Chiefs news: Andy Heck calls second straight game-winning run

Last week, Andy Reid revealed that Isiah Pacheco’s game-winning run against the Broncos was actually called by offensive line coach Andy Heck. This might have come as a surprise to some, given the general mysterious nature of the play-calling hierarchy for the Kansas City Chiefs.

What may be even more surprising is that Coach Heck did it again against the Houston Texans.

During his weekly interview on the Chiefs Kingdom Show, Andy Reid explained the final play of the game to Mitch Holthus.

According to Reid, after the Chiefs recovered the Texans’ fumble deep in Houston territory (thanks to Willie Gay), the Chiefs found themselves preparing to win the game. All they needed was a field goal, but given Harrison Butker’s struggles that day, it made sense to try and get as close as possible.

Enter Heck, who called the Jerick McKinnon run on the very first snap. Apparently, it was such a great play call that McKinnon even told Patrick Mahomes in the huddle that he was going to run it in for a touchdown.

McKinnon wasn’t wrong.

The nine-year veteran took the ball and broke loose for a 26-yard touchdown that sealed a seventh straight AFC West Championship for the Chiefs. It was very reminiscent of some late-season runs by Damien Williams a few seasons ago.

Coach Reid made sure to credit the offensive line too for opening up holes. In the video above, McKinnon also calls out a nice block thrown by JuJu Smith-Schuster.

I don’t know how often Heck calls plays, but he’s two-for-two in game-winning plays the last few weeks. Hopefully, he’s injecting some well-needed calls to run the football into Andy Reid’s veins. He clearly trusts his guys to get the job done.

Once this season is over, the offensive coordinator situation will once again be a point of discussion. It will ultimately come down to whether or not Eric Bienemy finally gets a head coaching job. Either way, I have my doubts that he’ll be back. So who will fill his role? Most might say Matt Nagy.

But (Andy) heck, who knows?