What was the spread in the Chiefs-Texans game? Kansas City’s late-game safety helps Houston cover in stunning fashion

With a 23-14 win against the Houston Texans in the divisional round, the Kansas City Chiefs have advanced to the AFC Championship game for the seventh consecutive season. They’ll now host either the Ravens or Bills for a chance to head to Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans.

This game was tight for the better part of four quarters, but in classic Chiefs fashion, a handful of crucial defensive plays allowed them to pull away in the final minutes of action.

With 1:52 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs led by 11 points, and a blocked field goal off the leg of Texans’ kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn all but sealed the game. However, this wouldn’t be the final score of the afternoon.

In a game with a nearly double-digit spread, the Chiefs voluntarily took a safety on a punt with 11 seconds remaining after running the ball three times to drain the clock.

Here’s how the safety affected bettors. 

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What was the spread of the Chiefs game?

Prior to kickoff, the spread between the Chiefs vs. Texans closed at many books at 9.5 points, with Kansas City as the favorite.

With only a few seconds remaining, Chiefs’ punter Matt Araiza intentionally took a safety, bringing the score to 23-14 in favor of Kansas City. With this nine-point victory, the Chiefs did not cover the spread against the Texans.

MORE TEXANS-CHIEFS: 

Why did the Chiefs take a safety vs. Texans?

After a blocked field goal, the Chiefs took over with just under two minutes remaining and an 11-point lead. Following a four-yard run from Kareem Hunt and two kneels from Patrick Mahomes, the punting unit took the field with 11 seconds remaining on the Kansas City 18-yard line.

Instead of actually punting the ball, Kansas City punter Matt Araiza ran back into the Chiefs’ end zone, ultimately running out of bounds, resulting in a safety.

Andy Reid’s choice to intentionally take a safety ultimately comes down to being driven to make the decisions that set his team up to win.

In this situation, the Chiefs’ ultimate goal is to burn as much time off the clock as possible. Snapping the ball to Araiza and allowing him to run around before taking the safety was one of the clearest ways to take time off the clock. Considering the Chiefs were up 11 points in this situation, this decision is completely reasonable. It was still a two-possession game either way, and with fewer than 10 seconds left on the clock, Houston just took a knee, ending the game.

Many fans don’t see the difference between punting the ball back to Houston with 10 seconds left, which is also fair, but in the eyes of Reid, this would allow him to kill as much time as possible without putting the win in jeopardy.

Reaction to Chiefs safety

When a last-second play leads has a dramatic impact on the game’s spread, bettors are going to be up in arms. When that play is one of the teams voluntarily giving up points, plenty of people are going to be fuming.

Plenty of people are of the belief that the game was “rigged” or the Chiefs failed to cover on purpose.

Even though this play had nothing to do with the officiating, people are going to find a way to work the officials into this one.

And everyone’s favorite… “Vegas” is calling that play in to steal bettor’s money.

For everyone whose bets lost as a result of that play, there are bettors out there who are rolling in cash after perfectly middling the spread.