As the Kansas City Chiefs pursue an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl championship, they’ll need a road map to make history and overcome the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX Sunday.
Conveniently, their most recent win, a 32-29 victory over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship, should offer plenty of guidance for the upcoming game plan, as should a previous meeting with their upcoming opponent.
Certain to be near the top of the list for prioritization will be the Chiefs’ performance in short yardage, especially on defense and in critical moments Sunday.
Against Buffalo, the Chiefs managed to stuff the Bills on fourth down just twice in six attempts, but one of those stops came in a critical short yardage situation.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen converted a fourth-and-1 in the third quarter, picking up three yards on an option look. When the Bills were again successful on fourth down on the goal line, it was running back James Cook diving for the score.
Allen picked up another fourth-and-short a drive later. But four plays later, arguably the biggest play of the game, went to the Chiefs. Kansas City stood Allen up for no gain with the Bills nursing a 22-21 lead.
The Chiefs scored to go ahead on the ensuing drive and went on to win the game.
Opinions remain divided on whether Allen crept across the first-down line to gain on that play. From any vantage point, the Chiefs’ defense showed a sturdiness in keeping it from being an automatic first down in a critical situation.
It wasn’t an aberration. The Chiefs managed to stuff Allen three separate times in QB sneak situations. Next Gen Stats credited KC for the most such stops in a single game the last nine years.
That could bode well against Philadelphia and its reliance on the infamous “tush push,” a short yardage formation that generally nets positive results for the Eagles and has befuddled the Chiefs defense in previous matchups.
Jalen Hurts scored twice out of the formation in Super Bowl LVII, a game the Chiefs won by three to kick off their current pursuit of a three-peat.
In the NFC Championship Game against the Washington Commanders, Hurts scored out of the formation twice and so frustrated the Commanders with the play that at one point referee Shawn Hochuli felt compelled to threaten Washington with awarding points to the Eagles to keep them from continuing to jump offsides.
If the Chiefs can win occasionally in those situations—and they now have evidence to believe that’s the case—it will go a long way in getting them a win on Sunday.
Kansas City likely will look to lean on another tactic that served them well in that previous Super Bowl, as well as in last week’s AFC Championship: exploit man coverage.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was given the green light to run more against Buffalo, with several good gains on the ground coming at the expense of man coverage. Mahomes finished with a season-high 11 rushing attempts, which netted 43 yards and two touchdowns.
In addition, Mahomes defeated Buffalo’s man schemes through the air, most notably with a quick out to Xavier Worthy, which Worthy turned into an 11-yard scoring play.
Two years ago in this spot, Mahomes twice burned the Eagles with scoring passes in obvious man situations near the goal line and had similar success on the ground, running for 44 yards (on six attempts).
For the Chiefs to reach rarified air, the script might end up being that simple. Stand up strong on short yardage, and let Mahomes cook against man defense, and a third trophy lift in three years will very likely be on the menu.
