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Road to Super Bowl LIX: Kansas City Chiefs' path to New Orleans that has put them on the brink of NFL history
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but the Kansas City Chiefs will play in the Super Bowl this weekend.
For the fifth time in six years Andy Reid’s side have made it through to the big game and this time they will be chasing NFL history as they look to land an elusive threepeat.
Just like they did two years ago, the Philadelphia Eagles will provide the opposition for Patrick Mahomes and his teammates, but how did they make it to New Orleans? DAZN News takes a look at how the Chiefs season went down.
Offseason
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After defeating the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII, the Chiefs knew they had work to do in the offseason if they were to launch a serious attempt at a three-peat.
Top of their offseason to-do list was to resolve the futures of key defensive pieces Chris Jones and L’Jaruis Sneed, both of whom played significant parts in their latest Super Bowl run and were both due to hit free agency.
Roster construction in the modern-day NFL is often a matter of priorities and that meant the Chiefs could only realistically keep one of these two players, with the team moving to land Jones, handing him a five-year $158.75million deal to remain at Arrowhead Stadium, while Sneed was franchise tagged and then traded to the Tennessee Titans.
After a relatively quiet free agency period, attention turned to the draft, where a first-round trade with Buffalo saw the Chiefs move up to take wide reciever Xavier Worthy, handing Mahomes an electric downfield target, addressing one of the team’s few areas of need.
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An early statement of intent
Kansas City’s Week 1 fixture was a mouthwatering rematch of the previous season’s AFC Championship game, as the Baltimore Ravens headed to Arrowhead Stadium and were dispatched 27-20 - but only after the game ended with Isiah Likely’s toe being fractionally out of bounds. The quest for the three-peat was up and running.
Week 2 saw another AFC big-hitter visit Arrowhead and another big call from the refs, as a pass interference call on fourth-and-16 went the Chiefs' way against the Cincinnati Bengals, allowing the hosts to win on a last-second 51-yard field goal.
Wins against the Atlanta Falcons, LA Chargers and New Orleans Saints saw the Chiefs reach the bye at 5-0.
Luck on their side
The wins kept coming for the Chiefs after the bye, even if there were no dominant performances from Mahomes and company. An overtime win over Tampa Bay in Week 9 was followed by a dramatic victory over Denver, when the Chiefs were able to block a 35-yard field goal as time expired, ensuring they held on for a 16-14 win, to move them on 9-0 for the first time in more than a decade.
(Getty Images)
A first defeat of the campaign came at Buffalo when Josh Allen got one over his rival Mahomes, but the narrow wins quickly resumed, with the Chiefs benefitting from a bungled Raiders snap with 16 seconds left in Week 13 in a 19-17 victory, before the Chargers saw a last-gasp field goal hit the upright as time expired, securing another 19-17 win.
The number one seed was secured with a week of the regular season to go, meaning they could rest their starters in Week 18, when they suffered a second defeat of the season, as they ended with a 15-2 record.
Business as usual in the playoffs
By the end of the season, there was a certain feeling of inevitability surrounding the Chiefs and they continued to grind out the wins in the playoffs.
The Houston Texans were taken care of in the Divisional Round, with Kansas City’s 23-14 win meaning they had made a seventh straight AFC Championship game, where they faced the Bills. Despite having the edge in their latest regular season encounter, Josh Allen went into this latest match 0-3 against Mahomes in the playoffs, and again, it would go the way of the Chiefs, who downed their rivals 32-29 and set up a Super Bowl rematch against the Eagles.
That was the first match all season when the Chiefs' offense had put up more than 30 points, a sign that Reid and the team’s fans hope will point to them peaking at the best possible time.
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Read next | After tough season at the top, can Travis Kelce fire Kansas City Chiefs to three-peat glory?
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