The play clock was down to 5 seconds when Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes turned his head toward receiver Kadarius Toney and signaled for him to move. Toney looked right at him and stayed still.
This is where the chaos began for the Chiefs ahead of their final touchdown in a 38-35 Super Bowl LVII victory over the Philadelphia Eagles at State Farm Stadium.
On the sideline, receiver Justin Watson recalled the disarray from his vantage point on the third-and-goal play from the 4 with 9:26 left in the fourth quarter. Coach Andy Reid started to move toward an official to call timeout.
Before he could, quarterbacks coach Matt Nagy screamed behind him.
“No, it’s still good!” Watson recalled Nagy saying. “It’s still good!”
“It,” in this case, was the play call.
Even though Travis Kelce was in the wrong spot ... leaving Mahomes only an instant to put together the puzzle before he received a delay-of-game penalty.
This was supposed to be a 3X1 receiver formation, Chiefs receivers coach Joe Bleymaier admitted afterward. Kelce should’ve been at the top of millions of TV screens worldwide and not at the bottom, in essence disorienting his QB at the worst of times.
Mahomes knew this play call had receiver motion coming from the same side as Kelce. So after calling out Philadelphia’s defense to his teammates (“Cover 0,” football lingo for an all-out blitz), Mahomes flipped his hand to tell Toney to get moving.
Toney knew better. This play wasn’t for him.
Instead was for Skyy Moore on the other side.
This is where Mahomes’ mind went into overdrive. There were 3 seconds left on the play clock when his head flipped to the opposite side of the formation while not only processing the Chiefs’ goof-up.
But also how he could fix it.
“Pat now realizes that it’s not the way it was drawn up,” Bleymaier said. “But he’s like, ‘All right, let’s go.’”
He looked to Moore and flipped his arm quickly to give the signal. Moore started in motion, and right after, Mahomes pumped up his right leg to call for the snap.
The Chiefs QB had the ball hit his hands with two seconds to spare. Moore stopped his route and pivoted toward the sideline, breaking wide open for a four-yard score that helped push KC’s lead to 35-27.
That touchdown was critical, giving the Chiefs the potential for a game-winning field goal on their next possession.
“Just film — Coach Reid, Coach EB (Eric Bieniemy) putting us in the right positions,” Moore said. “So I just do what I’m told, and it worked out to perfection.”
“Perfection,” it turns out, that began with an assignment gaffe and a coach almost calling timeout to reset.
That was before an assistant coach urged him to stop.
And before the league MVP — once again — found a way to make things right.
