Lisa Foxx
The Kansas City Chiefs are going back to the Super Bowl. Making it to the big game is no small feat for any team in the NFL. The fact that the Chiefs are headed to their fourth Super Bowl in five years is simply remarkable, and it’s all happened under the tutelage of head coach Andy Reid. Widely considered one of the best offensive minds and coaches the league has ever seen, Reid has managed to take a team that struggled mightily throughout the regular season all the way to the final game.
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The 2023-24 season has been the worst the team has experienced in the Patrick Mahomes era, statistically speaking. The All-Pro quarterback has led the team, under Reid’s guidance, to no less than the AFC Championship Game every year he’s been a starter for Kansas City. Most who follow the sport didn’t give the team a chance at making it to the AFC Championship Game, let alone the Super Bowl, but the players and coaches persevered and used their championship mettle to pull together and play their best football of the season when it counted most: in the playoffs.
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The Chiefs’ struggles were evident throughout the season, mainly on the offensive side of the ball. The reigning Super Bowl champs dropped the first game of the 2023 season to the Detroit Lions, who defeated the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium 21-20. In that game, Chiefs wide receivers dropped a slew of passes, which turned out to be a precursor to the regular season as the team led the league in dropped passes. That was the most glaring issue with the Chiefs offense, which was known to be pass heavy and score a ton of points on its opponent. It was not the offense the league or Chiefs Kingdom have come to expect from the Reid/Mahomes combo.
The problems persisted well after that game, as the team struggled to put points on the board. So, with the offense searching for solutions the defense stepped up and led the way for Kansas City. Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has a young squad, at least six of whom were rookies the previous year. Those rookies made huge strides last season and contributed to the team’s Super Bowl victory in 2022. This year, most of those rookies are starters.
Combined with the Chiefs stud linebacker crew and the stout defensive line led by All Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones, the defense kept KC in games that they might otherwise have lost. This is the exact opposite of what Chiefs fans are used to seeing, but they’ve learned to embrace the change- and the wins- and enjoy the ride without the fireworks that the offense usually brings.
The Chiefs ended the regular season with an 11-6 record, the worst record in Mahomes’ NFL career. Despite that, the Chiefs were able to make it to the post season and make a run for another Super Bowl. This time the run is even more impressive considering how the schedule fell for the team this season. The Chiefs schedule left them with the least amount of rest for any team as compared to their opponents, especially in the last several weeks of the season.
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In the month of December, the final full month of the season, the Chiefs were at a considerable rest disadvantage. Each game the Chiefs played in December their opponent had a rest advantage, which means the opposing team had at least one day more than the Chiefs to rest and prepare for the game; in some instances that additional rest was up to 6 days. According to Warren Sharp, of Sharp Football Analysis, this hasn’t happened to a team in 35 years.
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The Chiefs are already at a rest disadvantage each year because they continue to play so late into the season. Most team’s seasons’ when the regular season ends, which is usually the first week in January. The Chiefs, however, are perennial Super Bowl favorites and continue to play up to, if not through, the Super Bowl, which is held the second week of February. Fourteen out of the 32 NFL teams make the playoffs with the #1 teams from each conference earning a bye week at the end of the season. The Chiefs did rest some of their starters for the last game of the season since the team had already secured the number three seed.
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Beginning with week 13 is where the difference in rest between games becomes most evident. In week 12, the Chiefs had a late Sunday afternoon game while their opponents, the Green Bay Packers, played the previous Thursday, on Thanksgiving Day. In week 14 the Chiefs hosted the Buffalo Bills, who were coming off their bye week, so they had considerably more rest than Kansas City.
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The rest discrepancy continued throughout the remainder of the season for the Chiefs.
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The team’s week 15 game against the struggling New England Patriots was flexed out of primetime. The Patriots had played the previous Thursday night while the Chiefs played Sunday afternoon. So, New England had two days extra rest coming into the game.
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Week 16 saw the Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders duel it out in an AFC divisional game on Christmas Day at Arrowhead Stadium. That game fell on a Monday, but the Raiders had played the previous Thursday night while the Chiefs had played on the prior Sunday. Week 17 brought the Cincinnati Bengals to Kansas City; they had a day more rest than the Chiefs.
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The Chiefs were underdogs in all three of their post-season games, which is understandable considering their regular season play. Somehow, they managed to turn it around at the right time and now the team is playing the best football of the season. And, at the right time.
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From Joseph Hefner – Photo Credit
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In the post-season, Kansas City was able to defeat the Miami Dolphins and its high-flying offense and its conference rival Buffalo Bills who, at the time, were considered the hottest team in the league. The Bills win came on the road in a hostile environment. It was the team’s first post-season road game under Mahomes. The Chiefs then traveled to Baltimore to face the best and most dominant team in the league. KC walked into M & T Bank Stadium two weeks ago and walked away with a 17-10 victory against the Ravens, stunning everyone and punching their ticket to Super Bowl LVIII.
The 2023 Chiefs offense struggled through receiving issues, rest discrepancies, and injuries to find a way back to the Super Bowl. This season has been the team’s toughest, by far, during the Reid/Mahomes era. The determination and drive the Chiefs have demonstrated is nothing less than impressive. There are very few people, if any, outside of Chiefs Kingdom who gave this team a shot at making the Super Bowl.
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Most NFL analysts and pundits wrote the Chiefs off long ago, but somehow, they were able to rally when they needed to and earn their post-season bid. The offense’s focus and execution has dramatically improved from the regular season to the post season, but there is still work to be done if the Chiefs want to be back-to-back Super Bowl Champions.
Kansas City was the underdog in all three post-season games and are currently 2.5-point underdogs going into Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers. The Chiefs have been to the Super Bowl four out of the last five years, which gives them the edge in experience even though they boast the youngest defense in the league.
San Francisco has big-time players on both sides of the ball and are considered the more complete team out of the two dueling for the title. The Chiefs will have to play their best football and rely on their dominant defense to pull out a win on Sunday. From parade.com comes this Mahomes quote:
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“I told the guys that if we win, I’ll bring
everyone back to Vegas to celebrate.”
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This Chiefs team is a close-knit bunch possibly due, in part, to the struggles they endured this season. To make it to the Super Bowl must be satisfying after the season this team has had and after being counted out by so many. Kansas City has proven that talent is important, but the heart of a champion can’t be measured and that just might be what puts the Chiefs over the top.
Super Bowl LVIII will be broadcast live Sunday, February 11, 2023, on CBS, Paramount+ and Nickelodeon.
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Lisa Foxx — ArrowheadOne
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