Jump to a teamKansas City ChiefsGreen Bay PackersSeattle SeahawksNew York JetsMinnesota VikingsBuccaneers and SaintsArizona CardinalsTua TagovailoaBuffalo BillsQuick-HittersKansas City Chiefs
Sunday was a big one, of course. The Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals were combatants in the AFC title games after the 2021 and ’22 seasons, and might’ve been again last year were it not for Joe Burrow’s injury. That means it’s no stretch to think Kansas City’s 26–25 win could determine the site of a playoff game.
And in that big of a spot, the Chiefs didn’t have much doubt about how the chips would fall. Things just came together a little differently this time around, particularly at the end of this heavyweight fight.
There was the flag for unsportsmanlike conduct on Ja’Marr Chase, which turned what would’ve been third-and-7 into third-and-22 in the fourth quarter, short-circuiting a drive that ended in a long Bengals field goal rather than a touchdown. There was the pass interference on Cincinnati rookie Daijahn Anthony that moved the chains for K.C. on a last-gasp fourth-and-16.
There was also a group sitting there well aware of how to take advantage of these things. Because in the biggest spots, the two-time defending champion Chiefs aren’t like other teams. So instead of dreading something bad happening when the pressure’s on, it’s at the point now where the Chiefs something good to come.
Which is just what they got at Arrowhead on Sunday.
“There is this snowball effect of success that we’ve had,” kicker Harrison Butker said driving home. “We’ve played in so many playoff games, big-time games where we’ve done well, we’ve succeeded. So you look at this situation tonight and there’s no doubt that we’re going to be able to drive down, get in field goal range and make it. That’s what everyone’s mindset is.
“There’s so much confidence, and that just lends itself to having success. We have a lot of core guys that have been around, that are trying to get this three-peat, that have been here since Patrick [Mahomes] took over in 2018. I think we have a lot of confidence, the players do, the coaching staff. It starts in practice. We don’t take the foot off the pedal when it comes to training camp, practices or even regular season.”
And this week, it was Butker who was tasked with jamming on the accelerator.
In fact, the only drama surrounding him coming through was how it would happen. Butker told me that in pregame warmups, kicking toward the Arrowhead tunnel, he hit a 66-yarder and launched a 72-yard kick that had the distance but missed wide. So going in, he told special teams coach Dave Toub he felt good about kicking from a mid-60s distance.
The aforementioned fourth-and-16 was preceded by a fourth-and-6 (before a penalty pushed it back) from the Chiefs’ 45. That would’ve been a 72-yarder—which was too much, but not by a whole lot. And that illustrates how costly the 29-yard penalty on Anthony that came in that hypothetical kick’s place was. It moved the Chiefs to Cincinnati’s 36, which was in Butker’s range.
Even if Butker himself never really sees it that way.
“I feel like it doesn’t help me when I’m going out there to kick a game-winning kick and the entire crowd is clapping and excited. I’m like, ,” Butker say. “And everyone’s like, . I’ve done a better job over the years focusing in even when the crowd might just think it’s automatic.”
They think it’s automatic for good reason. It pretty much is, and was again in this case. Butker drilled the 51-yard game-winner to get the Chiefs to the winners’ circle Sunday.
The Bengals will try to recover against the Washington Commanders on Sunday in Week 3. The Chiefs, meanwhile, will go forward with their heads down, and pointed toward a third straight title, and fourth in six seasons. They know they’ll be there at the end, because they’re going to keep winning games like this one—and even on days such as this, where Mahomes threw two picks and for a rating barely over 80, and Travis Kelce had a single catch for five yards.
“When you’ve seen guys perform under pressure for so many seasons, you just automatically start to trust them,” Butker says. “And you know how they are programmed. And we’ve seen Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes, Chris Jones, so many of these guys that have just stepped up in pressure situations and have performed. And I think it inspires the rest of the guys on the team. I mean, think about how many guys we have that maybe aren’t rookies, but they’re first-year guys with the Chiefs.
“They’ve never experienced winning over 50% of their games. They’ve never experienced the crowd noise Arrowhead has. They’ve never experienced playing with guys like Patrick, Chris and Kelce, that have had success on the biggest stage. And I think it just inspires them like, .”
Butker, Mahomes’s 2017 draft classmate, sees himself that way—especially after his teammates had his back (more on that in my Tuesday notes) after his controversial comments last spring. And clearly, he’s not the only one who’s benefited from it.
It’s not the only reason the Chiefs keep winning games like these. But it doesn’t hurt.
