What the heck happened to KC Chiefs in second half vs. Bengals? Let’s investigate
As Super Bowl preparations began in earnest Monday, the Chiefs weren’t part of them for the first time in three years. They don’t have a game to play. Instead, they will be spectators when the Bengals and Rams meet in two weeks.
So, allotted some unwanted time off, Chiefs coach Andy Reid plans to take it. A step back before a step forward.
“It’s a long season and all that goes with it that ends very sudden, and we’re all emotional about it,” Reid said. “You can’t help but feel that way when we thought we could advance and possibly win the whole thing. It’s disappointing.”
But before a process to decompress, Reid arrived at the Chiefs practice facility Monday morning, and he did the toughest part first.
He re-watched the agony of Sunday’s AFC Championship Game, trying to analyze the question on all of our minds:
What the heck happened in the second half?
The Chiefs led by 18 points against the Bengals early Sunday before a second-half collapse ushered a 27-24 overtime loss. They managed three points after halftime.
Patrick Mahomes was 18 of 21 for 220 yards passing with three touchdowns (a 149.9 passer rating) in the first half. Afterward? He was 8 of 18 for 55 yards and two interceptions (a 12.8 passer rating).
A stark contrast prompted a stunning outcome.
You’d like to find one neat explanation for it all, but there were several things at play here. Let’s investigate.
1. The Bengals made a small tweak
Unlike the Chiefs’ previous opponents, the Bengals weren’t inclined to simply sit back and play only those deep cover-2 shells. The Chiefs knew that going into the game. They saw it in Cincinnati in Week 17, when the Bengals mixed coverages to include the deep shell but also include single-safety and cover-3 looks.
On Sunday, they added one more twist.
Drop eight.
The Bengals brought only three rushers on 35% of their defensive snaps, per Next Gen Stats, and Mahomes struggled against the scheme, completing just 7 of 13 passes for 59 yards and an interception. Amazingly, he was still sacked twice.
The Bengals shaded heavier to the concept in the second half and overtime, calling three-man rushes on 45% of the Chiefs’ pass plays after doing so on just 24% of Mahomes’ drop-backs before halftime.
Wonder why you saw Mahomes frantically moving behind the line of scrimmage, trying to re-establish a home base and yet still not finding anyone open? The Bengals were flooding the market.
2. They took Mahomes’ scrambling, too
By dropping an extra man in coverage, the Bengals prevented Mahomes from gaining chunk yards and picking up key first downs with his legs, as he did a week earlier against the Bills.
While the Bengals showed four-man fronts frequently, they dropped one of those rushers at the onset of the snap — which would not only wipe out an underneath route but also serve as a quarterback spy on Mahomes.
There’s no better example than the third-and-goal play with the Chiefs trying to win in regulation. Defensive end Sam Hubbard dropped back and momentarily cut off Mahomes’ best option on the play — a crossing pattern to tight end Travis Kelce. Then Hubbard set up shop as a spy. After Mahomes looked (and looked and looked) for an open receiver, finding nothing to his liking, Hubbard spotted a break in the line and crashed through. He sacked Mahomes and even forced a fumble.
The Chiefs’ best chance to win late was gone.
Mahomes had only three rushes for 19 yards in the game — and he had zero attempts between the hashes with the presence of the spy.
“They just had a spy on me, for the most part. I usually do a good job of getting around that guy, but they had a good game plan,” Mahomes said. “They were doing a lot of similar stuff in the first half, (but) we were just executing at a higher level. And they stayed with it.”
3. The Chiefs got away from the run
When a team readily drops extra defenders into coverage — or uses lighter bodies to aid the secondary — a natural solution is to run the football. Make them play heavier.
On Monday, Reid said the Bengals played similar schemes in the first half as they did the second. “There wasn’t much change,” he said.
The Chiefs, though, opted against what had proven successful — their run game.
The Chiefs rushed 24 times for 139 yards, 5.8 yards per carry. And it wasn’t as though those lanes disappeared in the second half. They ran 12 times for 67 yards, 5.6 yards per carry after halftime.
What’s harder to stomach is that the run plays rarely hurt the Chiefs — all but one of the attempts totaled at least four yards.
Meanwhile, over the course of the second half and overtime, Mahomes attempted 18 throws that totaled just 55 yards and resulted in two interceptions.
When the Chiefs are analyzing what they could have done differently, particularly in their final two possessions, this will pop up. The Bengals were practically daring the Chiefs to run near the goal line at the end of regulation. And after winning the coin toss in overtime, the Chiefs had three plays — incomplete pass, incomplete pass, interception. They went all-in on what wasn’t working.
The Chiefs don’t like to run the ball. The Bengals were banking on that.
“There’s no time like now that you question every call and every play,” Reid said. “And if you’re not hard on yourself about it, you’re not going to get better, and that’s as a player and a coach. We know there’s certain spots we have to do a better job, and it starts obviously with me being the head coach.”
4. The patience wore thin
After a year in which he was forced to embrace patience — and did so, by the way — Patrick Mahomes got impatient Sunday.
The initial drive of the second half can’t be placed on him. He offered Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce catchable passes, and both fell incomplete.
But after back-to-back drives coming up empty — the end of the first half at the 1-yard line and the one with two drops — it looked as though Mahomes was trying to get it all back too quickly. He wanted the big play.
The Chiefs did call some additional running plays, though in the form of run-pass options, and Mahomes too often went with the pass instead of a handoff. Or he picked the wrong route.
His first interception — when B.J. Hill tipped a pass to himself for the pick — came on a run-pass option. When you see the replay, you’ll notice Demarcus Robinson is covered anyway, even if Hill had not deflected the pass. The ball never should’ve been thrown. He just has to toss it out of bounds and see another down.
Mahomes accepted the blame Sunday — “I put that on myself,” he said — as his coach insisted there was much more to it. There is more to it. But Mahomes did not play his best football, and that derived from impatience. That can be particularly disheartening given the Chiefs had a year to prepare themselves to be patient and after Mahomes said it was his biggest adjustment. Heck, just a week earlier, he did not throw a single pass more than 20 yards yet still shredded the Bills defense. Seemed perfectly fine with that approach.
But there were spots Sunday in which Mahomes bypassed open receivers, in some cases ones at which he’s glaring. He wanted more.
Which leaves this as final takeaway Sunday: It’s always going to be part of the equation.
“There were a few misreads here and there. There were guys that were open that I didn’t hit at the right time, or I passed up on something shorter for something I wanted deeper down the field,” Mahomes said. “When you’re playing against a good team, and you don’t hit what’s there and you try to get a little bit more than what’s necessary, it kind of bites you in the butt.”
This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 2:32 PM.