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The death of the Chiefs’ dynasty has been greatly exaggerated.<\/p>\n
With the Indianapolis Colts on the verge of pushing Kansas City below .500 and potentially two games out of the last AFC wild-card spot, the defending AFC champs reminded the NFL how dangerous they still are. The Chiefs rallied from 11 points down, midway through the fourth quarter, to save their season and stun the Colts, winning 23-20 in overtime.<\/p>\n
Here are my takeaways:<\/p>\n
He went 29-of-46 for 352 yards overall, including a huge, 30-yard, third-down pass to Xavier Worthy in overtime. That sparked the drive that set up Harrison Butker\u2019s game-winning 27-yard field goal.<\/p>\n
Mahomes may have topped 350 yards, but this was not necessarily his finest game. He overthrew a lot of receivers who seemed to be wide open and struggled to get the offense in gear until the fourth quarter. But despite that and a bunch of drops from his tight ends and receivers, and early problems in the red zone, Mahomes still found a way to be money when it mattered.<\/p>\n
Like on the game-tying field goal drive at the end of regulation, for example. The Chiefs were pushed all the way back to their own 3, but Mahomes got them out of trouble with a 47-yard strike to Rashee Rice. Mahomes went 5-for-8 for 85 yards on that drive, including a 19-yard strike to Rice to keep the drive alive on a fourth-and-3.<\/p>\n
And then in overtime, just when it looked like Kansas City’s offense was stalling again, Mahomes stepped up to avoid a third-down blitz and found Worthy for a 30-yard pass to put the Chiefs on the edge of field-goal range. Two plays later, he hit Rice for 21 yards to make sure the field goal was well within Butker’s range.<\/p>\n
The lesson here: Don\u2019t give Mahomes a chance. He still knows how to make teams pay when they do.<\/p>\n
I know that his lone stint as a head coach (non-interim) was a disaster with the Rams. But that was a long time ago. And the man can coach.<\/p>\n
Just look at what his defense did in the clutch against the Colts, who entered this game with the No. 1 offense in the league. The Chiefs forced three straight three-and-outs in the fourth quarter and another in overtime. That\u2019s 12 plays for the Colts in the final 23 minutes of the game, with no first downs and a total of 18 yards.<\/p>\n
Just one drive by the Colts anywhere in the first quarter that lasts even a couple of minutes, and the Chiefs probably don\u2019t have a chance to even force overtime in this game. But Spagnuolo kept the pressure on Colts QB Daniel Jones, forced a bunch of bad throws, and found a way to shut down star running back Jonathan Taylor, too.<\/p>\n
The Colts had just 255 total yards \u2014 well below their average of 397 per game. And Taylor, the NFLs\u2019 leading rusher with 113.9 yards per game, was held to just 58 yards on 16 carries.<\/p>\n
Spagnuolo is 65 years old and that will work against him, but it\u2019s time someone gives Andy Reid\u2019s top lieutenant another shot at running his own team.<\/p>\n
The Chiefs did an absolutely incredible job against Taylor, who entered this game with a league-leading 1,139 yards and 15 touchdowns. They obviously thought that if they stopped Taylor they\u2019d stop the Colts\u2019 offense. And they were right. It\u2019s not that Daniel Jones was bad (19-of-31, 181 yards, 2 touchdowns), it\u2019s just that he was never going to be enough by himself.<\/p>\n
So why, exactly, didn\u2019t\u2019 the Colts lean on Taylor more? That is a mystery that head coach Shane Steichen needs to address. The Colts ran 50 plays in this game. Only 19 of them went to Taylor, including only 16 runs. That means they leaned on their best player \u2014 and a potential NFL MVP candidate \u2014 on just 38% of their plays.<\/p>\n
And they did that even though they were leading the entire game until the end.<\/p>\n
Yes, Taylor wasn\u2019t as effective as usual. But sometimes the best strategy is to just keep riding him and let him play his way into a groove. Running the ball also has the added effect of tiring out the opposing defense and running the clock, which is essential when trying to protect a late lead.<\/p>\n
Steichen preferred to let Jones be his guy when it mattered the most. And the Colts paid for that decision in the end.<\/p>\n
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The Chiefs held Jonathan Taylor to 58 yards rushing, his second-lowest total of the season, but he had only 16 carries. (Photo by David Eulitt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The Chiefs sure did have plenty of chances in this game, long before they got to overtime. They held the ball for 42:35 to the Colts\u2019 25:28. That included two eight-minute drives in the first half. But time and time again, they hurt themselves with drops, penalties or other miscues, just when it looked like they had something going.<\/p>\n
Mahomes hurt himself with an early interception that set up the Colts’ touchdown. Then when the Chiefs answered with a 4-yard touchdown run by Travis Kelce, it got wiped off the board due to a facemask penalty by tackle Jawaan Taylor. On their next drive, the Chiefs got to the Colts’ 28 and then gave up back-to-back sacks. In all, Kansas City held the ball for 16\u00bd minutes on two first-half drives and ended up with just six points.<\/p>\n
Even at the end of the first half, Mahomes couldn\u2019t connect on two passes to open receivers in the end zone, forcing them to settle for a field goal again. And a fourth-quarter touchdown was nearly ruined by an illegal blindside block. And when they got the ball back, needing only a field goal to tie with 7\u00bd minutes to go, they were undone by a sack and Mahomes throwing the ball to no one down the field.<\/p>\n
And they nearly did it again on what turned out to be their game-tying field goal drive, when a pass interference penalty on Kelce pushed them back inside the 3.<\/p>\n
They overcame it this time. That\u2019s how good they are. But it\u2019s symbolic of their season that they just make things way too difficult on themselves at times. That\u2019s why their season was pushed to the brink heading into this game. If they don\u2019t clean things up a bit, their season will be back on the brink at some point again.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t look now, but the Chiefs (6-5) are just a half game out of the last wild-card spot in the AFC (pending the result of the Jaguars’ game Sunday afternoon). An they\u2019ve got some soft spots in their schedule with games at Tennessee (1-10) and Las Vegas (2-8) in the final three weeks of the regular season. But first up is a trip to Dallas on Thanksgiving to face the Cowboys, who seem to think they\u2019ve got a shot at the playoffs now, too.<\/p>\n
As for the Colts (8-3), they had a shot to put away the Chiefs and extend their lead in the AFC South, but they did neither. Now, they face a tough stretch to finish the season, starting at home next week against the Texans (6-5) and their NFL-best defense. Indy’s final six games include two against the Texans, two against the Jags, one against the 49ers (7-4) and one at Seattle (9-3).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Chiefs needed overtime to beat the Colts and the save their season and maybe their dynasty. Here’s what we learned about both teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kansas-city-chiefs"],"yoast_head":"\n