For the second year in a row and the third time in five seasons, the Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl champions. On Sunday, the Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers by scoring a walk-off touchdown in overtime.
If the 3-yard pass to Mecole Hardman that ended the game looked a little familiar, it’s because it was essentially the same play-call that resulted in two Chiefs touchdowns against the Philadelphia Eagles last year in Super Bowl LVII.
“Believe it or not, we had ‘Corn Dog’ last year and that was ‘Corn Dog’ [this year],” Chiefs coach Andy Reid told ESPN’s Booger McFarland after the game. “This was ‘Corn Dog’ with a little mustard and ketchup.”
So what’s “Corn Dog”? Well, it’s a play the Chiefs snagged straight from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ playbook.
Shortly after Kansas City beat Philadelphia last year, The Athletic’s Rustin Dodd was told by then-Chiefs quarterback Chad Henne that offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy showed the team a play from the Jaguars’ October 2022 game against the Eagles.
On Saturday night, Bieniemy had put a play up on the screen for everyone on the Chiefs’ offense to see. It came from the Eagles’ game against the Jaguars earlier this season, and it featured Jacksonville receiver Jamal Agnew faking as if he were going in motion before stopping, reversing course and getting open for a touchdown.
“(Bieniemy) put it on tape and said: ‘Hey, like, if they do this, this guy is wide open. It’s man (coverage),'” Henne said. “They’re just trying to protect themselves from the jet sweep and trying to bubble over the top and get an extra player (on the other side of the field). But we faked the jet twice, and they didn’t figure it out.”
Here’s what that play looked like in action when the Jaguars used it:
.@jamalagnew is SHIFTY!#JAXvsPHI on CBS pic.twitter.com/FzBtsKeIPW
— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) October 2, 2022
And here it is all three times the Chiefs have used it for Super Bowl touchdowns:
You can feel the energy. Absolutely electric. #SBLVIII pic.twitter.com/5LmmVGU5XW
— NFL (@NFL) February 12, 2024
TONEY TIME BABY ⏰ pic.twitter.com/ZY5ziwBsu6
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) February 13, 2023
SKYY'S ARE CLEAR ☀️ pic.twitter.com/GGCQvS0gs9
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) February 13, 2023
Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson began his NFL coaching career as an assistant on Reid’s staff in Philadelphia and eventually worked his way up to quarterbacks coach. He then followed Reid to Kansas City and served as the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator for three seasons.
While it’s now been eight years since they’ve been on the same staff, it seems Pederson’s offensive designs are still helping Reid find ways to get his team into the end zone.
