The most anticipated Game 7 since the NBA Finals some months back, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is set to face off against defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo. This rendition of an unstoppable force versus an immovable object features a book with six juicy chapters published already, with the series’ conclusion set to end this Sunday as the Indianapolis Colts travel to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the Kansas City Chiefs.
Of course, there’s a chance these two face off sometime down the road, but as far as this season goes, meeting again in the playoffs feels unlikely, although it’s possible; therefore, the series between them can effectively end this season and start anew in another. With that being said, football will forever be a team sport first and foremost, so shrinking this matchup between the Colts and Chiefs to being nothing more than a quarterback versus a coordinator seems sacrilegious, but there’s too much history here to not revisit once more.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is naturally a part of this equation, and so is Lou Anarumo’s stable of horses. Anarumo has seemingly had Mahomes and Reid’s collective number over the years, especially after climbing out to a 3-0 record against the two, but the Chiefs have rebounded in recent memory to tie up the series and force a Game 7.
There needs to be an asterisk next to Mahomes and Co.’s win streak, however, given the resources that Anarumo was afforded during said stretch. An excuse, potentially, but also added context.
This isn’t to suggest that Lou Anarumo is Patrick Mahomes or Andy Reid’s Kryptonite, so long as he is afforded the resources necessary to get the job done, but Anarumo was unjustly scapegoated out of Cincinnati after not being able to do more with less. The Bengals let their defensive core walk and attempted to replace them with lesser moves entirely, oftentimes players on rookie contracts.
Lou Anarumo’s 2024-25 Bengals defense was certainly a step back from recent years, but the personnel that he was provided proved to be unfit. Even if said defense rebounded late in the year, the absence of a true nose tackle and a youthful defensive backfield resulted in missed tackles galore — something fans and analysts alike were afraid would happen after letting key players like DT D.J. Reader and S Jessie Bates walk in recent years prior.
Perhaps the Bengals were right in their assessment that the key players from Cincinnati’s Super Bowl run — something Anarumo was instrumental in — had begun to decline, but their succession plan, plus the subsequent firing of Anarumo, were not the right calls, hindsight bias or not.
Even the Kelce brothers took to their podcast post-firing to air out their disagreements. “I don’t know what the f–k is going on over there,” said Chiefs TE Travis Kelce. “I don’t think they had the horses on defense that they’ve had in the past, and Lou got handcuffed…He’s proven how good of a DC he is with good players,” his brother Jason followed.
Now that the history of how the final installment of the current Mahomes/Reid vs. Anarumo series will be the first not played between the Chiefs and Bengals, let’s briefly recap the results of those highly regarded matchups. The modern-day chess match, if you will — and ironically enough, Shane Steichen vs. Steve Spagnuola should be equally as enthralling.
2021 Week 17: Bengals 34, Chiefs 31
2021 AFC Championship: Bengals 27, Chiefs 24 (OT)
2022 Week 13: Bengals 27, Chiefs 24
2022 AFC Championship: Chiefs 23, Bengals 20
2023 Week 17: Chiefs 25, Bengals 17
2024 Week 2: Chiefs 26, Bengals 25
Clearly, these aforementioned chess matches are as intense as suggested. Pulling no punches on either side, whether it’s Andy Reid’s playcalling, Patrick Mahomes’ magic, or Lou Anarumo’s mad science, these matchups will forever be a treat.
The most referenced matchup between them was also their first of back-to-back AFC Championship bouts, a showing that saw Mahomes and Co. dominate the first half before Anarumo’s antics helped shut the door completely, resulting in Cincinnati’s first Super Bowl appearance since 1989.
According to Next Gen Stats, the Bengals had dropped 8+ defenders in coverage on a season-high 35% of pass plays, reaffirming Anarumo’s main goal to keep the offense, and more specifically, elite quarterbacks, guessing. Patrick Mahomes struggled against 8+ defenders in coverage, completing just 7 of 13 passes for 59 yards & an INT with 2 sacks (-14.4 pass EPA, career-low).
Down 21-10 at halftime, Anarumo’s in-game pivot resulted in just 3 points scored by the Chiefs during the second half. Forcing overtime before ultimately winning the contest in question, Anarumo’s coverage-agnostic ways were, for the first time, put on display for the entire football world to see. His genius had always been apparent, especially since his Bengals players declared him to be The Mad Scientist in their first matchup against the Chiefs earlier that season, but this was when he’d been exposed nationally, before quickly being deemed the then-potent Chiefs offense’s Kryptonite.
Fast forward to the current day, and the main actors have been cast, but their trajectories are undecided. The Kansas City Chiefs’ dynasty is currently amidst washed allegations as they face a sub-.500 record for the first time in the Mahomes era (outside of a Week 1 loss to Detroit in 2023). They’re aware of the stakes at hand, and Patrick Mahomes is understanding of what a Lou Anarumo defense is capable of:
“They definitely do some of the stuff [they used to do in Cincinnati]. Coach Anarumo is a great defensive coordinator and coach,” Mahomes proclaimed.
“He has his stuff, but I think what makes him such a great defensive coordinator is that he kind of tailors his scheme to the team he’s playing with. He wants to go with their strengths, so getting their guys in the best position to succeed. Even with some of the trades they’ve made, they’ve adjusted their defense as well. That’s something that makes him a great coach is that he’s not stuck in ways of how he calls a game, he adjusts his scheme to the team that’s around him, and obviously they’ve done a bunch of great things this year.”
There’s so much mutual respect between Lou Anarumo and Patrick Mahomes, and their chess matches feel like something that both parties get excited about. To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best, and Mahomes certainly welcomes the challenge, and Anarumo welcomes it right back. Anarumo understands the game and its roots, but he’s also recognized the sport’s ever-changing ways and has, in chameleon-esque fashion, shapeshifted to make life hell for all quarterbacks.
“Whether it’s in college or now in the NFL, [when] you play elite quarterbacks, you just can’t give them the same picture,” Anarumo told ESPN back in 2023. “You just gotta keep changing it and just attempt to keep those guys off balance.”
Although rattling off three straight wins over the then-dominant Patrick Mahomes-led Chiefs seemed like enough to deem Anarumo as the answer against the game’s best, the aforementioned decline in Cincinnati was far more nuanced than one person shielding the blame. Regardless, Anarumo took his punch on the way out and landed in Indianapolis for a perfect fit. Now, entering Week 12 of the 2025-26 season, Mahomes vs. Anarumo: Game 7 should feed families.
Patrick Mahomes vs Lou Anarumo (6 games):
136-198 (68.7%), 246.5 passing yards per game, 10TDs, 4INTs, 13 sacks
Half of the league is ready to declare the Chiefs’ dynasty dead, while the other half has deemed this the greatest 5-5 football team of all-time. On the flip side, the Colts are entering one of the toughest second-half stretches (4th-toughest via Tankathon) that the league has to offer, inciting fear in Indy’s validity as contenders.
With all that said, Lou Anarumo has never had a defensive backfield that features such star power on paper (Sauce Gardner, Charvarius Ward, Kenny Moore II, Camryn Bynum, and Nick Cross). The Colts will be without superstar DT DeForest Buckner on Sunday, but Anarumo’s DB-centric philosophy should serve as an intriguing canvas for the artists to paint on.
I am expecting just one thing from this matchup between Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, and Lou Anarumo, which is that it will be a movie, as Camryn Bynum likes to say.
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