Stampede Blue
The most anticipated Game 7 since the NBA Finals some months back, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is set to face off against defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo. This rendition of an unstoppable force versus an immovable object features a book with six juicy chapters published already, with the series’ conclusion set to end this Sunday as the Indianapolis Colts travel to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the Kansas City Chiefs.
Of course, there’s a chance these two face off sometime down the road, but as far as this season goes, meeting again in the playoffs feels unlikely, although it’s possible; therefore, the series between them can effectively end this season and start anew in another. With that being said, football will forever be a team sport first and foremost, so shrinking this matchup between the Colts and Chiefs to being nothing more than a quarterback versus a coordinator seems sacrilegious, but there’s too much history here to not revisit once more.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is naturally a part of this equation, and so is Lou Anarumo’s stable of horses. Anarumo has seemingly had Mahomes and Reid’s collective number over the years, especially after climbing out to a 3-0 record against the two, but the Chiefs have rebounded in recent memory to tie up the series and force a Game 7.
There needs to be an asterisk next to Mahomes and Co.’s win streak, however, given the resources that Anarumo was afforded during said stretch. An excuse, potentially, but also added context.
This isn’t to suggest that Lou Anarumo is Patrick Mahomes or Andy Reid’s Kryptonite, so long as he is afforded the resources necessary to get the job done, but Anarumo was unjustly scapegoated out of Cincinnati after not being able to do more with less. The Bengals let their defensive core walk and attempted to replace them with lesser moves entirely, oftentimes players on rookie contracts.
Lou Anarumo’s 2024-25 Bengals defense was certainly a step back from recent years, but the personnel that he was provided proved to be unfit. Even if said defense rebounded late in the year, the absence of a true nose tackle and a youthful defensive backfield resulted in missed tackles galore — something fans and analysts alike were afraid would happen after letting key players like DT D.J. Reader and S Jessie Bates walk in recent years prior.
Perhaps the Bengals were right in their assessment that the key players from Cincinnati’s Super Bowl run — something Anarumo was instrumental in — had begun to decline, but their succession plan, plus the subsequent firing of Anarumo, were not the right calls, hindsight bias or not.
Even the Kelce brothers took to their podcast post-firing to air out their disagreements. “I don’t know what the f–k is going on over there,” said Chiefs TE Travis Kelce. “I don’t think they had the horses on defense that they’ve had in the past, and Lou got handcuffed…He’s proven how good of a DC he...
