Creative Play Calling Shines in Chiefs' 34-20 Win Over Ravens
With the Baltimore Ravens knocking on the Kansas City Chiefs’ door late in the fourth quarter, Andy Reid delivered.
Five seconds into the fourth quarter, one score separated the Ravens and Chiefs. Reid and Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy chose to take it slow, knocking 6:41 off the clock before reaching the end zone.
The score arrived on a two-yard pass to Eric Fisher — yes, offensive tackle Eric Fisher — putting the Chiefs back ahead by two possessions. The play accounted for one of the four especially creative calls that Reid and Bieniemy sent to quarterback Patrick Mahomes in the Chiefs' 34-20 win.
“We were hoping they would work,” Reid said. “There’s nothing like Monday Night Football, right? It was just a good time to use it.”
After being relatively vanilla, mainly due to matchups, through the first two weeks of the season, the Chiefs produced their highest offensive yardage of the season thus far on Monday night.
The 480-yard performance was highlighted by 42 passing plays, some of which created new highlights to add on to Mahomes’ career reel.
The quarterback threw for 385 yards and four touchdowns on 31 completions. He also ran for 26 yards and a score.
"I’m proud of our offensive line, really none of that happens without them,” Reid said. “I thought they did a nice job picking things up. The running backs, when asked, did a nice job, and we have good tight ends. All in all, I thought the guys executed. But it is tough, I’ll tell you, it’s hard to get a read on them, [Ravens defensive coordinator] ‘Wink’ [Martindale] does a nice job with them, so you have to give credit to Pat for leading the charge, and he stepped up big and wanted the responsibility for leading the charge, and he did a great job.”
Mahomes’ first passing touchdown arrived as he faced pressure from linebacker Matthew Judon on 3rd-and-5.
With Judon less than a yard away, Mahomes chose to underhand the ball to fullback Anthony Sherman. Sherman did the rest of the work as he bullied his way into the end zone.
The play highlighted one of 10 third-down conversions for the Chiefs. Five were in the first half, where the Chiefs built a 27-10 lead.
“It was a good half, it could have been better, but it was a good half,” Reid said. "We still have a ton of things we can work on here, clean up, and we will do that when we get back and get ourselves settled.”
Reid’s stash of trick plays also included a wildcat play in the third quarter.
But it was Fisher’s reception that put the cap on the day.
“We put it in during training camp," Reid said. "We worked on it a little bit when you guys weren’t looking, so we were able to pull it out and use it here. ‘Fish' is always bragging about how good his hands are, so he did a pretty good job, I have to give him credit. I was a little nervous when he had to jump, but he did a nice job."
