Quarterback Patrick Mahomes finished the Chiefs’ previous meeting with the Cincinnati Bengals as a spectator on the sideline. No, that’s not where this story is going, but that scenario did leave his final pass as a throwaway to the far boundary.
And yes, that is exactly where this story is going.
Before all of the chaos at the end of the Bengals’ 34-31 win against the Chiefs just a month ago, which finished with Mahomes not having the opportunity for a game-tying drive, the offense had a chance to make it more interesting.
The setup: third and 5 at the Bengals’ 16-yard line. The Bengals brought an all-out blitz, and this particular type of blitz seemed to catch the Chiefs by surprise — so much that Mahomes had no option other than to throw the ball away to avoid a sack. They settled for a field goal. The Bengals responded with the game-winning kick as time expired.
On a day in which Mahomes otherwise chopped through the Bengals’ secondary without incident, this is the type of snap that could have the most effect on the rematch Sunday, when the stakes are greater in the AFC Championship Game at Arrowhead Stadium.
Why?
Any coverage. Any call. Any time.
The Chiefs have spent the season adjusting to a very specific type of coverage — the two-deep safety shell, to be precise — and accordingly devoted much of their game-planning to beating it. On Sunday, they must prepare for anything.
“This group here does everything,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “So you can’t just go, ‘All right, they’re going to play shell,’ and go with it. They’ve got a bunch of shell coverages; they’ve got single-safety middle coverages; a handful of zone ones and a handful of man ones.”
In last week’s AFC Divisional Round game, the Bills played two-deep on 92% of their defensive snaps against the Chiefs’ offense, per Next Gen Stats, which Mahomes countered by throwing short passes. By throwing only short passes. None of his throws traveled more than 20 yards downfield before the reception.
The Bengals haven’t publicized their game plan, but it’s safe to say they won’t play shell on nearly that many snaps. It’s not their style. They’re not scared to split their safeties or add a cornerback to the defensive backfield for a Cover-3. They’ll blend it all.
“It makes you have to focus on answers for every single play versus every single coverage,” Mahomes said. “You try to do that every single week, but especially when you play teams that throw a lot of different pitches, you want to be prepared.
“You don’t want to get to a play and not have an answer and have that negative play. You want to find a way to have a positive, even if that’s a short gain, just getting the ball out of your hands.”
The method to best accomplishing that remains the same: adjust. But the timing of the adjustment can be far different.
Mahomes’ pre-snap reads take on greater importance. They’re always vital. But so do his post-snap looks. After all, the purpose of mixing coverages frequently is to disguise them for as long as possible.
“I think it helps to have guys like Tyreek (Hill) and Travis (Kelce) that recognize coverages on the run and are able to adjust their routes,” Mahomes said. “But I think Coach Reid does a great job of having answers on every single play for every single coverage. It’s about me recognizing the coverage, getting the ball out of my hand and getting it to those guys at the right time.
“We definitely have audibles and different things we can change before the snap, but at the same time, we like to be able to adjust on the fly and post-snap as well.”
The Chiefs do the latter so well that opposing defenses have become afraid to event attempt to blitz. Mahomes sees the fewest blitzes of any quarterback in the league by a wide margin.
He can adjust on the fly — but so can his receivers. Much has been made of Kelce’s in-game reads on the Chiefs’ game-tying drive against the Bills last weekend. Those came from pre-snap recognition.
But Reid’s playbook has long allowed for post-snap creativity — for those adjustments to come on the fly. The Chiefs build options into their routes, where a receiver can spot where the openings might be and then find a way to get there.
Early this season, as the Chiefs struggled to move the ball with the same consistency to which they’d grown accustomed, Mahomes mentioned not being on the same page with his receivers as frequently. This is the concept he was referencing.
“It’s all up to Coach Reid’s design on every play. He’s trusted a lot of what we do out on the field to be more friendly and make the job for the quarterback a little bit easier by getting open earlier or finding a different void,” Kelce said. “But for the most part, it’s in Coach Reid’s playbook to be able to give guys freedom and understand that, yeah, I’m going to dial this up when I know it’s this coverage or that coverage, and based on which one presents itself, that’s the route you need to switch up to.”
It’s been a trademark of Reid’s offense dating back his days in Philadelphia. Kelce says it will pop up on film he watches of those games.
But it comes in handy some days more than others. And in a playoff game in which the Chiefs are playing a defense that likes to mix coverages, and is unlikely to want to present the same looks it did just one month earlier, this could offer a particular advantage.
“It’s all part of the maturation process with the offense — making sure the offensive line is on the same page, the receivers are on the same page and the quarterbacks are on the same page,” Reid said. “So I think they all adjusted well.
“It’s not really one guy, although it falls in his lap because he’s the quarterback. It’s a little bit of everybody.”