Patrick Mahomes hadn’t run this play all year — until it helped Chiefs win Super Bowl
On the biggest play of the season — and in the final minute of Super Bowl LVIII — Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes made his decision in an instant.
With millions watching on television and in a legacy-defining moment, Mahomes was about to change the play-call.
And switch to something the Chiefs hadn’t run all year.
“It was really cool,” Mahomes said Monday with a smile.
The Chiefs might not be back-to-back Super Bowl champs without this audible — or if Mahomes’ teammates weren’t ready for the chaos of the next few seconds.
This was third-and-2 at the San Francisco 43-yard line, with 48 seconds left in regulation of Super Bowl LVIII. The Chiefs trailed 19-16, and if they were stopped on this down, they’d have to decide between a potential game-tying 60-yard field-goal attempt or a fourth down on offense with the season on the line.
KC had its play-call set. Mahomes lifted his leg to survey the defense, then noticed something in his peripheral vision.
The 49ers, who hadn’t blitzed most of the game, had extra defenders on the line of scrimmage. They were about to bring pressure.
In short, the Chiefs’ play from the huddle was not going to work.
Mahomes still knew he had a check he could go to. The team had discussed using it if he ever saw a particular blitz.
The only problem? Mahomes had no in-season evidence — over 21 games — that this play was going to work.
“All year long, we never got the look that we wanted,” Mahomes said. “And then all of a sudden you get in the Super Bowl — a third down, in a huge moment in the game — and of course, you get the exact look you’re thinking about.”
The Chiefs had practiced this audible in training camp, then maybe twice a month during the regular season, just in case. Coaches also showed a picture of the play in meetings before each game, just as a refresher in case the Chiefs needed to break glass in case of emergency.
Mahomes went for that here. He frantically started flicking his hand and wrist to signal the call to his teammates. The message, in essence: “Don’t run the previous play. Let’s go with this man-to-man killer instead.”
Chiefs center Creed Humphrey said something to right guard Trey Smith next to him, then motioned with his arm to make sure he received the message.
And after the snap, it became clear: The Chiefs were plenty ready for the unexpected.
The screen pass to Jerick McKinnon worked as intended. The Chiefs’ offensive line left the correct defender on the right side unblocked, allowing Mahomes to know exactly where the pressure was coming from. McKinnon also faked a block on that player — the Chiefs had shown cross-protection like this most of the game — before bluffing and running around him to the vacant space that was supposed to be there.
Mahomes backpedaled to buy time before lofting the ball to McKinnon, who followed a group of Chiefs blocking receivers for a seven-yard gain and critical first down.
On the CBS broadcast, analyst Tony Romo shared his amazement at the timing of the Chiefs’ screen.
“What a play-call,” Romo said. “It was almost like they expected (the 49ers) to go against themselves and pressure.”
In this case, it was Mahomes who outfoxed the defense, though perhaps the most underrated part is how easily this could’ve gone wrong.
And we have an example of that from a few months earlier.
Go back to Week 13 and a Thursday Night Football showdown between Seattle and Dallas. The Seahawks ran essentially the same play as the Chiefs on their fourth-and-2, trying to beat pressure with a screen pass to running back Deejay Dallas.
There was one issue: The running back Dallas — unlike McKinnon — was hesitant coming out of the backfield. He eventually got caught up in traffic, and quarterback Geno Smith ran out of time before throwing an incomplete pass.
The defender who pressured Smith — Cowboys defensive end Micah Parsons — was the one intentionally left unblocked. That fact led to plenty of second-guessing afterward. The New York Post labeled the sequence a “head-scratching final play ‘design.’”
No one could’ve known then, but the same basic scheme would help the Chiefs win the Super Bowl three months later.
And even Mahomes reflected on the craziness of the moment afterward.
In a sequence shared on the Chiefs’ video series “The Franchise,” Mahomes is walking with wife Brittany on the field after the Super Bowl while talking to the team’s VP of communications, Brad Gee.
“I checked to something on the second-to-last drive that we have literally never ran,” Mahomes said. “We ran in it practice and training camp. I checked to it, and it freaking went out the gate.”
The third-down conversion led to a game-tying field goal, followed by a Chiefs overtime touchdown in a 25-22 Super Bowl victory.
When remembering the play Monday, Mahomes credited teammates and an organization that emphasizes the small details.
Ones that matter, Mahomes said, in times you might not expect.
“Everybody was prepared and ready for the moment, and that comes with those tedious fundamentals from Day 1,” he said. “We do this stuff to prepare ourselves for the Super Bowl.”
