How Bengals cracked Chiefs' high-flying offense to win spot in Super Bowl
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – On third-and-goal with the Kansas City Chiefs offense looking to make a play that would send the team to its third straight Super Bowl, Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard was waiting 5 yards off the line of scrimmage.
The Bengals were playing a style of coverage that defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo hardly used this season. For the first five seconds of the play, Hubbard served as a linebacker in zone coverage, taking away the middle of the field.
Right after Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes snapped the ball with 39 seconds left in regulation, Hubbard positioned himself between Mahomes and Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce.
One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one thousand.
Mahomes scrambled to his right, hoping to extend the play. With five Chiefs wide receivers trying to get open against eight Bengals players in coverage, Mahomes didn’t have anywhere to go.
Four one thousand. Five one thousand. And then Hubbard took off.
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He sprinted up the middle, ran unblocked to Mahomes, stuck with him through two spin moves and forced Mahomes to fumble the ball. The Chiefs recovered and made a game-tying field goal on the next play. But without Hubbard’s pressure to keep the Chiefs out of the end-zone, the Bengals don’t beat the Chiefs or advance to the Super Bowl.
In the second half of the Bengals' 27-24 win, the defense had eight of these moments.
“We were being disciplined in our rush lanes and it paid off,” Hubbard said. “It was a collective effort of everyone just relentlessly pursuing him. That’s all we did was keep grinding the whole way and it finally paid off.”
The Bengals' defense stumped Mahomes and future Hall of Fame coach Andy Reid in the second half and overtime of the AFC championship game. The biggest midgame adjustments of Anarumo’s career got the Bengals to the Super Bowl.
The Bengals dropped back eight defenders, rushed just three defensive linemen and then used delayed blitzes. The Bengals played more-man-to-man defense on early downs. They used a quarterback spy to keep Mahomes inside the pocket. They gave more snaps to reserve linebacker Markus Bailey, who kept up with check down options in pass coverage.
A few high-risk adjustments took Mahomes off his game and led the Bengals to the win.
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In the first half, the Bengals couldn’t stop the best offense in the NFL. During the first 30 minutes, Mahomes was 18-for-21 with 220 passing yards as the Chiefs took a 21-10 lead. But in the second half and overtime, Mahomes had 55 total passing yards and two interceptions.
The Chiefs never adjusted properly to the Bengals' halftime adjustments, and Kansas City only scored 3 points in the second half and overtime.
“At times, it is pick your poison with those guys,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. “You drop some more guys into coverage, and Patrick Mahomes is generally going to have more time because you are rushing fewer guys. It is just about stealing possessions, and our guys did that twice in key parts (of the game).”
Taylor has said that the Bengals built their defense with teams like the Chiefs in mind. To beat Kansas City, Taylor and Anarumo believed they needed multiple standout defensive ends to contain the quarterback and create pressure. As a result, the Bengals spent $100 million this offseason on Sam Hubbard and Trey Hendrickson.
They believed coverage skills are most valuable in a linebacker, so they built that position group around Logan Wilson, who had 10 interceptions in college. Taylor and Anarumo believed depth in the secondary is more important than a true No. 1 corner, so the Bengals added Eli Apple, Mike Hilton and Tre Flowers.
With so many new tools this season, Anarumo showed the defining principle of his coaching philosophy. He’s looking for a defense that’s versatile, flexible and can adapt a game plan on the fly. Without those skills on the Bengals roster, Anarumo wouldn’t have been able to make such a significant adjustment during the game.
“We knew it was going to come down to us, especially the back end,” Bengals safety Vonn Bell said. “We just rose up to the challenge, we have a great group of guys on the back end – playmakers all over the field. We go out there and play our brand of football.”
According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the Bengals dropped back eight-or-more defenders for a season-high 35% of passing plays on Sunday. After the first half, the Bengals nearly doubled their usage of this style of coverage.
On those plays, Mahomes completed just 7 of his 13 passing attempts, which was well below his 66% completion rate for the game. And on Mahomes’ plays against eight players in coverage, the Chiefs offense had -14.4 “expected points added,” which was a career-low for Mahomes against that coverage.
In other words, Mahomes was less efficient against the Bengals with eight players in coverage than he had been against any other NFL team that played him with that style.
“There were a few misreads here and there,” Mahomes said. “There were guys that were open that I didn’t hit it at the right time, or I passed up on something shorter for something I wanted deeper down the field.”
On eight separate plays in the second half, the Bengals stopped Mahomes by dropping back an extra defender in coverage. On the first third down where the Bengals used this coverage, the surprise factor led Mahomes to throw an incomplete pass to Kelce instead of connecting with an open Tyreek Hill.
Near the end of the third quarter, Hendrickson dropped back in coverage as the Bengals bracketed Kelce. Facing pressure from the left side, Mahomes tried to throw a pass around Kelce. Instead, Mahomes threw it right to Bengals defensive end B.J. Hill, who recorded his first career interception.
“We were getting there in the first half, but he has the best pocket presence of anyone in the league,” Hubbard said. “We just kept telling ourselves, ‘Keep chopping wood, keep rushing, keep rushing.’ We were being disciplined in our rush lanes and it paid off.”
In the last two minutes of regulation, the Bengals kept the Chiefs out of the end zone by using this strategy as their goal line defense. On second down, Wilson, cornerback Apple and linebacker Germaine Pratt cut off the middle of the field in zone defense. The Bengals had enough defenders in coverage to double team Kelce for the first few seconds of the play. Then Hubbard blitzed from his spy position after a few seconds and recorded his first sack of the drive.
On the following play, Hubbard counted to five and stopped Mahomes again. Hubbard hit Mahomes on back-to-back plays to save the game for the defense. Then in overtime, the Bengals defense made an even bigger play.
When the Chiefs opened overtime with the ball, the defense forced third down. On that play, Bengals slot cornerback Mike Hilton lost his matchup to Tyreek Hill, who ran past Hilton on a crossing route deep down the field. Safety Jessie Bates and Bell both noticed it and recovered to break up the pass and then intercept the ball.
One of the biggest advantages of the extra player in coverage is it gave the Bengals the ability to keep two high safeties taking away deep passes. If that weren’t the case, Bell wouldn’t have intercepted Mahomes in overtime.
In the AFC championship game, Taylor and Anarumo had the courage to try a style of defense the Bengals had very limited experience playing. Hubbard had his first extended experience playing a linebacker style of role at the NFL level, and Bailey played his most meaningful snaps of the year.
It all clicked to stop Mahomes, Hill and Kelce in the second half. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said the adjustment made Mahomes start pressing in the second half. The Bengals are heading to the Super Bowl, and their defense is one of the biggest reasons why.
“We never quit fighting and we never back down from the challenge,” Bell said. “We just played our brand of football, and that’s what we showed up with. It goes to the wire and we’re a resilient group.”