Almost everyone knows that famous scene from the movie Dumb & Dumber. Lloyd finally draws the ire of Harry who exclaims, "Just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber. You go and do something and...totally redeem yourself!"
That's how much of Chiefs Kingdom has to be feeling about wideout Marquez Valdes-Scantling. MVS has drawn the ire of Chiefs fans plenty this season thanks in large part to his drops.
To be fair, most of the Kansas City Chiefs wide receivers suffered from the drops this season but MVS, in particular, had some serious struggles. No drop was as big as the one he had against the Philadelphia Eagles, which might have won the Chiefs the game.
Chiefs had a chance to score the go-ahead TD on this play 😬 pic.twitter.com/lFR4oMLOna
— ESPN (@espn) November 21, 2023
After this drop, Chiefs Kingdom pretty much gave up on Valdes-Scantling. And for the rest of the season, it seemed like the Chiefs had also given up on MVS. Patrick Mahomes certainly didn't seem to trust him. In fact, after the Eagles game, Valdes-Scantling never had more than two catches in a game.
That is, until the playoffs when something strange happened. I don't know what exactly, but Playoff Scantling is a thing. It's true that MVS only had one catch for 8 yards against the Miami Dolphins. But the last two games?
Well, actually, he still didn't have more than 3 catches in either game but he made those catches count. Against the Buffalo Bills, he had 62 yards. Against the Baltimore Ravens, he had 38 yards. Most Chiefs fans know that the yardage isn't what impressed them though.
We're just thankful that MVS caught the darn ball! More than anything, those catches came in crucial moments. Against the Bills in the Divisional Round, the Chiefs came out of halftime with a huge pass to Scantling down the sideline that had every Chiefs fan holding their breath and he nailed it.
First play out of the half for KC, Mahomes notices the Bills rotate to single high and they get man coverage across the board. They weren't hitting these in the regular season. Have to continue to take shots when they are there. Hats off to MVS for making the play pic.twitter.com/mI3iDWkXtd
— Daniel Harms🏈 (@InHarmsWay19) January 22, 2024
But the big one, the real redemptive moment of the postseason, was against the Baltimore Ravens. Sitting at 3rd-and-9 and needing a first down to advance to the Super Bowl, Mahomes hit MVS down the middle of the field.
Ravens defense ain’t ready for the playoffs like how do you get cooked by mvs 😭 pic.twitter.com/VBKsjRQl2T
— dots (@BlackJesus_z) January 28, 2024
Hang on, let me get my bingo card. Nope, I definitely did not have "game-winning catch by Marquez Valdes-Scantling" on there. I highly doubt anyone did. But here we are. Thanks to that man, the Kansas City Chiefs are headed to their fourth Super Bowl in five years.
So thank you MVS. I honestly doubted your ability to catch for most of the season, but we couldn't have done it without you. Care to give us more in a couple of weeks?