Mahomes still evolving as QB
KANSAS CITY, MO. >> The Kansas City Chiefs faced a crucial third-and-long with just under two minutes to go, clinging to a 3328 lead over the Baltimore Ravens and hoping to put the game away.
Patrick Mahomes dropped back to pass, looked left and lured the entire defense that direction, then flicked the ball the other direction. Backup running back Darrel Williams had slipped out the back side and was open, taking the screen pass for a first down and clinching the Chiefs’ 3-0 start.
It wasn’t Andy Reid’s call, though. Or a brilliant move by offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.
“That was Pat’s play,” Reid said. “He has the whole game plan and Saturday night we go through it and we hit those type of situations — ‘What would you like?’ — and we ask each quarterback what they would like if it was this situation. So, it’s a four-minute situation, third-and-10, and so that was his play for that situation, but that was already in the game plan.”
The ability of Mahomes to recognize what the Ravens were doing on defense, digest the magnitude of the situation and make the right call represents another step in his development.
He doesn’t just take the call from the sideline anymore. He understands why the calls are made, why they are designed the way they are, and what situations are best to use them.
“It’s actually a pretty cool story,” said Mahomes, the reigning league MVP, who threw for 374 yards and three TDs against the Ravens. “It just shows that every detail matters. We talked about that play the night before and you think people would let that go after not calling it for a couple years now, but we had it prepared, we called it and we succeeded.”