The Chiefs actually didn’t resemble a Tremendous Bowl crew on Christmas Day once they misplaced for the fourth time in six video games, their file dipping to 9-6 and their offense managing simply 14 factors in opposition to the Raiders.
There have been victory cigars within the visiting locker room at Arrowhead Stadium.
Patrick Mahomes lamented the Chiefs’ “one good sport, one unhealthy sport, one good sport, one unhealthy sport” move. That wouldn’t final within the postseason.
Kansas Metropolis turned that low level into one thing that flipped its yr round, stringing collectively 5 consecutive victories — together with three within the postseason — to earn an look in Tremendous Bowl LVIII in opposition to the 49ers on Feb. 11 in Las Vegas.
It’s a unique path in comparison with previous postseason runs. However for the fourth time in 5 years, the Chiefs secured a berth within the league’s ultimate sport as a consequence of quite a lot of components meshing to permit their late-season resurgence:
Rashee Rice’s emergence
The primary trace arrived Nov. 26 when Rice caught eight passes for 107 yards and a landing within the Chiefs’ win on the Raiders. He added one other 9 catches for 91 yards throughout their Dec. 17 victory on the Patriots, too.
These two video games have been a part of a nine-game stretch through which Rice — a rookie second-round choose — caught eight or extra passes six occasions and recorded 70 or extra receiving yards 5 occasions. He’s reached each of these thresholds twice throughout Kansas Metropolis’s successful streak, too.
When the Chiefs chosen the previous SMU star, Rice joined a receiving group that already returned Travis Kelce, Skyy Moore, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Justin Watson. However he ended the common season with essentially the most yards by a Kansas Metropolis wideout not named Tyreek Hill since Jeremy Maclin (1,088) in 2015, topping JuJu Smith-Schuster’s 933 in 2022.
Rice emerged because the complement to Kelce that Mahomes has wanted throughout this five-game stretch.
Isiah Pacheco’s landing streak
Close to the top of the 2022 common season, because the Chiefs gained 10 of 11 video games to enter the playoffs on a tear, Jerick McKinnon scored in six consecutive video games — with all however a kind of a receiving landing. Andy Reid’s offense has at all times been pleasant for Chiefs operating backs, relationship again to Jamaal Charles, and final yr, in that stretch, McKinnon benefitted from that.
This season, it’s Pacheco, the second-year again who has scored in seven consecutive video games — two weeks of being inactive and one week and not using a snap in Week 18, for relaxation functions, blended in — getting into the Tremendous Bowl. Pacheco’s operating model makes him troublesome to sort out, and he turned 205 carries into 935 dashing yards throughout 14 video games. He has added one other 254 within the Chiefs’ three postseason video games.
Steve Spagnuolo’s defensive surge
The protection orchestrated by the Giants’ former defensive coordinator was by no means actually the issue this season. However Spagnuolo’s unit has allowed opponents to high 20 factors simply as soon as — the Payments, within the AFC divisional spherical — throughout their successful streak. The Chiefs haven’t allowed an offense to attain greater than 27 factors all season and surrendered the second-fewest factors per sport (17.3).
They didn’t have beginning linebacker Nick Bolton for half of the common season, together with a five-week absence following wrist surgical procedure, however he leads all defenders with 27 tackles throughout the playoffs and has logged 40 throughout their five-game tear. Bolton, like a lot of the key Kansas Metropolis starters, didn’t play in Week 18.
A classic Mahomes-Kelce connection
Kelce spent press conferences and “New Heights” podcasts shutting down retirement rumors and reiterating why he doesn’t plan to cease enjoying after the season. However the motive why chatter surrounding that matter was amplified stemmed from his intermittent struggles in 2023.
He narrowly missed out on an eighth consecutive 1,000-yard season, however Kelce’s touchdowns dipped from 12 to 5 — together with zero in his ultimate six video games of the common season. Throughout the previous two postseason video games, although, Kelce has caught three touchdowns from Mahomes.
The pair handed Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski for many playoff touchdowns by a quarterback-tight finish tandem. One week later, Kelce handed Jerry Rice’s all-time file of 151 postseason receptions.
Even when the Chiefs had gained three consecutive video games getting into the divisional spherical, they wanted the classic model of Kelce to outlive throughout their previous two victories in opposition to the AFC’s No. 1 and No. 2 seeds.
Hanging early fixes a stalling offense
When Mahomes and Kelce related halfway by the primary quarter of the AFC Championship sport, it marked the eighth consecutive postseason sport through which the Chiefs scored on their opening possession. It’s occurred all thrice — landing, subject purpose, landing — this posteason and all 4 occasions Mahomes began (with Blaine Gabbert getting the Week 18 begin) throughout their successful streak.
That’s completely different from their early-game offense previous to this latest stretch, although. Kansas Metropolis opened the sport with a landing simply as soon as throughout six video games following a 7-2 begin.