Defense aims to limit Mahomes’ big plays
New DC Weaver says key will be putting the star on the ground
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ cannon of a right arm, escape artist skills and uncanny poise and creativity makes him one of the most dangerous passers to play in the NFL in decades.
The reigning Super Bowl Most Valuable Player can flick his wrist and launch a spiral anywhere on the field. His accuracy is usually flawless, no matter how difficult a passing lane he’s dealing with. And Mahomes is extremely difficult to tackle because of his power, speed and body control.
That’s why Mahomes was signed to a 10-year contract with a maximum value of $503 million, the richest contract in Northern American professional sports history.
The Texans learned a painful lesson about Mahomes’ excellence during an embarrassing 51-31 playoff defeat in January at Arrowhead Stadium. Mahomes exposed a defense with a nonexistent pass rush and a shaky secondary to engineer a comeback as he completed 23 of 35 passes for 321 yards, five touchdowns and zero interceptions and a 134.6 passer rating. Three of his touchdowns went to tight end Travis Kelce.
Now, the Texans are banking on first-year defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver’s first game plan providing a winning formula in the season-opener
Thursday night in Kansas City against Mahomes and a formidable Chiefs offense that includes Kelce, wide receiver Tyreek Hill and shifty rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
How the Texans fare against Mahomes represents a huge test for the defending AFC South champions. It’s also one week before the Texans square off against gifted Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson at NRG Stadium.
“He’s honestly one of the best quarterbacks I’ve ever seen, and the thing about him is the play is never over,” Weaver said. “You think you’ve got him in the grass, he escapes and he’s chucking the ball down the field. It doesn’t matter if he escapes to the right of the pocket, the left side of the pocket. He can make every throw from every angle. The guy is remarkable.”
In just three NFL seasons and two as a starter, Mahomes has already passed for 9,412 yards, 76 touchdowns and just 18 interceptions.
To beat the Chiefs, the Texans will need to get Mahomes on the ground. He wasn’t sacked in their playoff game. Mahomes has an ultra-quick release, throws extremely well on the move and was only sacked 17 times last season.
During the Texans’ 31-24 win over the Chiefs during the regular season last year, Mahomes was sacked once, lost a fumble and threw one interception as he was limited to three touchdown passes.
“What poses the biggest problem, particularly as a rusher, is typically when you’re facing quarterbacks you can give them a launch point,” Weaver said. “This guy likes to launch the ball between anywhere from seven yards to six and a half behind the snap. You can’t say that about Pat.
“He can throw the ball from anywhere on the football field and still make every throw. He certainly poses a problem, but we’re going to do our best to try to limit his explosive plays.”
Weaver joked Sunday that he might have to check and see if they can have 12 men on the field on Thursday.
“I was hoping, with all the COVID protocols, they would give us an extra player to play with on defense, but we couldn’t talk the league into that,” Weaver said.
This game will provide a huge litmus test for a defense that wasn’t good enough a year ago to make a longer playoff run.
The Texans finished 28th in total defense last season, ranking 25th against the run and 29th against the pass. The Kansas City game represented rock bottom for a defense that is hoping that a healthy J.J. Watt, who was in his second game back in the playoff loss from a torn pectoral, will make a big difference.
Mahomes is expecting the Texans defense to give him different looks this time. He’ll be looking to adapt to some kind of curve ball.
“I think you’re going to see me being able to make adjustments quickly,” Mahomes told Kansas City reporters Sunday. “Going into a game like this, obviously we played the Texans at the end of last year, but they had the whole offseason to prepare, especially for us being that first game.
“You have to expect the unexpected and that’s what we’re going to try to do. We’re going to have a game plan for everything, and I’m going to try to make adjustments as quickly as possible so we can get off to a fast start hopefully.”
During the offseason, the Texans retained their best cornerback, Bradley Roby, on a three-year, $36 million contract and extended outside linebacker Whitney Mercilus with a four-year, $54 million deal.
They signed safety Eric Murray to a three-year, $20 million deal and installed him next to returning safety Justin Reid.
The Texans squandered a 24-0 lead against the Chiefs as the defense and special teams experienced an ugly meltdown.
“I guess the biggest point home is not only do you have to start fast, but you have to finish strong, too,” Reid said. “We just have to have the grit and the strong mentality to be tough, smart, dependable and come out on top and play the full 60-minute game through and through.
“That’s what it’s going to come down to, especially being the first game of the season. Tackling is going to be huge. No mental errors is going to be extremely huge on both sides.”
The Texans are hoping that young players such as defensive linemen Ross Blacklock and Charles Omenihu and outside linebacker Jacob Martin will help provide a better pass rush to keep the Chiefs offbalance.
It all starts and ends with how the Texans fare against Mahomes, the former Texas Tech star who has dazzled the league over the past two years.
Will the Texans have an answer for the vexing question: How do you stop Mahomes?
“Definitely the formula that everyone’s trying to find the answer to,” Reid said. “Patrick Mahomes is a special quarterback, his ability to move around the pocket and his arm strength and arm talent. The biggest thing there is don’t let him be able to get out of the pocket because when a guy like that, with the arm talent that he has and all the speed around him, those guys have more time to run down the field.
“It’s tough on the front and on the back end to guard guys for that long. The big thing is: keep continuous pressure on him, take away his biggest targets, Kelce and Tyreek Hill. Just get pressure in his face. Don’t let him just sit back there all day.”