Can the Kansas City Chiefs make big plays against Washington?
By Greg Morse
The Kansas City Chiefs have been struggling in all areas this season, especially on defense. The Daniel Sorenson hate is at an all time high. Blown coverages and missed tackles have been the talk of the town. But what about the offense? They certainly haven’t been playing up to their usual octane.
Aside from the turnovers, the Chiefs offense has been severely limited in the past few games compared to their usual through the air antics. According to Gregg Rosenthal, the Patrick Mahomes has fewer 20-yard+ completions than Mac Jones, Jared Goff, and *gulp* Zach Wilson and Taylor Heinicke.
Chiefs opponents have shut down big plays. Mahomes has fewer 20-yard+ completions than Mac Jones, Zach Wilson, Jared Goff and Taylor Heinicke.
— Gregg Rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) October 12, 2021
The lack of downfield throws was extremely evident when the Chiefs played the Buffalo Bills this past Sunday. The Bills played two-high safeties, pretty much forcing the Chiefs to go short-yardage. That also didn’t seem to work out very often, as seen in the video below:
🚨🦬 Zero… zero is the number of time the Buffalo #Bills defense blitzed Patrick Mahomes Sunday night… their front four were able to generate enough pressure on his 56 drop backs which caused him to throw before he wanted to(leading to 21 incompletions)#BillsMafia #NFL pic.twitter.com/Jwlov7M8oM
— Marissa Myers (@Marissa_M27) October 12, 2021
So the question is, can the Chiefs return to (long)form this week against the Washington Football Team? If the answer is anything but ‘yes’ then the Chiefs will have some serious problems.
The Chiefs rank dead last in the league on defense, according to Lineups.com. The 31st ranked defense? The Washington Football Team.
Despite a strong defensive line (on paper), headlined by Chase Young and Montez Sweat, the Football Team is allowing nearly 300 passing yards per game. The lack of coverage on the backend could be why the Football Team signed CB Corn Elder to the active roster on Sunday.
Brian Baldinger gives us just an example of how the WFT has looked, in particular when they played the Bills – Josh Allen had lots of time, and the receiver was seemingly wide open.
@WashingtonNFL v @BuffaloBills @JoshAllenQB the only surprise about the outcome is how the #bills didn’t score more v this #WFT effort. This isn’t how you play football in the #NFL. #BILLSMAFIA #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/BLPfHJjLcx
— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) September 28, 2021
If that’s what the Bills did to the Football Team, and we saw what they did against the Chiefs defense, the hope is that Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense can put up similar explosive plays.
While hitting Tyreek Hill for long touchdowns is something every Chiefs fan wants to see, I think most would be content with anything other than the offense that has looked eerily similar to the Alex Smith death-by-a-thousand-cuts from the early Andy Reid days.