Just when it seems like Mahomes can do it all, he adds another element to his game
For a little while now, Patrick Mahomes and his Chiefs teammates have trading verbal jabs. It’s playful in nature, to be sure, but it’s provided Mahomes with some motivation to win an argument.
The topic? Mahomes’ speed.
In seven short weeks, he has supplied defenses fits by essentially alternating between versions of himself.
The passer.
The left-handed passer.
The out-of-pocket playmaker.
And finally, on Sunday, the runner.
Mahomes more than doubled his career high with 45 yards on four rushes in the Chiefs’ 45-10 win against the visiting Cincinnati Bengals at Arrowhead Stadium.
“I told the guys once I start picking those knees up, I can run a little bit,” Mahomes said. “But they didn’t believe me.”
The most recent publicized doubt came from Mahomes’ No. 1 wide receiver. On Friday, while speaking to the media, Tyreek Hill was asked where Mahomes’ speed ranked among all players on the team.
“Probably dead last,” Hill replied. “Probably dead last. And that’s behind Chad Henne, too.”
No offense to Henne, but it looked Sunday as if Mahomes would have the edge in that race.
There’s some elusiveness to his game. His best run Sunday — career-best, actually — was on a scramble. The Bengals dropped into coverage and turned their backs on the pass play, and when Mahomes spotted an opening, he ran to his right. He collected 23 yards before sliding down to the Cincinnati 31-yard line. (A slide of which he approved, no less.)
The 23-yard gain was more yardage than he had in any of his first seven NFL games. His previous long run was 11 yards. It’s also the first time in his eight starts that he’s eclipsed five yards per carry. But it wasn’t just the one scramble that ruled the day. Even subtracting that play, he would have set a career high in yardage and yards per carry.
“I think it was kind of just the coverages they were playing,” Mahomes said. “They had a two-man look on the long run I had. It’s them trying to account for all the guys we have out on the field. All their eyes are trying to figure out Tyreek or (Travis) Kelce or Sammy (Watkins) or Chris (Conley) or if it’s Kareem, and they kind of lose track of me. And then offensive line was blocking well, so I just saw my shot, and I took it.”
It’s hard to blame them for trying to defend the options in the passing game. Mahomes was devastating in the air, throwing for 358 yards and four touchdowns. He threw only nine incompletions in 39 throws.
But while two of the runs were scrambles, the other two were by design, simply part of coach Andy Reid’s run-pass option calls. Regardless of the grief his teammates might give him, Mahomes’ running ability is a weapon that Reid plans to continue to utilize. If nothing else, it opens avenues for Hunt should a defense have reason to believe Mahomes might keep the ball on the RPO.
On the Chiefs’ 10-play, 95-yard touchdown drive in the first quarter, Mahomes turned a 3rd-and-2 into a first down with a nine-yard run off right tackle. He had a wide open lane to the sideline as the edge linebackers ducked in to tackle Hunt.
“There’s a time and a place,” Reid said of Mahomes tucking the ball and running. “You just gotta get down, and I thought he did a good job of that.
“I’m OK with it. It’s part of our offense.”
Sam McDowell
Sam McDowell covers Sporting Kansas City, the Royals, Chiefs and sports enterprise for The Star
This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 12:28 AM.