NFL analyst: Patrick Mahomes played well in Super Bowl but ‘receivers let him down’
You’ve likely heard the saying “if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas.”
That dates to a 1970 football game with announcer Don Meredith, a former NFL quarterback, uttering those words.
For Chiefs fans there were a lot of “ifs” in Super Bowl LV. What if there hadn’t been so many first-half penalties, some at the worst possible time? What if there weren’t so many injuries on the offensive line? What if the Chiefs hadn’t used a timeout late in the first half, inadvertently helping the Buccaneers on a scoring drive?
And what if the Chiefs receivers had not dropped a pair of catches that would have been touchdowns? NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger shared a video with the All-22 video that shows some of the dropped passes.
“I saw a whole lot of Mahomes Magic and I thought his receivers really let him down throughout the entire game,” Baldinger said.
The first clip is a third-and-11 play in the opening quarter when Mahomes eluded a blitzing Buccaneers defender and threw to Tyreek Hill. The ball went threw Hill’s hands and hit his facemask and the Chiefs settled for a field goal.
Baldinger also highlighted a drop by tight end Travis Kelce. The next clip is of a play in the red zone in which Tampa Bay defenders knocked down Kelce and running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire (but no penalty was called).
Then there was the incredible pass in which Mahomes was falling to the ground and flicked the ball 30 yards to the end zone. That pass hit running back Darrel Williams in the facemask and the Chiefs missed another scoring opportunity.
Finally, there was a play in which Mecole Hardman went in motion and was wide open because the Buccaneers were blitzing. If Hardman turned to look for the ball, as Mahomes was expecting, it could have been a huge gain.
Instead, it was just another “if” from a game full of them.
This is an interesting analysis from Baldinger:
This story was originally published February 10, 2021 at 8:35 AM.
