The latest method to defend the Chiefs has two problems: Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce
Patrick Mahomes moved his eyes toward tight end Travis Kelce for a brief moment — brief enough to where you might have even missed it — and poor Buccaneers rookie safety Antoine Winfield was effectively caught.
He bit.
For just a step, maybe two, Winfield paused, ready to perhaps attack Kelce’s route, and wouldn’t you know it, Mahomes saw it. Winfield’s stutter left the other half of the field in man-to-man single coverage, absent safety help. Mahomes filled the void with a pass 60-plus yards in the air, where wide receiver Tyreek Hill stood waiting.
Poof.
He was gone.
Oh, yeah, they have that guy, too.
The Buccaneers played a lone safety throughout Sunday’s game. They devoted extra attention to Kelce. And they dared Hill to beat them.
“It was man coverage with no one over the top, and we don’t get that a lot,” Mahomes said. “Especially with (Hill) and his ability. And whenever we do, we try to take advantage of it.”
In a turnstile of schemes to beat Mahomes, this was pretty audacious. It’s not entirely new — the single-safety look was once the preferred defense against Mahomes and the Chiefs. It’s just rare that the safety paid Hill such little attention.
Teams have most often settled into a two-deep shell this season, an effort to negate Hill’s speed, but the Buccaneers apparently watched Kelce tear that scheme apart one too many times. So they tried something else. And Hill went off.
“Instead of that safety over the top with Tyreek, they were going over the top with Travis, and that’s just a problem the defenses have when they go against us,” Mahomes said.
Defenses, effectively, are stuck. Yes, because of Mahomes.
But also because of those other two guys. The top receiving duo in the NFL could not be less alike, really — Hill one of the game’s smallest-statured but fastest players and Kelce a big yet versatile player who plays a different position.
But they work.
In fact, that’s why they work.
Pick your poison
The Buccaneers learned their lesson.
Sort of.
Early in the third quarter, with Winfield again serving as the only safety, the Chiefs placed both Kelce and Hill on the same side of the line. As soon as Mahomes called for the snap, Winfield sprinted that direction — surely this is where the play was headed, right?
One problem. It left Mecole Hardman wide open — completely uncovered. And on a day in which he threw for 462 yards, this is the one Mahomes will want back. He misfired. The Bucs lucked out. Once.
But the play was open. And the point stands. You can try to take away Kelce, as the Bucs attempted to do, and you get to play Hill one-on-one in the back end of your secondary. Good luck. You can try to take away Hill, and this is the option most teams this season have picked, and you leave Kelce one-on-one. Or you can try to double them both, a strategy the Chiefs encountered last postseason, and you get single coverage pretty much everywhere else on the field.
After Hill spent the first quarter roasting the Bucs secondary last week, the safety finally followed him on a deep route, and Kelce caught a 12-yard pass underneath, occupying the exact space the safety had vacated. By the second half, the Bucs opted for the two-safety look more often. Twice, when Kelce and Hill lined up next to one another, both safeties darted to that half of the field.
“It kind of looked odd because both safeties were pushed over, and there wasn’t really anyone on the other side,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “That gives other guys opportunities, if that’s the route they go. ...
“And that’s where Sammy (Watkins), I was so excited about Sammy getting back in there. D-Rob (Demarcus Robinson) has done a nice job. Mecole is coming on here. All of that helps.”
This is the Chiefs offense in a nutshell. Aside from the world-class quarterback — and that’s a big reason — this is why it works. This is the way Andy Reid designs plays. His players find advantageous matchups.
Secondaries are forced into tough decisions, and they’re forced to make those choices quickly. It’s one of the reasons Mahomes kills zone defenses. The confusion needs to last only a split-second for someone to pop open.
Reid keeps teams guessing. Hill and Kelce line up everywhere. Reid sends them in motion. They don’t even typically operate in the same area of the field, but the burden of the defense is there before the Chiefs even break the huddle. You can try to gameplan for one, but it’s difficult to defend both with extra help without leaving holes in the rest of the secondary. And the Chiefs like the chances of those two getting open one-on-one.
“You know how different they are. You’ve got speed and quickness built into one package there. And (Kelce) is big and mobile and can do a lot of things,” Reid said. “I know defenses are conscious of where both of them line up.”
Hill is second in the NFL with 1,021 receiving yards, just 18 shy of leader D.K. Metcalf. Kelce is third on the list with 978. The last team to have the league’s top-two receivers were the 1980 Chargers.
On some weeks, it’s Hill’s turn.
On others, it’s Kelce’s.
In another, a defensive concentration on both might open things up for everyone else.
Or in yet another, a team might throw so many numbers into the secondary in an effort to stop them both that it’s easy lanes for the running game.
Whatever it might be, and the Chiefs have seen every option in a game this season, Mahomes and Reid have mastered quickly diagnosing a defense’s objective. And pouncing on what’s available.
“I think it’s just taking what’s there. I think that’s the biggest thing,” Mahomes said. “I mean you’ve seen how teams have played us these few weeks — they’re playing very far back. And we were able to find ways to move the ball down field and score that way.
“(Against Tampa Bay), especially at the beginning of the game, they came up tighter and played close, and we were able to hit some shots down field. That’s just the maturity of this offense as a whole.”