KC Chiefs beat Cleveland Browns with overwhelming pressure: ‘It’s just that fast’
The punter dropped the ball. If you want it all in a moment, you could do worse. The snap was perfect, and bless Jamie Gillan’s heart, he’s caught a thousand snaps worse than that one. But he dropped this one, and that’s the point.
A significant part of the Chiefs’ genius — their enormous ambition and almost delusional pursuit of constant improvement — is in that moment.
“When you can get a punter to drop a ball, that’s pretty good by your fans,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.
The Chiefs beat the Browns 33-29 in the season opener at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday. They could have lost. Maybe should have lost. This is the kind of loss the Browns will dog-cuss the entire flight back to Cleveland, and at least some of this week. The blown chances will feel like walls closing in.
We have this thing in modern professional sports where we want everything on a spreadsheet or video. We want everything to be explained with an algorithm or strategy and in the process we can lose touch with the fact that these games are played by highly trained but flawed human beings with their own specific insecurities and quirks.
The punter dropped the ball, but it was more than that, because have you ever stood near the goal line with the deafening screams of one of the NFL’s most famously loud stadiums that has not hosted full crowds for nearly two years sledgehammering your eardrums?
The truth of this game is some combination of the Browns blowing it and the Chiefs ripping it away, and where you sit on that spectrum depends on how much you believe the specific insecurities and quirks of the highly trained but flawed human beings playing for the Browns mucked up a sound game plan and opportunity.
Because Gillan didn’t just drop the ball, and he didn’t just drop it because most of an announced crowd of 72,9783 were screaming like the lives of everyone they love depended on it.
The Browns had this thing locked. They were stronger at the line of scrimmage, with two running backs capable of exploiting that advantage with what felt like inevitable results. They rushed 26 times for 159 yards, an efficiency that Jim Brown would envy. The Chiefs could not stop the Browns, and everybody knew it, and that was all true right up to the moment that everything changed.
Juan Thornhill punched the ball out of Nick Chubb’s grasp, Ben Niemann dove on it, and you could feel the whole thing start to shift.
“We think we can win no matter what the situation is,” Mahomes said.
The Chiefs closed to two on the ensuing drive, and even after the Browns answered with a touchdown the Chiefs counterpunched with a haymaker — a broken play, and one of those eff-it-Tyreek’s-down-there-somewhere throws by Mahomes that Hill adjusted to better than the defensive back.
Mahomes took the snap with the Browns up two possessions. Fourteen seconds later — and it could have been quicker, but Hill paused a few beats near the goal line, just for giggles — the Browns led by just two points.
Seventy-five yards, in a blink, and even with the Chiefs still down there was not a soul in the building who believed the Browns would win. The only drama was how it would crumble, and as it happened the answer was Gillan’s dropped snap, a touchdown pass to Travis Kelce — how is it 2021 and defensive coordinators still aren’t doubling him in the red zone? — Chris Jones wrecking Baker Mayfield and Mike Hughes making the game-sealing interception.
“Things began to change for us,” Hill said. “It’s just that fast.”
Football games change in a blink. That’s only part of why this is America’s most popular sport. So the Chiefs aren’t the first and won’t be the last team to trail a good opponent into the fourth quarter and still win. But the Chiefs are different, and their games just feel different.
Because they know how good they are. They know how quickly they can score, and how quickly Jones can beat a lineman and land on the quarterback. Just as importantly, the other team knows it too.
So when everything is working and the lead is growing there is still this sense that one false start can ruin it all. There is, basically, the sense from the opponent’s side that had taken up what felt like permanent residence inside the hearts of Chiefs fans before Mahomes ran wasp.
Chubb’s fumble wasn’t just a mistake, then, it was like this lubrication for the tracks. It was like being tasked with keeping a hungry dog at arm’s length, and then dropping a steak.
The Chiefs have their own flaws, of course. The offensive line is better but will need time to fully show it. The wide receiver depth chart below Hill is basic. The linebackers are faster but largely unproven, and the secondary can be had. They can and will be beaten.
But the difference is that beating the Chiefs at anything resembling full strength requires not just talent and execution and at least a little luck. It also requires navigating the reality that your opponent can score from anywhere, at any moment, and is better equipped than anyone in the league to take full advantage of any mistake.
One dropped ball and the whole thing can crumble. No pressure.
This story was originally published September 12, 2021 at 9:12 PM.