What better way to celebrate the 4th of July than to look back upon the Kansas City Chiefs‘ best fireworks-related story?
Since Patrick Mahomes took over as the starting quarterback of the Chiefs in 2018, the team has been known for putting up points. No team has scored more points than Kansas City has during that span (3,221). When you score that many points as an NFL team, you often need quite an arsenal of fireworks. The Chiefs found out exactly how many fireworks they needed to stockpile back during the 2019-2020 playoffs in the AFC Divisional round tilt with the Houston Texans ahead of the team’s Super Bowl LIV run.
Kansas City Chiefs run out of fireworks in 51-31 victory over Houston Texans
This game did not go quite as the Chiefs had hoped in the first half. With just over 10 minutes remaining in the second quarter, the Texans had already scored 24 unanswered points. Things were looking bleak with the fanbase entirely uneasy given their tortured playoff history to this point.
No matter how far down they were, the team never gave up. That ultimately became the mantra of the offseason, up until the point where they were hoisting their first Lombardi Trophy in 50 years. A fake punt by Houston, run by then-Texans S Justin Reid, was sniffed out by Dirty Dan Sorensen. Suddenly, the Chiefs had life.
Patrick Mahomes and the offense managed to put up 28 unanswered points before halftime to take a 28-24 lead over the Texans. During the second half, Mahomes and company would put up 23 more points, leading to a 51-31 victory over Houston. Sure enough, with all those points scored by the good guys, the Chiefs found themselves with a dilemma. They didn’t have enough fireworks to set off when the team continued scoring touchdowns, so they had to display a message to fans on the video board.
The #Chiefs literally ran out of fireworks because they scored too much!! pic.twitter.com/boBomUjVq5
— Alex Gold (@AlexGold) January 12, 2020
This marked the first time since 2017 that an NFL team had run out of fireworks, when the Philadelphia Eagles scored 51 points on the Denver Broncos. The birds also went on to win a Super Bowl that year.
Funny enough, the 51-31 win over the Texans wasn’t the most points the Chiefs have scored in a single game at Arrowhead Stadium. The team scored 56 points against the Atlanta Falcons on October 24, 2004.