Film Study: What went WRONG for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs Vs the Houston Texans

Film Study: What went WRONG for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs Vs the Houston Texans

All right. Well, back with our another weekly what went wrong with Patrick Mahomes in the Kansas City Chiefs video. Man, who thought we’d ever be saying that? And yet, here we are. The Kansas City Chiefs continue to struggle offensively. Um, you know, granted, listen, I think every week I’ve made a video, what went wrong with team that played the Houston Texans? Uh, uh, you know, video because it just seems like their defense makes good quarterbacks look pedestrian. It makes pedestrian quarterback quarterbacks look awful. Um well it it Mahomes had a tough day out there. Although I didn’t actually think he played that poorly in this one even if there was a couple of mistakes. Let’s talk about to me this first play is exactly the issue with this Chief’s offense against te or at least was the issue against the Texans is they kind of just need a guy that can win in these spots. It’s one-on-one and they’re going to look at Ju Guu Smith Schustster going up against Jaylen Peter who is kind of their slot safety corner uh hybrid type guy for Houston. very good player. Mahomes takes the snap. He is going to ultimately look towards Juju Smith Schustster. And there just isn’t a ton of separation right here. And you could sit here and criticize Mahomes and say like, well, is this the throw he should be making ultimately against the Houston Texans defense? If you’re not trying to fit it through a tight window, you’re not throwing the football. Like, you don’t get big windows. You have to try and fit it through tight windows if you’re going to have a chance against this team. And here the ball gets batted up and then intercepted by uh Jaylen Peter. I mean that that’s an incredible defensive play by him. Listen, the fact that it ended up as an interception definitely a little bit fluky for the Kansas City Chiefs and took a great defensive play is the way I would phrase it of, you know, not fully fair to blame the Chiefs for the interception happening. Ultimately though, when you try to fit the ball through tight windows consistently, again, these things start to happen. And I do think that for the Chiefs, their lack of a true number one has been an issue this season. Also, this has been another huge issue is, you know, I mean, the Chiefs, so obviously their left tackle situation was so bad last year that, you know, uh, improving the left tackle. A lot of people kind of felt like, okay, well, Chiefs are solved. They’ve improved their left tackle situation, uh, with, you know, drafting a guy and also adding a guy in, uh, in free agency. Well, one of the issues is their guard situation has just not been as good. They made the decision to move on from Joe Thuni and go with Kingsley Sumata at left guard and he’s actually been all right this season. But meanwhile for the right guard, Mike Caliendo was in there. If you remember, he was the guy who started the Super Bowl at left guard. Uh cuz Trey Smith is hurt and that’s a big loss for them. Watch as you’re going to see this interior defensive lineman for Houston just really blow by. Cali and that’s a lot of what you saw in the Super Bowl. And for Mahomes, there’s just not really much you can do in those situations. And again, it’s not necessarily one spot is a black hole, but it’s like, okay, you got, you know, Jaylen Moore coming in at right tackle. That’s not an ideal situation. Jawan Taylor’s never been a great tackle there either. In fact, I thought Essa Pole actually held out held up all right. He was their third string uh tackle. Uh, you know, he he came in due to Wayne Morris getting injured on the first play of the game. And he actually, I thought, looked okay to the point where maybe you consider starting him uh and trying to get work him into the lineup. But ultimately, nonetheless, it just as a whole, uh, there’s just pressure coming from too many different places, which is an issue. If pressure just comes from one place, at least Mahomes can navigate it and do Mahomes stuff. Here, he can’t even really do that. Now, I will say like you do have some instances of Mahomes doing Mahomes stuff. This one, third down and five, there, you know, they need a play. Mahomes is going to take the snap and you see nothing open over the middle. Really not a well-ran, well executed play by the receivers. And now on top of it, Mahomes has an interior defensive lineman grabbing onto him. Watch Patrick Mahomes on this play. Look at this. He ends up getting his face mask grabbed a little bit. He still is able to fight through it. And that was real to catch. They got the conversion there. That’s a ridiculous play. Here’s the issue, though. It feels like it takes that much to get third down conversions right now for this Chiefs offense. And you just can’t operate. You can’t win consistently if that’s what’s happening. You had this play a little bit later on. It’s a third down and six situation. And honestly, I’m not even going to crush this decision, even though it definitely goes wrong. So, third and six. You know, uh, Texans are playing back right here. Mahomes takes a snap. Nothing gets opened the way it’s supposed to. So, what does he do? Well, he’s just going to fire one down the field. By the time the camera looked over, it kind of looked like the checkown was open. I don’t think it actually was. Um, Mahomes just throwing up an arm punt right here, which is, you know, not the worst idea in the world. Let’s just throw one up. Again, arm punts, you don’t want to be interceptions. you want them to be catches or pass interference penalties. Uh but ultimately the idea is even worst case scenario, well then who cares? It’s basically the same as a punt. And as you see, that’s what happened. So pure arm punt there. You have no issue with it. But also like it’s saying something about this Chief’s offense that your quarterback feels the need to arm punt in these situations cuz things just aren’t working. Again, against a very good Texans defense, but still. Also, we got to talk some drops. There were some costly ones. This one not so costly first and 10, but still that that hurts you. This one very costly. This was a third down and two situation. They would have gotten the first down. Had they decided to uh you know had Kareem Hunt just caught the football. They instead decide to kick a field goal which does tie the game but again an opportunity to take the lead. This one another huge one. This is fourth and four. Again watch this play from Mahome stepping up in the pocket finds Rasheed Rice and Rasheed Rice just let it slip through his fingers. Remember he had another costly drop against Dallas. Ultimately as much as we’re talking we’re crushing the Chiefs for this. if they just catch these two passes, you know, they maybe score more and are leading and now, you know, at this point, maybe they’re only down by three. And then if they catch this, well, now they’re, you know, around the mid the 50 yardd line down a score. Like things can completely change if they just catch the football. And this one was another one. Again, that fourth down and four, I feel like we kind of forget the Chiefs got to stop and they were able to get a stand and force the Texans to punt. And with 3 minutes and 40 seconds, it’s like, okay, this has been a disastrous game. But if you can just march down the field, get a 92 yard drive, well, you can tie things up and go to overtime when it’s all said and done. You see the concept really designed to get Kelsey open. He’s kind of running the the second furthest route down the field, the one going kind of just past the first down marker. Mahomes takes the snap. This is well executed by everyone running their routes. And Kelsey in this situation is open. Now, a couple things are going to go wrong. For one, this is not going to be a great throw from Mahomes. You’d ideally like to lead Kelsey instead. This throw is behind, but also Kelsey drops this, and not just drops it, drops it in a way where Aziz Alsha is able to get the interception on that play. And again, I feel like it’s it’s becoming a thing at this point where Kelsey’s had some crucial drops. I mean, the team in general has had crucial drops. Remember, they probably beat the Eagles week two of the season. If Kelsey doesn’t drop one at the goal line, that turns into uh, you know, a long return, right? I mean, this is this is just the situation right now. But finally, something like this. Listen, the drops are a problem. Uh the you know, the costly penalties, the pressure, all that stuff is a problem, but this is the biggest one. And this is why ultimately the Chiefs are on the outside looking in in the playoff picture. You see, it’s fourth down and one. They just need someone who can make a play. And they’ve been kind of doing these pick plays, but it feels like teams have kind of finally caught up to how to stop those pick plays. If you switch, it’s hard for a defense to, you know, it’s hard for an offense to then get open. You’re almost wasting time doing nothing at that point. So, here it’s just, hey, Rasheed Rice win one-on-one right here. Patrick Mahomes takes a snap. He looks down the field and Rasheed Rice uh can’t quite make the play. Uh, you know, wasn’t quite open enough. Good defense. And, you know, with 10 minutes left in a tie game, now the Texans able are able to get the ball already in field goal range. It’s just I mean, again, everyone was criticizing the Andy Reid call and and I get it. you want to trust your defense in a game like this, but ultimately a big part of it is like, well, you want to trust your superstar level quarterback. And honestly, it’s not even really his fault in a lot of these plays. If no one’s getting open, and when they are getting open to dropping the pass, like what are you going to do? I mean, it’s just it’s an issue. So, as of right now, listen, for the Chiefs, they’re going to try and go 4-0 and run the table. And if they do that, they’re they are still alive, right? It still is possible. They’ll need some help probably with the Chargers and uh Colts losing out for them to have a chance. But crazier things have happened. But for them to get better, they have to catch the football. They have to be able to get guys getting open more consistently and they have to block better, maybe getting some guys back. If they can do all that, they do still have a chance. But that’s kind of where they’re at right now. That’s what I think. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. Always love hearing from y’all. And of course, as always, thanks for watching.

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