Inside Chiefs’ huddle before final stop vs. Bills — and the adjustments that helped
When the Kansas City Chiefs’ defenders returned to the sideline for the two-minute warning Sunday night, the season was in their hands.
This was absolutely true in the Chiefs’ eventual 27-24 road playoff victory over the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium. And so was this point:
Kansas City’s defense had never faced a situation this daunting all season.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen faced a second-and-9 from the Chiefs’ 26, carrying the power to score a game-winning touchdown that would’ve allowed KC almost no time to respond.
And here’s what the Chiefs’ defenders were up against: At that two-minute break, they’d already been on the field 76 plays — the most the starters had played in any game this season when not counting a Week 18, play-the-backups affair against the Los Angeles Chargers.
Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill said his teammates knew that challenge. And they also embraced it when talking to each other during that final stoppage.
“We just got back to guys in the huddle and said, ‘We’ve got to deliver that blow.’ All champions have that blow,” Tranquill said. “They have that in their tank in the fourth quarter — in the 15th round — to go and finish it.”
Sure enough, the Chiefs’ defense delivered without injured starters Mike Edwards and Willie Gay — and also when it’s safe to say past years’ iterations might not have come through.
“Everybody in that huddle was like, ‘Give it your all for those two plays, and let’s get off the field,’” Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie said. “Fortunate enough, they missed a field goal, and the rest is history.”
That didn’t take place, however, until the Chiefs’ defense succeeded on two enormous plays.
Safety Justin Reid hinted the team had an inkling when returning to the field of what Allen might try.
“We thought they were gonna take a shot to the end zone,” Reid said. “We knew that that was coming.”
Sure enough, on the second-down play, Allen turned down a chance at an intermediate route while trying to target Khalil Shakir deep. His pass never got there, however, partly because of pressure from the Chiefs’ Chris Jones, who rushed around the edge against left tackle Dion Dawkins.
Jones admitted afterward that KC’s second-half success was partly because of a second-half adjustment. The Chiefs changed their rushing lanes when trying to get after Allen while attempting to limit his scrambles.
To shift things that drastically, Jones said, took both commitment and guys being unselfish. He later described the defensive group as having “one heckuva brotherhood.”
“We were kind of successful with it,” Jones said of the altered pass-rush style.
The Chiefs also were solid on the ensuing third-and-9. The team rushed four, as Allen was flushed to his right when he couldn’t find a receiver open.
With the Chiefs’ Charles Omenihu chasing him, Allen eventually threw it away, setting up a fateful 43-yard field-goal attempt that Tyler Bass sailed wide right.
“I think guys did their job, forced Josh Allen to make a few throws that he probably could have made, but he didn’t,” McDuffie said. “Just trust each other. When it gets down to crunch time like that, and things kind of go crazy, you don’t know what the offense is doing, it always just goes back to your coaching — your technique, just focusing on that.”
Tranquill likened the final sequence to a boxing match a few times after the game. When the Chiefs needed to dig deep after they’d been bloodied and beaten, they found a way to remain upright.
“It felt like in the fourth quarter there — in the 15th round — like we had the blows to give to help us win the game,” Tranquill said. “Man, that’s why you train and play this game, for moments like this.”
The defense also received some motivational words elsewhere.
Sometime in the fourth quarter, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said he made his way over to the defense on the sideline. His message: If you shut the Bills down, the Chiefs would be going to the AFC Championship Game.
Buffalo, on its final three drives, scored zero points.
And that fact wasn’t lost on Mahomes afterward.
“I told them next time I’ll try to tell them earlier,” Mahomes said during his postgame interview with a laugh. “If I can tell them at halftime to do that, they’ll shut them out from there.”
The truth, though: This was a grind for KC’s defense. And one could tell just from a journey around the team’s locker room after the game.
Before walking out, Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo quipped with a pair of reporters that he wanted to retire before having to face the Bills’ offense again.
Reid, meanwhile, praised Allen’s play repeatedly while recapping the game, calling him a “helluva player” while lauding his ability to produce on third and fourth downs.
“Most other teams, we would’ve been off the field,” Reid said, “and he finds a way to create with his legs.”
In the end, though, the Chiefs persevered, with Jones and Tranquill celebrating demonstrably on the sideline in the game’s final minute.
They had pulled through during a difficult time — and also with the season on the line.
“It feels good to come into a hostile environment with snowballs flying at you, signs, middle fingers pointing at you,” Tranquill said. “And to come out the red, the white, the gold, baby ... we’re going to the AFC Championship Game.”
This story was originally published January 22, 2024 at 6:30 AM.
