The Chiefs want their offense to be less reliant on those Patrick Mahomes miracle plays
The off-script, off-schedule, off-platform throws generate most of the attention. They are part of what makes Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes one of a kind. You can argue they are the biggest part of what makes Patrick Mahomes one of a kind.
They produce the highlight clips shown over and over again. Some of them make up his own favorite plays of his career.
But the Chiefs would prefer he do less of them.
Well, the Chiefs would prefer he needs to do less of them.
During Sunday’s loss to the Raiders, for example, Mahomes spent nearly as many drop-backs outside of the pocket and he spent locked inside it. There’s plenty of hand-raising as to why — the offensive line says it didn’t block well enough; the quarterback says he bailed on the pocket; and the head coach says he can adjust his play-calls to make it unnecessary.
But they all agree: Kansas City’s offense runs at its best when an off-script play is the exception, not the norm.
“We’ve got to go back and look at ourselves in the mirror — me at quarterback — and really not rely on these crazy plays where I’m scrambling around and throwing these shots,” Mahomes said. “And just execute the offense the way that it’s called and the way it’s supposed to be ran.”
Instead, Mahomes was on the run. The Raiders pressured him 22 times, according to Pro Football Focus, despite rarely calling a blitz.
On his interception — his first of the season — Mahomes had a hand in his face, even though the Raiders rushed only three defenders. Three different Chiefs linemen were called for holding penalties during the game, albeit one of them questionable upon further review. The Raiders also had three sacks.
“Last week wasn’t as good as it needs to be,” lineman Mike Remmers said. “We’re using that as motivation going into this week that we need to be better.
“We don’t want him scrambling at all. That’s a last resort kind of thing.”
Or it should be.
And this is where Mahomes owned a portion of the blame. At times Sunday, he left the pocket before it collapsed. He dropped too deep. He scrambled to his right or left when a couple of steps forward might have allowed for a better passing lane.
We’re nitpicking here when we’re talking about a 25-year-old with regular-season and Super Bowl MVP awards on his resume, but it’s important to note this has been a point of emphasis in the past. Mahomes’ ability to make plays on the run can make him quicker to choose that option. And if you’ve got the ability, why not use it? It’s successful more often than not — even in Sunday’s loss, he still threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns and scrambled for 21 yards and another score.
But it’s not the intention of most plays. And a tendency to utilize that talent can subtract the from the success of other plays. Mahomes finished Sunday with a career-worst 51.2 completion percentage.
“I can help with that too with different calls and putting people in better positions,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “He’s telling you what he sees there. You’ve got to stay disciplined with the assignments according to the coverages. So that ends up being important. Protection ends up being important.
“I think we all have a piece of it, and I know he expressed it well, so I think everyone has a little piece of the pie here.”
Pro Football Focus assigns the opposition’s quarterback pressures to the party it deems more responsible. As you might guess, it’s usually an offensive lineman. But of the Raiders’ 22 pressures Sunday, it assigned nine of them to Mahomes. In Week 5 games, no other quarterback in the league took the onus for more than five.
In the opening four weeks, Mahomes had been labeled responsible for 13 combined. So the optimistic view is that this hasn’t been a recurring issue this season. On the other hand, even absent the nine pressures placed on Mahomes, the Chiefs still allowed a high number of pressures, particularly considering the Raiders’ lack of exotic blitz calls.
The solution to keeping Mahomes in the pocket — and keeping the offense on schedule — therefore remains extensive.
“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” Mahomes said. “They did a good job with their game plan of covering the guys that I wanted to go to and getting some pressure. But I bailed on the pocket sometimes and I ran out of the pocket sometimes. It’s a combination of a lot of things, but it all really goes down to execution and being able to execute from the pocket. And whenever I do get outside the pocket, I have to make plays happen, too.”
This story was originally published October 15, 2020 at 2:48 PM.