Gary Kubiak had some explaining to do after his reckless decision to attempt a 62-yard field goal in overtime gifted the Chiefs a 30-27 overtime win and temporarily knocked the Broncos out of playoff position.
Kansas City prevailed on a 34-yard field goal by Cairo Santos with five seconds to go, as his kick banked off the left upright and through. That the Chiefs had a chance to make that kick was a present from Kubiak, who decided to let Brandon McManus try the mammoth field goal with 1:08 to go.
The kick was low and left, and set the Chiefs up at the Denver 48 with 1:03 remaining and a timeout. Alex Smith hit hero Tyreek Hill for 11 and Travis Kelce for 16 to set up Santos.
“We’re gonna try to win around here, and I made the decision and it didn’t work out,” Kubiak said. “I’ve got a lot of confidence in Brandon and a lot of confidence in our football team.”
Kubiak said not having any timeouts remaining was a factor in trying the long kick.
“If you did have your timeouts, maybe you think about punting it down there and see if you can get the ball back,” said the 10-year head coach, in his second season with the Broncos. “But we’re gonna try to win, and I’ve seen Brandon do that many times in practice. It’s on me. I gave him the chance to do it. I thought he could do it and we couldn’t get it done.”
Kubiak’s go-for-the-win thought process was flawed, because he should have been thinking more about the big picture — the playoff picture. A tie wouldn’t have been a such a bad thing for the Broncos (7-4), who are now on the outside of the playoffs looking in, as the Chiefs (8-3) and Dolphins (7-4) hold the two AFC wild-card spots.
Kubiak received support for the call from his players.
“I wouldn’t just play for the tie, either,” said linebacker Von Miller, who had three sacks. “I’m 100 percent behind ‘Kube’ and the coaching staff. ‘B-Mac’ is the man. It’s a tough position that he was in, but he can make those. If we had to do it all over again, I would do it again.”
Chiefs coach Andy Reid said he wasn’t surprised Kubiak tried the kick, adding he knows McManus because the kicker played with Reid’s son, Spencer, at Temple. And Reid remembered losing on a similar kick in 2006 as Eagles coach.
In that instance, Matt Bryant kicked a 62-yard field goal at the gun to give Tampa Bay a 23-21 win. But Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden only had to consider whether the kick would give his team a better chance to steal a win than a Hail Mary pass. Kubiak had to factor in the risk of a loss when he should have done no worse than tie.
Hill became an instant star, returning a free kick 86 yards after a safety, scoring on a 3-yard Jet sweep and catching a 3-yard touchdown pass with 12 seconds to go in regulation to allow the Chiefs to tie on a two-point conversion.
That play had the potential to create a mega-mess for the NFL because Hill originally was ruled down a few inches short of the goal line and time was about to run out on the Chiefs. The replay official stopped the game at :01, and upon review it was determined correctly that Hill bobbled the ball slightly and was in the end zone when he finally secured the catch. Had the call been upheld, the Chiefs might have been able to get off one more play they wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Trevor Siemian had a strong game for Denver, throwing for 368 yards and three touchdowns and calming some of the “Tony Romo in 2017” talk for one night.