"The inches we need are everywhere around us."-- Coach Tony D'Amato in "Any Given Sunday"
It is often said that football is a game of inches, and the truth inherent in that cliche was vividly illustrated during a few key plays as the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Cleveland Browns 22-17 to advance to the AFC Championship Game for the third straight season.
The Browns were trying to maintain the momentum from last week's dominating road win in Pittsburgh, the franchise's first road playoff win since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, but most analysts did not expect this matchup to be competitive. The Chiefs stormed to a 19-3 halftime lead, but the Browns were just inches away from trailing only 16-10 prior to intermission.
Rashard Higgins led the Browns with 88 receiving yards on five catches (Jarvis Landry led the Browns with seven receptions, but he gained only 20 yards on those plays), and he had two catches for 48 yards on back to back plays near the end of the first half. After the second of those catches, Higgins dove for the right endzone pylon but he lost control of the ball, resulting in a touchback for the Chiefs. Kansas City's Daniel Sorensen delivered an illegal--but uncalled--helmet to helmet hit on Higgins that should have nullified the fumble and placed the Browns just inches away from tying the game with a touchdown and successful extra point. Instead, the Chiefs quickly drove for a field goal to extend their lead to 19-3. After the game, Cleveland Coach Kevin Stefanski praised Higgins' determination to score but also pointedly noted that he coaches his players to not extend the ball at the goal line precisely because of the high risk nature of such a play. CBS' Bill Cowher suggested that the NFL rule regarding an offensive player fumbling the ball into the endzone is overly punitive to the offensive team, and he suggested that the offense should receive the ball at the 20 yard line instead of the defense being granted a touchback. Cowher's colleague Boomer Esiason noted that it is a flaw in the NFL replay rules that Sorenson's dangerous and illegal helmet to helmet hit is not reviewable (replay review is only available for calls that are made, not missed calls).
The Browns proved their resiliency by fighting back in the second half and creating opportunities to win the game. The second half started disastrously as Baker Mayfield threw an interception deep in Cleveland territory, but the Browns held the Chiefs to an unsuccessful field goal attempt. The Browns then drove 77 yards in eight plays for a Landry touchdown reception.
Former MVP and former Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes left the game at the 7:27 mark of the third quarter with a possible concussion. He passed for 255 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions while completing 21 of 30 attempts. The Chiefs' drive stalled after journeyman Chad Henne replaced Mahomes, and they settled for a field goal--their final points of the game.
The Browns responded with an 18 play, 75 yard drive that lasted 8:17, included two fourth down conversions, and culminated in a three yard touchdown run by ex-Chief Kareem Hunt. The Chiefs led 22-17 with 11:07 remaining in the fourth quarter, and they had to navigate the closing moments without Mahomes, who could not return to action due to the NFL's concussion protocols.
On Kansas City's next possession, Henne threw an interception in the endzone, and the Browns started their drive at their 20 yard line with 8:00 left. The Browns converted a fourth and one to retain possession but, facing fourth and nine at their 32 with 4:19 left, they punted the ball, and they never ran another offensive play. Perhaps they were counting on being able to stop the Chiefs' Henne-led offense, but the Browns had already burned two timeouts and the best case realistic scenario after punting would have been along the lines of needing to drive 70 or 80 yards for a touchdown with about two minutes left and no timeouts. It would be interesting to know the odds of accomplishing that feat compared to the odds of converting fourth down and nine yards to go; I am sure that the odds are against both, but I suspect that the statistics would show that going for it on fourth down is a valid choice in that scenario.
Henne led the Chiefs to a first down, forcing the Browns to use their final timeout. The Browns sacked Henne for a six yard loss on second and eight. On third and 14, Henne rushed for 13 yards, placing the Chiefs just inches away from a game-clinching first down. Now, the Chiefs faced the punt or go for it decision on fourth and one in their own territory. After the game, Chiefs Coach Andy Reid said that there was no doubt--at least on his sideline--that the Chiefs would go for it. Henne's short pass to Tyreek Hill netted five yards, and enabled the Chiefs to run out the clock. Henne finished 6-8 for 66 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception. Officially, he had two rushes for 12 yards, but the second carry was a game-ending kneeldown in victory formation.
The heavily-favored Chiefs won by just five points, but what if Higgins had not fumbled out of the endzone or what if a targeting penalty had correctly been called against Kansas City on that play? What if the Browns had gone for it on fourth down late in the fourth quarter instead of punting the ball away? What if the Chiefs had not converted on fourth and one, giving the Browns the ball less than 50 yards away from being able to score the potentially winning touchdown? Of course, Chiefs fans may wonder what might have happened had Mahomes not been injured, but the game seemed to be heading toward a close finish either way, as the Browns proved during the second half that they could move the ball and score touchdowns. The teams combined to run 123 plays from scrimmage, and a few inches here or there on a handful of those plays could have changed the outcome.
Losing close playoff games is nothing new to the Browns, whose fans have labeled many of those painful defeats with memorable names: Red Right 88, The Drive, The Fumble. The Browns' previous playoff loss, to Pittsburgh in 2003, came after Dennis Northcutt dropped a third down pass when a first down would have enabled the Browns to run out the clock on their division rivals. The Browns, after being pro football's dominant team in the 1940s (four AAFC titles in four seasons) and early 1950s (three titles and six straight championship game appearances to open the decade), have created an unfortunate organizational identity of being a team that consistently fails to find the inches that are everywhere around them. Browns fans can only hope that the 2020 season is the start of a new trend that will result in at least one Super Bowl win, as opposed to a continuation of decades of heartbreak.
The Chiefs are just the second NFL team to host three straight conference championship games. The first team to accomplish this was the Philadelphia Eagles, who hosted three consecutive NFC Championship Games from 2002-04 under the direction of Andy Reid. Reid's Eagles lost two of those NFC Championship Games, and they lost in the Super Bowl after winning the 2004 NFC Championship Game. Prior to arriving in Kansas City, Reid had a long history of losing in championship games, posting an 0-1 Super Bowl record and a 1-4 NFC Championship Game record, but he won his first AFC title and first Super Bowl last year, and he is now two victories away from becoming just the seventh coach to win back to back Super Bowls.
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