Building a Touchdown: Jagged Little Pill

Building a Touchdown: Jagged Little Pill – I have good news, Patrick Mahomes is already better in 2019 than in 2018. In the Chiefs first game this year he threw a TD in only his 3rd snap… but it took all fo 5 snaps last year. Ah, progress. Maybe next year he’ll get it right. That first series, if you can call it that, is what I’ll cover here today. Hopefully, I can provide a “Building a Touchdown” each week of the season but I thought I’d begin with a simple Sammy Watkins design. Since it came against one of the “best” pass defenses in the league at Jacksonville, thus: Jagged Little Pill (“You lose, you learn” … but I doubt it).

With images of 300, 5×8 cards, in Andy Reid’s twisted little fists all filled with notes of plays he’s thunk up to fool the best of the league’s DCs, we step forward into the football unknown, breaking down one touchdown of his at a time.

Play One in the Series

The first play in this series was a run up the middle. Yes, that play was stuffed by the Jags formidable front four but the call was a win. Right away Reid shows that they will not be abandoning the run and send a message to his offensive linemen: I will be trusting you to blow some defenders off the line of scrimmage. While play one did not produce yards, in fact it lost 1 yard, there were other running plays that did work on this day, a signal to the league that you won’t just be able to line up in pass coverage all day against the best QB since sliced BBQ. FYI, Offensive Linemen usually prefer run blocking because it allows them to use their large muscle groups as opposed to sitting back and waiting for the DL to plow into them. So, Reid’s first play call was a bit of deference to his OL.

When Damien receives the handoff from Patrick Mahomes, you can tell the play was designed to go to the right side and Travis Kelce is on his way to block out their LDE (see video below).

Williams sees the LB driving down on that side so he immediately turns to his left but the LB on that side is filling the backside.

While Reid succeeds in showing he will run the ball, even against the best of defensive lines, this play was dead in the water from the outset (video of that play is shown below).

Play Two in the Series

From the beginning of this game, the Jaguars were playing decidedly dirty. Both the first and the second plays of the game are good examples of that. I won’t be surprised if Myles Jack is fined a huge amount for all his dirty deeds made in this game.

You can be sure that a focal point of Andy Reid’s game plan was to get the ball into Tyreek Hill’s hands early and often. I have noted before that during one of the preseason games — one of the few moments in which the first team actually made it onto the field — that Reid had called a short 11-yard out pattern for Hill to the sideline. On that play Mahomes had clearly let go of the ball before Hill made his break.

The velocity and accuracy of Mahomes throws is the perfect match for Hills speed and quickness but that makes the timing on a play like that not only critical but… the degree of difficulty goes through the roof. However, during the preseason, Reid had proven (in my mind) that the short connections of Mahomes-to-Hill were going to be his new bread-n-butter… or as some like to call it, the equivalent of a running play.

So, in Reid’s first two play calls, he reveals that he is going to run the ball and that he is going to target one of the best (and now most well paid) wideouts in the NFL. The result of the second down play was an 8 yard gain which left the Chiefs with a third-and-3 at their own 32. So, it’s time to run the ball again… right? Nope, not this year.

Play Three in the Series

Sammy Watkins had a tremendous day on Sunday. In this collection of Sammy catches versus the Jags, pay close attention to his first catch because that is the third play of the game and the angle of the video highlights his sharp route running and decisive cuts to break free and then of course, he shows off his speed.

What I don’t understand is why defenders who run down a WR who has made a clean and open TD are allowed to chase them down at the back of the end zone and slap that WR in the back. That’s taunting isn’t it? The DB was  embarrassed so they had to do something to let the WR know they were right there? As if to tell that wideout, “Hey, I almost had you!” Yeah, right. I am not usually in favor of more officiating but that needs to be called, especially when it’s as blatant as it was on Watkins TD.

The Patrick Mahomes to Sammy Watkins touchdown on the third play of the game is visionary. Not since Kurt Warner was lofting loaves of love to Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce in the early aughts, on the other side of Missouri, has there been such an artful display of football finesse and pigskin proficiency. 

This drive and TD was really all about Sammy Watkins. Seth Keysor of the Athletic wrote a piece on Monday called, “We’ve been hearing about the new Sammy Watkins for months, in week one we saw him” and he shared this:

“Watkins strength, quickness and savvy gave the Jacksonville secondary problems all game, but where he did the most damage was after the ball was in his hands. Watkins is said to play like a running back once he makes the catch, and this game was no exception.”

Keysor then shared this video of the TD catch and run:

This combo of Andy Reid’s play calling and Patrick Mahomes skill, is to be cherished. Especially if you’ve been waiting since Len Dawson retired for a QB with PMII’s abilities.

Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

P.S. Here are the lyrics to “Jagged Little Pill – You Learn” a favorite, especially the ending lyrics. I know, I know, an ex-teacher would naturally love these words, of course… I guess we’re always learning. I sure do like what Patrick Mahomes is teaching us… and I guess the rest of the league will be learning their lessons now.

“You live you learn, you love you learn
You cry you learn, you lose you learn
You bleed you learn, you scream you learn

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