How Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ new-look offense took the Cardinals apart
These two truths can co-exist. The Chiefs thrived on Tyreek Hill’s freak athleticism during scramble drills, and Patrick Mahomes can extend plays and navigate through a defense when under pressure.
We thought after the last few years watching Mahomes slice through defenses when facing a blitz, Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph wouldn’t rely on it to get his defense out on top on Sunday. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Even Next Gen Stats let us know that throughout Mahomes career, he has a +206.1 passing EPA vs the blitz, since 2018.
Andy Reid after the game, when asked about Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph blitzing, and how well Mahomes does against the blitz: “I joke about this, but it’s true he brings everybody but the popcorn vendor. He’s going to bring it from all over the place, and you better be sharp. [Mahomes] was directing everybody to get them going in the right direction, then Pat doing the same thing. I thought they did a nice job with that. [Joseph] is one heck of a coordinator. He’s very aggressive.”
So, the question is, how did Mahomes adjust to whatever it was the Cardinals were trying to accomplish? Let’s go to the film!
How Mahomes killed the blitz.
(Syndication: Arizona Republic)
In the clip below, this is the first time that the Chiefs are inside the red zone. During pre-snap, the Chiefs motion Mecole Hardman creating a 3×1 formation to the right side, which left Travis Kelce one-on-one against third-year veteran Isaiah Simmons.
This is how Mahomes kept drives alive. Here is his passing chart from PFF, where he had his most completions and yards.
The Chiefs also used the middle of the field when the Cardinals ran coverage disguises.
The Cardinals ran a lot of single-high. Why?
(Syndication: Arizona Republic)
It’s true that there was a chunk of the season last year where Mahomes’ struggles had one common denominator, and that was two-deep defenses.
Most would think, why not go back to the Cover 2 defense since Hill isn’t around to “bail” out Mahomes. Instead, according to Sports Info Solutions the Cardinals played single-high on two-thirds of Mahomes’ passing attempts.
Our own Doug Farrar pointed out last night in his ‘Worst coaching decisions in Week 1’ piece, that per PFF’s charting, the Cardinals showed single-high on 24 of Mahomes’ 39 passing attempts. Mahomes completed 19 of 24 passes for 10 yards per completion and four of his touchdowns against either Cover-1 or Cover-3.
The defense leaving the middle of the field open (MOFO) is always where Mahomes makes his best throws.
During the second drive of the game, the Cardinals were coming out in some quarters looks, taking away the deep part of the field. As soon as Mahomes saw that, the Chiefs were handing the ball off with success. In the first quarter Clyde Edwards-Helaire had five carries for 37 yards, and this is how the Chiefs were unable to counter two-deep stuff last season..
Once the Chiefs got into the red zone (for the second time), and they ran another 3×1 look, Mahomes saw the MOFO and gave it to Kelce.
In the second quarter, on third-down, with three minutes to go, the Chiefs offense came out in a similar look as before, but this time in spread.
Knowing that the middle linebacker, Zaven Collins was dropping back, the Chiefs ran an Ohio-route concept, once again opening the middle of the field.
This time, it was a cover 1/3 look pre-snap that included a blitz from the left side.
Mahomes was on fire at that point, so there was really nothing that Vance Joseph could do, since he was already comfortable with giving up the middle of the field.
If this is the future of the Chiefs' offense... watch out.
(Syndication: Arizona Republic)
