5 issues we discovered from the Chiefs’ third straight AFC Championship victory

Kansas Metropolis Chiefs followers will certainly keep in mind this win as one of many best and most pivotal in NFL historical past.

The Chiefs went toe to toe with their perennial challengers, the Buffalo Payments, buying and selling pictures right down to the wire — and when the ultimate bell rang out throughout the hallowed grounds of Arrowhead, it was the defending champs who discovered themselves standing over their opponents like Muhammad Ali over Sonny Liston, successful 32-29, bringing dwelling the Lamar Hunt AFC Championship Trophy and transferring on to their third consecutive Tremendous Bowl.

Listed below are 5 issues we discovered as Kansas Metropolis continued its quest for glory:

1. Champions are outlined by pivotal moments

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The good thinker Yoda as soon as mentioned, “There is only do or not do. There is no try.”

And that’s exactly how the Chiefs performed on this recreation. Was it an ideal efficiency?

No.

It was higher than good; it was greatness.

A greatness that was outlined by the grit that may solely be earned via numerous clashes on the battlefield. Champions aren’t simply larger and stronger and extra gifted than their advisories. Typically, it’s the precise reverse. No, what units a champion aside from a gifted challenger is their capacity to outlast and outfight their opponents.

It’s the understanding that there is no such thing as a tomorrow.

There isn’t a attempting to win the sport. There may be solely the soccer. The second you’re in. The person in entrance of you. And a possibility at greatness.

It’s the fourth-down cease.

It’s scoring to retake the lead.

It’s getting the primary right down to ice the sport.

A handful of moments outline what your legacy can be, and the nice ones seize the chance.

2. Andy Reid isn’t holding again

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Early within the recreation, when the Chiefs went for it on fourth down from the improper facet of the 50-yard line, you knew that Andy Reid wouldn’t depart this recreation to what-ifs. Reid would hit the Payments with the whole lot he had, primarily telling Buffalo that if you’d like the crown, come and take it off my head.

However when Kansas Metropolis picked up the primary down on that play by way of a designed run to quarterback Patrick Mahomes after which later referred to as one other rollout working play for his quarterback, Reid wasn’t merely emptying his bag of tips. He was throwing his personal rulebook out the window and residing dangerously.

It’s onerous sufficient to outsmart a genius like Reid; it’s practically not possible to know what he’ll do when he’s on the market teaching like a madman. It makes the Chiefs all of the extra harmful.

3. Stats don’t matter

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Go forward and argue why Mahomes wasn’t excellent this yr and didn’t need to be within the Professional Bowl. Sit right here and attempt to discredit his achievements by saying the Chiefs can’t create explosive performs down the sphere. Maintain betting in opposition to them in favor of the flavour of the month.

There may be one factor that none of those stat-driven awards and narratives miss — stats usually are not the measure of success in a soccer recreation; they’re a sequence of indicators of the potential for success. However historical past is stuffed with 400-yard passing days by the quarterback of shedding groups.

What you received’t discover fairly often is a recreation performed by a quarterback that was higher than Mahomes’ 245 yards on Sunday evening. Or a participant who has made the AFC Championship recreation yearly as a starter. Or one other quarterback who’s going for his third straight Tremendous Bowl title.

Stats don’t matter. Wins matter.

Stats are simply an try to quantify our notion of a participant.

4. Outsiders need the Chiefs to be one thing they don’t need to be

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Whenever you hear a member of the nationwide media speak in regards to the Chiefs, it’s normally about their sustained success. Then it’s rapidly adopted by a qualifier that claims, “The Chiefs have won more one-possession games than any other team in the league.”

Right here is the factor: all people needs the Chiefs to be a Cobra, putting onerous and quick, killing its prey earlier than halftime. However they’ve received all of it improper. The Chiefs aren’t cobras. They’re boa constrictors, slowly squeezing you and making use of strain, suffocating you till your bones break, after which they devour you.

Certain, cobras look cool, however in addition they miss extra. The boa constrictors use a way of looking constructed round their capacity to seize their prey and slowly squeeze it to dying.

5. The Chiefs have a two-game season yearly

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Going into the season, you knew the Chiefs would win their division. You additionally knew there was a fairly good probability Kansas Metropolis would get the one seed within the playoffs. And it was by no means actually in query.

For the Chiefs, this recreation was the start of the season. Nothing else issues aside from this second.

Kansas Metropolis awakened only one extra win away from immortality.