Arrowhead Pride
In the waning seconds of the first half of last Friday night, the Kansas City Chiefs executed one of the NFL’s rarest and most chaotic plays: the “Mayday” field goal. With no timeouts and the clock bleeding down, Kansas City hustled its unit onto the field and nailed a 59-yarder that gave them three crucial points before halftime against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Special teams coordinator Dave Toub explained afterward just how much work goes into preparing for a moment that, in his words, “doesn’t happen very often.”
“Coach [Andy Reid] gives me a lot of time in training camp and OTAs to work on those little things — the situational stuff that could come up,” Toub said. “We practice fast field goal. We call it ‘Mayday.’ And we practice that a lot.”
The sequence began when tight end Noah Gray was tackled inbounds short of the sideline. With the clock running, the Chiefs’ special teams sprinted into action.
“When he got knocked back and didn’t get out of bounds, we knew right away,” recalled Toub. “Everybody was on the same page. Everybody knew, including Noah, that we had to go ‘Mayday.’ And everybody did a great job with it.”
The Chiefs even kept the same ball in play — the one Mahomes had been using — instead of waiting for an official to swap in a designated kicking ball.
“We didn’t change it,” Toub explained. “That might have kept us from getting a shot at it. A lot of credit to everybody. The operation went smoothly, and [Harrison] Butker nailed it. It was good to get three points right there.”
Toub credited Chiefs analytics coordinator Mike Frazier for drilling those scenarios into the staff and players.
“Mike talks to us all the time about what happens if you get tackled and the clock keeps running,” Toub said. “He talks about the timing stuff with the whole team. That’s a big part of being ready.”
Kansas City actually ran the play faster than they believed possible.
“20 seconds is comfortable” explained Toub. “You can run a play, no timeouts, and still run fast field goal. In practice, we push it — 17, 16, 15 seconds. We’ve done it in 15, but that’s a perfect world — no refs, no ball change. 17 is about as low as you can go in the regular season.”
The Chiefs pulled it off even faster — without setting it up with the officials beforehand.
“They’re pretty well coached up,” noted Toub. “If you’re running out there, they kind of work with you. They’re not going to slow it down. They understand what you’re trying to do. But that’s the part you don’t know. That’s the unknown. That’s where you have to build in a couple [of] seconds.”
The Chiefs’ flawless execution of an emergency field goal stood out as a testament to their preparation. For Toub, it was another reminder that the smallest details can mean the most in big games.
“It doesn’t happen...
