This Version of Patrick Mahomes Will Lead to a Three-Peat
It hasn’t been a blockbuster year for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense.
They’ve been effective when they need to be. For instance, they entered Week 17 as the top-ranked 3rd-down offense in the NFL. Mahomes has also led 5 fourth-quarter comebacks and 7 game-winning drives.
But they’ve been searching for rhythm all season.
A big part of that is Mahomes needing to be more consistent getting the ball out of his hands quickly and on time instead of holding it or fleeing the pocket unnecessarily in search of a bigger play. I know he’s great in those situations, but when he struggles, it’s because he’s leaning on this part of his game too much.
In fact, according to Mike Sando (using data from TruMedia Sports), the Chiefs are 14-0 in the 14 fastest time-to-throw games of Mahomes’ career. They’re 6-11 in his 17 slowest (and 1-8 in his 9 slowest).
Maybe it should come as no surprise, then, that he had the fastest average time to throw of his career against the Steelers while turning in his best performance of the season (29-38, 320 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs).
Part of it had to be the result of Mahomes making a conscious choice to get the ball out of his hands quickly. But part of it was also how Andy Reid created opportunities for those quick throws to be there.
On their first touchdown, for instance, the Chiefs broke the huddle and raced up to the line before snapping the ball quickly:
Why did they do that? Because they didn’t want to give the Steelers time to match up to the formation and personnel, which was aligned in an unconventional way. They had 2 tight ends to the left, running back Isiah Pacheco on the outside to the right, and wide receiver Xavier Worthy in the backfield to Mahomes’ left:
The Steelers were still communicating and getting aligned to the unusual look right up until the snap. Worthy was able to outflank the defense on this quick throw to the flat as a result:
The play design had answers for both man and zone coverage. If it was man, then whoever was responsible for Worthy (likely a defender inside) would have had to fight through the traffic of the two outside routes. Because the Chiefs had hurried to the line and kept the Steelers from matching their personnel accordingly, that defender likely would have been a safety or linebacker. And that’s not who you want covering Worthy: