How ‘Corn Dog Shuttle’ — swiped from an AFC rival — lifted Chiefs to Super Bowl win

Perhaps the Buffalo Bills didn’t need to show this ... but they did anyway.

The Bills led the Chiefs, 31-20, in a Week 5 road game during the 2021 season with just under 6 minutes left. Quarterback Josh Allen hit Emmanuel Sanders for a nine-yard touchdown, pushing the Bills’ lead to three scores.

If only they knew then. The moment would help the Bills secure a victory that night, but it also would start a Butterfly Effect that propelled 16 months into the future.

The unique play design — the one that caught the Chiefs defense by surprise — was the same one KC used to expose the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night.

Meaning the Chiefs have one of their biggest AFC rivals partly to thank for a 38-35 victory in Super Bowl LVII at State Farm Stadium.

The portion of the Bills’ red-zone play that intrigued the Chiefs’ coaches most was the motion from receiver Isaiah McKenzie. He started to come across the formation ahead of the snap before stopping and reversing course, putting stress on defenders to that side of the field.

On this play, KC’s defenders couldn’t get it all covered. McKenzie’s drag route drew defenders to open Sanders for a corner route.

So the Chiefs’ coaches started experimenting in training camp, putting the sequencing together while coming up with a name.

“Corner route” was shortened to “Corn,” while “Drag” became “Dog.” The Chiefs’ new play was “Corn Dog.”

With the added wrinkle attached. The coaches like to use aircraft to label their jet motions, and this one required a player to go back to the place he first started.

Sort of like a shuttle. Thus, “Corn Dog Shuttle” was born.

And man, was it effective to start.

Chiefs receivers coach Joe Bleymaier said KC started in training camp by attaching a run play to the “Corn Dog” route combination. But then it seemed like — almost every time in practice — the motion man was coming wide open as well.

“We knew we were onto something, because our defense had a tough time, and we’re running the same play over and over again,” Bleymaier said. “And in training camp, it doesn’t matter who’s doing it — we had seven different wide receivers do it — and everybody’s getting open. ‘Man, this thing’s sweet.’”

There was an additional reason, though, the Chiefs had a feeling this week it’d be successful against these Eagles.

It started with film study from running backs coach Greg Lewis and pass game analyst David Girardi. They noticed that the Eagles went heavily to man coverage in the red zone.

And when opponents used motion against them in these settings, they almost always attempted to “bump” the opposing receivers, or pass them off in coverage to teammates.

Lewis and Girardi made up clips to show the players. They believed “Corn Dog” was going to work.

“If that (bumping coverage) is a base rule down there, that’s a tough route to cover,” Bleymaier said. “It puts a lot of stress on them.”

Players began to buzz about the play early last week in Tempe, Arizona. When the Chiefs rotated through receivers during workouts on the Shuttle motion part of the play, it was like training camp all over again.

“Everyone was coming off practice like, ‘That play’s going to work,’” Bleymaier said. “’I’m going to be open.’”

There remained some slight hesitance with one player, though: receiver Kadarius Toney.

When called to motion in and then back out at Thursday’s practice, Toney’s legs gave way on the slippery turf when pivoting. He collapsed to the ground and stayed there for the rest of the snap.

The play was so funny to teammates and coaches that Toney had the practice film sent to his phone. He displayed it to reporters in the Chiefs’ locker room Sunday night, showing he slipped so far that the only body parts left in the video frame were his two feet dangling in the air.

Bleymaier laughed when he saw the snippet again Sunday, comparing the appearance of Toney’s feet in the frame to a famous scene in “The Wizard of Oz” when Dorothy’s house crashes down on the Wicked Witch of the East.

“He didn’t even try to get up,” Bleymaier said with a smile. “He just laid there on the field, like, ‘This is awful.’”

Chiefs coach Andy Reid was undeterred when calling “Corn Dog Shuttle” — one of Sunday’s top entries on the Chiefs’ red-zone call sheet — for Toney early in the fourth quarter. Bleymaier immediately thought about the State Farm Stadium turf, which had proven to be slippery.

While watching from the coach’s box, Bleymaier said one thing stuck in his mind: footing. If Toney could keep his feet, it would be almost impossible for the Eagles to cover him on his route back to the sideline.

Toney didn’t stumble this time. Instead, he went in motion, then retraced his steps to disorient Philadelphia’s defenders while creating 11.2 yards of separation on his touchdown catch, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. The play helped give the Chiefs their first lead at 28-27.

“It worked out perfect,” Bleymaier said.

And the Chiefs weren’t done using it — or at least a variation.

Immediately after Toney’s score, Bleymaier turned to Girardi, who plays a significant role in the Chiefs’ red-zone offense.

“That’s exactly what ‘Tent’ would look like if we called it,” Bleymaier recalls Girardi saying.

For the Chiefs, “Tent” was the same type of play with the return motion, with different routes and players on the field. To avoid confusion, the team used a new moniker as its label.

KC ran this one with “10” personnel: four receivers and one running back. “Tent,” then, made for an easy new name.

On their next red-zone trip, the Chiefs had “Tent F Shuttle” ready. Skyy Moore was the motion man this time, and even though tight end Travis Kelce was lined up in the wrong spot, quarterback Patrick Mahomes ran the play anyway as Moore opened up 13.1 yards of separation on his TD catch.

As predicted earlier in the week, Philadephia’s defenders were left glaringly out of position. Eagles cornerback Avonte Maddox — assigned to Moore in man coverage — was still in the middle of the field when Moore crossed the goal line at the pylon near the Chiefs’ sideline.

“If they were playing man,” Moore said, “we were gonna take advantage of it.”

According to Next Gen Stats, this marked only the fifth time since 2016 that a team had scored two touchdowns on plays with 10 yards of separation or more.

KC had done it in the Super Bowl ... while using the same basic action to create both.

“We like (the return motion) because it works,” Bleymaier said, “and we’ve been practicing it all spring in training camp.”

The scheme played a significant part in the Chiefs celebrating Sunday night. Bleymaier stopped an interview to hug Mahomes. He even smiled wide when sprayed in the back by champagne from receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette.

KC had won a world championship thanks to an offensive blueprint going exactly to plan.

With help from an unexpected source: one of the Chiefs’ top adversaries.