Patrick Mahomes’ last snap in Sunday’s 34-31 road loss came with seven Cincinnati Bengals charging after him. The Kansas City Chiefs had six blockers.
This was an all-out blitz.
The scenario: Third-and-5 for the Chiefs at the Bengals’ 16, down 31-28, 6:09 remaining.
A few seconds later, Mahomes was forced to escape the pocket to throw the ball away. The Chiefs settled for a Harrison Butker field goal to tie it. They never got the ball back again.
CBS broadcaster Tony Romo, in real-time, hypothesized that Mahomes might’ve expected Cincinnati to drop out of its blitz look after showing it initially.
When asked about the play afterward, Mahomes detailed what he saw.
“The actual blitz didn’t surprise me,” Mahomes said. “From kind of the film study, most times when they blitz, they would drop people out and kind of cover some of those guys underneath. So we have a good plan for that.”
This time, Mahomes said he first looked to receiver Demarcus Robinson — his outside receiver to the right — who was running a post route toward the middle of the end zone. Mahomes said Tyreek Hill, in the slot on that end, was set to run a corner route toward the sideline.
Remember, Cincinnati had four defenders to cover four receivers. It’s a setup where any mistakes are magnified with no teammate help if things go wrong on the back end.
And this is where Mahomes says Cincinnati executed well.
If the Bengals’ players were playing right up on the Chiefs’ receivers, then once Hill broke out, there should have been an opening to get the ball into Robinson for a potential touchdown.
What happens takes a few looks on replay to confirm exactly what Mahomes saw: The two Bengals secondary players on that side “passed off” the routes, meaning midway through the play, they switched assignments to remain in better position to cover the inside and outside receivers.
Doing that meant Robinson wasn’t open immediately in the middle of the field as expected. And with rushers coming, that threw off the timing of the play.
“I got kind of caught out of position and threw it away,” Mahomes said. “But we studied it a lot.”
Mahomes certainly had highlights against Cincinnati’s pressuring defense.
That especially came in the first half, when Mahomes led the Chiefs to four touchdowns on their first five possessions.
“I was kind of ready for them to bring a lot of blitzes, and they brought some early, and we kind of started moving the ball,” Mahomes said. “And then as the game went on, they backed up, and we ran the ball really well.”
On a crucial third-down play, though, the Bengals came back with a gamble — and an excellent in-the-moment adjustment — to force a Mahomes throwaway.
And get him off the field for the final time Sunday.