Chad Henne Beat The Browns Thanks To A Ridiculous 3rd And 14 Scramble

The Kansas City Chiefs never trailed on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, but in the fourth quarter it felt an awful lot like they were in peril after Patrick Mahomes was ruled out with a concussion and Cleveland had cut it to a 5-point game.

Longtime veteran backup Chad Henne, at 35 years old, was tasked with trying to keep the Chiefs’ title defense dreams alive. After throwing an absolute arm punt to give the Browns the ball back with eight minutes to play, the Kansas City defense got the stop they needed after a rather inexplicable set of playcalls and decisions from the Browns that took four minutes off of the clock in just seven plays before they even got near midfield. On 4th and 9, Cleveland punted and the Chiefs needed two first downs to seal the victory.

They got the first on a swing pass to Darrell Williams, taking advantage of the Browns aggressively covering their receivers and tight ends to get him into space. On a 3rd and 14 after taking a sack on the ensuing possession, Henne needed to create a miracle and almost did exactly that as he took off for 13.8 yards on the most improbable scramble of the season.

No one in the stadium or anywhere else was anticipating Henne breaking out the wheels on that play and it worked to the Chiefs advantage when he broke the pocket. On 4th and inches, Cleveland seemed to simply want to avoid jumping offsides, and with the game on the line, Andy Reid once again trusted Henne to throw the ball, working a simple out route to Tyreek Hill who got the first and then sat it down to ice the game.

It was, objectively, the right call to go for it in that situation, as it ended the game, and with the Browns so on edge for a run and not to jump offsides, it was a brilliant play choice to get Hill in space and force Cleveland to make a perfect play, which they could not. It’s a rather incredible win for the Chiefs, who will now host the Bills and Mahomes’ status is very much up in the air after he was knocked out in the third quarter and was quickly ruled out with a concussion.

For the Browns, it’s a gutting loss and they had ample opportunity to win. From the end of half fumble through the end zone (that in the end turned out to be the difference) to the horrific clock and timeout management from Kevin Stefanski in the final quarter to simply not getting it done on a drive where they should’ve had all the confidence in the world. In a game where quarterbacks were the talk of every pregame show, it was one absolutely no one mentioned before hand that came up huge and got Kansas City the win.