American Football: Domination

This season, the Colts' defense has been wrecked by injuries. Truth be told, the Chiefs' defense isn't much better.

Veterans worn down by age and knocks, rookies not yet able to handle the grind—the unit slipped all year, surviving only on flashes of brilliance in big moments. People joked the Chiefs' defense spent most games lying flat while the offense carried them, waiting to charge up one last strike when it mattered most.

Fans forget mistakes when heroes rise. Winning covers all sins.

But not the Watt brothers.

They knew the truth: Kansas City's defense was aging, thin, and judged harsher because of how sharp the offense looked beside it. Yet within that old shell, younger players were growing. What they lacked was a leader. Someone to be their flag.

JJ saw it now.

Lance.

The kid who entered as a rookie was gone. This was no longer a boy—they had a leader. A fighter. A man burning with a belief so fierce it lit up Arrowhead itself.

The Colts' early touchdown hadn't rattled him. JJ felt it. Lance wasn't answering them; he was answering something bigger. His fight was his own, and the fire caught. It spread into the defense.

Maybe JJ was just imagining it. Maybe it was nothing more than playoff urgency. But he hoped. He wanted to believe.

The game went on.

The Colts had three backs in rotation. None truly good enough—average runners, shaky receivers, but valuable in one role: bodyguards. They weren't there to break runs. They were there to stand between Luck and disaster, chipping blitzers and throwing themselves at defensive ends.

Against Houston, against JJ Watt himself, it had worked: three backs cycling in shifts, cutting half-seconds of pressure off him, dragging the great Watt into mud. He'd still sacked Luck twice, but the overall strategy blunted Houston's rush and let Luck carve them apart.

A "reverse option read," people joked. Where a linebacker usually spies the QB, Indy assigned a back to spy the rusher.

And sometimes—when you least expected it—they'd actually hand off, and the surprise kept defenses honest.

It wasn't unstoppable. Jacksonville shut the Colts out in Week 12. Luck had looked lost that night. But the point was simple: game plans lived and died in execution.

Kansas City had no Watt. No Donald. But what they did have was variety. Unpredictability. Reid adjusted.

Against Indy's second drive, the Chiefs pushed pressure but didn't blitz. Dropped more men back. Wove a net across the field, zone after zone. They wouldn't give Luck the gaps.

The flow changed. The Colts still advanced—Luck finding throws on third downs, clawing for progress—but it was slower. Rougher. The drive dragged six minutes. Across midfield. To the 20-yard line.

The end zone loomed.

And then—the wall.

A stuffed run at the line.

A broken pass in the flat.

Third and ten.

Now the drive's biggest moment. The Colts could still take three points. But staring at the goal, Reich and Luck wanted six.

Arrowhead seethed.

"Defense! Clap clap!"

"Defense! Clap clap!"

The roar thundered, a wave threatening to swallow Indy whole.

Luck stood tall. Unshaken.

"Set!"

His call cut the air like steel, the tension snapping taut.

And the stadium held its breath.