Can Chiefs Patrick Mahomes Take
a Hit, Plus a Look at His Accuracy
by Paul Pulley
The only example we really have is the week 17 game last season versus the Denver Broncos. The Broncos season was quickly coming to an end and the Chiefs had nothing to play for as their post-season seeding was etched in stone. Therefore Kansas City rested a large number of starters, especially on offense, starting only one starting quality offensive lineman.
Denver’s starting defense in that game was DL Adam Gotsis, Shelby Harris and Domato Peko, LBs Shaquil Barrett, Brandon Marshall, Todd Davis and Von Miller. The DBs were Aqib Tqlib, Darian Stewart, William Parks and Chris Harris.
Not all of Denver’s starters played a lot that game, for instance Talib and Harris played very little and what little Talib did play was only a token effort. Reserve defensive backs Bradley Roby, Dymonte Thomas, Brendan Langley and Marcus Rios along with starter Will Parks saw the majority of defensive snaps for Denver
All of Denver’s starting linebackers played at least half of the game. LB’s Deiontrez Mount, Zaire Anderson and Jerrol Garcia-Williams got quite a bit of playing time. Playing time for Anderson is not unusual but for Garcia-Williams, this was the only defensive snaps he saw all season.
The Chiefs Offensive Plays
The Chiefs ran 67 offensive plays in week 17. Patrick Mahomes played 63 snaps in this game with former backup Tyler bray getting the other four. Of the 63 snaps that Mahomes played, there were 17 rushing plays by Kareem Hunt, Anthony Sherman and Akeem Hunt. In addition, QB Mahomes ran with the ball five times, two times on scrambles (one of which he almost scored a TD), twice that looked to be QB keepers and he ran one option play, pitching the ball to Anthony Sherman. Mahomes was hit (tackled) on three of the five, once by Broncos LB Zaire Anderson, once by LB Brandon Marshall and on the first QB keeper he was tackled by both DL Adam Gotsis and LB Jerrol Garcia-Williams.
A quick note: the tackle on the QB keeper by Denver’s starting LB Marshall was two plays prior to the game winning field goal at the end of regulation. There were also three QB sacks of Mahomes in this game. The first was on a bad snap that went over his head and Mahomes was sacked by LB Anderson. The second sack was on the same series by defensive lineman Shelby Harris and the third sack was by LB DeMarcus Walker.
At the end of the first half, Denver’s rookie head coach Vance Joseph decided to burn his time outs which allowed Mahomes to practice his kneel downs, as he was able to do this twice before handing off to Sherman on third down.
QB Patrick Mahomes was flushed from the pocket 5 times, taking hits on three of those. On one, he was hit by Denver’s LB Von Miller but was able to stay on his feet. On another, he was knocked down by DL Harris and the third time, Mahomes took a hard hit by LB Walker. The other two times Mahomes was flushed from the pocket he was able to avoid getting hit. Of those five passes, three were incomplete.
There were what appeared to be three designed roll-outs throughout the game. None of those three passes resulted in a completion, although one of them was simply a throwaway. On one of the rollouts Mahomes was hit and knocked down by LB Shaquil Barrett.
Another quick note: that throwaway was the only pass that Mahomes simply tossed out of bounds without attempting a completion, for the entire game.
There were four times that Mahomes was hit and taken down inside the pocket. These resulted in two completions and two incomplete passes. The hits were one time each by Denver’s LB’s Deiontrez Mount, Marshall, Miller and Barrett. There were two more instances that Mahomes was hit in the pocket but was able to stay on his feet. The first I’m sure everyone remembers is when the Bronco’s safety William Parks got ahold of the Chiefs QB, but Mahomes was able to keep his balance and zip a ball about 25 yards downfield to Albert Wilson off of his back foot. The other hit was by, I believe, Miller.
The Kansas City Chiefs make-shift offensive line for that game awarded QB Patrick Mahomes 22 clean pockets, in which he completed 17 of the 22 passes with one interception and two drops. Of the 17 completions, three were check downs. There were four quick outs, two to a TE, and one each to a RB and WR. There were also seven screens, five to a WR and two to a RB.
Two more quick notes about this game: 1) at the end of the game, Patrick Mahomes looked like he could turn right around and play another full game, 2) for anyone concerned about a guy from Texas playing in cold weather, this game was one of the 5 coldest ever played at Mile High, with a temperature at kickoff of 17 degrees.
Editor’s Note: For you out-of-owners… the Texans v Chiefs game is on NFL Network on Saturday, Aug 11 at 2:00PM CDT.
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