Dusty Vandenberg: Andy Reid read the Art of War by Sun Tzu

In his book The Art of War, the Ancient Chinese military mastermind, Sun Tzu, has advice for pretty much any situation.

Tidbits like “know yourself and know your enemy” or “build a golden bridge for your opponent to retreat across,” but my personal favorite is this:
“Fight the enemy where they aren’t.”
That is precisely what Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs did to win their second Super Bowl in four years. They knew how aggressive the Philadelphia defense was. Philly had forced 27 turnovers in the regular season: third-best in the league.

They did that by jumping routes and being aggressive. In the red zone, quick slants and the semi-illegal but rarely called by officials – “pick plays” are what keep defensive coordinators up at night, but those are also the routes that DBs love to jump. KC knew this and took advantage.

On their last two touchdowns, they had their outside receiver motion in pre-snap to look like a slant or even a pick play, only for him to slip outside and flash wide-open a good 10 to 15 yards from the nearest Eagle defender. They fought the Eagles where the Eagles were not.

Because of that, they find themselves once again atop the football world.