Yahoo Sports Chiefs botched this play last week. Then Patrick Mahomes used it to beat the Chargers
Patrick Mahomes stood in shotgun formation ahead of a third-down play, knowing one first down would be enough to seal the game.
The clock showed less than 3 minutes.
In his headset, the incoming call had offered the quarterback some flexibility — Chiefs coaches relayed a primary play along with the option for an audible, in case the defense provided any pre-snap clues.
That’s the backdrop for Mahomes’ final throw in the last two games. Yes, both of them.
It was eight days ago that the Chiefs botched their final offensive play and subsequently failed to complete a pass, instead relying on the defense to close out a 22-17 win in Atlanta.
On Sunday in Los Angeles, the offense took care of closing it out themselves. Completion. First down. Game over. Chiefs win, 17-10.
It’s an important difference, the most important of differences, but it’s also about the only one.
The similarity, on the other hand: The Chiefs used the same play.
Like, the exact same call.
So, that means with the game on the line Sunday in L.A., Mahomes changed a pre-snap audible to the very concept that they screwed up just one week earlier. And then he sealed the game with it.
That’s some confidence, right?
The play: It’s a mesh concept that sends three wide receivers to one side of the field, leaving a lone receiver on the other and using a running back motion as a diversion. (The only tweak the Chiefs made from Week 3 to Week 4 was flipping the sides of the field, because they were stationed on the opposite hashes.)
The mesh concept is built around two receivers — one on each side — running underneath drag routes, creating traffic in the middle of the field that will ideally serve as picks against man-to-man coverage. Legally, of course.
In Atlanta, that put tight end Travis Kelce and rookie Xavier Worthy in the mesh action. And that part worked: Worthy got loose.
One problem, though: Rashee Rice was supposed to run a deep cross behind Worthy’s route, deep enough to separate the two routes, but he instead ran a shorter crossing pattern, leaving them on too similar a path. Worthy noticed it and cut his route short. Head coach Andy Reid threw his arms up in confusion after Mahomes’ pass fell incomplete.
Mahomes’ reaction seven days later?
Call it again.
Why not?
We outlined most of the backdrop of Sunday’s encore situation: The Chiefs faced third-and-6 from their own 8. Just like the week before, Mahomes received a primary call and the alert through his headset.
Dealer’s choice.
Kind of.
Really, it’s up to the defense.
The Chargers had used zone coverage most of the day. It’s one of the reasons Kelce got loose for his best game this season, catching 7 passes for 89 yards, both leading the team. But the Chiefs hadn’t exactly been slicing through it. You might assume the third-down coverage would stick with what was working.
But Mahomes spotted something before asking for Creed Humphrey’s snap: man-to-man defense.
So he checked to the alert. The play designed to beat man coverage. Who cares that the Chiefs had botched it seven days earlier?
With Rice out, and that’s a phrase likely to be true for the duration of this season, Kelce took the assignment of the deeper crossing route. He notably ran it seven yards behind Worthy, clearing out plenty of space for the speedy rookie.
Worthy pried himself open again. Mahomes put the ball in his chest, and Worthy raced past the first-down marker.
That’s that.
“That’s a good man (to man) play,” Reid said. “Very similar to the one we ran a week before — just Travis kept it high in the right position there. That was the biggest difference.”
When you hear Reid use one of his go-to phrases — that the offense is “just a tick off” — think of this as an example.
Same coverage. Same play call.
Different execution.
Those are the small things that become big things in the coming weeks. The Chiefs’ wide receiver room is absent Hollywood Brown and Rashee Rice, likely for the rest of the season.
That moves Worthy, a rookie with 160 career NFL snaps, to the top of the depth chart. It’s going to require the acceleration of his learning curve. It’s going to require the increased usage of the rest of the committee. It might even require some outside help.
It certainly, though, will require the small details.
Those details clinched the Chiefs a win Sunday.
