Adjustments by Bengals Defense, Miscues by Chiefs Offense Lead to Improbable Upset
Adjustments by Bengals Defense, Miscues by Chiefs Offense Lead to Improbable Upset
Years from now, the Chiefs will look back on each of their heart-breaking postseason losses during the Mahomes-Reid era, and this one will stand out as the most painful.
This was a largely self-inflicted missed opportunity. Kansas City was on the verge of a 3rd straight Super Bowl appearance after taking an early 21-3 lead that seemed completely insurmountable for the young and inexperienced Bengals. Between some sloppy play by Patrick Mahomes and some key adjustments by the Bengals defense, the Chiefs were shut down after halftime. Cincinnati is headed to L.A. for the Super Bowl as a result.
What did the Bengals defense do differently?
It’s not fair to say that this game ONLY come down to the Chiefs missing an opportunity. The Bengals defense deserves a ton of credit too, especially after defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo took a different approach in the second half that gave Mahomes and K.C. problems.
There were two key differences to Anarumo’s approach in the final 30 minutes and overtime. First, he focused more on taking away the middle of the field with coverage. That helped eliminate some of those deep over routes that the Chiefs rely on so often to create explosive plays.
Second, he rushed 3 more often. Sometimes that extra defender was used in coverage to take away any shallow crossing routes. Other times, he was used as a spy to keep Mahomes from effectively fleeing the pocket to make plays with his legs.
The below 3rd down was a great example. You can see the matchups and concept illustrated. The Bengals would rush 3 and play cover-1 (man-free). However, they ended up with 3 help defenders in the middle of the field: The deep safety over the top, a safety at the intermediate level to handle any in-breaking routes, and another safety (the extra body in coverage as a result of only rushing 3) acting as a hole defender underneath to help out on any shallow crossers:
As a part of this concept, multiple man-coverage defenders would trade off their receivers running routes over the middle and then drop off to become inside help defenders.
On this play, you can see Eli Apple pass off Demarcus Robinson’s shallow crosser to safety Jessie Bates in the middle, who cut Robinson’s route:
Apple then replaced Bates inside and provided help on Travis Kelce, coming from the other side of the formation:
A similar thing occured at the next level with Tyreek Hill’s route:
That’s a lot of clutter in the middle of the field with both Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce accounted for by multiple defenders:
The definition of a coverage sack…
Mahomes’ 3rd-down interception in overtime came against a similar look. Here, the Bengals would again rush 3. This time, however, they’d use that extra defender as a spy on Mahomes to try and keep him in the pocket.
Behind it, they would play a similar coverage as the previous play with safety Von Bell creeping down into the middle of the field after the snap to handle any intermediate-inbreaking routes: