How the Chiefs made the coldest night in Arrowhead history feel like hell for Miami
The Chiefs blew out the Miami Dolphins late Saturday, so evidently the better team in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs that the score should’ve been more lopsided than the 26-7 final.
So evidently the better team, really, that it’s easy to forget where it stood late in the second quarter: Only a six-point game, the Dolphins holding the ball past midfield, the chance to conclude the first half with a score and open the second half with the football.
It’s hard to argue for a swing play in a game eventually decided by 19 points, but this is one.
With the culmination of the past 18 months as the backdrop.
The play? The Dolphins kept their offense on the field for fourth-and-2, and before he called for the ball, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa looked left and already saw a problem. His first read, Tyreek Hill, was lined up in the slot opposite Trent McDuffie and Chamarri Conner. They had Hill doubled — both showing press coverage.
Had to be a mistake, right? So Tagovailoa looked toward his linemen, and then returned his eyes to Hill once more before the snap.
Still there. Both of them.
But if you thought he might be confused before the snap, well, that’s just the beginning. The post-snap look? Something the Chiefs haven’t done all season.
They rushed two. Not blitzed two extra. They had two guys rush the passer. Total. The Chiefs dropped nine defenders in coverage, and seeing that he had no one to throw the ball toward, Tagovailoa took off.
But when you try to scramble against a team dropping nine, it’s a bit difficult to find a running lane. So he settled for a last-ditch effort to Hill anyway. McDuffie knocked it down.
One play.
A big play.
But a perfect description of the rest of them.
In the coldest game in the history of GEHA Field at Arrowhead, it must’ve felt more like hell for Tua Tagovailoa.
And, absent one moment of glory, the same for Tyreek Hill.
What did the Chiefs throw at them?
“A heck of a lot,” McDuffie said.
The Chiefs emptied their playbook, and while that would probably be noteworthy for any team, here’s the thing about a Steve Spagnuolo defensive playbook: It’s exhaustive.
Exhausting.
It was 18 months ago that safety Justin Reid arrived, thumbed through it for the first time, and after one glance recalled thinking, “This is going to take a long time to get down.”
He’s not wrong about that. But what we’re seeing now? It’s what happens when a collection of players on one side of the football gets it all down — the other side is just trying to keep its head above water.
Listen, I know it was cold in Kansas City. As cold as ever for a football game. I know those were not ideal conditions for a quarterback to play his best.
But the worst conditions Tagovailoa faced had nothing to do with the weather. For four quarters, when he glanced across the line of scrimmage he seemed only faintly aware of what stared back at him.
Spagnuolo, the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator, often put McDuffie, who two days earlier was named an All-Pro slot cornerback, at safety. He had L’Jarius Sneed jamming Hill like a rag doll at the line of scrimmage. He doubled the stars. Took their speed away with Cover-2 — that he first disguised by rotating Cover-2 to Cover-1 and back to Cover-2.
“We’re so multiple. I’ve had four or five different coordinators, and we have a deeper playbook than I’ve ever seen,” Reid said. “The complexity of it, once you learn the system and you can play fast, it sucks for an opposing offense.”
Over a 17-game regular season, the Dolphins’ worst yards-per-play output was 5.03. That came against the Chiefs in Frankfurt, by the way. On Saturday, the Chiefs one-upped themselves. The Dolphins managed only 4.47 yards per play. They were 1-for-12 on third-down conversions.
A Chiefs team that employs Patrick Mahomes at quarterback had never allowed fewer than 13 points in a game — and this one did it against a Dolphins team that led the AFC in both yards per play and points.
As we have been wondering much of the year when we’re going to see something different from the offense — when they’re going to really turn the corner — we haven’t spent nearly enough time pointing out that the defense is providing the same thing week after week after week.
That they turned the corner way back in training camp.
They have the stars. There’s Chris Jones. There’s Sneed, who allowed just one reception to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle over the two matchups combined, per Next Gen Stats. There’s McDuffie, the All-Pro.
But what they really have? Deception.
Think of this. Tagovailoa gets the ball out quicker than any quarterback in football, and by a wide margin. The Dolphins’ offense is built on timing patterns — on constantly being one step ahead of the defense.
Did that, even for a moment Saturday, look like an offense that was dictating the game? Like an offense playing with succinct timing patterns?
“Either confusing him pre-snap or prevent and confuse him from knowing where you’re going after the snap,” McDuffie said.
Or?
“Both,” he said.
Tagovailoa isn’t the exception. He’s the latest addition to the rule.
The Chiefs have been doing this for awhile now, enough that Mahomes actually admits altering his own play to limit mistakes, and it’s certainly relevant that they did it in a playoff game.
The Chiefs scored 26 points and blew someone out — in six of the past 14 playoff games with Mahomes, the defense gave up more than 26.
It’s a new era.
But perhaps with the same conclusion: The AFC playoffs might not run through Kansas City anymore, but it just might still run through the Chiefs.
Just for a different reason.
This story was originally published January 14, 2024 at 5:30 AM.