It's the second overtime game in Super Bowl history, and you're in the thick of it. You're trailing by three points and need a touchdown to seal the victory, but your offense is just three yards away from the promised land. If you make it there, you'll be greeted by confetti and champagne showers, along with months of parades and acclaim ahead. Three more yards. That's all that stands between you and football immortality.
Glory is not guaranteed, of course. In football, certainty is a rarity. You could easily sound your own death knell if you run the wrong play here. Just ask Pete Carroll's Seattle Seahawks, whose entire season collapsed at the goal line in Super Bowl XLIX.
In that high-stakes moment, which play do you choose to call?
That's the decision the Kansas City Chiefs had to make in the waning moments of Super Bowl LVIII. Trailing 22-19 in overtime, Kansas City had the ball on the San Francisco 49ers' three-yard line.
The anatomy of Andy Reid's game-winning play call in Super Bowl LVIII
For Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, the game-winning play call was Tiger 12 Gun Trips Right Bunch F-Shuttle.
Tiger 12 denotes the personnel package. This play is designed for 12 personnel, which deploys one running back and two tight ends ā a grouping that generally indicates a running play. Kansas City used 12 personnel on 26.5 percent of their offensive plays during the 2023 season, fourth-most among all teams, per Sumer Sports.
Gun Trips Right Bunch is the formation. The quarterback lines up in shotgun with the running back aligned to his right. The right side of the formation has a bunch alignment with two tight ends in a tight set and one wide receiver on the outside. That leaves one wide receiver isolated on the left side, away from the bunch.
F-Shuttle instructs the wide receiver on the bunch side of the field to go into a zipper motion prior to the snap.
"We call it Tom and Jerry," Reid told NBC's Peter King.
The play is a variation of last year's iconic play, Corn Dog, "with some mustard and ketchup." Leave it to Andy Reid to associate play calls with food.
How the Chiefs scored the game-winning touchdown against the 49ers
Jet Chip Wasp. Corn Dog. Tom and Jerry. Those are the three play calls that helped the Chiefs win three Super Bowl championships in a five-year span. In Super Bowl LVIII, it was Tom and Jerry's turn to shine.
The tight formation puts stress on the secondary, especially in the red zone. Defensive backs have to communicate assignments based on various route combinations that could come their way. The motion only makes it tougher, especially since it leaves the cornerbacks with little time to switch coverage assignments right before the ball is snapped.
The Chiefs' tight ends pulled 49ers defensive backs Charvarius Ward and Ji'Ayir Brown to the middle of the field. In the "F-Shuttle" role, wide receiver Mecole Hardman faked a jet motion to the inside, which caused 49ers safety Logan Ryan to lean inside. From there, the chess match was won. When Hardman cut off his motion and reversed back outside towards the front pylon, Ryan didn't have the leverage to catch him. Hardman gained separation, giving the Chiefs an easy layup to seal the Super Bowl.
Should the 49ers have been prepared to stop the play?
San Francisco's defensive backs should have been prepared to switch assignments on the motion. After all, the Chiefs used this same motion to score two red zone touchdowns in Super Bowl LVII against the Philadelphia Eagles, albeit from a different formation.
āThe call was different, but itās like the same exact motion as āCorn Dog,āā Mahomes said to CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson after the victory.
"Corn Dog" sent a perimeter wide receiver in motion to misdirect the opposing defender to the inside, which created space and leverage for the receiver to turn back toward the sideline. On the first touchdown, Kansas City's pre-snap motion baited Eagles cornerback Darius Slay to take inside leverage, leaving wide receiver Kadarius Toney open for a five-yard touchdown with 12:08 left in the game. The Chiefs went back to the motion on the left side of the field and hit wide receiver Skyy Moore for a touchdown with 9:26 remaining.
"We built Corn Dog saying, āWell, for sure [the 49ers will] cover Corn Dog because we called it twice. Theyāve seen it,'" Andy Reid told King.
But the 49ers didn't cover it. If they were prepared for it, perhaps they could have had their own Malcolm Butler moment. Instead, the Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl champions.