Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon could have scored a touchdown with 1:36 to play in the Super Bowl. It would have given Kansas City a six-point lead (pending the PAT), but it also would have given the Eagles a real chance to force overtime, or possibly to win a championship by going for -- and getting -- two.
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo acknowledges that it was the right move. He nevertheless would have welcomed a chance to try to shut down the Philly offense with a Lombardi Trophy on the line.
“I had mixed feelings,” Spagnuolo recently told Zach Gelb of CBS Sports Radio. “But part of me, after giving up that touchdown, wanted to go back out and close it somehow. . . . The pride in me as a defensive coach with defensive players, you want to go out and help close it for your team.”
Spagnuolo called it an “exceptional move” and described McKinnon as a “real smart player,” with the unselfishness to give up the chance to score a touchdown in a Super Bowl.
The touchdown also would have made it the highest-scoring Super Bowl every, with 76 points going on 77, possibly going on 84 and then, if the game went to overtime tied at 42, 87 or 90 or (given the new postseason overtime rules) 91 and then perhaps 98 and ultimately more than 100.