To say nothing of scheme creativity, just from a player development standpoint, this game was the culmination of fantastic coaching from Spags and his staff.

To see so many rookies play meaningful minutes in a conference championship game and perform the way they did is a rare, rare thing in the NFL. The defensive backs especially showed out against the best receiving corps in the league. They knew their assignments and did not blink an eye matching up against Chase and Higgins.

That's on top of losing Sneed, arguably our most important defensive player behind Jones, during the first series.

Credit to the defensive line for applying pressure that helped out our rookie DBs, but without sound coverage in the backfield, some of those sacks/pressures/hits just don't happen.

I don't think it's an overstatement to say this game is one of the best defensive coaching jobs in Chiefs history. It should be talked about more.

Watson - 66 snaps (100%)
McDuffie - 65 snaps (98%)
Williams - 59 snaps (89%)
Cook - 27 snaps (41%)
Karlaftis - 27 snaps (41%)
Chenal - 5 snaps (8%)
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Dude's gameplan was in the shitter by midway through the 2nd quarter.

Sneed is absolutely critical to his coverage schemes and those went out the window one drive into the game. So right off the bat he's missing a leg from the stool. Then Gay goes down as well and now his most athletic coverage backer, the guy who can help cover up the middle to allow us to shade help out to the young CBs, is also gone.

So hey, we'll just keep running 3 safety looks out there and then get some quality snaps from Darius freakin' Harris.

And without a spectacular catch from Chase and an inexplicable fumble from Mahomes, Spags damn near throws up a clean sheet against a team that hadn't lost a game since October.
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It’s incredble that this man doesn’t get his dues. 3 years ago this staff gave us Sneed, Gay and Danna (who has been very good this year).

Then Bolton in 2021. Now they just completely revamped the defense this year.

Like do people just not realize how big of a deal that is with a QB contract? We basically have cheap amazing talent on the defense for the next 4 years and can focus a shit load of resources on tackle and WR.

Goddamn what a spot to be in
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If that Mahomes fumble doesn't happen....then I honestly think this game isn't anywhere close as it ended.
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I was juuuuust starting to get comfortable. Looking at the scoreboard thinking "Okay, we're gonna be up 10 at worst with not much time left"

I mean it wasn't 30 seconds later that play happened. That had all the look of a drive that would've finished it. Frankly, it wasn't terribly dissimilar from the Kelce fumble.

Credit to the Chiefs for finding a way to get it done because that play really did take the air out of the balloon. It could've gone down as a pretty infamous moment had things not ended the way they did.
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I think he torqued his ankle while he was cocking back to throw and flinched bad enough he just yeeted the ball.
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The Bengals can stack that one alongside Joe Montana's dropped INT in the '88 Super Bowl. :-)

Next play was a TD.


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Yep, defense & special teams bailed out Patrick in a big way. Sometimes you need that type of luck as a QB. Brady had 3 INT against Packers in conference title game and was bailed out by the Tampa defense shutting down Rodgers in a MVP season. Brady also got bailed out by Dee Ford. He had 2 INT in that game and it would have been a 3rd INT to lose the game if Ford lined up in the correct spot.
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It's so fucking infuriating that Wylie had to go and be a worthless sack of shit because instead of being at midfield we're at the Bengals 35 already in scoring position and probably playing a lot more conservative.
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Exactly. They held the Bengals to 20 points and Burrow had more INTs that TDs. With as hobbled as the offense was there was little chance KC keeps up in a shootout if the defense did not step up. That final drive by the Bengals which ended with Burrow being sacked was unbelievable. I don’t doubt many thought they would drive down and win on a last second FG. They didn’t because the defense who was missing Gay and Sneed stepped up when it mattered most.
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If we lose...there's no way that the narrative isn't "Mahomes choked under pressure against the Bengals....again".
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How many playoff games has Spags defense cost us?
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What an absolutely atrocious take. It’s like Knowmo level bad.
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:-) I've been raked over the coals for what I posted right afterwards. Meh, deserve it.
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Dude...Wylie shouldn't be taunting....EVER. You aren't good enough to taunt anyone.
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