Top 10 Reasons the Chiefs Won Super Bowl 57

Laddie Morse

The highlights of Super Bowl LVII are hard to ignore. They’re everywhere. Now, some national pundits don’t get the fact that the Kansas City Chiefs are dominant and will in all likelihood be back in the Super Bowl again next season. Nevertheless, let’s take a look back two weeks to see what the Kansas City Chiefs top ten reasons are that they won that booger.

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It’s been said a few dozen, or a few hundred, times, that Jerick McKinnon has dreamed of scoring a TD in the Super Bowl, but at the exact time he could have done that, instead, he stopped short of the goal line and kneeled down to keep the clock running, and basically controlling the score and the game.

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If McKinnon scores there, leaving the Eagles over 1:35 seconds on the clock, with the wat they had been marching down the field, the score could have ended up being tied and who knows what happens then?

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Although the Chiefs had allowed 35 points in this game, they actually won the line of scrimmage… except for when the Eagles were in 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1 situations. By the way, the NFL will be looking at that play where the Eagles use other players to help push their QB forward therefore winning the first down or touchdown. While I think that play should be allowed, the NFL competition committee may not agree. However, that’s another subject. The Chiefs came away with many pressures and two sacks while the Eagles D-line didn’t accomplish what they came to do.

It’s hard to argue with anyone who says that Chris Jones and Frank Clark are playoff football Gods. Clark has 13.0 Sacks in the post-season and that ranks third all time among Defensive players. He only trails DE Bruce Smith, who has 14.5 sacks, and OLB Willie McGinest, who has 16. I hope Frank Clark comes back so he can make that a goal to become the all-time post-season leader in sacks… with the Chiefs.

What else can be said about Chris Jones? He’s become the best IDL in the NFL and has won the 101 Award for the AFC Defensive Player of the year. Yes, he’s that good and deserves all the accolades we can heap upon him.

Please allow me to take a moment to say what an incredibly good football team the Philadelphia Eagles have. Their QB, Jalen Hurts, ended up with a 103.4 rating, and while that’s no where near the 131.8 rating that Patrick Mahomes had, Hurts played out of his mind. The rest of the team is excellent as well. The difference in this game may have been coaching, but the reality is: the Chiefs beat an exceptional team in the Philadelphia Eagles.

No one has been talking about the positive effect Carlos Dunlap had on this game. He had a game high of two QB Hits and that’s a biggie. Here’s one of the sacks the Chiefs were awarded and I say “awarded” because Khalen Saunders chased Jalen Hurts down and he went out of bounds slightly behind the line of scrimmage, so… that was technically a sack. I think he should be awarded a sack because he used every ounce of his speed (if you can call it that) to chase him out of bounds.

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When we started out the 2022 season, I was concerned that the Chiefs didn’t have enough power in the running back position. Sure, I knew we had Patrick Mahomes, but forcing other teams to respect the Chiefs running game was still a sticky wicket. Here’s Isiah Pacheco in week 12 against the L.A. Rams. The reason I like this video is that you can see him learning to hit the gaps and follow his OL blockers, right before your eyes.

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There’s so much more to Isiah Pacheco than most of us can grasp:

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Now we can appreciate Isiah Pacheco’s TD inthe Super Bowl much more:

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It may have started when the Chiefs came back from being 24 points down to the Houston Texans in the playoffs a few years back. It could come from the Andy Reid quote: “When things get grim, be the grim reaper.” Whatever it is, this team has it now in spades. They never give up, they never die, never stop trying, and they keep on elevating until the very end.

That may be part of the reason why David Bell gets so upset every time we mention the Colts loss this season. David did remind me just the other day though, that the Chiefs three losses this year were by a total of ten points (3 to the Colts, 4 to the Bills, and 3 to the Bengals). That reminds me, aren’t you much happier that the Chiefs win over the Bengals came in the playoffs this year instead of the other way around?

The Chiefs “never-say-die” attitude? We can just admit it all beings with the big guy (the following video should say, “Giving Andy Reid the CREDIT he deserves”):

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I was thrilled out of my mind — and I still am — when Kadarius Toney took the Patrick Mahomes pass in the flat and waltzed into the end zone to make the score 28-to-27 (with a Harrison Butker point after attempt, which was good).

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Toney was great and his Kickoff return was a game changer. However, WR Skyy Moore took a broken play and made the Eagles defense pay:

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Toney scored to make the score 28-to-27 on the first Corn Dog play, as seen above, and after the defense forced a 3-and-out, he had an even more impactful play which almost went the distance but ultimately set the offense up at the five yard line.

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As I’m going through each of these plays, it has occurred to me that without even one of them, the Chiefs probably lose that game. This was a team-effort, in every sense of those words.

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There are so many reasons why the Chiefs ended up winning Super Bowl 57, but maybe the most important reason is the play of Nick Bolton and not just his Scoop-and-Score. Bolton led all Defenders, on both teams, with 9 total tackles. His scoop-and-score was excellent, but he also had one taken away from him. It’s been said, and it’s worthy of repeating: if that second scoop-and-score had not been taken away from him, he most assuredly would have won the MVP for the game. As it was, without his one scoring play, the Eagles could have gone up by two scores and left K.C. in the dust.

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If you haven’t seen this video about Nick Bolton “Before the Kingdom”… you should take a couple of minutes to take a peak:

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What can you say about Travis Kelce that hasn’t already been said. Pair him with the greatest quarterback this game has ever seen, and you have magic that keeps on giving. After the game, Travis Kelce said: “This was the happiest year of my life.”

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We don’t know how much longer Travis Kelce will be able to put up these kinds of performances, but he’s been to the top, and we should not complain about any of it. Kelce’s currently 33 years old, has won two Super Bowls, has been a four time first-team All-Pro and an 8 time Pro Bowler plus he’s had the most receiving yards in a season by a Tight End. Look at the first TD Kelce scored in the Super Bowl and ask yourself this question: what coverage could the Eagles have used to stop this play?

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Travis Kelce led the Chiefs receiving corp with 6 catches for 81 yards and a 13.5 average per catch. We spend so much time marveling at Patrick Mahomes achievements, we sometimes forget what an incredible phenomenon that Travis Kelce has become.

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Every year I wait until the post-season to get a gander at the creative plays Andy Reid has come up with, which he doesn’t — or should I say, won’t — use in the regular season. Now, Reid doesn’t save every single innovative play for the post-season. In week 18 this year, against the Raiders, he pulled out the Merry-go-Round play actually called: Snow Globe. Here, Patrick Mahomes talks about it.

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NFL Countdown talked about Andy Reid’s use of creative plays. Randy Moss and Rex Ryan in particular said they expect to see Andy Reid run more Snow Globe type plays in the post-season:

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I’m a retired teacher and I used to run a classroom, and students would make suggestions so they soon learned that I would incorporate some of their ideas. It not only made it more fun for them, but they took ownership in the activities and the classroom as a whole. So, my question is: why wouldn’t Andy Reid want to listen to his players and make it more fun for them?

Timing is everything. In fact, you could say that’s true for most sports. I’ve been watching some Premiere League Soccer recently, and you could say timing is every thing there too. The two sports are very similar in that regard: passing, taking a shot on goal (End Zone), penalties called, penalty objections, lining up off-sides and being off-sides when the ball is passed… timing. All of it. I bring that up here because Andy Reid often says, “we practice fast, we play fast.” By doing that, they have learned the gravity of timing. Now, getting his players to buy into that mind-set from the very beginning of the preseason, has helped them win another Super Bowl.

When people say, “coaching makes the difference,” this is one big reason why. Andy Reid is why.

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Mahomes has been called a lot of things, and most of them are positive. His ability to overcome his own pain, and still perform at the highest level possible, is nothing short of astounding. What is also astounding is that this is the year in which the Chiefs lost the super fast wideout Tyreek Hill and then went on to win it all. What had to happen for this to take place was for Patrick Mahomes to grow and adapt. While that sounds like an easy peasy solution, it wasn’t. Let’s take a look at it from another point of view:

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I wanted to blow this chart up bigger so you could see the details of the graphics. If you recall, two years ago — Super Bowl 55 — we were all crying in our post-Super Bowl of soup, primarily because the offensive line was playing with mostly all back-ups… and… and… and… the Bucs had incorporated a new defensive concept — featuring two deep Safeties — throwing Mahomes and our coordinators for a loop. That, triggered a tsunami of other teams doing the same in 2021.

Now, if you notice from the graphic above, Patrick Mahomes appears to have overcome both Man coverage as well as Zone coverages in 2022. If there is one huge reason why the Chiefs won this game over the Eagles — a terrific team mind you — it is that Patrick Mahomes can now beat any defensive scheme thrown at him. Although, it will be interesting to now see what DCs across the league will come up with, next.

You could say that the top three reasons mentioned here are the only reasons we need to win this Super Bowl, but in the Chiefs case, we needed all of these players and more. Every guy who makes up the roster, has had an impact on the season and helped the Chiefs achieve the highest of goals: a Super Bowl 57 victory.

Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs for putting it all together.

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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