Chiefs-Bengals Post-Game
The Chiefs are no longer in first place in the AFC after a devastating 34-31 loss on the road to the Cincinnati Bengals. The Chiefs blew a 14 point lead and were able to only put three points on the board in the second half.
It was a frustrating day all around — with several questionable or 50/50 calls going the Bengals way. Andy Reid toed the line of criticizing the officials by refusing to so he would not get fined. He said all he needed.
The Chiefs likely now will have to win three games in the playoffs to make it back to the Super Bowl. Here’s what stood out on Sunday.
Play Of The Game
The Kansas City Chiefs come up just short against the Cincinnati Bengals falling 34-31 on a last second Field Goal by the Bengals. It really seemed fitting to put together a montage of the poor officiating decisions - missed false starts (yes, plural), questionable defensive pass interference, and the illegal hands to the face on a 4th down stop - as the Play of the Game, as they directly impacted the outcome. Honestly, had I written this as the game concluded I probably would have but as time has passed, I have returned from fan to analyst to bring a real play of the game.
The Moment it Became ‘Last Possession Wins‘
The Bengals offense wasn’t overly complicated. They isolated their best players one on one with lesser players for the Chiefs and threw contested passes over and over. They balanced that by utilizing wider splits and attacking leverage underneath for modest gains. Rinse and repeat, and that pretty much summed up the Bengals’ offense.
As mentioned on the KC Laboratory, that sounds negative but it’s not meant to be so. The Bengals’ have enough talent at their skill positions and at quarterback to play that to great success. The Chiefs felt that time and time again on deep passes but also on quick hitting out and in breaking routes based on leverage.
Wide receivers lining up wide were frequently running a Slant/Drive or a Go route. Wide receivers lining up in the slot frequently ran an Out or a Fade/Post. It’s a game of basic leverage on where the defense is aligned and to counter that early in the second half the Chiefs altered their traditional Quarters coverage with a 2-Read call.
This asks the nickel back, cornerback, and safety to both read the #2 wide receiver to a specific side and determine their assignment based on his route. When the #2 wide receiver broke outside, he became the corner’s responsibility. This also pushed the outside receiver running vertical to be the safeties coverage responsibility.
The call was made to cut the Out route and stop the Bengals’ from trying to pick up a quick first down but the Bengals made a great play. Instead of trying to sling the ball in for the first down, they went for the Touchdown and some iffy play by both the safety and corner made it easy.
This play didn’t give the Bengals’ the lead, it didn’t take the Chiefs out of the game, and plenty of football was played after this point. What this play did do, was limit how comfortable the Chiefs could be in transitioning out of some of their basic coverage concepts. They had to choose between giving up deep shots or defending the sticks because the Bengals had shown an ability to answer their change-ups.
This was the play that made it pretty eviden the last team with the ball was most likely going to win this game, which is what happened. Plenty of football - and referee interference - occurred in between but this was perfect foreshadowing.
10 Observations
Pregame Injury
Orlando Brown Jr. was essentially a late scratch due to a calf injury — forcing the Chiefs to shake up their offensive line mere minutes before the game. Brown Jr. would miss the entirety of the game. We wait to see the severity of the injury.
Niang Injured
A disastrous situation for the Chiefs occurred as Brown Jr.’s replacement at left tackle — Lucas Niang — was sadly carted off the field in the first quarter.
Explosive Plays Surrendered
The Chiefs have been doing an excellent job of limiting explosive plays by their opponents this season. It’s been a big part of their resurgence on defense. That was not the case against the Bengals. The main culprit…
Ja’Marr Chase Goes Off
The offensive success revolved around Ja’Marr Chase. He went absolutely nuclear against the Chiefs — and was the driving force in the success the Bengals had against what was a scorching hot defense coming into the game. Even the pass interference calls he drew were a big factor. The Chiefs had no answer for him.
The Referees Were Horrendous
There is no other way to say it — the officiating affected the outcome of this game. There were several questionable calls throughout the game — pass interferences and a phantom hands to the face call on the last drive of the game.
Joe Thuney Shines
The Chiefs would move guard Joe Thuney to tackle — and he performed admirably. He is not unfamiliar with the playing the position — he slid over at times to play for the Patriots in a pinch. Thuney was excellent all day.
Cornerbacks Struggle
It was a tough day at the office for the cornerbacks — specifically Charvarius Ward and Rashad Fenton. When they weren’t giving up big plays to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, they were getting pass interference calls. We can debate some of those calls, but the entire offense for the Bengals was outside vertical shots — and the Chiefs were miserable defending them.
Offense Starts Cold, Heats Up Quick
After a three and out to start the game, the Chiefs scored touchdowns on the next four possessions. They went scorched earth — despite being on their third option at left tackle — for the remainder of the first half.
Three Possession Half
The offense managed only three points in the second half — and they only got the ball three times in the final thirty minutes. Two punts started the half, and the final drive of the game for the offense stalled in the red zone — leading to a field goal. A key drop by Travis Kelce assisted in one of the precious drives stalling out. Little mistakes like that are magnified with reduced possessions.
Chiefs Lose One Seed
They controlled their own destiny headed into today and have squandered an incredible opportunity to get the lone bye in the AFC. They are highly like to be the two seed with a win over the Broncos in Week 18 — and are likely to play the Chargers or Raiders in the Wild Card round.
0 – Sacks allowed by the Chiefs Offensive Line
In a storyline that nobody expected in the lead-up to this game, the Chiefs had to rely on a series of backup offensive linemen to help protect Patrick Mahomes for the majority of the game. They lost starting left tackle Orlando Brown, Jr to a calf strain in warmups and lost Lucas Niang — who had shifted to left tackle after starting at right tackle — on just the sixth offensive snap of the game.
As these injuries happened after inactives were posted — and therefore ruled out Prince Tega-Wanogho or Kyle Long from filling in — left guard Joe Thuney moved to left tackle, Andrew Wylie came in at right tackle, and Nick Allegretti entered at left guard. The group allowed just 4 hurries on the day and zero sacks, while helping the run game to 6.7 yards per carry on 23 rushes. It was a bit of a nightmare scenario for the offense in the early part of the game, but the depth of the Chiefs offensive line group stepped up and played very well for most of the day.
245 – Yards allowed in Bengals 5 Biggest Plays
The Chiefs defense makes it a goal to not give up the big play when leading. Sometimes this can be frustrating, as the offense can march down the field and take time off the clock, but as long as points are kept to a minimum, the defense has “done their job” by Spagnuolo’s standards. Unfortunately, this didn’t hold up well on Sunday, as the Bengals were able to rattle off explosive plays and keep their team in the game.
The Chiefs allowed their first, second, and fifteenth most explosive plays of the year in this game alone. While the majority were outstanding catches by Ja’Marr Chase — and one from Tee Higgins — the two longest were due to poor play and coverage by the defense. This is a group that prides itself on limiting damage and living to fight another day, and yet they found themselves allowing the Bengals back into the game. These explosive plays allowed were arguably the biggest contributor to the Chiefs loss of the 1 seed on Sunday.
20 – Bengals Points Scored on Penalty-Extended Drives
There were a lot of things that went wrong on Sunday for the Chiefs. Blown coverages, drops from the Chiefs receivers, missed tackles, and poor time-management all contributed to the Chiefs losing this game. However, the major storyline coming out of the loss was the penalties called on the Chiefs — particularly on defense.
I’m not here to argue the validity of any of the calls (okay, the third and three DPI call on Sneed was awful), but they were the main reason that drives were extended and the Bengals stayed in this game. Four calls went against the Chiefs secondary on four separate drives that resulted in a touchdown, a field goal, another touchdown, and the final field goal as time expired. All four penalties removed a defensive stop that would have forced a punt or given the ball back to the Chiefs offense. If merely one of those calls doesn’t get made — and this is the NFL, where inconsistency reigns on these sorts of calls — the entire composition of this game turns on its head.
The other phases of the Chiefs didn’t help with penalties, either. A hold wiped out a special teams touchdown and a hold/illegal motion call killed a crucial third down conversion deep in Cincinnati territory. However, the consistency at which the Chiefs were guilty (or not) of infractions on the defensive side of the ball were ultimately what did them in when in their biggest situations.