LAS VEGAS: This was speculated to be the yr when the Kansas City Chiefs had been weak. Their vast receivers had been dropping passes, their offense was committing penalties, Travis Kelce was supposedly getting previous and there was no means that Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes might presumably overcome all of that.
Yet they did, and wiped away any doubt that the Chiefs are the brand new NFL dynasty.
With their come-from-behind time beyond regulation win over the San Francisco 49ers within the Super Bowl on Sunday evening, the Chiefs raised their third Lombardi Trophy in 4 journeys over a 5-yr span. And they turned the primary staff because the New England Patriots with Tom Brady twenty years in the past — the final nice soccer dynasty — to efficiently defend their title.
Even Mahomes, when requested whether or not the Chiefs had turn out to be a dynasty, replied: “It’s the start of one.”
“It’s a little bit surreal,” Reid stated. “I don’t know what a dynasty is. You guys have the thesaurus, so you can figure it out. It’s a great win because I know how hard it is to do and how hard the season was, the ups and downs of the season, and how proud I am of the guys for just hanging with each other and staying positive with each other.”
Never earlier than has an underdog in again-to-again Super Bowls received each, and which will greatest illustrate two necessary information: The Chiefs had been eminently beatable this season, and no one was capable of beat them when it mattered.
Start with the roster, which needed to be creatively put collectively by common supervisor Brett Veach round $37 million in wage cap house taken up by Mahomes, the most important cap hit within the NFL this season. Yet the architect of every of their final three title runs was capable of finding bargains akin to Jerick McKinnon and Drue Tranquill who contributed far past their financial worth.
Look at their vast receivers, children and journeymen who dropped extra passes than any staff within the league this season. Yet they galvanized round a quiet rookie, Rashee Rice, who not solely turned their No. 1 choice however a bona fide star.
It goes past personnel, although. Consider the street Kansas City needed to navigate this season.
At one level, the Chiefs performed six consecutive video games during which the opposite staff had further days of relaxation, the one time that has occurred in NFL historical past. They needed to play in Germany, beating the Dolphins in Frankfurt in a preview of a future wild-card recreation, and at one level misplaced 5 of eight halfway by means of the season to drop to the No. 3 seed for the playoffs.
After beating the Dolphins within the fourth-coldest recreation in NFL historical past, the Chiefs hit the street within the postseason for the primary time in six years with Mahomes because the starter. But as underdogs in Buffalo and Baltimore, the Chiefs embraced their newfound standing as hunters quite than the hunted, and so they responded by enjoying their greatest soccer of the season.
In phrases of power of opposition, the Chiefs efficiently navigated the hardest path to the Super Bowl in historical past.
Then got here a becoming finale in Las Vegas.
The Chiefs began off by making the identical foolish errors that dragged them down too typically in the course of the common season, and so they fell behind San Francisco by double digits, simply as they did in every of their 4 Super Bowls with Mahomes beneath middle. But simply as they did in beating the 49ers 4 years in the past, and the Eagles final yr, the most effective staff of its period rallied round what’s quick changing into the most effective quarterback of any period to mount a comeback to recollect.
Mahomes drove the Chiefs for a discipline purpose to tie the sport 16-all with about 5 1/2 minutes to go. He drove them for one more discipline purpose with 3 seconds left to drive time beyond regulation. And he answered a discipline purpose by San Francisco to begin the additional session with a gutsy drive that Mahomes capped along with his profitable landing throw to the a lot-maligned Mecole Hardman.
“Same as always,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan stated of Mahomes afterward. “He’s unbelievable.”
Same as all the time for the Chiefs: unbelievable.
“They’re all tough. I’m not going to say one’s tougher than the other,” Mahomes stated of the championship run. “It takes your best, and I think for me, personally, it was just battling through adversity throughout the season, whenever the offense wasn’t playing like I wanted it to play, and just to believe and fight. But all these games are tough. It takes your best football.”
Reid and Kelce assuaged some considerations amongst Chiefs followers that they’d retire after the Super Bowl, saying late Sunday each deliberate to be again subsequent season. Mahomes and most of their key gamers additionally might be again, although some tough selections loom in the case of pending free brokers.
All-Pro defensive sort out Chris Jones and cornerback L’Jarius Sneed will demand huge contracts, and the Chiefs must be aware of subsequent yr, too, once they have a number of extra necessary gamers reaching free company.
The Chiefs will have fun their newest Super Bowl triumph with a parade by means of downtown Kansas City on Wednesday, and after a quick exhale, Veach will be part of Reid and the remainder of their mind belief in getting again to work. The cycle will start anew.
Because sustained success — the sort the Chiefs have achieved, yr after yr — is what turns nice groups right into a dynasty.
“I mean, I’m going to celebrate tonight. I’m going to celebrate at the parade,” Mahomes stated after incomes his third Super Bowl MVP award, “and then I’m going to do whatever I can to be back in this game next year, and try for that three-peat.
“I think Tom said it best: Once you win that championship, and you have those parades and you get those rings, you’re not the champion anymore,” Mahomes added. “You have to come back with that same mentality, and learn from guys like that that have been the greatest of all time, at the top level, and so that is my mindset. I’m going to celebrate with my guys because of how we’ve done this, but then we’re going to work our way back to this game next year.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
