KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City hasn’t been known for its four-minute offense, but the Chiefs deserve some credit for the toughness they’ve shown to run out the clock and preserve a lead.
In each of Kansas City’s three wins this season, the offense has melted away at least 4 minutes and 18 seconds to ice the victory.
It culminated with a 7:24 final drive Sunday in a 23-20 win at the New York Jets, the longest such drive to close a game in the Andy Reid era.
In fact, it’s the longest such drive by a Chiefs team since at least 2002 and marked the fourth consecutive regular-season win in which the four-minute offense ran out the clock with two drives — Sunday against the Jets and Week 2 at Jacksonville — to close out a one-score game.
Kansas City also ran a successful four-minute offense to close out a Week 14 win late season at Denver, preserving a 34-28 victory, giving the Chiefs eight such drives in the last nine games.
“We do work on it quite a bit,” Reid said. “You see it at training camp, then we do work on it every week on Fridays. We’ve done that in the past, too. That’s not something that’s new.”
The Chiefs’ success with the clock-killing offense late in games is relatively new.
Before Patrick Mahomes took the reins for Kansas City in 2018, the Chiefs only had one drive of at least four minutes to salt away a win in Reid’s first five seasons with the franchise — a 4:32 drive to end the game in a 29-28 win at Atlanta on Dec. 4, 2016.
It’s happened 13 times in Mahomes’ five-plus seasons as Kansas City’s starter, including the AFC Divisional win against Cleveland in January 2021.
But it had never happened in back-to-back games until this season, and now the Chiefs have pulled off the feat in three straight games.
“It’s always good when you can find ways to win,” Mahomes said. “I’ve learned in my six or seven years, you can win pretty, but you also have to win ugly in order to win Super Bowls.”
CHIEFS’ 4-MINUTE OFFENSE THIS SEASON
| Opponent | Final drive | Time of possession |
| Sept. 17 at Jacksonville | 10 plays for 77 yards | 4:18 |
Key plays/stats: Skyy Moore 54-yard pass from Patrick Mahomes; Isiah Pacheco — five carries for 15 yards
| Sept. 24 vs. Chicago | 7 plays for 29 yards | 4:20 |
Key plays/stats: Clyde Edwards-Helaire — four carries for 20 yards; Jerick McKinnon 10-yard run
| Oct. 1 at New York Jets | 15 plays for 45 yards | 7:24 |
Key plays/stats: Patrick Mahomes — two carries for 34 yards; Isaiah Pacheco — seven carries for 9 yards; Jerick McKinnon — two carries for 4 yards; defensive holding on Sauce Gardner.
Every game doesn’t necessarily lend itself to running out the clock with the four-minute offense — which is designed to keep the chains moving, force the opponent to use their timeouts and, ultimately, ice a win without exposing the defense to another drive — but it's a handy skill to have for an NFL offense.
Kansas City turned the trick once in Mahomes’ debut season as a starter and twice in each of his next three seasons.
The Chiefs ended three games last season with demoralizing, clock-obliterating drives and already have three in 2023.
Sometimes, those moments come in blowouts against teams that threw in the towel early, but more often, they come in rock fights when the offense struggles to find a rhythm or, like Sunday against the Jets, when Kansas City blows a big lead and must white knuckle its way to a hard-fought win.
“Even though I hate it while it’s happening, I feel like it makes you better in the end if you win games like this where not everything’s going perfect,” Mahomes said. “We did that last year, and we’re going to try to keep doing it again this year.”
Mahomes deserves his share of credit for orchestrating those moments, including his ability to convert third-and-impossible plays with his arm or legs, but Reid said the offensive line and run game, including the tight ends, are equally important.
“The guys up front are blocking nice,” Reid said. “[Offensive line] coach [Andy] Heck’s got some good runs there that he’s put together. Then, [Isiah] Pacheco and really all three of them — Pacheco, [Clyde Edwards-Helaire] and [Jerick McKinnon] — they’re all running hard.”
Kansas City is a tough team to beat anytime, but especially when the Chiefs are closing out games with a grit and toughness that often goes unnoticed.
CHIEFS' SUCCESSFUL 4-MINUTE OFFENSE UNDER REID
—
