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Adam Teicher, ESPN Staff Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When the Kansas City Chiefs faced the Miami Dolphins on Nov. 5, they fared about as well as they could have hoped, holding their opponents to 292 yards and 14 points.
They are still impressed with the size of the job ahead of them on Saturday night when the teams meet again, this time in the wild-card round at Arrowhead Stadium.
“They’ve got a lot of speed,” cornerback Trent McDuffie said. “That’s one thing that we know for sure. They’re going to try to hit this edge and they’re going to try to get their players the ball in space and so I think a big thing is open field tackling . . . I think this is a game where all 11 [are] needed, every single play. So we go back to that swarm, that relentlessness that [defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo] talks about. I think that needs to be on display this weekend.”
The Chiefs countered Miami’s speed well in the Week 9 game between the teams. The Dolphins have plenty of fast players, including wide receiver Tyreek Hill.
The midseason meeting was the first time Hill had faced his former team since the March 2022 trade that sent him to Miami. Hill had eight catches against the Chiefs but gained only 62 yards. McDuffie’s tackle on Hill late in the first half caused him to fumble with the Chiefs recovering and returning it for a touchdown for the decisive score in a 21-14 win.
According to ESPN Analytics and NFL Next Gen Stats, the Chiefs played zone coverage on a season-high 61% of dropbacks against the Dolphins. The Chiefs excelled in that type of coverage. Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa completed 67% of his attempts with a 76 QBR against man coverage, 58% with a QBR of 19 against zone. His only touchdown came against man coverage.
Much of the zone coverage was because of Hill, whose speed and quickness have broken open many a game.
“You do have to treat him differently,” Spagnuolo said. “If you are in the zone, we have to have 22 eyeballs on him, know where he is all the time. That’s part of what we’ve been saying because he can hurt in a lot of different ways. They hand the ball off to him and jet sweep and they throw it to him, the screens, the whole thing.
“They’ve all got speed. They built it that way but certainly Tyreek leads that charge because of what he can do, and we didn’t face [running back De’Von Achane] last time. I told the guys that the other day that there’s going to be another weapon that we didn’t have before so be prepared for that. Our eyes will be on all of those guys. I always say you can’t double them all, but we’ll try to find ways to take away the guys they’re going to.”
Tagovailoa threw to Hill only three times on 20 routes when the Chiefs were in zone coverage. He had two catches on those plays for 29 yards. Hill was targeted seven times on 13 routes when the Chiefs were in man coverage and on those plays he had six catches for 33 yards.
According to Next Gen Stats, cornerback L’Jarius Sneed lined up across from Hill on 12 of his routes. The Dolphins threw to Hill only twice when Sneed wound up as the nearest defender and both passes were incomplete.
Sneed has frequently covered the opponent’s top receiver this season, the list including Calvin Ridley, DJ Moore, Garrett Wilson, Justin Jefferson, A.J. Brown and Ja'Marr Chase. Sneed has usually won those battles. Davante Adams of the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 12 was the only receiver to catch at least three passes with Sneed as the nearest defender.
The Chiefs will presumably try Sneed often on Hill this week. But between Jaylen Waddle, Raheem Mostert and Achane — who was on IR when they met in November — the Dolphins have more for the Chiefs to be concerned about.
“That whole team is fast,” safety Justin Reid said. “I don’t know if there’s a guy over there that runs over 4.35. That speed is definitely one of the things that makes them so unique and it is a challenge for us, but we’re ready to step up to the plate for it.”
