Film review: Chiefs spread it out and Patrick Mahomes picked Raiders apart
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense enjoyed a milestone-heavy performance in the regular-season finale at Arrowhead Stadium en route to securing the franchise’s third consecutive AFC West title and the top overall seed in the conference playoffs.
The fact that it came in a 35-3 win against the longtime rival Oakland Raiders likely provided some added enthusiasm for fans. But the more encouraging signs may have been the way the Chiefs got the ball to their top playmakers early and produced multiple big plays.
While it wasn’t as though the Chiefs weren’t productive in the previous meeting against Oakland, wide receiver Tyreek Hill had almost no impact in that game, the bulk of the passing attack rested on tight end Travis Kelce and Mahomes making off-script plays.
Mahomes admitted after that game that the Raiders took away what he initially wanted to do on some plays, and it took him a while to settle into that game and stop trying to do too much.
This past weekend, the offense had more explosiveness from the opening drive. The game film is courtesy of NFL Game Pass. The game-day television broadcasts, a condensed 45-minute version of every game and the coaches’ film, are available with an account at nfl.com/gamepass.
Critical conversion
The Chiefs scored just six plays into the opening possession of the game on a big pass to Hill, but that play couldn’t have happened without a third-down conversion on a pass from Mahomes to fullback Anthony Sherman.
Facing third-and-10 from their own 16 and prospect of going three-and-out to start the game, Mahomes lined up in the shotgun with his heels at the 11. They shifted from a split backfield to Sherman lined up in a wingback alignment on the left and Charcandrick West in a similar alignment on the right side of the formation.
The Raiders put seven players within a yard of the line of scrimmage pre-snap, including a defender in every gap from outside shoulder of the right tackle to outside shoulder of the left tackle.
At the snap, the Raiders dropped two of those seven — safety Karl Joseph (42) and linebacker Nicholas Morrow (50) — into coverage, but safety Marcus Gilchrist (31) lined up over the slot and blitzed from the wide side of the field.
The end-zone camera angle shows how the defense’s alignment freed up Raiders defensive end Arden Key (99) with left tackle Eric Fisher and left guard Jeff Allen each blocking the pass rusher in their inside gap. Mahomes avoided getting dropped by Key for a loss, and Sherman chipped Gilchrist long enough to slow his blitz and then Sherman immediately turned his head around to make himself available immediately for Mahomes to dump the ball off into space with the receivers having both taken their defenders more than 10 yards down field.
“That’s a great defensive coordinator, I went against him in Cincinnati, and that defense has pretty much everything that they can throw at you,” Chiefs right tackle Mitchell Schwartz said. “You just don’t know what to expect so you got to be mentally prepared and be on it and not take anything for granted.
“They disguised some things really well in the first half, some tendency breakers and things like that. It’s a credit to all the guys, (Anthony Sherman) for the third-down conversion to really spark things. To Tyreek to catch the touchdown. Just things like that if you don’t stay on top of things throughout the week then maybe Patrick doesn’t find his hot read in (Sherman), Sherman doesn’t get a first down. That’s a good example of preparation.”
Hill’s early haymaker
A combination of reasons, including misfires, drops and double or triple coverage limited Hill to one catch for 13 yards in the previous meeting with the Raiders. Hill dwarfed those numbers with one punch delivered on the opening possession.
Mahomes alluded to a desire to get Hill involved early during his weekly press conference.
Mahomes’ playmaking ability and the threat of Kelce over the middle prompted the Raiders to roll the dice on third-and-5 from the Kansas City 33 on the opening possession.
Once again, the Chiefs motioned to an empty backfield set with West going from next to Mahomes to outside the numbers on the right side with tight end Demetrius Harris on the line of scrimmage a step or two inside the numbers.
On the left side, Kelce was on the line of scrimmage flexed out to the hash mark in a two-point stance, while Hill was just inside the numbers with Chris Conley outside the numbers as the widest receiver.
The Raiders had linebacker Tahir Whitehead (59) lined up inside of Kelce and linebacker Nicholas Morrow (50) behind the defensive tackle.
At the snap, Whitehead stayed underneath Kelce’s route, but he didn’t run with him in man-to-man coverage. The safety, Gilchrist (31), ran with Kelce even after Whitehead dropped off and hovered between the hash marks. Morrow had no man-to-man coverage responsibilities and served as a spy just mirroring Mahomes.
Even though they rushed just three, by having two linebackers not locked in coverage the Raiders left just a single deep safety in the middle of the field, Joseph (42), with the defensive backs one-on-one against the receivers.
Mahomes recognized that immediately. From the end-zone angle it’s clear he didn’t even have to look Joseph off or hold him. Mahomes simply had to make sure he identified the free safety, and his alignment kept him from being an effective deterrent to throwing deep to Hill. Joseph was outside the hash mark on the opposite side of the field when Mahomes lets the ball go to Hill, who was running outside the numbers in a footrace with overmatched cornerback Nick Nelson (23).
Spreading them out
It hardly seems coincidental that the Chiefs went with a lot of empty and spread looks early. The move stretched the defense out and helped Mahomes see what the defense was trying to do pre-snap and allowed him to be decisive with the ball whether the Raiders brought pressure (as in the Sherman play) or dropped eight men into coverage (as with the Hill play).
Mahomes and Kelce did a lot of damage in the first meeting with the Raiders on the fly with Mahomes buying time and Kelce adjusting to him. That prompted Raiders coach Jon Gruden to say after that game, “Travis (Kelce) and Patrick (Mahomes), they must live together or something. They made some incredible plays. Give some credit to those guys. You can’t do anything sometimes but tip your hat.”
This time around, spreading the defense facilitated Mahomes dropping back and stepping into throws on schedule such as the example below. Against the zone, Mahomes was able to anticipate the open space where Kelce would settle as Demarcus Robinson drew the attention of both the linebacker and the cornerback.
Kelce picked up 19 yards on second-and-2.
The Steelers’ offense made a similar move after the first quarter of their Week 2 game against the Chiefs in order to give Ben Roethlisberger a clear view of the defense and the vulnerabilities in coverage/matchups.
Of course, Mahomes and Kelce still used that mind meld thing they’ve worked to develop to beat the Raiders defense such as this play (below) where a defender actually has hands on Mahomes after a play fake, and he escapes long enough to throw back across his body for a 25-yard gain.
Go deep or go home
The 89-yard touchdown pass that simultaneously took Mahomes’ season totals to 50 touchdown passes and over 5,000 passing yards came on a bit improvisation by Robinson and Mahomes on third-and-10.
Once again, they also victimized Raiders safety Joseph (42). While the safety and corner on the opposite side of the field stayed attached to Hill, Joseph was positioned to be able to stay over the top of Robinson’s route against the man-to-man coverage of Rashaan Melvin (22).
Instead, Robinson appears to get caught staring into the backfield and not staying as deep as the deep route on his side of the field. The end zone angle also shows that Mahomes maneuvered in the pocket and at the same time recognized that Robinson changed his designed route.
“Yeah, the play was designed for Tyreek (Hill) and they had kind of double covered him, maybe even triple covered him,” Mahomes said. “Don’t really tell anybody, but Demarcus was supposed to run a stop route, but he beat him so well off the line that he just kept running. He threw that hand up so I just put it out there and he made a great play and scored on it.”
This story was originally published January 3, 2019 at 11:50 AM with the headline "Film review: Chiefs spread it out and Patrick Mahomes picked Raiders apart."
