How Chiefs Showed Flawless Execution on Fire-Drill Play

Rookie mistake

Foreshadowing Harrison Butker’s dramatic kick, rookie running back Omarion Hampton made a significant mistake that wound up awakening the Chiefs. In his first NFL game, the first-round selection ran around right end, a questionable third-down playcall from offensive coordinator Greg Roman. Rather than run up the middle with the Chargers in field-goal range and the Chiefs out of timeouts, Hampton picked up 8 yards but ran out of bounds.

The mental error stopped the clock and, after Cameron Dicker’s field goal, gave Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs a bonus 45 seconds down by 10. On the first snap, Mahomes hit Tyquan Thornton, a diving over-the-shoulder catch on a deep corner route for 38 yards, then spiked the ball to stop the clock with 21 seconds remaining.

The setup

After a pair of untimely mental errors from the Chiefs – consecutive false starts by Jawaan Taylor and Josh Simmons – Kansas City faced third-and-20 from the Chargers’ 43-yard line. Mahomes found Noah Gray on the right sideline for short yardage, but Tarheeb Still contacted Gray before he could commit to going out of bounds.

That’s when the fire alarm rang on the Chiefs’ sideline, but Toub had his unit ready.

Attention to detail

With a running clock ticking down from 13 to 12 seconds and no timeouts, Kansas City scrambled its field-goal unit onto the field.

Gray executed the first critical step, sprinting to the umpire after the completion and handing him the ball for a quick placement.

Then, big offensive linemen Wanya Morris, Mike Caliendo and Creed Humphrey showed their athleticism by not only sprinting onto the field but properly reporting to referee Carl Cheffers as eligible receivers.

Meanwhile, Hollywood Brown, who had just run a route down the opposite sideline, had to sprint about 200 feet to avoid a too-many-men penalty with the clock ticking toward five seconds.

And with the clock at three seconds, Butker took a deep breath, lined up his kick and connected after the flawless snap and placement.

The result

The play jump started the sleeping Chiefs, who came out flat in the first half. Instead of heading to the locker room down by two scores, they captured momentum and trailed only 13-6.

Butker’s kick seemed to galvanize Kansas City, which was a much different team in the second half.