Dominate the Super Bowl

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.

Lateral movement, crossing steps.

Mariota's pocket footwork was not a problem; he left the pocket straight along the left side, and his entire field of vision opened up, a clear path ahead.

However, potential passing targets were completely engulfed by a red flame, and a firewall stood firmly in front, blocking any room for either passing or running.@@novelbin@@

What to do?

Watching as the red flame moved toward Mariota.

Mariota hesitated, making a hasty pass with no other options—

Blindly.

Following the direction of Mariota's pass, Li Wei saw the entire trajectory, landing point, and positioning of the pass were all a mess. It was nothing more than a last-ditch effort to pass the buck before the Kansas City Chiefs Defense could tackle Mariota, most likely an incomplete pass.

Then, a pair of hands appeared—

Number 24 cornerback for the Kansas City Chiefs, Darrelle Revis, entered the scene.

Revis, an NFL legend at cornerback, had been in the league for ten years, with seven Pro Bowl appearances, four All-America First Team honors, and a starting cornerback on the 2010s All-Decade Team. He earned the nickname "Island King" during his prime for his lockdown coverage. He's a prototype of the modestly built, agile, and technical cornerback.

However, this year at thirty-one, his physical condition and age led to a decline in athletic performance, yet he refused to lower his salary, which resulted in his release by the New York Jets during the offseason, leaving him struggling to find a job.

At the end of November, the Kansas City Chiefs' Defense also suffered from a wave of injuries and were short on rotation Cornerbacks. They reached out to Revis, hoping that the experienced Cornerback would join the team.

Revis agreed.

In the playoffs, Revis still played as the rotation Cornerback.

At that moment, his experience told him that Mariota's pass didn't have a high enough arc, and he instinctively leaped up, raising both hands in an attempt to intercept.

However, in haste, Mariota's pass wasn't well-controlled, too fast and spinning, Revis couldn't fully control the football; he could only swat at it hastily, trying to intercept the connection between Mariota and any Wide Receiver—

Blocked!

Revis, like blocking a basketball shot, blocked the pass.

Incredibly, the football rebounded back.

Scrambling to escape a sack, Mariota found it unbelievable that the football he had just thrown was flying back towards him.

Mariota: Huh?

Instinctively, Mariota raised his hands and embraced the football into his arms, continued his steps to the left outside, bypassed Revis's spot, and before being tackled from behind, he just... entered the End Zone.

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.