The Chiefs have already caught the internet's attention with stellar athletic plays from quarterback Patrick Mahomes once or twice this season. But in the season finale versus the Las Vegas Raiders on Saturday, Kansas City debuted a new type of never-before-seen play, and it went viral.
During the second quarter of the 31-13 win, the Chiefs were at the Raiders' 9-yard line on second down. But instead of coming up to the line of scrimmage as usual, the players huddled and spun around in a circle for a few seconds before quickly breaking into formation to snap the ball.
While the announcers understandably chuckled at the stunt, the play appeared effective initially, as Jerick McKinnon took the direct snap and tossed it back to Mahomes, who threw to Kadarius Toney for a touchdown. Unfortunately the play ended up being nullified due to a holding penalty, but it still became one of the biggest topics of discussion surrounding the game.
When asked about the play after the win, Mahomes said the team has some plays that were created to confuse defenses through odd set-ups, and that this particular play, dubbed the "Snow Globe" in the spirit of the holidays, was actually first conceived last season and set aside, before being brought back for this week's matchup.
"It was something we had kind of practiced on actually last year of doing that, of getting confusion going and getting to the line to snap, and we didn't get the chance to run it last year," Mahomes said in his postgame press conference. "As the season went back on, I was kind of nudging coach (Andy) Reid like, 'Hey, let's bring it back in a different way.' We didn't have that throw back on it the last time we ran it. Hopefully we can maybe do it again and get back to whatever we ran last time and get another touchdown."
Reid said in his postgame press conference that he often allows Mahomes and the offense to work up these plays in practice meant to disconcert opposing defenses, saying that once a play has been created in the practice "laboratory" that he will vet it to decide if it's worth putting in the playbook.
"Well, you saw how it ended up. That's the benefit. It's just to create a little bit of confusion, and then line up in something that's not familiar to the opposing team," Reid said. "The guys executed it well. We ended up with a holding call, but they did good with it. And the players enjoy doing that stuff, so with a little creativity, they come up with these things. So, we just throw them out there and let them work them."
While vying for a playoff berth and Super Bowl is serious business, and the Chiefs accomplished their main task Saturday by clinching the No. 1 seed in the AFC with their victory, Mahomes still said the team understands that part of the game is having fun, and doing entertaining exercises such as this can make the long year more tolerable.
"We go out there and we try to get the best out every single day, but the coaches let us have fun. That's what keeps us going," Mahomes said. "We built this culture of, 'Let's go out there and practice, have a great time doing it, enjoy it, have fun, but same time, let's be great.' That stuff was here before I even got here, and I'm just glad I'm in this organization and get to do it every single day."
