Kansas City Chiefs fans should pay close attention to Andy Reid’s goal-to-go playcalling following a highly efficient Week 1 showing against the Chargers.
Overreactions and hot takes abound after Week 1 of the NFL season. For the Kansas City Chiefs, very different reactions have come in on the offense and defense, respectively. What has me particularly interested heading into Week 2 against the Pittsburgh Steelers is the Chiefs’ goal-to-go play calling
Last week the Chiefs ran a total of five plays on two different drives inside the Charger’s five yard line. Not a tremendous sample size, but the Chiefs were highly effective. Simply put, Andy Reid was feeling it, and the offense executed perfectly—an A-plus showing in Week 1. They scored two touchdowns, both on flip passes off of jet motion actions coming from shotgun. Both plays thoroughly confused the Chargers defense, with DAT and Tyreek Hill walking into the end zone. How do the Chiefs follow that up in Week 2?
Much like the expanded use of the interior shovel pass last year, it will be interesting to see how Andy Reid builds off the Chargers win to further confuse and misdirect defenses as the season progresses. Having linebackers and edge defenders account for the flip pass to a receiver in motion will inevitably open up inside runs. It will also free up interior passing lanes to inline tight ends—just in time for the return of one of Reid’s favorite end zone targets, tight end Demetrius Harris.
Reid is great at setting up defenses and being one step ahead of their adjustments. I expect that on the Chiefs first offensive goal-to-go snap, close attention will be paid to those defensive alignments. Reid will either punish failures to adjust, or exploit over-corrections. It’s a beautiful chess game I hope to see this week.
However, despite the overall effectiveness of the Chiefs in goal-to-go scenarios, some individual plays disappointed. In particular, on two separate occasions Mahomes kept the ball on zone reads, fell short of the goal line, and took a lick for his efforts. Not every play can be a touchdown and it’s a read option, but hopefully those hits can be minimized. On the other hand, Mahomes showing the willingness to keep it is not without some value going forward.
Secondly, Kareem Hunt had no touches inside the five. To be fair his presence is a key part of the misdirection on the two scoring plays, and the aforementioned read option plays are predicated on how defenses respect Hunt and Mahomes as a runner. Call me old fashioned, but I’d like to see Hunt line up behind Sherman this week for one or two more traditional zone runs. That is assuming Sherman isn’t too winded from his downfield receiving duties.
As the Chiefs face Pittsburgh, goal line play calling is something to key in on. Hopefully the Chiefs can be equally efficient, limit Mahomes’ exposure to big hits, and take advantage of defensive adjustments based on last week’s performance. Let me know what you all think in the comments. Go Chiefs!