Chiefs-Bengals snap counts: Gay, McKinnon and Ingram set season-highs

How did Kansas City use its players in Sunday’s AFC Championship game?

On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs suffered a 27-24 overtime loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship game. Let’s take a look at how Kansas City used its players in the season’s final game.

Starters (offensive): WR Demarcus Robinson, WR Byron Pringle, LT Orlando Brown Jr., LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Andrew Wylie, TE Travis Kelce, WR Tyreek Hill, QB Patrick Mahomes and RB Jerick McKinnon.

Starters (defensive): RDE Melvin Ingram, RDT Chris Jones, LDT Jarran Reed, LDE Frank Clark, LB Willie Gay Jr., LB Nick Bolton, LB Anthony Hitchens, LCB Charvarius Ward, RCB L’Jarius Sneed, S Juan Thornhill and S Tyrann Mathieu.

Did not play: QB Chad Henne, OL Austin Blythe and OL Kyle Long.

Inactive: QB Shane Buechele, CB Deandre Baker, RB Derrick Gore, DE Joshua Kaindoh, T Prince Tega Wanogho and DT Khalen Saunders.

Offensive takeaways

Left tackle Orlando Brown Jr., left guard Joe Thuney, center Creed Humphrey, right guard Trey Smith and right tackle Andrew Wylie started the game, playing 100% of the offensive snaps. For the first time since the Week 9 game against the Green Bay Packers, backup offensive lineman Nick Allegretti didn’t get any snaps as a sixth offensive lineman.

At tight end, it’s likely that things would have looked completely normal — except that Noah Gray went to the locker room after limping off the field in the second quarter.

At running back, Kansas City went all-in with the hot hand: Jerick McKinnon. In his second game back from injury, it’s unlikely Clyde Edwards-Helaire was simply having his usage limited. But that was certainly true for Darrel Williams, who returned from his toe injury and was on the field for just two offensive snaps.

With a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, the Chiefs leaned toward their most experienced wide receivers. Tyreek Hill had his greatest percentage of use since Week 1.

Defensive takeaways

With all of the defensive backs again healthy, safety Tyrann Mathieu and cornerbacks Charvarius Ward and L’Jarius Sneed were on the field for every defensive snap. As has happened several times this season, the team de-emphasized safeties a little bit against Cincinnati — so Juan Thornhill’s use was down, while Daniel Sorensen’s was the second-lowest of the season.

After listing all three of their primary linebackers as starters, Anthony Hitchens and Nick Bolton have usage in their normal ranges. But the Chiefs gave Willie Gay Jr. his highest use of the season as they made a somewhat higher commitment to their linebackers. But Ben Niemann saw his lowest defensive usage of 2021.

Melvin Ingram set a new high-water mark for the season among the defensive ends, while Frank Clark was down a little from his peak in the Divisional Round. Rotational players Alex Okafor and Mike Danna were in their normal ranges.

On the defensive interior, Chris Jones and Jarran Reed were both in their normal ranges, while Tershawn Wharton fell to his lowest usage since Week 1 and Derrick Nnadi was up a little from his season-low in the Divisional round game.

Data

Offense

Defense

Special Teams

All Snaps

Editor’s Note: Arrowhead Pride obtains snap count data from the NFL’s game stats and information system, which allows us to break out snap counts by run or pass on offensive and defensive plays. Because GSIS data ignores plays that were nullified by penalties, total offensive and defensive snap counts will vary from other sources, which get their data from NFL Gamebooks