Arrowhead Pride
Kansas City’s special teams coordinator said Sunday’s game-winning block was a team effort.
On Sunday afternoon, the Kansas City Chiefs’ special teams unit turned a 17-16 loss into a 16-14 victory by blocking the Denver Broncos’ 35-yard field goal with one second left in regulation — a breathtaking play that fans will remember for many years to come.
While linebacker Leo Chenal is collecting all the flowers for making the play, both he and special teams coordinator Dave Toub have been making an effort to spread the kudos around. On Thursday, Toub made sure that defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi, defensive end George Karlaftis, linebacker Jack Cochrane and safety Justin Reid all got their fair share.
“[The] guys did a great job,” Toub told reporters, “whether it was Nnadi sweeping the arm and getting that tackle to lean forward, George and Leo hitting the C-gap at the same time or Jack in the D-gap coming hard. And then you’ve got Justin, who’s really the engine of the whole thing — because if you don’t have that fast edge guy, they don’t overplay him. The wing had to go out and put two hands on him, [which] kind of loosens it up for everybody else. That’s why it happened.”
Toub explained that Reid rushes on placekicks because he’s got the fastest “get-off” Toub has ever recorded — a time so brief it must be measured by counting frames of game film.
“What we do is time [players by] how many frames it is [from] when the ball is snapped,” revealed Toub. “How long does it take you to get off? He is consistently under a 10-frame ‘get-off’ — which is, by far, really, really good.”
According to Toub, Chenal is right behind Reid.
“Leo has the next-best [time],” said the coordinator. “I mean, [it’s] within one frame less. Leo is explosive — and he’s a bigger guy, you know, bringing power and explosiveness to the table. [It took] the effort [from] both of those guys — and really the whole unit — to make that play work.”
Toub said that Sunday’s successful block has been coming for a while. When he made Sunday’s call to go for it, he was pretty sure his players could get it done.
“Our guys believe in what we’re doing; they always have great effort,” noted the coordinator. “So you always think that they’ve got a chance to get it.
“You know, throughout the season, you’ve seen [they’ve] been very close — whether it’s Justin off the edge or Leo. In fact, [Leo] got his fingertip on the ball on the second extra point; he came into the huddle and told me that he got his finger on it. So we knew that there was a possibility. But it’s such a long shot to be able to get that. And, you know, we’re fortunate the effort and everything was excellent. The guys came through.”
And just in time, too. The previous special-teams play had been Harrison Butker’s...
