Lots of turmoil happened in 2023 for the defending champs of football.
A loss in Week One to the Lions of Detroit. The first loss to the Denver Broncos in eight seasons – a 24-9 defeat.
Wide receivers dropping passes left and right. Doubts about Patrick Mahomes and if he was still good enough to go win another title.
The villain moniker bestowed upon KC late in the season after the New England Patriots carried that torch for two decades. Constantly battling the cries from fans saying the NFL was rigging games in the Chiefs’ favor (myself included, I’m guilty as charged).
Oh, and we certainly also can’t forget the cries from NFL fans, those “Dads, Brads, and Chads,” that Taylor Swift in her popular relationship with Travis Kelce was “ruining football.” However, who is having the last laugh as back-to-back Super Bowl champions?
Yes, those same Chiefs. Those same Chiefs who were underdogs in Buffalo, underdogs in Baltimore, underdogs in Vegas for the Super Bowl against the 49ers. That’s just the postseason, mind you.
Constantly in 2023 the Kansas City Chiefs were down for the count. But they were never out.
They were never out even though they lost three of five games from November 5th through December 10th.
They were never out even though against Buffalo on December 10th, wide receiver Kadarius Toney lined up offsides on a go-ahead touchdown to put KC up 23-20 in the fourth. Even though fans, including myself, labeled Mahomes as a “crybaby” after he yelled at the refs for the call and how he commanded the post-game handshake with Josh Allen… the Chiefs were never out.
The Chiefs were never out even though they lost to the Raiders on Christmas Day, in Kansas City, where the doubts of the Chiefs being able to sustain success really started to increase.
They were never out even though other teams were heralded as Super Bowl favorites (looking at you, Baltimore), as the Chiefs were glanced at but never stared at.
Kansas City trailed twice as the third quarter in Buffalo during the Divisional Round came to a close: 17-13 at half, 24-20 after three. They were never out, though.
The Chiefs notched a quick score in the fourth early on to go up 27-24. They held the Bills scoreless throughout the rest of the game.
The AFC title game in Baltimore. “Save us Lamar,” “Save us,” fans cried. Lamar Jackson, the “savior quarterback” of the Ravens, couldn’t save them from the Chiefs.
He was short by 7 points. The only time the game was tied was after Jackson found rookie wideout Zay Flowers on a 30-yard touchdown after escaping a sack with just under five minutes to go in the first.
The Chiefs led 17-7 at half, and they held the Ravens to a mere three points in the second half. It could’ve been 10, but Zay Flowers on the first play of the fourth quarter caught an underneath pass from Jackson, ran towards the goal line, jumped and reached for the endzone, and lost the ball on a fumble after Chiefs cornerback Lajarius Sneed punched the ball out just before Flowers got in.
Eventually, the Chiefs won the game and punched their ticket back to the SuperBowl for the fourth time in five seasons.
This fourth appearance didn’t start pretty, and ESPN Stats painted the picture. After pouncing on a rare Christian McCaffrey fumble to open the game after a five-play drive for San Francisco, Kansas City put up a three-play drive that went six yards.
They were forced to punt. The 49ers punted their next drive, and the Chiefs countered by going ten yards in three plays… and they punted once again.
The defenses were having a ball in the first quarter, and unfortunately the Chiefs offense suffered because of this. A 0-0 first quarter score resulted. After an incomplete pass intended for Deebo Samuel on third-and-long by quarterback Brock Purdy to start quarter two, rookie kicker Jake Moody nailed a 55-yard field goal to put San Francisco up 3-0.
Four plays later, after a spectacular throw by Mahomes deep downfield to Mecole Hardman for 52 yards, the Chiefs had the ball at the 49ers nine-yard line with a first-and-goal.
Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco ran to the left on this first and goal and he lost the football in a big miscue. San Francisco recovered at their own eight.
Even more negativity for the Chiefs came to fruition, as replays showed Travis Kelce yelling and bumping into head coach Andy Reid in a fiery exchange because he wasn’t out on the field for the first-and-goal play that resulted in a fumble.
Once again, after some brief drama, punts became the norm, with two more boots resulting before a crazy trick play – wide receiver Jauan Jennings throwing a pass to Christian McCaffrey – scored Super Bowl 58’s opening touchdown as the 49ers jumped out to a 10-0 lead. A stellar 13-play, 65-yard drive for Kansas City ensued, as Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker broke the new SuperBowl kicking record set by Jake Moody earlier as Butker hammered home a 57-yard field goal attempt to put KC on the board right before Usher’s halftime show.
The Chiefs gained some momentum with a 10-3 deficit instead of a 10-0 deficit, but they lost all that momentum three plays into the third quarter as Patrick Mahomes threw his only interception of the game, with Ji’Ayir Brown picking it off for San Francisco. Once again, KC seemed down for the count. But the defense made sure they were never out.
The Chiefs defense forced the 49ers to punt three times in a row as the offense notched a second field goal to cut their deficit down from seven to four, at 10-6, in the middle of offensive woes for San Francisco.
Special teams for the 49ers wasn’t really a huge problem in Super Bowl LVIII until a Tommy Townsend punt for Kansas City hit the foot of San Francisco’s Darrell Luter Jr. and 49ers returner Ray-Ray McCloud III ran to pick up the ball, couldn’t recover it, and KC’s Jaylen Watson pounced on it. Chiefs ball at the 16.
Marquez-Valdes Scantling a play later caught a pass from Patrick Mahomes falling back into the endzone and he gave KC their first lead of the night, at 13-10.
San Francisco responded with a touchdown of their own 12 plays later, as they went back up by a 16-13 clip. However, 17-13 didn’t become reality as the Chiefs’ Leo Chenal blocked the extra point by Jake Moody – and this proved to be huge later in the game.
16-13 became 19-19 and a trip to overtime after field goals were notched by both sides, twice by Kansas City.
San Francisco decided to take first dibs with the ball after winning the coin toss, and in a surprising twist players said after the game that they did not know about the new OT rules in the playoffs, where both teams are guaranteed a possession. The 49ers took first dibs and took the first points of overtime, going up 22-19 on a Jake Moody field goal of 27 yards. KC seemed down for the count again. However, in their final drive of the season, they showed us all that they would never be out.
Patrick Mahomes drove his team down the field on a 13-play, 75-yard drive that took 7 minutes and 19 seconds off of overtime, taking the clock down to 0:03 left in the first OT.
None of those 13 plays eclipsed 20 yards, and the longest was a 19-yard Mahomes scramble on 3rd and 1 to the red zone – the 49ers’ 13.
Two plays later, Travis Kelce caught his first and only pass of the drive, taking the ball seven yards down to the 3 yard line of San Francisco.
The Chiefs all season had seemed down for the count. From the dropped passes, to the drama on the sidelines throughout the year (especially with Kelce earlier in the Super Bowl), to the cries from fans about Taylor Swift and the Chiefs becoming villains and rigging games, to the doubts about Mahomes and his superstardom, to the tough losses to teams not usually able to beat Kansas City, to the punts, the offensive struggles, and everything else in between – the Chiefs were down for the count.
However, as they lined up for that first-and-goal at the 3, they could prove that they were never going to be out of it. Mahomes took the snap, rolled to his right, and fired a pass to Mecole Hardman as he took it in for the score.
Chiefs win. Champions for the second time in a row, the first time since the Patriots of 2003-04 and 2004-05 that a team has gone back-to-back.
As the celebration began, it was clear that no matter what had happened prior, the Kansas City Chiefs were never going to be defeated, even when everything was going south.
But with their superstar defensive coordinator in Steve Spagnuolo, who in my opinion called some of the best defensive plays in NFL history throughout the postseason, a legendary head coach in Andy Reid, one of the most electrifying tight ends of the 21st century in Travis Kelce, as well as a great 2022 draft class including the likes of Leo Chenal, Isaiah Pacheco, Trent McDuffie, and George Karlaftis, who all become household names as a part of the KC Chiefs squad within two seasons, and the future Hall Of Fame, three-time Super Bowl MVP, two-time NFL MVP, four-time Super Bowl appearing, three-time Super Bowl champion QB in Patrick Lavon Mahomes II, who has been passed the baton to greatness that Tom Brady saw for 20+ years… the Chiefs will have the last laugh for a while.
A long, long while. That’s at least until 2024 as they aim to three-peat and continue to expand on NFL history while 31 other teams aim to take them out.
Based on what we have seen from Kansas City, though, it certainly won’t be easy.