Chiefs do not look very Super, except for quarterback Mahomes
There’s been no Super Bowl hangover for the Kansas City Chiefs. They’ve won 9 of their 10 games during this pandemically impaired season. The hero of the Super Bowl, Patrick Mahomes, is the betting favorite in Las Vegas to be Most Valuable Player.
And yet, on Sunday night in Vegas, in a glittering empty stadium, they did not look like champions. At least, not until the final two minutes of the game.
That’s when Mahomes passed, ran, lifted his team on a 7-play, 75-yard drive to beat the Raiders by the prototypical 2020 score of 35-31. So what did we expect?
Well, frankly, a little more nonMahomes. Where were the linebackers? The cornerbacks? The pass rushers? It’s nice to see Mahomes nailing 34 of 45 for 348 yards. But was that Derek Carr going 23 of 31 for 275? Carr out-touchdowned Mahomes 3-2. They each had a pick and no sacks. Carr had the slightly better QBR: 95.1-90.6.
There’s approximately zero discussion of Derek Carr as MVP material. That says something’s wrong with the Chiefs, who had every advantage heading into their Sunday night date.
First, the Raiders were wracked with Covid, something every karma believer can appreciate.
They’ve been openly oblivious. Carr driving a spreader, leading 9 teammates at a gala in a Vegas casino to fund the favored charity of his star tight end, Darren Waller. And there was the coach, Jon Gruden, maskless at games and incurring fines of $650,000 and costing the team a 6th-round pick in the next Draft.
So here were the Raiders taking the field without their splashiest linebacker, Cory Littleton, their stoutest pass protector, Trent Brown, and their tackling cornerback, Lamarcus Joyner. They had ten players on the Covid-exempt list, which rendered last week’s practices almost useless.
The emotional advantage – especially significant in midseason, when complacency tends to set in – had to be with the Chiefs, seeking revenge for their only loss of the year, by 8 points in October.
And leave it to the mediacentric Gruden to provide additional revenge motive. After that game at Arrowhead, he told the bus driver to circle the stadium.
His explanation sounded disingenuous: “I mean, you can find the smart aleck bus driver in Kansas City who made some snide comments when we got on the bus. Maybe that’s why we drove around the stadium, just to tick him off.”
Unswayed by that dodgy response, Andy Reid said his team was offended. So we had to expect ferocity from the Chiefs. And also offensive scheming befitting an extra week of prep, Reid famously 18-3 following a bye.
All that said, the Chiefs could not gain control of the Raiders, even though the visitors were clearly the better team. They led in total yardage, 460-364, and in first downs, 36-25. And when they needed it, Mahomes showed again that he can create the big play. This time it was a 22-yard pass to Travis Kelce in the end zone with 28 seconds remaining.
What sets Mahomes apart is his ability to improvise, throw a pass from any angle against any sort of coverage.
He’s not especially accurate, his 67.9 completion percentage being middling in today’s hyperoffensive era. Derek Carr is completing 69.7% for the season, with Mahomes posting slightly superior yards-per-throw: 8.1-7.7.
But it’s the fact that Mahomes is so consistent. The Chiefs have not scored fewer than 23 points in any game this season. No matter what defense he faces, blitz or coverage, he can transport the ball to receivers like Kelce and Tyreek Hill, who can do their own improvising to elude defenders.
This is a year when no other team seems dominant. The Pittsburgh Steelers are imperfect at 10-0, unable to pound the ball on Jacksonville. The Saints, Colts and Rams have quarterback issues, the Packers and Titans and even the Ravens are soft on defense. So Mahomes and the Chiefs look like a strong bet to repeat, flaws and all.
