Patrick Mahomes called the ‘wasp’ play that turned Super Bowl 54 around

One of the biggest reasons the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl 54 was because quarterback Patrick Mahomes had a play he wanted to run. That play, called “2-3 Jet Chip Wasp,” resulted in a 44-yard bomb from Mahomes to Tyreek Hill in the fourth quarter that changed the entire momentum of the game.

Trailing, 20-10, with just 7:14 left in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs desperately needed to make some magic. On third-and-15, Mahomes hit Hill deep to put Kansas City’s offense down to the 49ers’ 21. It was a perfect route by Hill, and an even more miraculous throw by Mahomes:

Kansas City has used this play a year before, in the AFC Championship against New England. Mahomes found Hill deep on the same play early in the game.

Apparently calling the play during the Super Bowl was all Mahomes’ idea. In a new video released by NFL Films, the QB is seen on the sidelines asking offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy if they have enough time [in the pocket] to “run Wasp.” Mahomes was able to talk this through with his OC while the officiating crew was reviewing another long pass to Hill that was ultimately ruled incomplete.

“Crazy thing is,” Chiefs quarterbacks coach Mike Kafka said told NBC Sports’ Peter King after the game, “Patrick called it. He asked for it, and Andy [Reid] called it.”

Here’s that exchange between Mahomes and Bieniemy:

Mahomes: “What we thinking?”

[Bieniemy nods his head in thought while looking at his playsheet]

Mahomes: “Do we have time to run Wasp?”

Bieniemy: “You like Wasp?” [Into his headset] “He’s asking for Wasp.”

Bieniemy: “What down and distance do you like it?”

Mahomes: “If it’s first-and-10, Wasp, or I’ll run it at any down and distance, I don’t care.”

The NFL Films video is almost 10 minutes long, but it’s worth your while:

“We call it ‘Wasp,’ “ Reid said, via King. “Literally put the stinger on ‘em.”

Put the stinger on the 49ers it did. Mahomes hit Travis Kelce on the same drive for the Chiefs’ first of three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to pull off a seemingly improbable 31-20 Super Bowl comeback. After the game, Mahomes broke down why he wanted to call the play when he did:

“[The 49ers] were playing this kind of robber coverage all game long,” Mahomes said after the game, as transcribed by Arrowhead Pride. “Where the safety was coming down and kind or robbing our deep cross routes, and we had a good play-call on, where we had Kelce kind of doing a little stutter, deep cross, and we had Tyreek getting one-on-one with that safety. The biggest thing is we needed really good protection. It’s a long route and it was actually the same play we ran against New England in the playoffs last year, where I hit him down the sideline. And so we got good protection, the line gave me enough time and I put it out there and Tyreek made a great play.”

Reid drew up what the play looks like on paper to King:

Screenshot via @peter_king/Twitter

My guess is this may not be the last time the Chiefs call this play in a big game, but even if it is, there are probably teams out there that might try to use this idea if they have an ultra-speedster like Hill.

Mahomes was named the game’s Super Bowl MVP for what he did on the field, but making this call might’ve been his biggest moment of the night. A 24-year-old calling one of the most important plays to start a Super Bowl comeback is pretty damn cool, if I don’t say so myself.

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