ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Sorry, Broncos Country.
Andy Reid has coached way longer than most but he isn’t planning on hanging up his enormous play card or beautiful play-calling mind any time soon.
“I haven’t put my thought into that -- I’m still enjoying it,’’ Reid said in a conference call Wednesday with the Denver media. “I think that’s probably the most important thing and that the players don’t look at me like I’m their grandfather and they still listen. But you get to a point, I guess, where that starts happening, but they’ve been good. I sure enjoy their energy.”
Reid, 63, is in his 23rd season as NFL head coach. Modern Hall of Fame coaches like Tony Dungy, Jimmy Johnson and Bill Cowher burned out much sooner. Reid’s first 14 coaching seasons were with the Philadelphia Eagles where he and Donovan McNabb had a nice run, reaching the NFC Championship Game four straight seasons and the Super Bowl game once, losing to Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots, 24-21 in XXXIX.
After he was fired from Philly following the 2012 season, Reid took zero time off and became head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs beginning with the 2013 season. It took him a while to figure out how to beat the Broncos with Peyton Manning, going 0-5 at the start. But once Reid did beat Manning and the Broncos in their second meeting of 2015, there’s been nothing but Chiefs’ dominance since.
The first four wins in this Chiefs’ 11-game streak against the Broncos occurred with Alex Smith as their quarterback. Smith was good, extremely underrated. The quarterback in the next seven Chiefs wins was Patrick Mahomes II – starting with his NFL debut in the 2017 regular-season finale at what is now called Empower Field at Mile High. He’s been sensational.
Mahomes deserves the bulk of the credit. Reid is No. 5 all-time with 228 coaching wins, but he never won a Super Bowl until his young quarterback rallied his team against the 49ers in Super Bowl 54. In his 3 ½ seasons as a starter, Mahomes has averaged 39.1 touchdown passes against just 9.8 interceptions with a 13-3 record.
But Reid’s fancy offense with all his motions and misdirections deserve credit, too.
“It’s a difficult offense to defend by the design of it,’’ said Broncos head coach Vic Fangio. “The motion, it’s a spread-out offense. And the guys running the offense are really, really fast. You add those ingredients and then put Mahomes in there – it’s a similar offense that they ran when Alex Smith was there but, you know, Mahomes is (smiles) Mahomes.”
Mahomes struggled for the first time earlier this season when he threw 9 interceptions through the Chiefs’ 3-4 start. Since then the Chiefs have gone 4-0, a stretch when Mahomes has thrown 9 touchdown passes against just two interceptions. If there is an underappreciated aspect of Mahomes’ game it’s his competitiveness. He’s not about passing stats or scoring points, necessarily. He’s about winning. No one plays harder than Mahomes in the final few minutes of a closely-contested game, or celebrates more from a positive outcomes.
“He’s not going to hang his head on anything,’’ Reid said of his quarterback. “He just wants to get better every week. Every day, really. That’s the part I appreciate the most from him. He’s a good kid. I also appreciate he’s so into it and loves it. As a coach you love guys that love the game. And he truly does that.”
Fangio’s defense has done pretty well against Mahomes and the high-powered Chiefs’ offense, even if there hasn’t been a win to prove it. Mahomes suffered a dislocated kneecap early in their first meeting in 2019 and was held to 23 points, albeit in a driving snowstorm, in their second meeting at Arrowhead Stadium.
Last year, the Chiefs scored 43 points in Denver but an early pick six by safety Daniel Sorensen off Broncos’ quarterback Drew Lock and a 102-yard kickoff touchdown return by Byron Pringle turned a 10-6 game into 24-9 Kansas City lead by halftime. In their second meeting at Kansas City last season, the Broncos with all their injured cornerbacks still held the Chiefs to 22 points, a game in which the Broncos led, 16-12 until late in the third quarter.
The Denver D ranked 25th in points allowed last season (27.9 per game); they are No. 3 this year as they’ve surrendered10.6 points less per game (17.8 per).
“He does a good job every year,’’ Reid said of Fangio. “He’s been one of the top defensive coordinators in the National Football League and he’s done a great job as a head coach, too. But his mind is special when it comes to the defensive side of the football. But listen, they’ve got an influx of new players, young players and they’re playing their tail off. You put the tape on and they’re playing hard. And they’re very sound at what they do.”
It will be the offensive mind of Reid against the defensive mind of Fangio before a Sunday night primetime TV audience (9News) at Arrowhead Stadium. Reid has always scored enough so far. But so far this season, the Chiefs haven’t been quite as dominant while the Broncos are inarguably improved.
“Every year is different in this league,’’ Reid said. “We always treat (it that way) and it’s true. That’s the truth. And this is a good football team that we’re playing. If you get your focus on that and not whatever stuff we’ve got going here that’s the most important thing. It should take all your energy to focus in on this football team, the Denver Bronco football team. You better have everything tunneled in on that because they’re a good team.”