The Kansas City Chiefs found a hero in Daniel Sorensen on Sunday who helped them return from a 24-point deficit in record time against the Houston Texans.
Daniel Sorensen will tell you that Sunday’s win was a team effort. He’ll deflect any ability to even detail his individual contributions. The humility is what makes his incredible play in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs that much more compelling.
During Kansas City Chiefs incredible comeback win over the Houston Texans on Sunday afternoon, Sorensen was at the very epicenter of any and all efforts to turn back the tide on a game that seemingly was completely out of hand by the end of the first quarter. Whether or not the veteran safety is willing to admit it makes no difference.
After 15 minutes of game play, Houston held an incredible 24-point edge that had silenced the faithful gathered at Arrowhead. Fortunately, kick returner Mecole Hardman provided the initial spark on a nice 58-yard kickoff return that gave Patrick Mahomes and company a short field with which to work. It wasn’t long before running back Damien Williams ran into the end zone as the recipient of a nice touchdown strike from Mahomes. The Chiefs had their first points.
Sorensen took it from there.
On the next defensive series, the Chiefs held the Texans up and the fourth down, they decided to try to run a trick play to get the first. Watch Sorensen make the open-field grab.
This is a helluva play by Daniel Sorensen to snuff out the fake punt.
— RIP Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) January 12, 2020
Watch Sorensen before the snap: he was all over this — very focused. He's moving with Reid the whole way. pic.twitter.com/p86GnMJQGe
From there, the Chiefs scored once again on the first of three consecutive touchdown passes to tight end Travis Kelce within the quarter. The game was within 10 points. Then on the very next kickoff, Sorensen again did his job by forcing a fumble by DeAndre Carter, despite the fact he received so little notice for this.
The Chiefs don’t give the ball to Darwin Thompson, so the Texans decide to. pic.twitter.com/lhtLb0xmju
— Tyler Greever (@Tyler_Greever) January 12, 2020
When asked by reporters to elaborate on the initial play where he took down Justin Reid on the fake punt run, Sorensen had nothing to say. “That’s my responsibility. I did my job pretty much just like anybody else would have done their job,” he said.
The only subject that Sorensen seemed eager to discuss was the performance by the entire team, and it’s clear he was proud of their effort.
“It’s a mindset thing,” said Sorensen. “We talked on the sideline about taking it one play at a time and stacking up positive plays and we were able to do that. We had a couple plays that turned in our favor that gave the offense the ball back. They capitalized and scored. And then from there, we just kept carrying the momentum. We worked together as a team and played together as a team and you saw a great team victory out there.”
Sorensen did note that it’s this sort of resilience that will propel them forward with confidence as they face the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Championship game.
“It gives us confidence. It doesn’t matter how many points, how far we’re down, we’re gonna fight and we’re gonna fight all the way to the end and we’re gonna carry tha through this whole playoff period. That’s what it’s all about. It’s about playing together as a team and fighting together as a team and we did that tonight.”