Kansas City Chiefs’ loss to Raiders has prompted a change in their offensive meetings
Kansas City Chiefs receiver Justin Watson says a rewatch of Monday’s 20-14 home loss to the Las Vegas Raiders revealed the offense was “sloppy” too often.
That result, though, also led to a change this week: Watson says offensive players are spending more time as a group with the quarterbacks.
“We’re doing a lot of meetings all together, a lot of the installs all as one unit. So just making sure everybody’s on the exact same page,” Watson said. “And when we get in those (play) calls, not having to think for yourself, because we’ve all heard exactly what everybody wants — what the quarterback wants, what the offensive coordinator wants — so we’re all going to be on the same page.”
KC’s offense has looked disjointed often in recent weeks, with quarterback Patrick Mahomes not appearing to see the field the same way as his receivers.
Watson said KC’s offense is used to doing group play-installation sessions as a team, but now, “I think we’ve just been hanging in those full offensive meetings a little bit longer, watching a little bit more tape together as a full offense, just making sure we’re seeing everything the same way.”
How everyone responds when things are thrown off is important. Watson said typically, during the week, the Chiefs practice their offensive plays against the type of defensive look they’re expecting to see from the opponent based on film study.
In recent games, however, Watson says the Chiefs often have been facing something from the defense that it hasn’t shown all season.
“I think that’s the bigger thing is, ‘Hey, when the look breaks down from the defense, how do we still stay on the same page?’” Watson said. “And I think we’ll do a better job with how we’ve prepared this week.”
Watson said cohesiveness would be critical this week given the opponent. Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo is known to mix things up often with his coverage.
“So we’re not going to be able to practice every look that they have,” Watson said. “But just knowing that: ‘Hey, we’ve talked about against this coverage, who we expect to win, what types of routes we expect to win, and then certain adjustments that Pat can make.’ We’re anticipating those before he even says it. Just so when he calls it, even if there’s five seconds left on the clock, we’re not scrambling or trying to get a late motion. You anticipate some of those things before they happen.”
Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy admitted Thursday that the disappointing outing against the Raiders left him and the coaches with “that pit in your stomach” on Christmas night. He credited the team, though, for having great accountability among players and coaches.
“So we get together the next day, and we start talking through all that,” Nagy said. “Without getting into details, I think it’s been a very productive week so far of trying to come up with answers and solutions and sticking together.”
Watson, who expressed after the game that the Chiefs’ biggest offensive issue was lack of discipline, said the film also showed missed assignments and players trying to do too much. In short, it confirmed what Watson had initially thought about the effort; he labeled it Thursday as “just sloppy.”
“It’s just getting back to running the plays that we know. Just doing your job,” Watson said. “We talk about doing your 1/11th. Don’t try to do more than just your part this week.”
