Justin Fields came in to run a sneak instead of Patrick Mahomes and fumbled the ball. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann) (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann) Nick Bromberg Senior writer Sun, November 8, 2026 at 10:37 PM UTC · 2 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In this story The Kansas City Chiefs ran their first quarterback sneak in over three years on Sunday. And promptly turned the ball over.
On a third-and-1 early midway through the first quarter against the visiting New York Jets, head coach Andy Reid brought in backup quarterback Justin Fields to run a sneak. Fields double-clutched the snap and then dropped the ball as he was going to the ground. After a replay review, officials determined that the Jets had recovered the ball in the pile.
The immediate sneak attempt on the Chiefs' first possession of the game came after a week of consternation following the Chiefs' short-yardage failures late in their 28-24 loss to the Denver Broncos. Until Sunday, the last time the Chiefs had run a sneak came in Week 6 of the 2023 season, and tight end Noah Gray took that snap.
"You guys asked for it, so we gave it to you, and you know, didn't work," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said after the game, via AtoZ Sports' Charles Goodman . "How'd you feel? … "Quarterbacks, I think, it's hard to practice unless you do it in a game. And so we just got to get those two on the same page on it, and make sure we get the ball up first and in the quarterback's hands, and we can roll from there."
The Chiefs have essentially pulled the quarterback sneak from the playbook since Patrick Mahomes dislocated his knee running one in November 2019. Given Mahomes' importance to the team, you can understand why Reid has been wanting to protect his franchise quarterback. But as more teams are utilizing the QB sneak across the NFL, the Chiefs have lagged behind.
A week ago in Denver, running back Kenneth Walker III got stuffed on third down at the Denver 1-yard line with nine seconds to go. The Chiefs scored on fourth down, but the play was blown dead for a false start. Mahomes was then sacked as time expired on the Chiefs' final play from the 6-yard line.
Source: Sports
0 Comments