The Kansas City Chiefs have been in this situation before. Two years ago, in the 2020 divisional round, they saw Patrick Mahomes leave the game due to injury, and backup Chad Henne come in to at least hold serve. Then, it was against the Cleveland Browns in a 22-17 win. Now, it’s the second quarter of their game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Then, Mahomes suffered a concussion, and left the game in the third quarter. This time, it was an injury to his lower right leg.
Henne did what he was able to do — provide serviceable backup quarterbacking. He completed six of eight passes for 66 yards and threw an interception, but he also had this crucial 13-yard scramble on third-and-14 with 2:00 left in the game, and the Chiefs up, 22-17.
On the next play, Henne hit Tyreek Hill on this five-yard pass on fourth-and-1 to allow the Chiefs to run the clock out, and ice the game.
Head coach Andy Reid said after the game that he never thought of punting.
“We go through all those Saturday night with the quarterbacks, those situations: ‘Fourth-and-1 to win the game, what do you want?’” Reid said after the game. “My coaches were on board, they all did a great job with the spot, with the calls, everything — they were spot-on. It was a great job.”
Tight end Travis Kelce was confident in Henne all along.
“It’s a little different when your quarterback goes down, someone so important to your offense and your team. but you have to throw it all into the same bucket of, ‘When adversity hits, what are you going to do? Where does your mind go? Where do we go from here as a team?’ We rallied around Chad, gave him some confidence, knowing we were out there making plays every single snap, just like if Pat was out there.”
Henne engineered a 12-play, 98-yard touchdown drive when he got in the game, so perhaps history is about to repeat itself.
