Big plays, coverage looks, and other things I'm watching in Chiefs/Dolphins

I look at some of the things I believe will be crucial to Kansas City advancing to the Divisional round.

For only the second time in the Patrick Mahomes era, the Chiefs are playing a game during the wild card round.

The last time this happened was following the 2021 season, when Kansas City hosted Pittsburgh in a game that was… well, it was not a contest. The Chiefs beat the Steelers 42-21 in a game that honestly wasn’t even as close as that doubled-up score sounds.

This year, in the most uneven offensive season since Mahomes became the starter, Andy Reid and company have a tougher test than a washed up Big Ben as the high-flying Miami Dolphins come to Arrowhead for what is supposed to be one of the coldest games in recent NFL history (I’m contractually obligated to tell all of you that I’m from Minnesota and can confirm that once you hit single digits and zero degrees, it is indeed cold).

The Dolphins aren’t an easy out like that Steelers club was in 2021, where the talent disparity was obvious almost immediately. Miami has tremendous speed, a great system, and a talented quarterback on offense, and on defense has been markedly better over the back half of the season than they were to start out the year (with legendary defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who is very familiar with Mahomes, calling the shots).

And so, now that the “real” football is definitively upon us (and as I wind down a vacation that has been fantastic and was much-needed), I thought what made the most sense was to talk about the things I’ll be watching on Saturday. I guess one could call them the keys to the game from my perspective. If the things I talk about here go the Chiefs way (or about half of them do), I think they’ve got an excellent chance at winning. If not? Well, my flight is at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning, so it could be a looooooong day Sunday if that’s how the season ends.

Let’s talk about what I’m watching as the Chiefs take on the Dolphins. As is the case basically any week, I think whether Kansas City wins depends a great deal more on the Chiefs themselves than their opponent.

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