Reid goes into bag of ‘good plays’ for Super Bowl win
Andy Reid won a Super Bowl. Big Red did it with Patrick Mahomes and a package of plays ranging from solid to spectacular, the Kansas City Chiefs bouncing back from their third double-digits deficit of the playoffs to record a 3120 victory over the San Francisco 49ers Sunday in Miami Gardens.
Good football plays, that’s the verbiage Reid uses to introduce the offensive material that’s helped him go over the 200-victory mark in a career dating to his tour with the Eagles from 1999-2012.
Current Eagles head coach Doug Pederson uses the same routine - and successfully - when he breaks out a new play in front of his quarterbacks. Pederson points to it on the big screen, looks his guys in the eyes and says authoritatively, “That’s a good play. “That’s a good football play.” The routine was borrowed from Reid, who taught Pederson how to call winning plays. In the first quarter of the Super Bowl, Big Red reaffirmed his immense creativity as an offensive genius with a backfield shift that looked like it aired on the Three Stooges.
In his 366th NFL game, Reid aggressively pulled the field goal team off the field to call that crazy play on fourth-and-one at the fiveyard line of the 49ers.
Now, no team was better at stopping the opposition this season on third or fourth-and-one than the 49ers. A breakthrough was going to take something bold, something new from the offense.
Four Chiefs lined up in the backfield, including Mahomes. They shifted at the same time, all doing 360’s, which is something you’d see in a cartoon. When the dust cleared, running back Damien Williams switched places with Mahomes, took the direct snap and submarined up the middle four yards to the one. Hard Rock Stadium wouldn’t be the same.
Two plays later Mahomes scored on the read option to stake the Chiefs to a 7-3 lead that held up through the first quarter.
Big Red pulled out all the stops. Tight end Travis Kelce lined up in the wildcat and ran for a first down on fourth-and-one in the third quarter.
For a few tense moments in the fourth quarter, it looked like the Chiefs were toast. And not because of Reid.
When Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan got a firstdown catch by Tyreek Hill on second-and-15 with 7:23 remaining, it looked like curtains. But the next two calls on third down were money.
On third-and-15, Mahomes lobbed a 44-yard throw to Hill. A handful of plays later, including a pass interference in the end zone on thirdand-10, and the Chiefs scored. Kelce caught a one-yard TD pass to cut the deficit to 2017 with 6:13 to go.
The Chiefs forced their first three-and-out of the game and with 2:44 to go, Mahomes capped a sevenplay, 65-yard march with a five-yard pass to Damien Williams. Williams scored after the Chiefs made yet another stop, although the play shouldn’t have occurred because the play clock ran out. That was the story of the Niners’ night.
When all was said and done, the Chiefs had their first Super Bowl in 50 years and Reid was celebrating his 222nd victory.
“It was great,” Reid said on TV following the game. “I appreciate every bit of it. My heart’s racing.”
Mahomes, who was named MVP, echoed his coach.
“We never lost faith, that’s the biggest thing,” said Mahomes, who threw multiple interceptions for just the fourth time in 35 games. “And we had this guy here to help us.”
Mahomes had his arm around Reid as he spoke those words.
It was a challenging game for Reid, who was joined by his wife, Tammy, in the winners’ circle.
Early in the game, the Chiefs blew chances to take control.
It looked like the Niners used every play they had on their first series, as they employed misdirection, the end-around and the doublepass.
Was it worth three points? When Jimmy Garoppolo was intercepted by Mark Breeland with the Niners in come-from-behind mode, the Chiefs had a chance to break the game open. But a relentless Niners pass rush, plus the speed of the linebackers short-circuited the dink-anddunk Chiefs offense.
Garoppolo’s 15-yard scoring pass to fullback Kyle Juszczyk tied the game with 5:13 left in the first half, and the Niners looked like they’d get more points when George Kittle caught a 42-yard pass to the 23 of the Chiefs with 14 seconds remaining. But Kittle was called for a push-off and that was the end of that.
The game was knotted at 10 at the intermission.
Shakira put on a show at halftime. And yeah, it was borderline PG. Jennifer Lopez gave everything she had.
It was the Niners who took over the third quarter.
This Super Bowl, however, marked the beginning of the Mahomes era. The third-year veteran guided the Chiefs to three TDs in the final frame.
Garoppolo had a fourth quarter to forget, throwing a late interception and failing to get any points down the homestretch.
It was Big Red’s night. When the game began, Reid was the only head coach with 200-plus career victories lacking a Super Bowl title.
Three-and-a-half hours later, there were none.
That’s a good football play. ***
It was an interesting night at Hard Rock. After the ridiculously long pre-game intro modeled after professional wrestling, The Rock describing the team strengths with a forced script stolen from professional wrestling, the players hit the field around 6:20 p.m. Defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon, the 6-7, 290-pound product of Villanova most recognizable in his No. 92. He’d jump offside on the Chiefs’ first defensive series.
The singing of America the Beautiful by Yolanda Adams took three minutes. Demi Lovato got the national anthem done in 1-minute, 52-seconds (if you had the over 2:00 minutes, you lost). By the time referee Bill Vinovich flipped the coin, it was 6:34 p.m. Richard Sherman won the toss with “tails,” the Niners deferred and we went to a Disney commercial with Mulan. The kickoff was at 6:41. The game ended 3-hours, 29-minutes later.
***
Billy “White Shoes” Johnson did his rubber-legged routine while introduced with the NFL’s 100-year football team before the Super Bowl.
The star receiver, running back and kick returner at Chichester High, Marcus Hook and P.M.C. Colleges wore the red jacket along with the rest of his colleagues at the all-star affair, a group that included Jim Brown, the greatest football player of all time.
*** Among other healthy Super Bowl LIV healthy scratches were Chiefs running back LeSean McCoy and 49ers wide receiver Jordan Matthews.
Both are former Eagles draft picks.
Chiefs guard Stefen Wisniewski made his second Super Bowl start, the first one coming for the Eagles in SB LII.