Here’s how that Patrick Mahomes to Mecole Hardman 83-yard TD unfolded for the Chiefs
By the time Patrick Mahomes had spit out the full play call Sunday inside the Chiefs’ huddle, wide receiver Mecole Hardman felt antsy to get to the line.
He knew what could be coming.
Let me go. Let me go, Hardman recalled thinking. Let me hurry up and get out there.
The call tasked Hardman with running a streak down the left seam. That’s it. Just run. As a receiver who considers speed his primary weapon, Hardman figured the route could prompt a big play.
His quarterback came to the same conclusion after he approached the line of scrimmage.
Both were right. Mahomes hit Hardman for an 83-yard touchdown in the Chiefs’ 33-28 win Sunday against Baltimore.
Based on the coverage the Ravens presented before the snap, Mahomes immediately eyed the left side of the field. He knew he would have numbers there. He just didn’t yet know which receiver would prove the beneficiary.
Hardman or Sammy Watkins.
“You know what you’re thinking before the snap, but you have to play it out when the snap goes and take what the defense gives you,” Mahomes said.
After sliding in short motion, Watkins ran an underneath curl 10 yards down the field, then flashed back toward Mahomes. Hardman just kept running. And running. And running.
Mahomes had assumed Baltimore safety Earl Thomas would defend the deep ball, leaving Watkins open. But Thomas instead covered the underneath route.
Hardman was left all to his lonesome.
“I was actually thinking of throwing (to) Sammy over the middle,” Mahomes said. “That was kind of my first read. As I went to throw it to him, I saw the safety jump in, so I shot it right over his head to Mecole. That just goes through the progression of the read.”
The play is designed to flood a specific area of the field, a set of routes that would work most efficiently against zone coverage. And that’s what they got. Chiefs coach Andy Reid acknowledged, “We were hoping for that coverage.”
To better defend the play, ideally the underneath cornerback would stick on Watkins, leaving the flying Hardman for Thomas.
Instead, he darted to the sideline, and both receivers were open. Thomas, who said earlier in the week he would subtract the big plays from the Chiefs offense’, couldn’t help but be distracted by the man most prominently in his vision.
“We’ve got to chalk it up to communication,” Thomas said. “We never let that happen. We relax for one moment, and boom, they hit us. It was a quick strike. We knew that speed was right there — (Hardman) was on the trips side. We just have to have eyes on him.”
On the other sideline, it reverts back to the huddle: Hardman said he knew after the play call, “This could be coming my way.”
He caught the ball 31 yards down field, then ran the remaining 52.
Foot race.
Hardman doesn’t lose those. In fact, no NFL player this season has run as fast on a scoring play as Hardman did on that touchdown. He reached 21.74 mph as he raced toward the end zone.
“Once he got it in his hands, I knew there was a pretty good chance it was getting in (the end zone),” Mahomes said. “He’s a fast guy. He plays really good when he gets the ball in his hands. (I) just try to get the ball to all those guys, and usually when they break it, it’s pretty much all over.”
This story was originally published September 26, 2019 at 5:00 AM.