Bieniemy gets credit for key play
Chiefs OC ingrained idea for RB to stop short of TD
The play of the game in Kansas City’s 38-35 Super Bowl win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night at State Farm Stadium in Glendale?
How about the Patrick Mahomes scramble? Or the Nick Bolton scoop and score? One of the two second-half touchdown passes?
Nope.
It was a 9-yard rush from Kansas City running back Jerick McKinnon.
“It was a smart decision on him,” Mahomes said.
“And in that big of a moment, you just want to run in and score the touchdown. We work on that stuff every single week to prepare ourselves for those moments.”
McKinnon took a handoff at the 11 with about 2 minutes remaining and found himself wide open for a touchdown. But instead of scoring, he made a slide at the 2-yard line and stayed inbounds. It kept the clock running, so that when Kansas City kicked the go-ahead field goal, Philadelphia wouldn’t have much time to make a play.
“I want to give the credit to Eric Bieniemy,” Mahomes said, “because even though sometimes we get tired of them talking about those moments, they always seem to happen in the biggest games. And he makes sure we go through the details about them every single week.”
Bieniemy, Kansas City’s offensive coordinator, deflected the praise back to McKinnon.
“That was a big-time, unselfish play,” Bieniemy said. “That’s what you want. Those are the quality of men that you want in the building. On top of that, you want them to relish in those opportunities.”
Bieniemy discussed the importance of detail-oriented preparation, speaking to The Arizona Republic in the hallway near the Kansas City locker room at State Farm Stadium.
“We spend a lot of time talking about end-of-game situations, every single week, of all the different things that can happen,” he said.
“And you never know when such a situation might present itself. … Our guys listen, they understand what it takes to be a complete professional, and they also understand that those situations can present themselves. It’s important that we do it the right way.”
Bieniemy has been a candidate for a head coaching job in the NFL for several seasons now, but he wasn’t interested in discussing that Sunday.
“I’m going to enjoy this tonight,” he said.
“I just want to enjoy this with all those guys. We can talk about all that at a later date, I just want to go in here (to the locker room) and soak up this moment.”