KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Of the 11,926 plays from scrimmage through the first six weeks of the NFL season, the one that might best illustrate the absurd lengths to which we've stretched a sport's very definition came at 11:04 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, Oct. 14, in front of one of the biggest television audiences of the year.
You probably remember the moment, late in the fourth quarter, when New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady took the shotgun snap, and first looked toward tight end Rob Gronkowski, then to receiver Chris Hogan, and then felt Chiefs linebacker Breeland Speaks around his waist.
Two and a half seconds after the snap, the play was dead, and everyone knew it. You can actually see Patriots center David Andrews start toward Brady, presumably to help him up. Other linemen stopped moving. Brady was about to be dragged down.
Then he wasn't.
Because Speaks, a rookie, thought Brady threw the ball, and tackling Brady is something like the NFL's version of mama's china: DO NOT TOUCH.
"Especially in New England," Speaks said. "We're in New England. Tom's going to get the call."
Speaks let go. Brady made his way to the end zone, and the Patriots retook the lead in a game they would eventually win despite giving up 40 points, including 31 in the second half. The Chiefs came back from 15 down in the second half despite giving up points on every defensive possession but one. Their problems included scoring too quickly, and a defensive player (mistakenly) letting go of a quarterback for fear of recrimination from the league's hyper-protective rules.
This is the NFL now. It's a video game. It's basketball. It's the Arena Football League.
In the previous four seasons, only two teams scored 40 or more points and lost. On Sunday, the Chiefs became the third team this season to do so.
Where have you gone, Ray Lewis?
This is a conspiracy of league interests that include protecting quarterbacks, limiting head injuries and chasing fan interest in an era increasingly won more by bursts and less by subtlety. The trend is a product of new rules adopted, old rules being enforced differently and offensive coaches exploiting the advantage with concepts copied from the college game.
"I'm not punting as much now," said Chiefs' punter Dustin Colquitt.
"I think it's the new normal," said backup quarterback Chad Henne. "I don't see it ever going back to boring, running the football, going that way."
The Chiefs are something like ground zero for how to operate in this new world. Their decisions must change; their priorities must be altered. The old way of doing it can't be the current way of doing it.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid, like virtually all NFL and college coaches, uses a chart to guide him through decisions like whether to go for two-point conversions and how to approach fourth downs. Mike Frazier, his statistical analysis coordinator, helps create the chart using information that accounts for league-wide trends and tendencies.
Reid's decisions are informed both by the chart and a more subjective element in the moment, with factors like weather and feel for what's working in a particular game.
But, speaking generally, he seemed to indicate the ultimate balance of the decision hasn't been significantly altered even as the conditions on both his team and across the league have gone to historic extremes.
"You add that into it," is as far as he went when asked about this.
There are many ways to quantify the shift we're seeing. NFL records are falling everywhere. In 2013, the highest-scoring season since the merger, 4,223 points had been scored through week six. This year, that number is 4,489. When the league-wide yardage mark was set in 2015, teams had gained 65,219 yards through six weeks. This year, that number is 68,614.
Football Outsiders was particularly helpful in uncovering the absurdity. From Vincent Verhei: Fifteen quarterbacks have thrown for 400 yards this season; only two years have featured that many all season, and only one had more than 10 through week six.
From Andrew Potter: Between the merger and last season, there had been a total of 21 games in which a quarterback threw for 400 yards with two or more touchdowns and no interceptions, and still lost. That's happened six times, to six different quarterbacks, already this season.
From Scott Kacsmar: All of last season, 12 teams gained 500 yards of offense in a game. Through six weeks, there have already been 14 such games.
The Chiefs are the branded embodiment of these wild times. They have scored 30 or more points five times, which already surpasses last year's total, a season in which they finished sixth overall in scoring. They've also given up 500 yards three times _ including by far their best defensive performance in Week 5 against Jacksonville.
They are on pace to be the third-highest scoring team in league history ... and give up more yards than anyone, ever. They are fourth in yards and first in points, and 27th in points against and dead last in yards against. Pro Football Focus and Football Outsiders both rank them second in offense and 28th in defense.
The loss to New England was the first real opportunity for the Chiefs to use their defined strengths and weaknesses as reasons to make unorthodox decisions. They scored three touchdowns in the last 15 minutes, 56 seconds, and elected to kick the extra point each time. Once, a conversion would have tied it, and once it would have given the Chiefs the lead. Each time the chart and traditional decision-making backed the kick.
But that might not even be the most interesting part. The Chiefs' last touchdown came with 3:03 left in the fourth quarter, on a 75-yard pass from Mahomes to Tyreek Hill. The touchdown happened 12 seconds after a Patriots field goal, and the extra point tied the score.
"Tyreek was running to score," Brady said. "I said, 'Good, score quick.' Because then we had enough time."
To be clear: Instructing players not to score in that situation would have been extreme, and risky. The Chiefs needed a touchdown to at least tie, and at that point the Patriots had all three of their timeouts left _ and the Chiefs' only problems moving the ball had surfaced in the red zone.
As it turned out, the difference in the game was that the Patriots forced a Chiefs punt with 3:59 left, and the Chiefs never forced a Patriots punt _ including on the last drive for the winning field goal as time expired.
We've seen opponents alter their plans against the Chiefs. The Jaguars went for a fourth-and-1 at the Chiefs' 3 in the second quarter. Their only other fourth-down attempt before the fourth quarter this season came on a fake punt near midfield. Opponents have attempted to convert on 14 fourth downs against the Chiefs this season, the most in football. Besides the Chiefs, only the Cardinals have defended more than seven.
Strategy is changing around the league, and we saw that this week on Monday night. The Packers took the ball with the score tied, 1:07 left, on their own 10 with no timeouts _ and ran it on first down. Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers said he was thinking overtime in the moment, but even after that they had just 61 seconds with no timeouts and ball at their own 24.
But particularly for teams with top quarterbacks, aggression is the smart play. The Packers drove down for a field goal, having enough time once in range to run one more play to get even closer, and one more play after that to burn an extra three seconds.
No team in the league is better positioned to take advantage of the new NFL than the Chiefs. They have every reason to push their offense, and every reason to hide their defense. A dynamic quarterback and versatile and top talents at receiver, tight end and running back make the Chiefs a brutal cover when the innovative Reid has reason to use a special play designed for particular moments.
That's the choice they face going forward. Reid has always been on the sport's forefront in terms of finding new ways to design plays and push concepts to new lengths. But he has typically been traditional and conservative when it comes to more general game decisions.
That will be enough to ride this rocket-ship offense into the playoffs, but at some point, he will almost certainly be presented an opportunity to push the boundaries of convention that could be the difference between a win and a loss. Few coaches have ever led teams better positioned to be extreme.
