What were KC Chiefs wanting on last play of 1st half vs. Bengals? Mahomes, Reid explain
Sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson relayed the message to the CBS television booth, with broadcaster Jim Nantz announcing it to millions of fans worldwide.
With 5 seconds left in the first half, Wolfson heard Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes say something to coach Andy Reid near the sideline: “Give me one more. I can do it.”
The moment will loom large for an entire offseason following KC’s 27-24 overtime loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game at Arrowhead Stadium.
Reid, in the moment, decided to trust his superstar quarterback. And at this point, who can blame him?
Remember, the week before, Mahomes and teammate Travis Kelce freelanced their way to a game-tying field goal with 13 seconds left in regulation against the Buffalo Bills; instead of running the designed schemes, the two created their own routes during timeouts between plays.
So why not lean on Mahomes here? KC led 21-10 with the ball on the Cincinnati 1-yard-line with 5 seconds left in the first half and no timeouts left, and Reid could’ve opted for a certain three points to pad the lead.
He put the ball, though, in his best player’s hands.
This time, Mahomes didn’t come through.
Start here: Reid’s decision wasn’t a touchdown try or a field-goal attempt. With 5 seconds remaining, he believed KC could have both, dialing up a pass over the middle he hoped would either get a quick TD or go incomplete fast enough to give the Chiefs a chip-shot kick.
“I probably gave him the wrong play, first of all, to start with,” Reid said, who frequently took accountability for his team’s errors in the postgame press conference. “I could’ve given him something better than that, where the player’s open in the end zone, and we wouldn’t have had to go through that. But I’ll take responsibility for that one.”
Here’s what the Chiefs did run: a play-action pass, though for that scenario, it was probably apparent that the Chiefs wouldn’t gamble with a run getting stuffed to end the half. Receiver Demarcus Robinson was jammed at the line to slow him down, while Kelce ran an inside route amid lots of traffic in the center of the end zone.
Mahomes looked off both quickly, throwing to receiver Tyreek Hill in the flat, who had come in motion before the snap.
Hill’s task was challenging: He would have to try to beat two defenders to the end zone. Cincinnati cornerback Eli Apple didn’t let him, tackling Hill inbounds for no gain as the final seconds ticked off the first-half clock.
That ended up costly, especially in a game with a frantic Bengals rally that eventually ended up in OT.
Mahomes, meanwhile, said he walked to the line of scrimmage knowing KC’s previous play had only taken four seconds. In that one, the Chiefs ran a rub route to try to get Hill open on the goal line, but when Mahomes didn’t like what he saw, he quickly tossed the ball to the turf to conserve time.
That sequence took the game clock from nine to five seconds.
Mahomes said he “knew that the time was low, obviously” and understood the importance of KC getting points — either three or seven — in that scenario.
“We called a play that, we were trying to get someone over the middle quick,” Mahomes said. “And then I was supposed to throw the ball away. I got a little greedy there and tried to get it to Tyreek to get a touchdown.”
The decision started KC’s Butterfly Effect. The Chiefs offense stagnated in the second half, while the Bengals came to life under QB Joe Burrow. Cincinnati’s defense found success dropping eight into coverage, and uncharacteristically, Mahomes couldn’t figure answers to that quickly enough.
Another potential regret: Reid used a timeout before challenging a third-and-short run play spot in the first quarter. Though the Chiefs won the challenge, they lost one more chance to stop the clock at the end of the half.
It was a minor detail that might not have an impact on most contests ... but for this one will remain at the top of the “What If” jar as the Chiefs evaluate what went wrong this offseason.
Having said all that, Mahomes reiterated this afterward: The plan going into that throw at the end of the first half wasn’t to sell out for a touchdown. Instead, it was to go for seven while always having three as a backup plan.
Things went unscripted from there, though, creating the type of nuttiness that saved the Chiefs as recently as a week ago.
Here, however, it set them back — in the biggest of games and most critical of situations.
“I mean, in the long run of things, it looks bad,” Mahomes said, “but if we had another chance, I would have went for another play (before a field-goal try) again.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2022 at 8:17 PM.
