Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones (95) celebrates after a sack against the Cincinnati Bengals Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Patrick Mahomes is getting a lot of the credit for helping the Kansas City Chiefs clinch the AFC — and doing so on one leg.

Rightfully so. Though, it’s not that simple.

The Chiefs defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game, and even though former quarterback and current ESPN analyst, Dan Orlovsky, is an offensive guy, he’s backing Chris Jones as the reason Kansas City is heading to Arizona for the Super Bowl.

“The reason the Chiefs won was Chris Jones and that’s from an offensive person,” Orlovsky said. “I thought their defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo did an incredible job of using Chris to either get in one-on-one rush situations for him or create other one-on-one rush situations for somebody else…

“Chris Jones in many ways had an Aaron Donald-type performance and impact when it comes to playing defensive tackle.”

Jones, according to NFL insider Field Yates of ESPN, generated eight pressures in Sunday’s game. The result of those eight plays? Three sacks (two by Jones) and five incompletions. There wasn’t a single positive yard generated by the Bengals on any of those eight plays.

Sunday’s performance shows why Jones is a top candidate to win the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year award for his efforts this season.

[Get Up]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.