Chiefs: How Do You Defend That?

Chiefs: How Do You Defend That? – This season Andy Reid appears to have broken his own mold. What stereotype might that be? The one that says he calls only vanilla plays during the season and saves his best for last. “Last”… and when might that be? The playoffs of course. I would say that winning a Super Bowl has changed Andy Reid: he’s now willing to call some of his best plays during the regular season because he knows he’ll have plenty enough left over in his ten gallon magic hat, to go win it all. Can you imagine how much bigger his stack of new play cards became during this offseason, simply because of the pandemic? The result? He’s now putting on a show, a clinic if you will, by giving us a look – and by the way, simultaneously, giving all the DCs in the league a look – at his unique plays which make Chiefs fans sound like a robot inside their own heads, repeating repeatedly: “How Do You Defend That?… How Do You Defend That?” All the while, smiling like the cat who swallowed a canary.

Let’s begin with the play Reid called in game one vs the Texans: an Inside Screen to Travis Kelce. Here’s a quick look of that play.

The play might better be called: Fake Jet Motion Right, Fake Screen Left, Inside TE Screen. ESPN’s Bill Barnwell calls the play: Orbit Motion Fake Swing/Middle Screen.

When you watch this play over again, focus only on Kelce and how he doesn’t have to sell any of his actions prior to the inside screen because he’s tasked with the duty of blocking the Defensive End. Since Reid has sent his RB into the left flat past Kelce, the DE peels off of Kelce in hopes of blowing up that left side screen, which frees Kelce to make the catch and advance the ball up the middle. That play then becomes wide open because of the two fakes to the outside: the orbit motion to Mahomes right (to Hardman) and the screen motion to Mahomes left (to CEH). Take another look at my clip as I slow the play down. Don’t be confused because the play set up comes first, then the setup is played again in slow motion, and then lastly the whole play is shown in slow motion.

Watch Hardman circle Mahomes and then jump upwards throwing his arms in the air to fake a reception as Mahomes pump-fakes the ball in his direction. Meanwhile, watch Clyde Edwards-Helaire — who had gotten loads of preseason press about his ability to help the Chiefs in the screen game — cross Mahomes with a tiny bit of a hand-off fake and then runs to the opposite side flat for a fake screen. The widening motion of those two outside fakes helps to open up the middle of the field for Kelce.

If you’re willing to go back and watch it again, keep your eyes pinned on #41, the Texans LB, Zach Cunningham — who had just signed a new 4-year $58M deal — as he jumps one way, then the other, then gets himself washed out of the play all together as he “over commits” to the fake to Edwards-Helaire. At the end of the play he looks up to the clouds as if to say, “What the H happened?”

If you decide to watch it once again, look at any of the Texans defenders and you’ll see them running one way and then the other. Reid has realized that defenses across the league have figured out that many of the plays he has Mahomes executing require a fake one way… and then going the opposite way. It’s called: misdirection. However, here Reid fakes one way, then fakes another way, then goes right up the middle. A sort of, double-misdirection. Talk about keeping the defense honest. Honestly, it almost seems unfair. Especially when you consider the skilled players he has to work with. Don’t take my word for it, how about Richard Sherman:

The next play that looked almost impossible to defend, was one that looked a little bit like the “Do we have time to run WASP?” in the Super Bowl. Mecole Hardman ran an out and up route along the right sideline vs the Ravens this past Monday which resulted in a wide open touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes. Here’s a first look:

If you watched and listened to this tweet, you notice that Louis Riddick — who I usually agree with and who worked with Andy in Philly from 2008 to 2012 — made the mistake of saying “The DB got caught looking in the backfield.” That’s probably not true because what really happened here was, that Andy Reid knew Marcus Peters would break his contain responsibilities by trying to come up and make a big play, for an INT, by coming up to cover Tyreek Hill who has lined up on the left side and run a crossing route, instead of staying back like he was supposed to do. The Ravens were playing in a zone on this play, so when Hardman took his route upfield, the Safety, who had come over to cover a possible Hardman out route, was totally out of position and found himself in no-man’s land because Hardman made his move downfield and found himself all by his lonesome. Here’s another look:

Knowing your opponents’ tendencies can be a huge advantage. Having Marcus Peters play for the Chiefs for three seasons was enough for Andy Reid, and that made all the difference here.

Let’s take a look at one more play. I’d call it an: In-N-Out-N-Up. This one was the Tyreek Hill TD over Marcus Peters for a 20-yard TD. Hill runs an in, then out route up the field to the end zone, and appears to get the DBs in a logjam and while Paters plays the route as well as his coaches could hope, the execution of this play is decided by the superior skills of Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill.

Tyreek Hill stand 5-foot-10 but he plays like he’s a Wide Receiver as big as the 6-foot-5 Calvin Johnson. Hill scaled the heights to go up and get this ball and we’ve seen him do it before, but his jumping ability is matched only by his speed, which is world class. Here’s another look at this play:

While the play was a good one, it wasn’t so much the design of the play that stands out, it was the execution. As this announcer said, it’s almost as if Patrick Mahomes walked up and placed the ball in Tyreek Hill’s hands. With these Kansas City Chiefs, it’s like Richard Sherman said, it’s:

“So many different weapons, so many different things you have to [worry about], it’s not like pick your poison, it’s like, pick how you’re going to die.”

Yep, Richard Sherman gets it, because it’s like: “How Do You Defend That?!”

One of the takeaways from reviewing these three plays is that they accomplish an important piece of what Reid hopes to accomplish in each game, and that is: to stretch the field wide as well as deep, forcing defenses to defend the whole field. This also has implications for someone like Clyde Edwards-Helaire as Reid calls his number to run it up between the tackles with regularity. By succeeding in the running game, the passing game opens up and vice versa. It forces most Defensive Coordinators in the NFL to ask: How do you defend that? The answer is: I haven’t got a clue… and that, makes me one happy Chiefs Fan!

Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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