Arrowhead Pride
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.
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.
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...
