AFC Championship: Chiefs Strafe Titans En Route to Super Bowl

The one thing Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel and his band of Titans couldn't afford was allowing the Kansas City Chiefs to build a multi-score lead.

Dudes have had some decent comebacks this season, but that'd be tempting fate one time too many.

And it was. After watching their early 17-7 lead go the way of the dodo bird ...

 

Tennessee was virtually helpless as the AFC's top seed vroomed by them, 35-24, to earn their place in Super Bowl LIV.

Yes, super-slinger Pat Mahomes II was spectacular again. Dude not only lasered an array of passes that mirrored the variety of pitches his dad deployed in the MLB, he took advantage of exceptional pass blocking to watch the Titan defense disperse and open up seeming acres of running room.

It was one such occasion that turned this game around late in the first half:

 

That put paid to the Titans' methodical build-up of their lead, and after a parry-&-thrust third period, set the stage for Kansas City's own brand of blitzkrieg to put the game away in the final quarter.

For the second straight week, it took a couple of possessions for the Chiefs to figure out the Titans' deployment on both sides of the ball. DC Steve Spagnuolo's game plan was obviously designed to stifle the human battering ram that is Derrick Henry, and it worked, but not without an eventual cost:

 

The KC D then stiffened to yield only a FG, but Tennessee then put together two long drives -- 9 and 15 plays -- to the house on its next two possessions with the Chiefs matching them -- Mahones to Tyreek Hill twice -- to stay in touch.

 

 

 

 

In the meantime, Spagnuolo was filtering out what d-schemes were working more than once and had his situational sequences identifed by the time the second half began.

 

Meanwhile, Mahomes got hotter. The former Red Raider fired catchable passes on 27-of-30 targeted throws, not counting his five throwaways.

After chewing up 7:08 on a 13-play, 73-yard drive capped by a Damien Williams 3-yard scamper, Tennessee had to get back to respecting the run.

And that's when Mahomes went deep:

 

Basically, that was the ball game.

 

Yes. Yes it did.

It's what the Chiefs do, and it's put them back in the big game for the first time in over half a century.