Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images
Mahomes did both the big things, and the small things, against the Texans
There are a few critical rules of quarterback play.
However, perhaps the most basic is this: “Never throw late across your body and/or over the middle.” This is perhaps the classic blunder, one I was guilty of breaking far too many times over the course of my own failed career. A career that I have often described as one that left me as the worst quarterback in all of college football for a period of time.
Did you know that Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt could be a negative number?
But I digress.
Yet, rules and classic blunders do not apply to Patrick Mahomes. In an overtime win against the Houston Texans — yes you read that right — the Kansas City Chiefs passer completed 36 of 41 passes for 336 yards and 2 touchdowns. Mahomes finished the game with 20-straight completions, meaning he could break the NFL record of 25-straight completions next week when the Chiefs take on the Seattle Seahawks.
But a completion from early in the game, before he started his streak, illustrates how the classic rules of quarterback play do not apply to Mahomes. With the Chiefs trailing 14-7 late in the second quarter, Kansas City faced a 3rd and 5 at their own 8-yard line.
Mahomes bails the pocket to his right and, with a defender in his face, he spots Travis Kelce alone on the other side of the field. It is late in the down, he has to make this throw across his body, and it goes against everything you are taught as a quarterback.
So of course he completes it:
Yes, Kelce is left wide open. Because why would you expect Mahomes to make this throw? The Texans are in zone coverage, and as Mahomes breaks the pocket underneath defenders slide in his direction. But the danger of playing Mahomes is that he forces you to truly defend “every blade of grass.” There is not a throw he will not attempt, and that ability — that audaciousness — is what makes him so difficult to defend.
But what really makes Mahomes difficult to defend is not the absurd.
But the mundane.
Lost in all the highlight-reel moments he has shown over the years is the fact that Mahomes also does the little things that matter so much at the position. Yes, he can break the pocket and make throws like this, flaunting all the rules of quarterback play. Yes, he can make no-look passes with pinpoint accuracy. He can do all of those things that lead SportsCenter and kids mimic in the street after school.
But he is also a master of the mundane.
Take this play, which started the fourth quarter and is among his streak of completions. The Chiefs face face a 1st and 10 at their own 41-yard line, and Mahomes comes out of a run fake to read a three-receiver concept on the left side of the field. But after the zone coverage from Houston takes away all three options, watch how the QB gets his eyes, and his feet, set to throw the backside curl route on-time and in-rhythm:
This throw won’t lead SportsCenter. My son and his buddies won’t try and emulate this after school today.
But the mundane matters.
A few plays later, the Chiefs faced a 2nd and 7 at the Houston 44-yard line. Mahomes reads the middle of the field, before throwing an out route to Marquez Valdes-Scantling. After coming off Kelce’s route, he is still able to make this throw with timing, rhythm, and anticipation:
Mahomes does a good job at “setting the hallway” to make this throw. As he finishes his drop, he gets his front foot and lead hip pointed towards Valdes-Scantling, which allows him to make this throw towards the boundary with ease. Mahomes has the arm talent to make almost any throw from any platform, but on this play, even the mechanics are impressive.
Mahomes and the Chiefs pulled out the win in overtime, and while this last example was not the reason they won, it is another example of Mahomes doing the little things that matter at the position. He connects with JuJu Smith-Schuster on an in-breaking route, and watch as Mahomes puts this throw to the upfield shoulder, leading the receiver to additional yardage:
The mundane matters.
Mahomes deserves a ton of credit for everything he can do on the field, and for how he can break the rules of quarterback play at any given moment. Years ago I posited that he was part of the paradigm shift at the quarterback position, changing how we think about quarterbacks, how we evaluate quarterbacks, how teams draft quarterbacks, and how the position is played.
But he, himself, shows us each week that while the impossible is in fact possible, that the mundane is critical.
That it matters.
