Chiefs’ sneaky 4th-down blitz to beat the Bills was pure Steve Spagnuolo brilliance

Imagine for a moment that you have one play to stop Josh Allen, with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.

What would you call?

That was the dilemma facing Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo late in Sunday’s thrilling AFC Championship Game. Spagnuolo brought a blitz that created chaos in the pocket, forcing Allen to make a throw under duress.

One that was still almost caught.

The situation came on the other side of the two-minute warning on Sunday night. With Kansas City clinging to a 32-29 lead, Allen and the Bills faced a do-or-die 4th-and-5 situation on their own 47-yard line. With Buffalo holding all three of their timeouts, Sean McDermott left his offense on the field to try and convert fourth down.

Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady dialed up a mesh concept, with running back Ty Jordan and wide receiver Amari Cooper running the shallow crossers underneath. Brady also used both motion and alignment to give Allen as much information as he could pre-snap:

Buffalo is in 11 offensive personnel on this play, with a running back (Johnson), tight end Dalton Kincaid, and three WRs (Cooper, Mack Hollins, and Khalil Shakir) on the field. Four of those players are on the left, with only Johnson aligned in a tight split on the right.

Let’s talk about how Brady tries to give Allen information before the play. First, through alignment. By putting Johnson on the outside, Brady forces the Chiefs to give Allen a pre-snap indicator of their coverage. If a linebacker or safety walks outside with Johnson, it is a sign that Kansas City might be in man coverage. However, cornerback Trent McDuffie is aligned across from Johnson, an indicator the Chiefs are in zone.

The other indicator is the motion path from Shakir, who uses an “orbit return” motion. Shakir starts in motion towards the offensive backfield, before returning to his initial pre-snap alignment on a swing route as the play unfolds. As this happens the Chiefs defense remains static, another sign that they are likely — but not guaranteed — to be in zone coverage.

Returning to the pre-snap image, let’s start to talk about Kansas City. The Chiefs have a dime package on the field, with six defensive backs and just one linebacker, Nick Bolton. Before the play, the dangerous Chris Jones aligns on the outside shoulder of left tackle Dion Dawkins, with Mike Danna outside of him. Bolton is walked up in the A-Gap, and safety Jordan Reid walks down into the B-Gap between the right guard and the right tackle.

Allen needs to decide how to set the protection here, and with the presence of both Danna and Jones on the left side, the Bills use a four-man slide to the left, with the left tackle through the right guard sliding in that direction. Buffalo is worried about both Danna and Jones on that edge, and placing the bet that pressure is not coming from the right with Reid and company.

Part of the reason for that bet? The alignment of safety Jaden Hicks. If Spagnuolo were going to blitz from Allen right — in particular sending McDuffie from the outside — you would expect to see Hicks over the top of McDuffie, putting him in a position to pick up Johnson. But with all the zone coverage indicators, and Hicks’ alignment, Allen is betting that the Chiefs will bring pressure, if any, from the left. He is also betting that Kansas City is dropping into zone coverage, and he can read out this concept in the pocket.

He wins one of those bets.

Kansas City does drop into zone, but Danna does not come after the quarterback. Instead, as the defensive end drops into underneath coverage on the outside (and Bolton over the middle drops as well) both McDuffie and Reid blitz off the right side of the offense. With four linemen sliding away from those two defensive backs, and right tackle Spencer Brown fanning out to pick up the dangerous George Karlaftis, Allen is under pressure almost immediately.

Still, Allen almost connects with his tight end:

Despite the almost immediate pressure, Allen buys enough time in the pocket to let Kincaid get behind the defense, before uncorking a throw in his direction. Due to the pressure from Reid and McDuffie the QB makes this throw off his back foot, resulting in a pass that is slightly underthrown. Kincaid adjusts to the throw and almost makes the catch, but instead the pass falls incomplete.

Buffalo failed to get the stop they needed on Kansas City’s ensuing possession, and the Chiefs were headed to their third straight Super Bowl.

After the game Allen talked about that fourth-down play, and gave credit to the Chiefs defense.

“They gave a good look. I didn’t see anything in my first cadence [to indicate the blitz that was coming]. We were sliding left. The corner came … yeah,” said Allen before his voice trailed off.

“They made one more play than we did.”

In his post-game press conference, Jones gave the credit to his defensive coordinator. Asked about that fourth-down snap, the Chiefs defensive tackle kept his answer short and sweet.

“Spags called a heck of a play.”