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The Kansas City Chiefs are back in the Super Bowl for the third consecutive year and the fifth time in six seasons, and almost no NFL fan is happy about it. Everywhere you look, it seems like none of the talk about the Chiefs is about their success or how they keep winning games on either side of the ball. Instead, it is about the officials and calls that people think are helping them win.
As a result, a narrative has been building that there’s a big fix in to help the Chiefs win with favorable calls. On Monday, the first day of Super Bowl week in New Orleans, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell quickly put that narrative to bed, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.
“NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says the idea that officials favor the Chiefs is a ‘ridiculous theory for anyone who might take it serious,'” Pelissero wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The Chiefs have benefitted from a few questionable calls, such as a pair of personal fouls against the Houston Texans. However, they have also had their fair share of calls go against them. One that sticks out is the pass interference call on cornerback Trent McDuffie near the end of the first half of the AFC Championship game. The Buffalo Bills declined the penalty because Mack Hollins caught a touchdown on the play.
The narrative that the officials help the Chiefs is unfortunate because it takes away from the excellence that they have displayed on both sides of the ball during their numerous playoff runs.
Offensively, the Chiefs had arguably their best outing of the season in the AFC Championship against the Bills. That game was the first tine that the Chiefs have scored 30 or more points in a game this season, and they did just enough to hold off Josh Allen and a Bills team that was right on their heels for the entire game. Patrick Mahomes had one of the most efficient games of his career and Andy Reid crafted a masterful game plan to get the Kansas City skill players the ball out in space.
Defensively, it was an up and down game for the Chiefs, but they won the big moments on that side of the ball in overwhelming fashion. They stopped the Bills on a pair of two-point conversions and a critical fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter. Then, on the biggest play of the game, Steve Spagnuolo pulled out a corner blitz that the Bills didn’t see coming and Allen’s fourth down pass fell incomplete to end the Bills’ chances.
Time and time again, the Chiefs come up with the goods, from both the coaching staff and the players, to win critical games in the final minutes. That is why they keep winning playoff games.
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