Chiefs coach Andy Reid has long been known for his offensive creativity, particularly when it comes to the red zone. And, on Saturday, Kansas City’s high-octane offense lived up to that reputation with head-spinning play just before halftime during a 31-13 win over the Raiders.
With Kansas City leading 14–3, Patrick Mahomes and Co. took the field on second-and-3 from the Raiders’ nine-yard line with 1:02 to play in the first half. Rather than line up in a traditional formation, however, the entire Chiefs offense huddled up before the play and spun in a circle before breaking out into a shotgun formation.
Following the dizzying pre-snap sequence, running back Jerick McKinnon, assuming Mahomes’s usual role behind enter Creed Humphrey, took the direct snap and faked a handoff to receiver Kadarius Toney. McKinnon then pitched the ball to Mahomes who surveyed the field and eventually found Toney for a nine-yard touchdown.
Initially, the wild play appeared to result in the Chiefs’ third TD of the game, except the excitement would end up being short-lived after the score was erased by a holding penalty on Humphrey. Reid would quickly make up for the play call, though, after drawing up an end-around for Toney who dashed his way to an 11-yard TD.
Widely praised for having one of the most exciting offenses in the NFL, the Chiefs once again went viral as fans couldn’t get enough of the wildly creative play design. Not to mention, the shot of Mahomes, Kelce and the rest of the crew looking like a group of kids playing “ring around the rosie” at recess has to be one of most hilarious images of the season.
While many compared the play to the age-old nursery rhyme, Mahomes explained after the game that the Chiefs leaned on a different inspiration when crafting the play.
Speaking with ESPN’s Laura Rutledge, Mahomes revealed the team called the play “snow globe” as an homage to the holiday season.
“We call it ‘snow globe’ because we drew it up right before Christmas, and we actually practiced it as like kind of messing around and Coach Reid was like, ‘I like that.’ And so we put it in the gameplan and it worked, but we had a holding penalty so we didn’t get a touchdown so we had to think of something else cool.”
Regardless of what the play is ultimately remembered as, the Chiefs clearly appeared to be having fun during their season-ending romp against the Raiders. Of course, the satisfaction of beating a longtime rival received a huge boost considering what was on the line entering Saturday’s game.
The victory secured a first-round bye for the Chiefs (14–3) who will now enter the postseason as the No. 1 seed in the AFC. The 2022 campaign marks the third time the club has clinched the top seed in the past five seasons.
