Enjoy the Kermit kerfuffle, but Chiefs have much deeper motivation at Raiders
As the Chiefs play in Las Vegas this weekend, plenty will be made of the Raiders’ ill-considered mocking of Patrick Mahomes’ voice over the summer, with a Kermit the Frog puppet costumed in a Mahomes jersey and even embellished with a patch of curly hair.
On the later-deleted video, you could hear Raiders players laughing as they repeatedly say “I’m here” — a reference to Mahomes’ Maxx Crosby-provoked sideline tirade featured on the Netflix “Quarterback” series amid the 2022 comeback from a 17-0 deficit (for a 30-29 win).
That’s the sort of stuff you get to do if you’re a friend or close associate, like Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce or coach Andy Reid — who is said to do a terrific Mahomes imitation and has called the voice “froggish.”
But coming from the Evil Empire of Chiefs history, well, that’s something else. And while Mahomes sought to downplay that this week, it might be surmised that his initial reaction during training camp was more revealing: “It will get handled when it gets handled,” he said in an unusually somber tone for him.
It’s also true that Mahomes is typically receptive to extra motivation in the form of perceived disrespect, a point he acknowledged when I asked him about it during a bye week interview.
“I don’t, like, seek it out, but if it comes to me … you remember that type of stuff,” he said, later adding, “If someone wants to give the trash talk, I’ll listen to it. …
“You want to make sure you have every motivating factor so you can go out there and play your best football.”
But here’s the thing:
While the Kermit kerfuffle might add some spice to the scene, Mahomes and the Chiefs (6-0) have much more substantial incentives against the 2-5 Raiders.
It’s not just that they have yet to play an “A” offensive game and that Mahomes is coming off the worst game — at least in terms of quarterback rating, at 44.4 — of his 120-start NFL career in a 28-18 victory over San Francisco, in which his running helped pave the way.
It’s that the Christmas Day debacle against the Raiders last season remains a living, breathing thing to the Chiefs — who out of those dregs haven’t lost since and will be seeking a franchise-record tying 13th straight win on Sunday.
Anything can happen in the NFL, of course. But even against a struggling team during what could be the midseason doldrum phase, the Chiefs figure to be as into this game as any.
Not because of the puppeteering, but because of the sheer reality last time around that left them 9-6, seemingly adrift and in jeopardy of missing the playoffs.
“They came in and got after us,” Reid said. “That’s their personality and ... we didn’t handle that the right way.”
So much so that after their third loss in four games, the Chiefs seemed on the precipice of collapse. Or at least splintering — epitomized by the slapstick spectacle of a livid Reid turning his back to the field during an offensive drive to try to thwart Kelce’s helmet being returned to him after Kelce had spiked it on the sideline.
Instead …
“That one there, right there, that game on Christmas Day, that brought everybody together,” offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said. “It could have (created some) separation.”
Nagy says he still remembers a lot about that game.
But what he remembers most is what it came to mean.
“You feel like maybe that happened for a reason,” he said. “Because it woke us up and set us for the rest of the season.”
The alarm bell led to some tangible adjustments out of what effectively became an offensive audit.
As The Star’s Sam McDowell diagnosed leading up to the Super Bowl victory against the 49ers at Allegiant Stadium, coaches met alone and simplified almost everything: shorter play calls, reduced substitution patterns, expediting calls to Mahomes and clarifying assignments.
Whether stated directly or not, something else shifted that week: a broader acceptance that the team’s true strength was its defense and contouring its identity to a more complementary style.
In the ensuing 25-17 victory over the Bengals — a win that started a season-ending six-game winning streak — Mahomes said the quiet part out loud.
If the Chiefs get stuck offensively, he said, “We can punt, man.”
Perhaps realizing this sounded absurd coming from a swashbuckler who always believes there’s a way to move the ball, he smiled and added, “I know that’s not how I’ve always rolled.”
All of which is part of why the Chiefs have rolled since — more often than not by slim margins that some suggest indicate vulnerability but that over time seem to speak to a certain resolve.
That also emerged from that last Raiders game.
“I think it was just a wakeup call for us to know that we’re not going to be able to just come to the game and win,” Mahomes said, later adding, “I think you’ve seen that mentality since then (that) the guys are really taking every single practice and getting the best out of it so that every single week, we can play our best football …
“I think that’s translated into this season.”
And the sort of motivation that figures to loom over this game.
Not through the voice of Kermit, amusing and galvanizing as that might be, but by way of a seemingly transformative lesson learned last season.
This story was originally published October 25, 2024 at 12:30 PM.