Kurt Warner: Chiefs’ final play of first half in AFC title game was doomed from start
Cornerback Eli Apple did a lot of celebrating on Twitter after the Bengals beat the Chiefs and advanced to Super Bowl LVI.
Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner said last week that Apple may have had the biggest play in the AFC Championship Game. You might be thinking that came when Apple tackled Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill short of the goal line to end the first half.
But it actually happened a few plays earlier when Apple interfered with Hill in the end zone, drawing a penalty.
“Could this defensive pass interference call be the biggest play that happened in all of the playoffs?” Warner asked in a YouTube video. “Normally a defensive penalty never works out well for the defense.”
Warner makes the case that had Hill caught the pass, the Chiefs likely would have gone up 28-10. If there was no penalty and the pass fell incomplete, it’s possible the Chiefs kick a field goal to go up 24-10. Any points at that point would have been huge for the Chiefs.
As fans know, the ball was placed at the 1-yard line and the Chiefs were unable to score, as their final play of the first half was a pass from Patrick Mahomes to Hill that gained zero yards.
In a detailed breakdown of Mahomes’ performance in the AFC Championship Game, Warner also gave his thoughts on that last pass of the first half and why it was doomed from the snap. The play call was not particularly good, Warner said.
After taking the snap with 5 seconds left in the second quarter and the Chiefs out of timeouts, Mahomes faked a handoff to running back Jerick McKinnon. That was problem No. 1, Warner said.
“First thing is, everybody in the stadium knows they can’t run the football here, they’re not going to run the football because if they run it, then they get stopped and the half’s over,” Warner said. “So they’ve got to throw it and they’ve got to throw it quickly. So first thing I ask is why play action?
“I don’t understand why the play action because you have to assume these guys (linebackers) aren’t going to fully bite on the play action because they don’t think you can run it here that’s taking too big of a risk.”
Mahomes then looked into the end zone, and because the linebackers never bit on the run option, there was no one open. That took about 1 second, which doesn’t seem like much, but it was 20% of the allotted time before halftime.
Man in motion?
“Second part is this motion here by Tyreek Hill,” Warner said. “Now, I’ve never done something where I motion a guy up in front of the quarterback and right behind the offensive line where I have them do what Tyreek Hill does. Why is he turning back towards the quarterback away from the goal line? I mean, I have no idea.
“I’ve no problem if you’re running a flat here, and you’re getting up the field a little bit and then you’re looking back at the quarterback. But in this case, he’s behind the line of scrimmage. And he just turns and looks back at the quarterback here, and there’s no chance for Patrick Mahomes to throw this out in front of him in a position where he can carry this into the end zone.”
Warner wondered if the snap may have been off but said it would have been better for the Chiefs if Hill had been beyond the line of scrimmage when Mahomes got the ball. Instead Hill wasn’t past the center when the snap came.
“So that’s a huge play in the game and I think it’s two-fold: The play action, first and foremost, I have no idea why. Right? Just get your best concept to the outside. Make a quick throw, get a rub play, if you don’t get it, throw it away. Take all the second reaction stuff out of the play so Patrick knows it’s either this or it’s nothing.
“Play action to me took too long, designed to go inside then have to react back to the outside, then that funky motion to throw. So many different things to me that were wrong about that at the end of the first half and it obviously may have cost the Chiefs the game.”
Warner also took a look at some of the Chiefs’ issues in the second half when they scored just three points.
“After the first half there were times that I felt like Patrick was a little bit tentative in what he would normally do,” Warner said.
It’s a 35-minute video, but I’ve set it up to break down the very last play of the first half. But it’s worth watching the entire breakdown if you are interested and have the time.
This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 12:19 PM.
