Dominate the Super Bowl

Chapter 341 340 self-produced and self-sold

At the Red Zone frontier, third gear thirteen yards.

It was the Tennessee Titans' ball.

So, a defensive group blitz?

Not at all!

The Kansas City Chiefs didn't choose to recklessly rush the passer under pressure, but instead stayed tight and focused. Only three defensive linemen were left up front to maintain the pressure, while the other players were all spread out, taking on man-to-man and zone coverages that were seamlessly laid out—an impenetrable defense that covered the Red Zone completely.

Mariota and Henry executed a fake run that turned into a real pass, but it didn't deceive the Chiefs at all. The home team had already seen through Mulkai's offensive tactics. After much running around, the responsibility still fell back on the quarterback, so the Kansas City Chiefs Defense cut off all the passing routes.

And Houston singled out—

Guarding against the Read Option Offense.

Mariota, being one of the new generation quarterbacks with ever-improving athletic abilities, could often run the ball. Since the strategy of using the Read Option on college fields could easily score, naturally quarterbacks lacked the patience to quietly refine their passing accuracy. Quarterbacks like Mahomes, who had passed for over four thousand yards in college for two consecutive seasons, were becoming increasingly rare and received less and less recognition.

No matter what, at this moment, they had to be wary of a mobile quarterback's Read Option Offense, thus Houston kept a close eye on Mariota.

At this point, Mariota's limited field of vision for passing and hesitancy were fully exposed. He looked once, saw no target for his pass; he looked again, still nothing, and then Mariota panicked.

Elite quarterbacks often need to possess a second reading ability since, after the snap, changes in the defensive strategy will inevitably bring more emergencies. At this moment, the quarterback's second read of the defensive formation amidst the chaos becomes especially important.

Unfortunately, Mariota fell short.

Now in his third professional season, his ability in this area was still insufficient.

Houston immediately noticed Mariota's frantic steps, akin to a headless fly. Since the opportunity for Read Option Offense was still lost, Houston quickly glanced at the Kansas City Chiefs Defense's positioning, which was completely locked in, giving the Titans no chance. He then decisively broke through the entanglement at the defensive line—

Pressuring. Rushing. Sacking.

In short, Houston needed to threaten Mariota, to further crush him.

But then!

At that moment, Henry burst out.

In the past, Henry would help with blocking, but his timing and positioning were often off, unable to relieve the imminent threat; but now, Henry was patient and calm, accurately waiting for Houston to come.@@@@

Henry: "Li Wei, are you watching?"

Li Wei indeed was watching. Henry's choice of timing and positioning truly shone; with just one interception, Houston's step faltered, and Mariota deftly ran out from the pocket's other side.

The entire stadium was dumbfounded—

Henry was stunned, Houston was stunned, Revis was stunned, even Mariota himself was full of question marks.

Just now, what happened?

"Oh... uh."

"This."

"Mariota passes to Mariota, and the Tennessee Titans get their first touchdown pass of the entire game!"

"This is definitely a touchdown!"

"If I'm not mistaken—I need to check the records, but this should be the first time in the Super Bowl era that a quarterback has thrown a touchdown pass to himself during the playoffs. Wait, what exactly did we just witness?"

The Kansas City Chiefs Defense's performance could be called perfect, with their Third Gear defense thoroughly suffocating the life out of the Tennessee Titans, looking like they were about to strike out the opponent again, Mariota seemed to be at the end of his rope.

But then!

A miracle happened.

Henry raised his arms high, cheering for Mariota right away.

Finally!

No matter what, the Tennessee Titans finally scored a touchdown, closing the gap in the score, and the suspense of the game returned.

Henry: Ah! Ahhh!

In front of the TV, Burns glanced at Saban, "When has Derrick ever been this happy for a touchdown before?"

In the past, scoring a touchdown was as simple as drinking water and eating for Henry, no difficulty at all, so naturally, there was no need to be so excited.

Now, Henry had first regained his poise to help the team advance to the Red Zone, and then, in a rare move, he helped block to create the opportunity for Mariota's miraculous touchdown, the preciousness of this touchdown far exceeded expectations.

Saban nodded lightly, "The Derrick we know now is finally showing up, and he has finally completed his transformation, even though it took some time. Better late than never. This game is getting interesting."

Burns glanced at Saban, "Oh? So, you think there's going to be a twist?"

Saban didn't speak, just kept his gaze on Henry—

Killer instinct.

He saw the killer instinct in Henry's eyes once again.