What in the world did we just witness?
The Kansas City Chiefs are on to their third straight AFC championship game after defeating the Cleveland Browns 22-17 at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs overcame what is believed at this writing to be a concussion to quarterback Patrick Mahomes, which he suffered in the third quarter.
Let’s be very clear here: it wasn’t all perfect for Mahomes’ replacement, Chad Henne, but expecting it to be so would be quite unreasonable.
Prior to Week 17 against the Los Angeles Chargers — deemed a meaningless game due to lack of any playoff implications — Henne had not started a regular-season game in six years, when he was a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
From that lack of meaningful play, Henne entered a game on the complete opposite end of the spectrum — and he did enough to secure the victory. Henne’s 13-yard scramble set up a fourth-and-1 as the Browns had no timeouts under two minutes.
As daring as an NFL head coach could possibly be, Andy Reid sent Henne and the offense back out in a shotgun look — one that would lead you to believe the Chiefs would try to make the Browns jump offsides before calling a timeout. Instead, Henne snapped the ball with five seconds on the play clock — and Tyreek Hill caught a 5-yard pass and slid down in bounds as the 16,000 at Arrowhead erupted.
The win comes with an immediate question — will Patrick Mahomes be back in time for the conference title matchup with the Buffalo Bills? That will no doubt be the discussion point all week.
But for tonight — and forever — we have Henne and Reid and the wherewithal they possessed to go take the game... rather than having it taken from them.
It is a sequence that will never be forgotten.
Four teams remain, with more to come.