You’ll bear with us today as we indulge in some Kansas City Chiefs chatter. After all, they did just win the Super Bowl, for the first time in 50 years, while the Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t even manage to make it out of the regular season this time around—and for two years running.
But if you really take a step back, you have to appreciate what a three-game stretch this has been for Kansas City, and frankly, how many times Andy Reid’s best chance to win a Super Bowl nearly slipped away from him. He finally became the head coach with the most seasons before his first Super Bowl victory at 21, but there were so many times he could have vanished.
Through some Week 17 exchanges, the Chiefs were able to sneak into the number two seed and advance beyond the opening round, but they were nearly without a pulse on the operating table early in the Divisional Round.
Against the Houston Texans, at home, they found themselves trailing 21-0 by the end of the first quarter, and then 24-0 a little over 19 minutes into the game. But that would just about do it for the Texans for the rest of the game.
Literally less than a minute of game time later, Patrick Mahomes found Damien Williams for a 17-yard touchdown pass. By halftime, they had taken a 28-21 lead. The final score ended up being 51-31, one of the biggest turnarounds in NFL postseason history, and the most unanswered points in a postseason game in nearly decades.
It didn’t stop there, however. 10 minutes into the AFC Championship game, the Chiefs were down by double digits once again, falling behind the Tennessee Titans 10-0. They had taken out the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots in decisive fashion in the first two rounds. It looked like Mahomes and company walked into a buzzsaw.
They would score 35 of the next 42 points to post a final score of 35-24, the Titans adding a final touchdown with 4:24 left to play. They were never within a single possession from 14:54 remaining through to the end of the game.
Finally, last night, while they got off to a better start, the third quarter was a rough stretch, during which they fell behind 20-10. That remained the score of record until a little over six minutes left to play, that scoring drive beginning with about nine minutes to play in the fourth quarter.
The Chiefs would go on to punch it in two more times to win 31-20, the icing on the cake a breakaway score for Williams with a little over a minute to play.
Patrick Mahomes became the first quarterback in NFL history to overcome three double-digit deficits to win in a single postseason. Even more remarkable, all three of those wins came back double digits. Their 21-point swing in the Super Bowl was thus their least impressive turnaround.
Chiefs’ QB Patrick Mahomes was 5-0 when trailing by double-digits this season, including 3-0 in the postseason. He is the first QB in NFL history to lead three double-digit comebacks in a single postseason.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 3, 2020
