With Week 7 on the horizon, memories are flooding in for Chiefs Kingdom.
The last time the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers squared off was in Super Bowl LIV. It also happened to be when one of the most iconic plays in franchise history was born.
Only 65 Toss Power Trap compares to 2-3 Jet Chip Wasp in terms of its infamy. Third-and-15 and down by 10 points, the Chiefs needed some magic and Patrick Mahomes delivered.
“Do we have time to run wasp?” Mahomes asked offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.
They did have time to run it.
The offense needed 15 yards, but Mahomes targeted Tyreek Hill on the play and they got 44 yards, which wasn’t too uncommon for the duo. That moment was the turning point in the game for Kansas City as they’d come back to defeat San Francisco 31-20.
The play call, 2-3 Jet Chip Wasp, immediately became a favorite among fans. The Chiefs Kingdom had it printed on T-Shirts, and it was added to the Madden NFL video game franchise.
Could the Chiefs revisit this iconic play in Week 7? Perhaps they can catch the 49ers off guard by using it again? Andy Reid says not so fast.
“Yeah, that play got a lot of publicity,” Reid said. “I’m sure they’ve worked on it, but we don’t run it anymore so.”
It appears the Chiefs have retired 2-3 Jet Chip Wasp from the playbook, or at least that is what Reid would have you believe. Of course, Hill is no longer on the team and this play was specifically designed for him.
Patrick Mahomes explained in the 2020 offseason that they’ve run variations of that play in the past prior to Super Bowl LIV. He reiterated that sentiment when asked about Reid’s comments on the iconic play.
“Yeah when you have a top offense in the league, I mean teams are going to study you in the offseason,” Mahomes explained. “They’re going to see what you do because it goes around the league too. I mean offenses steal from each other and run some of the same plays and so you see that defenses have accounted for that, accounted for some of the stuff that we’ve done so how are we going to combat that? How are we going to go out there and make plays that go off of it to get other guys open? That’s something that we – that’s a challenge every day – and we try to continue to do every week. We know that we’re going to have to continue to evolve if we want to be a top offense in this league.”
So, while there might not be a return to wasp this week, maybe we’ll get “Murder Hornet” or “Killer Bee” as a variation or twist on the play. The question remains will they actually have time to run it against a talented 49ers defensive front?
