How the Chiefs solved their red-zone issues? By being themselves. Here’s what we mean
Patrick Mahomes threw a football like a track athlete might push a shot put through the air, and there waiting was Travis Kelce, the other end of a basketball chest pass that in written form simply reads as a 1-yard touchdown.
Its picture form illustrates a gimmick. A cute play, so to speak.
And still the Chiefs’ best red-zone offense.
The Chiefs scored touchdowns on their first four trips to the red zone in Sunday’s 32-29 win in New Orleans, and they likely would have a much more difficult time beating one of the league’s best teams with field goals.
“When you play a defense like that,” Mahomes said. “you know there are going to be few opportunities. You have to make sure you execute when you’re down there.”
The Chiefs are not a perfect football team, of course. They are simply the team with the fewest flaws, or maybe it’s the greatest strengths or maybe it’s both.
But they are flawed. Only two weeks ago, coach Andy Reid talked about red-zone execution — unprompted. He brought up the topic in a post-game Zoom call with media, and a day later, he opened by addressing the same issue. They ranked 24th in red-zone efficiency then, after having whiffed on seven straight trips, the longest streak in the NFL this season.
They recognize it’s a relative weakness for a team with very few. They need to run the ball better in goal-to-go. They have to gain a yard running the football, as both Mahomes and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy put it, even when teams know what’s coming.
But here’s the thing. That’s not what the Chiefs did.
The running game was good Sunday. Really good. They found 179 yards on the ground against a quality defensive front.
But they didn’t use it much at the goal line. At least not in its conventional form. And it’s indicative of their overall approach to winning football 22 of their past 23 football games.
The Chiefs are going to address their weaknesses with their own strengths, rather than conform to the way the rest of the league is doing it. And their strengths remain the coach’s creativity and the quarterback’s ability.
Consider their four red zone touchdowns:
• The Mahomes shot put to Kelce, a play that had not shown up on Chiefs film in more than two years.
• A 5-yard pass to wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who zig-zagged in motion before the snap to his left and then back right. Then after the snap, he darted back left. And then back right. The misdirection, not some sort of power football at the goal line, eventually left him open in the end zone.
• An extraordinary effort from Mahomes, who spent the play backtracking and eluding pressure on a rollout to his left. He flipped almost a fade-away pass to the corner of the end zone, reaching the outstretched Mecole Hardman in time for the receiver to tap in his feet.
• A quarterback option in which Mahomes waited until after he crossed the line of scrimmage and beat the defensive end before pitching to running back Le’Veon Bell for a 12-yard touchdown.
Among the four, the last might have been conventional of the bunch, and here’s what Bell said of it: “I don’t think I’ve ever had a play like that.”
There’s probably a law of averages in here somewhere — the league’s best offense was never going to finish the season as one of its worst inside the 20-yard line.
But two weeks after we deemed it notable enough to be a concern — with support from the numbers — the Chiefs have opted to confront it in their own way.
With their own strengths.
“Things worked, I guess,” Reid said, “in the simplest form.”