Lots of video in the article...I'll post some interesting tidbits.
https://theathletic.com/2329129/2021...fc-title-game/
Josh Allen vs. Cover-7: What film and analytics reveal about Bills-Chiefs
by
Sheil Kapadia and Ted Nguyen
Originally Posted by :
Ten years ago, Andy Reid fired Sean McDermott. McDermott had taken over for legendary defensive coordinator Jim Johnson in Philadelphia. The Eagles went 10-6 in 2010 but lost in the wild-card round. Reid decided he wanted to make a change. But the move didn’t solve his problems. The Eagles went 12-20 over the next two seasons, Reid was fired, and he went to Kansas City. McDermott went to Carolina where he served as the defensive coordinator for six seasons before taking over as the Bills’ head coach.
On Sunday, they’ll meet at Arrowhead Stadium in the AFC Championship game. Sometimes, surprise teams make it to the final four. That’s not the case here. The Chiefs and Bills have pretty clearly been the top AFC teams over the last couple of months. They met in Week 6, with the Chiefs landing a 26-17 victory.
Is there reason to believe this game will be different? Will Reid get an opportunity to win his second straight Super Bowl? Or will the Bills’ dream season continue? We explore those questions below, using film and numbers.
When the Chiefs run the ball
Following Kansas City’s win over the Cleveland Browns last week, which included a late fourth-down conversion from Chad Henne to Tyreek Hill, Reid was asked when fourth-and-1 became a passing down.
“I went to BYU,” Reid told reporters. “Every down is a throwing down.”
Reid has never hid the fact that he is a pass-first coach. In fact, the Chiefs and Bills have been two of the three most pass-heavy teams in the league this season, Buffalo, Houston and KC.
When the two teams met in Week 6, the Bills dared the Chiefs to run the ball, and Kansas City obliged. Clyde Edwards-Helaire led the way with 26 carries for 161 yards. But it wasn’t a bad approach by McDermott. The Bills forced the Chiefs to string together long drives.
The problem is Kansas City is really good and can win in different ways. In that game, they strung together four scoring drives of 10-plus plays.
“I think you got to look at this is an explosive offense mainly through the air, so you got to pick your poison here,” McDermott told reporters after that game. “What you’re trying to take away, and then on the other end, you’re going to give a little bit. And so I’m not saying that we liked what we gave up in the run game. That said, towards the end of the game, we were in the game as opposed to some people are getting blown out because the ball is flying over their head.”
Of Kansas City’s 46 runs in that game, 31 came against five- or six-men boxes, according to Sportradar. The Chiefs did not have a single run against an eight-man box. Against six-men boxes, Edwards-Helaire ran 19 times for 142 yards (7.47 YPC).
For shotgun running teams, running back alignment can potentially be a huge tell. If the back is lined up offset to the quarterback’s right and a step or two behind him, the offense will usually run inside zone to the left because the back has to run across the quarterback to receive the handoff. Defenses will sometimes set their defense depending on which direction the running back is offset in the formation.
To counter this tell, the Chiefs will run split zone (a variant of inside zone with a block coming across the formation to block the back-side end) to the same side that the running back is offset to by having the running back first go across the quarterback to take the handoff and then redirecting.
On the season, the Chiefs’ offense ranked 13th in rushing DVOA, while the Bills’ defense ranked 17th against the run. In other words, it’s a pretty even matchup.
Edwards-Helaire has been sidelined since Week 15, and it’s unclear whether he’ll return for this game. It’s also worth noting that the Bills didn’t have one of their best defensive players, Matt Milano, in that first meeting. Buffalo’s defense ranked eighth in weighted DVOA, reflecting the fact that they were playing their best toward the end of the season.
If Chad Henne plays, the Chiefs could lean a little more on their run game. But if Mahomes is on the field, chances are that McDermott will consider it a victory every time he hands the ball off.
When the Chiefs pass the ball
Mahomes completed 21 of 26 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns the first time the two teams met. His numbers during the regular season were almost identical to last year.
Mahomes and Reid want to be aggressive and push the ball downfield. But in the first meeting, the Bills’ entire game plan focused on taking away the big play. Buffalo played some form of two-deep coverage on 19 of Mahomes’ 34 pass plays. And the Bills played just four snaps of man coverage.
Chances are Buffalo will take a similar approach in this game. So far this season, teams have had a lot more success playing two-deep coverages than single-high coverages against Mahomes.
The Bills played a lot of soft zone against the Chiefs in the first game. If they take the same approach Sunday, the secondary’s focus will be less on winning specific matchups and more on playing their zone responsibilities and tackling well to limit yards after the catch.
Up front, the Bills will likely lean on their front four. In the first game, they blitzed Mahomes just once on 34 pass plays.
The numbers suggest strongly that blitzing Mahomes is a terrible idea.
While Mahomes performed well when opponents rushed four or fewer, he absolutely shredded the blitz.
No quarterback was better.
During the regular season, the Bills ranked second in ESPN’s pass-rush win rate, while the Chiefs were sixth in pass-block win rate.
When the Bills run the ball
In the divisional round against the Ravens, offensive coordinator Brian Daboll didn’t call a designed run until Buffalo’s 20th offensive play. The Bills have been the league’s most pass-happy team this season.
With Zack Moss sidelined, the Bills will lean on Devin Singletary, T.J. Yeldon and Josh Allen. During the regular season, the Bills ranked 22nd in rushing DVOA. Among the 47 backs with at least 100 carries, Singletary ranked 34th, producing a positive result (EPA) just 39.7 percent of the time according to Sports Info Solutions.
The Chiefs’ run defense, however, has been even worse. Kansas City’s defensive approach is similar to Buffalo’s. Steve Spagnuolo is willing to give up some yards on the ground and instead focuses on stopping the pass. The Chiefs ranked 31st in DVOA against the run.
In the Week 6 matchup, the Chiefs gave the Bills a lot of two-high looks and dared them to run the ball, but Buffalo couldn’t make them pay. The Bills ran 23 times for 84 yards in that game. Singletary ran 10 times for 32 yards. Their backs produced just 39 yards on 10 carries against boxes with six defenders or fewer.
The Bills have struggled to run the ball from under center (11 runs for 34 yards) in the playoffs. Against the Chiefs, their best chance for success on the ground is probably with designed quarterback runs and option plays out of shotgun.
When the Bills pass the ball
A big difference between the 2019 Chiefs and the 2020 Chiefs has been their pass defense. They were seventh against the pass (DVOA) last year but fell to 16th this season. Kansas City kept Allen in check during the first meeting, as he completed 14 of 27 passes for just 122 yards.
In that game, Spagnuolo mixed up his coverages well. But the Chiefs used two-high looks on 18 of Allen’s 31 pass plays. On those plays, Allen was 8-for-15 for 74 yards, averaging 4.93 YPA.
Spagnuolo blitzed Allen 14 times and was effective. Allen produced -0.12 EPA per play against the blitz, which was his second-worst mark of the season. Overall, though, Allen has been excellent against the blitz. When opponents have sent five rushers or more, he has produced 0.31 EPA per play, which ranks second among all starters.
In all likelihood, the Chiefs will use a similar strategy to the first meeting. They’ll mix up a lot of their coverages, use pre-snap disguise and lean on a lot of split-safety zone with Spagnuolo’s blitzes mixed in. Allen will have to capitalize when he has opportunities to push the ball downfield, but overall he might have to be patient and avoid making a big game-changing mistake. His scrambling will be key when the Chiefs are in man coverage.
In Week 6, Chris Jones was disruptive inside working against backup guard Brian Winters. But the Bills didn’t have starter Jon Feliciano in that game. Since Feliciano returned in Week 8, the Bills’ offensive line has played well. Overall, the Bills ranked fourth in pass block win rate, while the Chiefs ranked 18th in pass rush win rate. Jones and Frank Clark are capable of taking games over, but on paper, the Bills should have an advantage up front.
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On the road from Buffalo to Kansas City: Stories of the Bills chasing the Chiefs
by
Tim Graham
Originally Posted by :
The road from Buffalo to Kansas City is long.
One year ago, the Buffalo Bills took the next incremental step in their development.
A franchise that went 18 years between playoff appearances backed into the 2017 tournament thanks to another team’s upset victory and lost decisively in the first round. The Bills returned again last season, clinching a wild-card berth with two weeks to spare. They failed to advance again despite a 16-point lead late in the third quarter.
The Kansas City Chiefs, meanwhile, looked like a dynasty in the making. They were unstoppable in their Lombardi Trophy quest, winning their postseason games by an average margin of two touchdowns.
The Chiefs and Bills weren’t in the same competitive time zone. This was more a reflection of the Chiefs’ dominance than any Bills inadequacy.
Kansas City also enjoyed a one-year head start, albeit with help from Buffalo.
Rookie head coach Sean McDermott, working with a personnel department the Bills were about to fire, signed off on a deal with the man who gave him his coaching start. Andy Reid traded for the Bills’ 10th pick and took Patrick Mahomes in the 2017 NFL Draft.
As questions persisted about Josh Allen’s championship potential, after Buffalo selected him with the seventh pick in 2018, Mahomes was named Super Bowl MVP.
That was just a year ago. In fact, the discrepancy still existed in October, when the Chiefs cruised into Orchard Park and won by nine points.
Since then, the Bills have come a great distance.
Teams that seemed so far apart now are on top of one another. They will meet Sunday for the AFC championship. The Bills are 3-point underdogs at Arrowhead Stadium, nearly a coin-flip matchup if played on a neutral field.
Long roads produce great stories.
With that in mind, I got behind the steering wheel in search of inspiration, making the literal journey from Buffalo to Kansas City to conjure tales about the spiritual expanse that has been bridged.
Between the start and the finish are many fascinating spots to consider. The drive hugs Lake Erie until you approach Cleveland, heads through Columbus and Indianapolis and St. Louis, a city that lost its NFL team to Los Angeles, a possibility Bills fans once feared in their souls.
For almost 15 hours on the highway, I traversed 990 miles, six states and too many Cracker Barrel billboards to count.
Some would say the distance goes back 54 years. Buffalo hosted the 1966 AFL title game, a showdown for the right to play the NFL’s champion in an event that would retroactively be called Super Bowl I. After a regular-season split, the Chiefs beat the Bills and advanced to challenge the Green Bay Packers.
Decades later, the old AFL rivals remain intertwined. The Bills sometimes have been ahead and sometimes even, but they’ve often chased.
At least today, the Bills no longer are a speck in the Chiefs’ rear-view mirror.
Objects may be closer than they appear.
Intense research indicates there is no such thing as a travel agent who specializes in Buffalo-to-Kansas City interstate road trips.
So I called up Scott Radecic for a scouting report. He can handle the literal and spiritual aspects of my venture. Radecic played linebacker for the Bills, Chiefs and Colts. As the founder of Kansas City-based architectural firm Populous, he has overseen the design of 16 NFL stadiums and major renovations of five others, including homes of the Chiefs and Bills.
This week, though, Radecic was giving tips on the best exits to refuel and the speed traps to avoid.
“I’ve made that trip dozens and dozens of times,” Radecic said. “For me, that brings back a lot of memories. I played from that corridor, from Kansas City to Indianapolis to Buffalo, my whole NFL career. It’s a good trip.”
Kansas City made Radecic the 34th overall draft choice in 1984, but when they moved on from coach John Mackovic, the new staff moved on from Radecic. Walt Corey had been the Chiefs linebackers coach and joined the Bills as Marv Levy’s defensive coordinator. Radecic stayed with the Bills from 1987 through 1989 and then spent six seasons with the Colts.
Before I could ask Radecic what he thought of Sunday’s matchup, he made a point to say he wasn’t going to tell me who he’s rooting for.
Then he kept talking.
“Deep down, in my heart of hearts, I think I’m a Bills fan first,” Radecic said. “I think it just has to do a lot with where we were as a family. My wife had grown up in Rochester. I was a Pittsburgh guy who went to Penn State. We had a lot of players with young families. We had a great Bible study. It was a great time to be a Buffalo Bill.
“It’s not that I didn’t like Kansas City or Indy because they were great, too, but it was something about those guys and that organization.”
As despicable as it must’ve been for his Kansas City officemates, he wore a Bills pullover as he spoke. Part of the reason is that he enjoys provoking his coworkers. He flaunts Colts gear when Kansas City plays Indianapolis, too.
The place already is loaded with Chiefs fans, he reasoned. Is the rah-rah wardrobe of one more man going to put them over the top anyway?
“I find myself rooting for the Bills, for that young quarterback and that coach and that organization and the people of Buffalo,” Radecic said, “because it would mean the world after so many years of not having the shot.”
A significant aspect of the Bills’ and Chiefs’ identity is their fan bases, and few can speak more analytically about them than Radecic.
Not only did he play in both stadiums, but also a significant aspect of Populous’ business is fan accommodation. Populous has conducted studies that examine fan behaviors and how teams can oblige.
“Those fans, when you think about the league and the aspect of tailgating, I think they’re the two strongest markets,” Radecic said. “They’re just eating different food. They are special places for pregame atmosphere.”
The most notable differences are in the venue logistics. Arrowhead Stadium in surrounded by 200 acres of parking lots the Chiefs control, with direct access from two major interstates that lead almost to the gates. In Orchard Park, many fans park in county lots and people’s yards, walking through traffic to the stadium grounds.
“But I feel that no matter what their stadiums were like, in terms of amenities, they would still be sold out,” Radecic said. “People come to watch the football game as opposed to going for some upscale hospitality experience.
“Buffalo and Kansas City are about the avid fan who can’t wait until Sunday to come to the stadium, to be with friends and enjoy the game.”
On the question of a new Bills stadium, Radecic was more careful than when divulging his rooting interests for Sunday.
The Pegulas hired Populous, which also designed the Bills’ new training facility, to conduct a planning study for a potential new stadium. Radecic said Populous is prepared to help whether the Pegulas choose to stay in Orchard Park or build from scratch.
Given the dicey midweek weather, I decided to rent a car for the drive to Kansas City. The only available all-wheel drive option when I checked in was a loaded 2021 Jeep Wrangler, which sounds pretty sweet to anyone who never has driven one.
If I ever need to drive out of a battlefield swale, then I’ll be sure to request another Jeep Wrangler. But at 75 mph on the open highway, you can do better.
The winds howling off Lake Erie knocked the Wrangler’s boxy frame all over the asphalt. The latches to its detachable roof rattled. Snow blew across I-90.
By the time I reached Erie, Pa., 88 miles into my drive, it was easy to see why Howard “Biff” Flint moved his family out of there after World War II. He got his nickname from fighting in the streets, but in Florence, Ariz., he opened Biff’s Café.
That’s how his son, George Flint, was born in Erie and surfaced on Arizona State’s football team. He enrolled as a 210-pound offensive lineman and eventually returned to Lake Erie’s shore with the Bills’ back-to-back AFL championship teams.
Flint, undrafted, attributed his survival to serving in the U.S. Marine Corps in between high school and college.
“I got to the point where I thought I could kick anybody’s ass,” Flint said with a burst of laughter.
Flint was 225 pounds when he made his first Bills roster in 1962. He settled in around 240 pounds, blocking for Jack Kemp and Cookie Gilchrist.
“The American Football League, at the time, was picking up all kinds of ballplayers to build the league,” Flint said. “Training camp was a dogfight because some of the fellas that were cut from the NFL would come in for tryouts. So you had high draft choices and guys with NFL experience. It was a knock-down, drag-out deal to make the team.
“They built the team through junkyard hounds like myself. That’s how we developed the league so quickly.”
With future Hall of Fame guard Billy Shaw injured early in the 1965 title game, Flint was pressed into action against Ernie Ladd, a 6-foot-9 defensive tackle who made the San Diego Chargers’ 50th anniversary team (and for a while was the only wrestler in the WCW and WWE Halls of Fame). Flint helped pave the way in a 23-0 victory.
Flint didn’t play in the 1966 title game that sent the Chiefs to Super Bowl I. He bounced around the Oakland Raiders, Houston Oilers and the Canadian Football League before returning to the Bills in 1969.
An AFL man through and through, Flint says “we” when referring to any team in the upstart league whether he played for it or not.
“We saw a lot of guys in the NFL that we played college ball against,” Flint said. “We thought, ‘Hell, we can handle them.’ Plus, our league was a more wide-open game.
“We had quarterbacks and receivers that allowed us to throw that doggone ball all over the place and put points on the board in a hurry. In the NFL, it was 3 yards and a cloud of dust. Our game was more aggressive.”
NFL arrogance ballooned as the Packers scrubbed the Chiefs in Super Bowl I and the Raiders in Super Bowl II.
The AFL finally got its satisfaction when the New York Jets followed through on Joe Namath’s guarantee to upset the Baltimore Colts.
“When we won Super Bowl III with the Jets,” Flint said, “that was wonderful. That broke the league wide open then.”
Before the Bills eliminated the Baltimore Ravens last week, Flint bet $100 on his old team to win the Super Bowl at 6-to-1. So there will be more than sentimentality at stake as he watches the game with his wife of 63 years, Sue Ann.
“Our neighbor probably will come over with a couple six packs, but I guess you’ve got to suck it up and live with it,” said Flint, stifling another laugh. “My wife really enjoys it. She doesn’t help much with (the beer), but I do a pretty good job.”
Somewhere around Ashtabula, Ohio, just inside the Pennsylvania border on I-90, I thought of someone else who probably has made this trip a few times.
Adam Lingner began his career with the Chiefs in 1983, joined the Bills in 1987, returned to the Chiefs in 1988 and then played his final seven seasons with the Bills.
Lingner was Buffalo’s long snapper in all four Super Bowl appearances. He triggered the cruelest play in franchise history, firing the ball between his legs to Frank Reich, who placed it on the grass for Scott Norwood’s 47-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide at the end of Super Bowl XXV.
Lyndsey D’Arcangelo checked in with Lingner a couple of years ago for The Athletic. He was managing a grocery store in Frisco, Texas.
The high temperature there Tuesday was 58 degrees.
With Cleveland sports radio in range, I switched on 92.3 The Fan to hear how folks are coping with the Chiefs ending the Browns’ season a few days earlier.
The hosts seem to have moved on. “Bull and Fox” have Western New York ties. “Bull” is Adam Gerstenhaber, former Batavia Muckdogs play-by-play voice. Dustin Fox is a former Bills safety.
Basketball was the better topic Tuesday. The Cavaliers were dumping mercurial shooting guard Kevin Porter Jr., and Kyrie Irving was about to play in Cleveland for the first time since 2017.
“Bull and Fox” tried to get a discussion off the ground about who was the Browns MVP, but Baker Mayfield was the easy answer. Then they got into whether linebacker Clay Matthews deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but the calls were lopsidedly negative. That’s something I wouldn’t expect from Bills fans if “Schopp and Bulldog” opened up the phone lines to ask if, say, Kyle Williams deserves enshrinement.
A drive from Buffalo to Kansas City shouldn’t go through Cleveland. Sure, you could continue on I-90 West. If you did, then you would need to slow down to 35 mph to navigate Dead Man’s Curve, with its rumble strips and blinking caution lights and FirstEnergy Stadium on the horizon, before taking I-77 South.
A metaphor exists in there somewhere.
But a little beyond Mentor, Ohio, home of Chicago Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, you can bypass downtown by taking I-271 South and passing through what I call the Progressive Insurance Corridor, with the company’s large office buildings on each side of the highway.
You wonder how someone like Mayfield got a national endorsement deal with a gargantuan insurance company while Josh Allen peddles New Wave Energy? It’s because Progressive is based in suburban Cleveland. In a town called Mayfield Village, no less.
Wall of Fame cornerback Booker Edgerson was eager to play in what the Bills referred to at the time as “the world championship game.”
“We knew it was a big deal,” Edgerson said. “We were prepared to play whoever was going to get in, whether it was Green Bay or Cleveland. Everybody was saying the American Football League was inferior to the National Football League. We wanted to show them that we were on par.”
The Bills entered the 1966 AFL title game as the two-time defending champs and were the home team, although the Chiefs had the better record and were favored by 3.5 points.
“We got off to a bad start,” said Edgerson, who watched from the sideline with a bad knee. “They kicked off and Dudley Meredith, one of our tackles, fielded the short kick, ran with it and fumbled it. Kansas City went on and scored, and everything went bad from there.
“It just wasn’t our day. They beat our asses.”
Kansas City won 31-7. Buffalo rushed for 40 yards. Kemp completed 12 passes and threw two interceptions.
Two weeks later, Kansas City struggled to compete against the establishment. Green Bay led by only four points at halftime, but scored the last 21 points in a rout. Graybeard tight end Max McGee, infamously hungover from the night before because he had only four catches all season and didn’t expect to play, was named MVP for his 138 yards and two touchdowns.
“I watched in horror!” Edgerson said. “I just thought Kansas City would put up a better game than they did and hoped they would prevail against the almighty National Football League.
“I think we would have measured up with Green Bay a lot better than Kansas City did. I felt real good about it. Butch Byrd felt good about it. George Saimes felt good about it. We felt like we was going to win. We didn’t think we was going to lose to Kansas City; that’s for damn sure.”
Kansas City’s defense featured a pair of Hall of Famers in defensive tackle Buck Buchanan and linebacker Bobby Bell, yet Edgerson insisted Buffalo’s front seven was better suited to handle Vince Lombardi’s ground attack.
“For the first few years, it really, really hurt,” Edgerson said, “because we was trying to prove a point to all the fans throughout the United States that thought this little, fledgling league wasn’t going to be able to play up to that standard.”
The Chiefs won their first Super Bowl three years later with mostly the same team, pulverizing the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.
The Bills, meanwhile, had become the NFL’s doormats. They drafted first overall in 1969 (tailback O.J. Simpson) and 1972 (defensive end Walt Patulski).
“We’re looking for revenge, Tim!” Edgerson said. “From 54 years ago, when Kansas City beat us in the championship game, Sunday can be our revenge.
“Bring it home because it’s been a long time waiting. It is time for us to win a Super Bowl.”
As the first of a trillion billboards touting Grandpa’s Cheese Barn appeared in a snow-swept field off I-71 South between Cleveland and Columbus, the signal carrying “Bull and Fox” began to crackle and wane.
Before I could scan for another station, Brady Quinn provided a better option by returning my message. He was about to sit down for dinner with his wife, former Olympic gymnast Alicia Sacramone, and their three daughters in the Boston area, but said he wanted to contribute to my project.
“It’s interesting to bring it to life like you are,” Quinn said. “You can see all the ties.
“The question is how the Bills take that next step to dethrone the Chiefs.”
Quinn is intertwined enough to provide insight.
Brian Daboll was an NFL offensive coordinator three times before joining the Bills, and Quinn was a quarterback with two of those teams, the Browns and Chiefs. Quinn also is from Dublin, Ohio, where I will stop for the night. I’ll need a dinner suggestion.
The Browns in 2007 traded up to draft the Notre Dame quarterback 22nd overall. He started only three games through his first couple of seasons, but got his most significant chance after Daboll become the Browns’ play caller in 2009.
“The interesting thing about his journey as a play caller was that he was trying to figure out what his offense was going to be back then,” Quinn said. “It was a blend of what I experienced in the New England system with Charlie Weis in college, but he also had influence from the Jets that he brought. But it was his own offense.
“You could tell he was still trying to find his rhythm as a play caller. We weren’t a good team early on, but we ended up finishing 4-4 down the stretch. I played my best football. His ability to call plays and to figure out our identity grew as the year went on.”
They reunited in 2012 with the Chiefs. Quinn said by then Daboll “had much more control over what he wanted to do.” All but three of Quinn’s 20 career starts were with Daboll.
“Now, when you look at McDermott and how he has opened himself up to let the offense do what it has done this year, understanding that may impact his defense, it goes to show they know where the league is at,” Quinn said.
Quinn, an analyst for Fox Sports, envisions a willing shootout Sunday —in other words, two play callers with no interest in slowing down the game or working the clock.
“We’ve seen glimpses of it, the aggressiveness of Brian Daboll and how he’s called things and not taken his foot off the gas,” Quinn said. “We know Andy Reid is like that. Hell, he just threw the ball on fourth-and-1 at midfield with a backup quarterback. That’s about as aggressive as it gets.
“I think it’s going to take moments like that in a clutch situation, where Brian is going to have to have the confidence that Josh is going to be able to deliver.”
Pilot Flying J’s website says it operates more than 750 truck stops across North America. I couldn’t find a breakdown of how many exist between Buffalo and Kansas City, but I would estimate around 739.
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam built his wealth through Pilot Flying J.
Bills founder Ralph Wilson’s portfolio also was dependent on highway commerce. He made his fortune in the insurance and trucking industries. In 1983, he purchased Interstate Highway Construction.
The stretch of I-70 West between Columbus and the Indiana border is no place to open the throttle.
Ohio Highway Patrol cruisers wait to pounce. That has been the case every time I’ve driven to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, and it was no different this week. No fewer than 14 troopers either had a car pulled over or were pointing a radar gun within an 80-mile stretch.
A weight lifts and your foot drops a little upon crossing into the Indiana. The first town is Richmond, home of Weeb Ewbank, the only coach to win a championship in the AFL and NFL.
But nowhere else on the six-state trip, and perhaps nowhere else in America, will a sport manifest itself like basketball in Indiana.
All of the sudden, signs urge you to use exit 115 for the Knightstown gym where “Hoosiers” was filmed or to check out the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in New Castle and the Steve Alford All-American Inn off exit 123 in New Castle.
A strange billboard simply shows a large basketball with the words “Kokomo High School State Champs 1961” and a website address. Go there to be informed that the local advertising company is using a group of teenagers from 60 years ago to prove billboards work.
Indiana’s official motto is Crossroads of America. The first federal highway, National Road, was built in the early 19th century and went from the Potomac River and into Illinois. One of the first major north-south routes, U.S. Highway 41, connected Chicago to Miami, intersecting National Road in Terre Haute.
About 75 miles east of Terre Haute, in the center of the state, Indianapolis also calls itself the Crossroads of America because it’s where Interstates 70, 74 and 65 tangle and disjointed I-69’s longest continuous stretch takes a break.
Indianapolis can be considered the NFL’s nexus, too.
Every year since 1987, owners, coaches, scouts, agents and the best college prospects have converged on Indianapolis for the NFL Scouting Combine. The league likes the central location paired with a domed stadium for workouts.
Decisions made in Indianapolis can impact a team’s direction for years.
Indianapolis used to be the location of Mayflower Transit headquarters. Glitchy night-time video of those Mayflower trucks moving the Colts out of Maryland long stood as the ultimate example of greedy owners abandoning their fans.
Mayflower now is based in St. Louis, a city that has lost two NFL teams.
Interstates 70 and 65 merge for a couple of miles, running north-south through Indianapolis. Off to the right, I was struck by the large, distinctive Mayflower logo adorning the Hogan Transfer and Storage building, a reminder of the ever-evolving NFL, the downtown skyline in the background.
Brian Schottenheimer was driving north on I-65 and was approaching I-70 south of Indianapolis when he called.
Pure coincidence. How could I have predicted he would be at the Crossroads of America? He’d been fired from his job as Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator nine days earlier. Even if I had known he makes Nashville his offseason home, there was no guessing that he and his wife had plans to meet up with friends to fly out of Indianapolis International Airport for a ski trip in Deer Valley, Utah.
This story required a Schottenheimer voice.
Brian’s father, Marty Schottenheimer, was a Bills linebacker from 1965 through 1970. He played on the second AFL title team and experienced the dejection of failing to advance to Super Bowl I.
Marty also was Kansas City’s coach from 1989 through 1998 and is in Arrowhead Stadium’s Ring of Honor. Although the Bills’ four straight Super Bowl appearances eclipse the accomplishments of any other AFC team in the 1990s, the Chiefs were second in wins and win percentage during the 1990s.
The last time the Bills played in an AFC Championship Game, in 1993, they defeated Schottenheimer’s Chiefs.
But Marty Schottenheimer can’t share those memories. He has Alzheimer’s disease and lives at a memory-care facility in North Carolina.
“One of the things my parents loved to do — and my mom still does — is just talk about the old days,” Brian Schottenheimer said. “The Buffalo years were their newlywed years. They were starting a life and playing football.
“He told great stories about hanging out with Paul Maguire and Jack Kemp. My dad’s roommate was Pete Gogolak, and they lived very close to some of the nightlife. When the bars would shut down, the guys would come over to Pete’s and my dad’s apartment.
“They called it Schott-a-Gogo’s. I guess it was the place to be to the point they had to operate it like bouncers at a real club: ‘We’re at capacity. Three people need to leave before three can come in.’ They were enjoying life.”
Marty Schottenheimer never came any closer to a championship than he did in 1966.
He is known as one of the great coaches never to reach a Super Bowl, having posted a .621 regular-season win percentage over 21 seasons with Cleveland, Kansas City, San Diego and Washington. He went 5-13 in the playoffs.
“The thing that sticks out to me is the grace that my father handled that with,” Brian said. “The grace of coming up short, but handling it the right way and being proud of his team and the way they competed.
“I think that’s the sign of a great leader.”
Brian hasn’t been able to visit his father in a year because of the pandemic. The family tries to video conference, but it’s difficult to maintain Marty’s attention.
“It’s sad,” Brian said. “We laugh our way through it; we cry our way through it. But what keeps this going for us are the memories and the people who send texts and love.
“The Bills were the start of the journey. That’s where it all began. Who could have imagined he could impact so many lives in so many ways.”
Brian Schottenheimer coached at many stops along the Buffalo-to-Kansas City turnpike. He was with his dad for one year in Kansas City, spent four years over two St. Louis stints and two in Indianapolis.
And even though he just finished three seasons in Seattle, another location known for its fans, he described dealing with Bills fans as “mental warfare.”
“That whole community is all about that franchise and what that team is doing,” Schottenheimer said. “When the fans hear that a police escort coming, they line the roads. They’re throwing things at you, they’re mooning you, giving you the middle finger. They are all about the Bills.
“Whoever came up with Bills Mafia, that was cool, because it is a powerful element to go up against.
“And that damn song.”
He belted out the opening line: “The Bills make me want to shout!”
About three-quarters through my 15-hour haul, I have a pretty good idea I don’t want to make this trip a habit. I’ve made it through Indianapolis, past DePauw University, over the Embarras River and through the Illinois rest-top city of Effingham. The last syllable is pronounced “ham,” not the New England-style “um,” which would enunciate a totally different endeavor.
Joe Staysniak, like Radecic and Lingner, has resided at most of the cities along the route. He was born and raised in suburban Cleveland, attended Ohio State and played offensive line for the Bills, Chiefs and Colts.
So Pam Staysniak, his wife of 28 years, had to settle for the world’s largest cross — at the juncture of Interstates 70 and 57 in Effingham — instead of the Eiffel Tower.
“I told my wife I was going to show her the world,” Staysniak said. “We went from being married in Columbus to Buffalo training camp. Then in about a seven-month period, I got cut from Buffalo, went to Kansas City and then to Indianapolis.”
I told him all he needed was an Erie anecdote to fill out my scorecard.
“I know I white-knuckled it through there in a rear-wheel drive 1977 Buick LeSabre that belonged to my grandmother,” Staysniak said. “You had to stay in the tire tracks so you didn’t drive off the interstate.”
Staysniak was on the Bills’ practice squad for the first Super Bowl and played in their second. He marveled at how passionate those Bills fans were, a release after so many years of mediocrity.
“The fans had to psyche so many teams out,” Staysniak said. “They were nuts with the hot tubs in the parking lot. Opponents were absolutely freaked out when the buses would pull in through the snow and see fans in portable hot tubs. Then these people were going to be in the stadium with no shirts on for the game.”
He recalled how Marv Levy cried while informing Staysniak of his release before the 1992 season. The Chiefs picked him up.
Staysniak made his greatest impact in three seasons with the Colts. He was their starting right guard during the deep 1995 playoff run, winning at Arrowhead Stadium before suffering a four-point loss to the Steelers in the AFC title game.
Staysniak is co-host of “The Fan Morning Show with Jeff & Big Joe” on 1070-AM in Indianapolis, where he talks about former Bills teammate Frank Reich everyday but committed most of this week to Philip Rivers’ retirement and offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni’s departure to become the Eagles head coach.
The Bills, meanwhile, have their quarterback for at least two more years and don’t need to worry about replacing Daboll anymore either.
As for Sunday, Staysniak admitted he might be biased because Indy pressed Buffalo in the first round, but he picked Kansas City to win.
As the Gateway Arch came into view, I wondered what Jairus Byrd thought. His old team has covered so much ground on the defending Super Bowl champs in such a short time.
The three-time Pro Bowl safety went to Clayton High in suburban St. Louis while his dad, former NFL defensive back Gil Byrd, was a Rams defensive assistant.
“The gap closed extremely fast,” Jairus Byrd said. “It is shocking to see how fast it closed maybe because of the history of the Bills, but everyone I’ve talked to says it makes sense. McDermott has done a great job, and it’s no secret the guys love playing for him.
“In retrospect, you probably could see it coming because the team’s trajectory has been pointing upward since McDermott got there. So why not?”
Byrd was an excellent player during the Bills’ dreariest era. As a rookie in 2009, he tied for the league lead with nine interceptions. Over his next three seasons, he evolved into a fierce all-around defender, logging 10 forced fumbles, five recoveries and 12 tackles for losses.
The Bills placed the franchise tag on him in 2013, forcing him to stay another year against his wishes. The best season he experienced over his five Bills seasons was 6-10.
Byrd signed a hefty free-agent deal with the New Orleans Saints in 2014, but they went 7-9 in each of his three seasons. His final year was 2017, when he finally reached the postseason as a Carolina Panther (and lost to the Saints in his final game).
How envious is Byrd to watch the 2020 Bills make a deep postseason run?
“I’m just happy for them as an organization,” said Byrd, living in South Florida and finishing his University of Oregon political science degree. “They’re playing together. It’s so cool to see.
“The stability they’re building from the ownership down is something I would have liked, but I can find happiness for them from going through those down times. I find joy in seeing them break through.”
Shortly after hanging up with Byrd, I found joy on a Crane’s Country Store billboard outside Williamsburg, Mo.
“Boots, Bullets, Britches, Bologna.”
Exit 116. Jot it down.
A little after 3 p.m. Thursday, a foursome waited to tee off on the Country Club of Missouri’s par-3 fourth hole. You can’t look at the green and not see Stan Kroenke’s mansion beyond it. The sun was shining. It was 59 degrees.
Kroenke grew up in nearby Mora and remained in Columbia upon graduating from the University of Missouri. A successful entrepreneur and developer, he became financially prodigious when he married Walmart heiress Ann Walton.
When he purchased the St. Louis Rams in 2010, he appealed to worried fans by reminding them he was a local boy worthy of their trust. But with St. Louis unable to broker a new stadium deal, he built one in Los Angeles and moved the Rams there in 2016.
Middle linebacker James Laurinaitis played on the final St. Louis team and still sounds bummed the city lost another NFL team. The St. Louis Cardinals moved to Arizona in 1988.
Laurinaitis recalled coach Jeff Fisher conducting a meeting in which he compared the situation to children going through a divorce.
“The owner wasn’t saying anything about L.A., and by not saying anything he was saying a lot,” Laurinaitis said. “But you also had an appreciation and love for St. Louis. You felt like you were being torn apart.
“As I’ve reflected over the past four years, your heart breaks for the city, for those fans. I was sad I wasn’t able to bring more wins because we constantly heard about how crazy that dome got during the Greatest Show on Turf years, and we never got to live that experience.”
Generations of Bills fans dreaded a similar fate once Ralph Wilson died. When the Pegulas purchased the team from his estate in 2014, Bills fans cried in relief that they wouldn’t lose their team to Los Angeles or London or Toronto.
Laurinaitis was a fan favorite in St. Louis. The Rams drafted the Ohio State legend 35th overall in 2009. He started every game for seven seasons, but never reached the playoffs. The Rams released him in February 2016. They played in the Super Bowl three years later.
“Does the NFL ever think St. Louis is a big enough corporate market?” Laurinaitis said. “At the end of the day, Stan Kroenke paid a ton out of his pocket for the long-term investment of wanting a team in Los Angeles.
“He’ll be hosting Super Bowls, national championships, Olympics, World Cups. All those things will flow through that building, and there’s nothing St. Louis could have done. That’s not what the owner wanted.”
Laurinaitis hosts a radio show in Columbus, but not this week. His wife delivered their third daughter Monday.
He has been on record throughout the season saying the Bills are a legitimate Super Bowl team, but he’s predicting the Chiefs will win Sunday.
“To think the Bills have closed the gap so much really shocks me because of how dominant the Chiefs looked a year ago,” Laurinaitis said. “They looked like they had a death grip on the conference, but the Bills have shown, no, they are here and will be for a while.
“But you’re going to make me choose, and I’d rather face the Bills. No matter how much Josh Allen has improved, if you’re going to guess which quarterback will have an off day, there’s a slightly better chance that’ll be Josh Allen.”
For now, Laurinaitis insisted.
As intra-conference division champs, the Bills and Chiefs will play next season and possibly for years to come, like Tom Brady’s Patriots and Peyton Manning’s Colts did.
“I love the matchup,” Laurinaitis said, “because it really is the future.”
Art Still is in the Chiefs Hall of Fame. The second overall draft choice (after Earl Campbell) in 1978, Still led the Chiefs in sacks six times, represented them in four Pro Bowls and was voted team MVP twice. He lives in the Kansas City area.
Buffalo, however, owns part of his heart.
“Of all the places I’ve lived, I’m telling you, Western New York is great,” Still said. “More so than anything else, what you see is what you get.”
Still entered the NFL surrounded by what would become the Bills overlords. GM Bill Polian was a Chiefs scout in 1978. Levy was the Chiefs’ head coach. Corey was the Chiefs’ defensive line coach.
They arranged to trade Still to Buffalo in 1988.
“Coach Levy was such a smart dude and made a world of difference,” Still said. “He brought a lot of things to the table, not just football. I still think about old Marv and how he influenced guys.
“You know, football players ain’t all into all this intellectual stuff. I remember him talking about visualization, and we used to say, ‘Man, old Marv better take his medication or all this Martian crap is going to kill us.’
“But he was ahead of the game. He showed there was more to learn than football skills. There are things to learn that you can apply to business or family or whatever.”
Still helped the Bills reach their first AFC Championship Game, a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. He played one more year, his final game ending with playoff heartbreak in Cleveland, a would-be touchdown pass bouncing off Ronnie Harmon’s fingers in the end zone.
He missed out on the Super Bowl era. He retired to Kansas City, but missed Western New York so much that he returned in 1995, buying 30 acres on Point Peter Road in the Town of Persia.
Still now lives in suburban Liberty, Mo., and remains active in the community and with NFL Alumni campaigns. He’s involved with Souper Bowl of Caring, a food drive for TackleHunger.org.
No matter how hard he’s pressed, he won’t pick a side Sunday.
“Both organizations have been great to me and my family,” Still said, “so I’m not going to root against either of them.”
Whoever wins, Still will have worn their uniform.
And that team is projected to meet the Packers in what could bring the whole journey full circle. The Packers are favored to beat the Buccaneers in Sunday’s early game.
If that holds, then we will see either a Super Bowl I rematch or poetic redemption for those 1966 Bills.
Along the road from Buffalo to Kansas City, there were so many reminders that, win or lose, the Bills organization has gotten farther than Cleveland ever has, possesses the quarterback and offensive coordinator Indianapolis must find and stands as a representation of what St. Louis has lost twice.
The next stop, geographically and symbolically, is Kansas City.
Buffalo feels much closer than it used to.
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