On Sunday evening, the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Buffalo Bills, 27-20, in the Divisional round of the AFC Playoffs. But they needed all hands on deck to pull off the win in front of the Bills Mafia at Highmark Stadium. Luckily, they got what they needed from a player who has felt the heat for underperforming throughout the regular season.
Before the Chiefs defeated the Bills, the question was: which player would step up and make a play that could help the Chiefs on offense aside from tight end Travis Kelce, running back Isiah Pacheco, and wide receiver Rashee Rice? The answer would be wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who finished with two catches for 62 yards.
Both of MVS’ receptions were made in pivotal moments that helped keep the Chiefs offense rolling and received a ton of praise from Patrick Mahomes during his post-game press conference.
“We’ve seen MVS in playoff games make a lot of big plays happen,” Mahomes told reporters after the game. “No matter what’s happened all year, he’s kept the momentum, the mindset, the mentality that he’s going keep working and working for moments like this. And he did a great job, made some big-time catches, and had a big game.”
Both of MVS’ receptions occurred in the third quarter on consecutive scoring drives. The first was a 30-yard completion to begin the third quarter, which moved the Chiefs offense from their 25 to the Bills’ 45-yard line. The catch put Kansas City in position to keep Buffalo on their heels as they advanced the rest of the way to the end zone in five plays to take a 20-17 lead.
The second catch was a 32-yard bomb down the sideline that converted a 2nd and 7 from the Bills’ 48 and gave the Chiefs a new set of downs at the 16. Kansas City scored the touchdown three plays later.
Both of Valdes-Scantling’s plays occurred when the Chiefs needed them, and both set up scoring drives that helped Kansas City move on to the AFC Championship. If he were to drop either of those passes, the Chiefs probably wouldn’t have left Orchard Park victorious.
Mahomes explained the Bills were playing a lot of man coverage, and directed most of their attention towards taking Kelce and Rice away, leaving MVS open to make two humongous plays for his team.
“Yeah, I mean, they played a lot of man coverage,” Mahomes recalled. “When you play man coverage and playoff football, and they put that much attention on Travis [Kelce], and they had a little attention on Rashee [Rice] as well, guys got to make plays.”
Valdes-Scantling has given the Mahomes and the Chiefs multiple reasons not to trust him as a reliable source of offense at this point of the season, especially in the playoffs. The veteran receiver dropped 50% of his targets and only has 21 catches on the year.
But Mahomes and Kansas City opted to continue giving him opportunities to turn things around, and it finally paid off in two key moments.
“I [have] got to trust him,” Mahomes said. “I got to trust in eleven [MVS]. He comes to work every single day, and even though he’s gotten some hate from outside the building, we trust and love him here. We know he will make big plays whenever his number is called. He did that today in a big game. We’re gonna try to carry that momentum [into] next week.”
MVS made some big plays last season during the Chiefs playoff run to the Super Bowl. Hopefully, last night was a sign of things to come, and MVS can build off that success when they play for the AFC crown next week against Baltimore.
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