Learning curve for Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes was sped up by Chicago Bears
The regimented and meticulously scripted practice periods designed by coaches to give players a taste of anything and everything they might see in game competition are well-intentioned. But in comparison to Chiefs’ first-year starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes actually lining up and looking at a blitzing defense from another team that’s actually trying to hit him, all that other stuff is, well, cute.
That’s why the Chicago Bears’ defense, who played almost exclusively backups last week, did the Chiefs and Mahomes a favor by coming at him from multiple angles with defenders hell-bent on inflicting punishment. Yes, the NFL is funny that way.
That experience in a game setting and the way Mahomes and company reacted — good, bad, ugly or foolhardy — will probably end up as the most beneficial of the preseason for the young signal-caller who enters the 2018 season having thrown just 35 passes in regular-season play.
“One of the things (Bears defensive coordinator) Vic (Fangio) did (Saturday) was he threw a lot at us,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “So it was good work. We saw everything from zero blitz, single dogs to four off an edge, fire zone. The whole gambit was thrown at us. For a young quarterback, that experience is great. I mean, you want that.”
During training camp, a coaching staff will build blitz periods into their practice plan as an attempt to make sure the offense at least gets a look at as many different scenarios as possible. Of course, the quarterback wears a yellow non-contact jersey and won’t be hit in practice. It’s a simulation at best.
In the Chiefs’ first two preseason games, Houston and Atlanta were fairly basic with the pressure they tried to apply to Mahomes. That’s often the case in the preseason, with coaches loath to show much to potential future opponents — in person or via game film.
Chicago bucked that trend with and made Mahomes process information on the fly in a game situation.
“There were a couple in there that he can do better on, and then he did well on a couple of them,” Reid said of Mahomes’ handling of the different pressures. “... It wasn’t identifying them, it was just working the pocket a little bit.”
Mahomes’ 19-yard touchdown pass to Kareem Hunt provided an example of things going exactly as the offense planned. Mahomes recognized the blitz and that he’d have a rusher coming unblocked, and he got the ball out quickly to the “hot” receiver in the defense’s vulnerable area.
On the opening play of the next Chiefs’ possession, Mahomes saw the middle linebacker show blitz prior to the snap and then rush at the snap. Mahomes remained composed as the defense still only rushed four men and dropped both of the outside linebackers into coverage. Mahomes let tight end Travis Kelce get into the open space of the middle on a crossing route, and tossed over the dropping linebacker — allowing Kelce to catch and run before the safeties could close on him. Kelce picked up 26 yards.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">EVERY <a href="https://twitter.com/PatrickMahomes5?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PatrickMahomes5</a> throw from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NFLPreseason?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NFLPreseason</a> Week 3! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KCvsCHI?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KCvsCHI</a> <a href="https://t.co/MHniFTDaB0">pic.twitter.com/MHniFTDaB0</a></p>— NFL (@NFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1034078589489111041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 27, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“You want to try to see as much as you can (to make it) similar to the regular season,” Mahomes said. “Defenses will try to blitz. They’ll try to mix up stuff against our offense, so for me to have kind of a test like that as the last preseason game will help me a ton moving forward.”
There were missed opportunities, such as the deep pass to Sammy Watkins in one-on-one coverage on third-and-10 in the second quarter from the Chiefs’ 46-yard line. With the blitz picked up, Mahomes identified the matchup and simply overthrew Watkins, who appeared to get slowed by hand-fighting with the defensive back.
On Mahomes’ lone drive of the third quarter, the issues “working the pocket” that Reid mentioned popped up. On first-and-10 at Chicago’s 27-yard line, Mahomes faced a four-man rush in what appeared to be a clean pocket, but scrambled almost as soon as his back foot hit the ground on the last step of his drop for a gain of three yards..
Later on the drive, on second-and-1 from the 4-yard line, it certainly looked as if Mahomes tucked the ball and began to run into the grasp of defender for a sack.
“You never are perfect when you come back from the game,” Mahomes said. “There was times in the game where I actually make the right check and then I change it and I end up being hot. Then there’s times where I make the right check, like Kareem (Hunt)’s touchdown. There’s times when there’s positives in that game and times when I could have been better. I’m just going to learn from those and try to minimize those mistakes moving forward.”
Mahomes completed 18 of 24 passes in the game, and two of his incomplete passes were thrown away to avoid a sack and significant loss of yardage. He didn’t throw an interception two weeks after throwing one and having another bounce off the hands of a defensive back.
While offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy made sure to point out the positives from Mahomes’ performance, he also said definitively that the offense saw things it needed to “correct” and “fix.”
“I thought he did a good job,” Bieniemy said. “Obviously, there’s some things that there’s some learning lessons from. There’s some things he’ll tell you, ‘If I had looked at this the right way, I could have made this throw.’
“I’ve always shared with you that his recall is amazing. Those things that happened to him, they happened for a reason, and I’m glad they happened because now he can learn from it and he can continue moving forward.”
This story was originally published August 28, 2018 at 5:27 PM.