At the start of overtime the Kansas City Chiefs lost the coin toss meaning they got to choose which end zone they would defend. Normally this isn't a big deal but on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium the wind was whipping around causing some potential trouble for the kickers.
The Chiefs chose to go against the wind in overtime. I didn't quite notice during the game but realized it in hindsight. Why did they do that?
Todd Haley admitted after the game that the wind was a factor in some of his decisions to go for it and punt it. But Haley also said something that I think helps explain why the Chiefs went against the wind.
"There are a lot of factors that go into those decisions that I'm not going into but one of them is that I thought today there was a pretty significant wind, clearly making kicks difficult throughout the game. The wind today was interesting because it was coming from the opposite direction of what it normally does; going a certain direction is something that we were a little more concerned about, but that was a big step for the Kansas City Chiefs."
That has to be the reason. I imagine the Chiefs players know which way the wind normally goes and decided to defend the end zone based on that. On Sunday though the wind was going opposite. That's a mental error for the Chiefs right there. If they didn't, someone should have told the players which way they wanted to go.