During last season’s AFC divisional-round game against the Houston Texans, the Kansas City Chiefs got off to a slow start. They found themselves in a 24-0 hole after the first quarter. We all know how it went from there, they clawed their way back from the deficit to come away with the win. They dealt with similar deficits all throughout the playoffs through Super Bowl LIV.
They made persevering and comebacks a part of their identity that postseason, so much so that each scoring deficit they came back from is emblazoned on their Super Bowl LIV rings. This postseason, however, the Chiefs are hoping to write a different story.
“We didn’t start the way we wanted to last year when we came off the bye,” Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes said on Wednesday. “I want to make sure we do a better job of starting a little bit faster and try not to put ourselves in the deficit.”
The Chiefs are planning on avoiding the slow starts that they became almost accustomed to during the playoffs. It should be easy for them when you consider how the 2020 season has gone, right? This team has often got off to dominant starts this season, but coasted for the remainder, making certain games seem closer-than-expected in the final box score. It’s why Kansas City has caught such criticism for winning a lot of one-score games.
Everyone in the building is aware of the slow start they had against the Texans last year, though. Most have their own ideas on how they can avoid repeating it.
“Our wideout coach brought it up today, well, yesterday I believe,” Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill said. “He was like, ‘Let’s not put ourselves in that same position that we did last year because every team isn’t going to be the same.’ We’ve just got to come out and have the energy that we’ve had all year. Get the ball to the playmakers, and just let Pat (Mahomes) be special with the ball in his hand. That’s all we’ve got to do.”
There is certainly an increased emphasis on starting fast against a team like the Cleveland Browns. They’re different than the teams the Chiefs faced in the playoffs last season. They boast a dominant rushing attack from the offensive line to a trio of backs in Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt and D’Ernest Johnson — and they’re not afraid to use them.
If the Browns were to jump out to the type of lead that they did against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the wild-card round, they could simply run the ball, drain the clock and maintain that lead. That’d make things extremely difficult for the Chiefs when it’d come to making a comeback.
“It makes it a lot easier I think you can say that,” Mahomes said of starting fast. “It’s not something we necessarily talk about. I think it’s just kind of understood is that we need to come out playing our best football, playing the team that we’re playing. They’re coming in with a lot of confidence, playing really good football, so we want to do whatever we can to get off on the right foot and build a lead early because they’re a good team that’s able to win football games. We need to make sure we come with our best effort from the first snap.”
The coaching staff is singing a similar tune to the players. Special teams coordinator Dave Toub’s unit made a number of plays against the Texans and helped the team dig themselves out of 24-0 deficit last year. He reminded his players this week of how important it is that they make every single play count.
“Every play matters, every play is so important, especially on special teams,” Toub said. “We gave up two big plays [against the Texans] and then we backed it up with three great plays. So we ended up coming out on top. That’s the thing, you just keep on playing. Bad things are going to happen sometimes, but you’ve got to keep playing, keep playing and get it to swing in your favor. Hopefully, at the end of the day, you have more big plays for you than against you.”
The end goal is for execution in all three phases to be top-notch from the moment the team steps on the field until the moment they can take their victory formation. If the Chiefs can accomplish that they’ll certainly be able to get off to a faster start and perhaps even win their third consecutive divisional-round game.
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