By Jeremey Theron Kirby
On a night when the Chiefs benched players on both sides of the ball, and Patrick Mahomes continued to run for his life, the team moved to 11-1 on the season and 9-0 in one score games.
The Chiefs impressive record belies an irrefutable fact, they are not playing good football – and they know it. Moments after Mahomes kneeled to end the game, a game in which he passed Len Dawson as the team’s all time touchdown passer, he was visibly frustrated, and who could blame him. The quarterback was under constant pressure throughout the game.
The Chiefs managed just one touchdown and were the beneficiaries of an errant snap by Las Vegas that sealed the win in the closing seconds. In a season that has the opportunity to culminate in the first Super Bowl era three-peat, Mahomes was in no-jive mode. “Just too many mistakes at the end of the day,” he told reporters after a game that had no business being as close as it was.
Kansas City entered the “Black Friday” contest as 13 point favorites but for stretches played as if the tryptophan from yesterday’s turkey had not yet worn off. “I felt like there were times offensively (where) we moved the ball – didn’t execute in the redzone, didn’t execute enough on third down – too many mistakes. We have to clean that up if we want to get to where we want to go,” Mahomes said.
Where they want to go is the Superdome in New Orleans on Feb. 9. If they can pull it off they’ll have a chance to cement themselves as a historic team not just in football history, but in the history of American sports. To do it, they’ll need to shore up a defensive unit that has given up 768 yards over the past two games, against two of the worst teams in football and an offense that saw Wanya Morris benched.
By the fourth quarter Andy Reid finally saw enough. At his post game press conference, the head coach made it clear. “So Wanya (Morris) – he was struggling a little bit so (we) moved Joe (Thuney) over there…(I) thought it was the right thing to do at that time…Pat took a few hits there and so we were struggling at times.”
Reid’s statement was the clearest admission of what has been quite obvious, the tackle position is a liability. Patrick Mahomes has been sacked 32 times this season and eight times over the past two weeks. Protecting the greatest player of his generation will be paramount as the postseason approaches and Andy Reid’s strategy will be intriguing to watch.
There are reasons for optimism as the season moves toward the final quarter. The Chiefs control their own destiny and the AFC’s top seed is theirs for the taking. Reinforcements are coming. Hollywood Brown appears on track to make his regular season debut before the playoffs and both Charles Omenihu and Isiah Pacheco returned to the lineup after long absences. Pacheco rushed for 44 yards on just seven carries and should see an expanded workload in the coming weeks. There is growing chemistry between Mahomes and the recently acquired DeAndre Hopkins who ended Friday with four receptions for 90 yards.
“Our goal is to get to that Super Bowl,” Mahomes said from the podium. “So we’re going to try to continue to get better so that we’re playing our best football hopefully by the end of the year.” It would be unwise to bet against it.
