild who is eating crayons in the corner while the rest of the team is trying to win football games — was another story.
There is no world in which Kansas City head coach Andy Reid fires his longtime friend: assistant head coach and special teams coordinator Dave Toub. That’s a problem, because Toub’s unit has been continuing to watch — smiling through Crayola-stained teeth — as the offense tries to drive one long field after another after being backed up by penalties on mediocre kick returns.
4. Mahomes can be too good for his own good
They say too much of a good thing is bad for you.
That seems to be true with Mahomes. He is so competitive, smart and talented that he can try to do too much too fast. On Sunday — when he didn’t allow plays to develop — that played right into the hands of Lou Anarumo’s Indianapolis defense.
Mahomes can scan the field — analyzing everything that’s happening in front of him — faster than anyone in the game. But he is so fast that once he decides a play isn’t going to be there, he can sometimes bail out of the pocket and run right into pressure — often from a spying linebacker.
Kansas City’s receivers cannot win against man coverage on the outside — and that is a problem — but Mahomes sometimes needs to take a deep breath. He needs to stop trying to win the game on every play. He only needs to settle into the offense’s rhythm — because when he does, that’s when the magic happens.
5. Stone Cold Jones is back, baby!
For most of this season, the Chiefs have had to settle for their star defensive tackle manning the center of the defense.
But on Sunday, Chris Jones was AWOL. Taking his place was the CEO of Sack Nation — better known as Stone Cold Jones — who single-handedly willed the Colts’ pocket to crumble like the walls of Jericho.
When Kansas City signed him to his contract extension last season, the team wasn’t paying Chris Jones. It was paying his unstoppable alter ego: the madman Stone Cold Jones.
Let’s hope that the mild-mannered Jones stays out of sight for the rest of the season — so that Stone Cold can still come out and play.
