How the Chiefs won by being tougher than the NFL’s toughest team

Wins and losses are decided on a razor’s edge. The difference between glory and defeat is often an inch here, a foot there, decided between men bigger than anyone you are likely to run into in your normal life colliding as hard as they can and seeing where the ball ends up.

This is how the Chiefs earned the win of their season so far. Twice.

Toughness in football is like a bank account on Wall Street. This is how everything is measured, how ultracompetitive men determine success and shame. And you should know that the Chiefs spent a decent chunk of last week manufacturing a useful rage about the Seahawks coming to Arrowhead Stadium with the reputation of being the NFL’s toughest team.

So you know that no matter the company line about there still being six games (plus the playoffs?) left, the Chiefs will remember this 24-20 win over the defending Super Bowl champions as one of their best days regardless of what happens from here on out.

And when they remember this win, they will remember three moments in particular. Three moments when the Chiefs could’ve lost this game or been in grave danger of losing it, but instead won because they were tougher when it mattered most.

“We love those situations,” middle linebacker Josh Mauga says, and he’s smiling when these words come out of his mouth.

The first moment came midway through the fourth quarter. The Chiefs led by four, but the Seahawks were coming down the field like a freight train. Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson and running back Marshawn Lynch pushed the ball forward with clinical efficiency, going 73 yards in nine plays until it was third and goal.

Lynch had been ripping through the Chiefs’ defense for most of the afternoon. A calf injury limited him in practice during the week, and he didn’t even bother going in with his team during halftime, instead getting on-field treatment from a trainer to his hip, groin and back. But tackling Lynch is a bit like tackling a bowling ball, so of course the Seahawks gave it to him on third down.

When he broke through the line of scrimmage, it looked for a moment like he would go into the end zone and the Seahawks would lead.

But Lynch’s opening turned into a wall of Chiefs at the 2-yard line. Defensive lineman Allen Bailey was in the middle of it, like he has been so many times this season, but linebacker Tamba Hali, Mauga, even safety Husain Abdullah, were among the help.

That set up fourth and goal from the 2. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll made the reasonable decision to go for it, but the curious decision to do it with a fade route. They tried to rub the Chiefs’ cornerbacks — a pick play, essentially — on a pass to Doug Baldwin. Sean Smith and Phillip Gaines suspected this might be coming. They had just talked about this very thing, actually.

“The play before that, when Ron Parker made a tackle, that was my guy, but the slot guy picked me,” Smith says. “The next play, we talked, we’re going to pass these things off, we’re not going to get picked like this and give them an easy touchdown. Me and Gaines talked about it before — it happened, and (it) played into our hands.”

Baldwin, of course, has a different view.

“I was interfered (with),” he says. “It was obvious. I’ve played this game long enough to know what the difference is. It is what it is. As far as I know, when the ball is in the air, I’m not supposed to be touched by the defender. Period. That’s the rule.”

The officials on the field didn’t see it that way, another symbol of the razor’s edge between victory and defeat. But either way, the Seahawks had another chance when they got the ball back on the Chiefs’ 45 with 6:15 left.

The moment of the game came four snaps into it, on fourth and 1. According to the awesome Pro Football Focus, this was Lynch’s eighth career carry on fourth and 1. He’d only been stopped twice before, and never since his rookie year in 2007.

Good odds, right?

Except the Chiefs’ defensive line closed like a steel door. Bailey was given the tackle on the stat sheet, but really, he was at the front of a mob of teammates.

“We’ve got grit,” he says.

“We wanted to challenge them,” Mauga says.

“You could literally feel the ground shaking,” Smith says.

If any of those three plays go the other way, we are probably discussing an entirely different result. Most NFL games are decided on the margins like this, and in so many seasons it can be the difference between 11-5 and 7-9.

The Chiefs beat the Super Bowl champs in something that more closely resembled a brawl than art. They didn’t dominate in any way that shows up in a cold look at the numbers. The Seahawks outgained the Chiefs by 74 yards. The Chiefs lost two fumbles and forced no turnovers.

Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith talks constantly of the importance of third down, but the Chiefs converted just two of six. Smith threw for just 108 yards, and the wide receivers combined for two catches and 18 yards. Jamaal Charles was great, again, but the Chiefs were still outgained on the ground.

They won this game in the shadows, the way good teams win a lot of games. They won this game between the tackles, the way tough teams win a lot of games.

Chiefs fans have rooted for enough teams that have lost these games to know the difference. This easily could have been one of those games.

Instead, the Chiefs beat the champs. Instead, the Chiefs and Broncos are now tied for first place.

This story was originally published November 16, 2014 at 8:13 PM with the headline "How the Chiefs won by being tougher than the NFL’s toughest team."