With under two minutes left in the AFC Championship game, it seemed the ending was inevitable. The Kansas City Chiefs, after letting a 21-3 lead slip away, faced a 2nd and goal from the Cincinnati Bengals’ four-yard line, trailing by three points. Patrick Mahomes and company would surely find a way to get into the end zone, booking a date in Los Angeles for Super Bowl LVI.
Someone forgot to tell the Bengals their role in this play.
Instead of reaching the end zone, the Chiefs were forced to settle for a game-tying field goal. While they managed to convert that and push the Bengals to overtime, in the extra frame Mahomes threw an interception on the first possession, giving Cincinnati a chance to book their own ticket to the west coast.
How did the Bengals force the Chiefs to settle for three? By delivering their two biggest sacks of the season.
The first came on second down, with Kansas City needing just four yards to take the lead. They line up with Mahomes in the shotgun in a condensed 2×2 formation:
Everything about this play, from the formation to the personnel and even the situation, screams running play. The Bengals are out of timeouts, and Kansas City does not want to leave too much time for Joe Burrow, so running the football might be on the table. The condensed formation, coupled with the fact that Blake Bell is in the game at tight end and not Travis Kelce, helps sell that idea.
Instead, the Chiefs look to throw, working off play-action:
Mahomes looks to the left side first, where he has Tyreek Hill running the spot route from the outside while Mecole Hardman runs the flat route from the inside alignment. But his primary option, Hill, is erased due to incredible press coverage from Chidobe Awuzie, who sticks to the receiver and does not let him get away from his clutches. That sets in motion the first of two huge sacks from Sam Hubbard:
Mahomes looks first to Hill, but with Awuzie locking him up, he brings his eyes late to Hardman in the flat, but with Mike Hilton lurking, he does not make the throw. Instead, he tries to escape the pocket to the left, but that is when D.J. Reader disengages from left guard Joe Thuney to the outside, and the big defensive tackle is quick enough to cut off Mahomes’ path to the edge.
As this is playing out, Hubbard is doing some disengaging of his own, separating from left tackle Orlando Brown. As Mahomes reverses field, Hubbard tracks him down, looping to the quarterback and tripping him up for the sack.
Third down.
With the Bengals out of timeouts, the clock continued to roll, and the next play would begin with under 40 seconds left in the game. Now facing a 3rd and goal from the nine-yard line, the Chiefs are looking to throw out of this formation, now with Kelce back in the game:
They isolate Hill on the left, and put Kelce as the middle receiver to the trips formation on the right. Here is the route concept they dial up:
Kansas City tries to get everything flowing to the left side, from the post-corner route from Hill to the three routes coming from the trips side of the formation.
Now, the bigger question is this: How do the Bengals and defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo play the biggest snap of the season?
By doing what they turned to in the second half of the game. Rushing three and dropping eight:
The #Bengals almost doubled their usage of dropping 8+ defenders in coverage in the second half and overtime, and held the Chiefs to only 3 points during that span:
🔸 First Half: 24% of pass plays
🔸 Second Half/OT: 45% of pass plays#CINvsKC | #RuleTheJungle— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) January 30, 2022
The critical component to this is Hubbard, highlighted here:
Hubbard is going to spy Mahomes, dropping to about the five-yard line and mirroring the quarterback in the pocket. Mahomes takes the snap and looks first to the left side of the field, before coming to the three routes breaking in his direction from the right. But there is nowhere to go with the football…and Hubbard is lying in wait:
That is when Mahomes tries to slide to his right to make something happen, and Hubbard, seeing a path open up, decides to pounce:
Hubbard explodes downhill, crashing into the quarterback and jarring the football loose. Only a quick reaction from Mahomes prevents the Bengals from recovering the loose football and ending the game right there.
Kansas City managed to convert the field goal to force overtime, but Mahomes would throw an interception and the Bengals would get their chance, and punch their ticket.
Some might look to how Mahomes handled these two plays and wonder if he could have done things differently, and there is certainly room for such discussion. But on these two snaps, the biggest of the season for the Bengals defense, they stepped up. Whether it was Awuzie erasing Hill on the first play or Reeder cutting off Mahomes, or the effort from Hubbard on both in combination with a drop coverage call from Anarumo, Cincinnati’s defense stepped up, and set the stage for a climactic win in overtime.