Patrick Mahomes on Chiefs using the same play to beat the Chargers two years in a row
Hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
That seems to be the Chiefs’ mentality when playing the Chargers at SoFi Stadium.
A year ago, quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw a game-winning touchdown pass to Travis Kelce in overtime. On Sunday, Mahomes threw a game-winning touchdown pass to Kelce with less than a minute left in the game.
Those two touchdowns came on the same play call, a fact some of the Chiefs players mentioned in the locker room after the game.
NBC Sports’ Peter King wrote about the repeat play in his weekly column on Monday and hours later Chiefs coach Andy Reid confirmed it at his news conference.
“It really was, it was the same play,” Reid said. “I mean it was doctored up a little bit with the motion, but you know that combination with (Justin) Watson and Kelce in there has been good since training camp on the crossing route.
“Really Watson’s the primary on it, but it normally comes to No. 2 on the shallow cross there that Kelce got. But Watson’s also a big part of that play (with) how he works inside and ... kind of creates a bit of a wall in there where the defender has to make up his mind: Is he going to go over or under it or how’s he going to handle that? So normally it throws them off by a step. Yeah, to answer your question, it was basically the same play.”
During his weekly spot on KCSP (610 AM), Mahomes was asked about running the same play against the Chargers.
Mahomes admitted he was initially skeptical the play would work again.
“We had been talking about it earlier in the game to maybe get into it, kind of how the leverage they were playing with their main coverage,” Mahomes said. “But when coach called it in that situation, in my head I was like, ‘Man, there’s no way we can get them again on the same play.’”
Mahomes said Reid decided to use the play at the right time.
“Luckily enough, we got a good play called at a good time where they were outside leverage man coverage. J Wat (Watson) did a great job of kind of getting Derwin (James, Chargers safety) to go underneath and the other guys cleared it out,” Mahomes said. “And then once you get it to Kelce in space, it seems he always finds a way to get in the end zone.
“So going into the play. I was like there’s no way, but then you see the look when the defense was out there and you’re like, ‘Man, I think we got ’em.’”
They did. Here is the game-winning touchdown from Sunday.
This was last year’s touchdown that won the game against the Chargers.
This story was originally published November 22, 2022 at 10:42 AM.
