Pete Prisco's take on the Chiefs Offense

[Couch-Potato]

Saw this on Reddit:

“This is just like last year where everyone is talking about concerns with Mahomes & the offense well I can tell you exactly what’s going on. They have a fantastic elite defense that does not get the national love or headlines they deserve. That young defense their GM built by trading Tyreek Hill to Miami, since last regular season is allowing Mahomes & Reid to be conservative with their pass play calls, run the ball more in September, October & November & slowly build up their pass game with rookie WR’s & cheap veterans who are not highly valued around the league but fit the Reid system well. You gotta understand Mahomes is 29 in his 7th season & Kelce is 35 but if you factor in their deep playoff runs over the last six years they have played an entire extra season & every game they play their opponent treats them like it’s their Super Bowl & it’s hard for them to get up week after week and match that intensity.

So their elite young defense & run game is allowing Mahomes & the pass game to take the LeBron approach. LeBron got to a point especially in his second stint in Cleveland where in the regular season he not play defense and settled for 3 point shots but when the playoffs arrived you saw LeBron at his peak form playing elite defense & attacking the rim relentlessly. Because of their defense, Mahomes & Reid in September, October & November are comfortable handing the ball off and being conservative in the pass game. Mahomes is not being aggressive throwing the football downfield right now or using his legs to make many throws on the move right now because it’s by design!!

He no longer prioritizes September, October, November and no longer cares about winning MVP’s or regular season awards, he prioritizes his body & peak play for when it matters most in late December & playoffs in January thanks to an elite defense. They’re (5-0) and Mahomes has been pretty dormant thus far and I’m telling you Kansas City feels great about themselves because it’s by design.” - Pete Prisco

[dlphg9]

Originally Posted by Pasta Little Brioni

Sure, but they simply aren't executing simple things either. Remember how many straight non scoring drives we had between the end of the AFCC and beginning of the Superbowl? Was that "holding back" too?

We are very fortunate for this defense

If he knows that he can rely on his D, then he doesn't have to play out of his mind. If the D wasn't elite, then he'd be playing better. It's like at the end of the game if we need points to take the lead, then I am more sure than I've ever been that Patrick is going to take this team on a game winning drive.

Patrick Mahomes delivers when he has to and the only example of him not doing that was the OT loss to the Bengals in the AFCCG. He delivered right before the EOR with a 14 play 6+ minute drive to tie the game. He just failed in OT. The only time he's ever failed in that position and he's been in that position a ton of times.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19

They're not executing or scoring how they want no, but what I'm saying is Andy isn't gonna show his best cards in October in order to make it better.

They'll either clean it up with penalties and execution or they won't, but either way, they save wrinkles and new stuff for gotta have it moments.

They do it every year. They'll run that same FB trap play every damn time on 4th and 1, and then it'll be late in the AFCCG and they'll have some spin off of it we've never seen that works to perfection.

I mean even corn dog was a relatively new thing.

Corn dog was shown one time in 2022. Mahomes did not run on option plays until the SB last year (4th and 1 OT play), McKinnon wasn’t used as a FB until the Eagles SB, the awesome Pacheco 4th and 1 play in Eagles SB where everybody pulled to the left wasn’t used until that play and the Hardman play to win it all wasn’t used until then either.

They have shit they keep ready for the right time. I saw them in camp do a wrinkle with corn dog with Rice where he started to go outside but then quickly turned inside again.

Andy ain’t showing his cards until it’s time

[O.city]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

I absolutely believe if this D wasn't elite and we needed 30+ ppg to win, then Patrick Mahomes would be playing at an MVP level. He knows he doesn't have to, so he doesn't play as good. I'm sure dragging this team got pretty exhausting, so now that he doesn't have to he's gonna let the D do it.

I’ve never understood that thinking though.

If I have such a good defense…I’d think I’d be more aggressive on offense as the defense can bail me out

[-King-]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

I absolutely believe if this D wasn't elite and we needed 30+ ppg to win, then Patrick Mahomes would be playing at an MVP level. He knows he doesn't have to, so he doesn't play as good. I'm sure dragging this team got pretty exhausting, so now that he doesn't have to he's gonna let the D do it.

This makes no sense. What would be the purpose? To make himself more annoyed when shit doesn't work? He likes 3 and outs more now than he likes touchdowns back in the day? He likes winning games 17-14 rather than 30-14 and the whole team can take the 4th quarter off? He watches the defense give A+ effort to bail them out and is purposefully giving C effort just because he knows the D will bail them out?

[-King-]

Originally Posted by O.city

I’ve never understood that thinking though.

If I have such a good defense…I’d think I’d be more aggressive on offense as the defense can bail me out

Yep. And being aggressive on offense in turn makes the defense better. Imagine if the defense could be rested because the offense was sustaining drives. Imagine if they could pin their ears back late in games because the offense made it a multiple score game.

[Bl00dyBizkitz]

Being aggressive on offense is great until suddenly you throw a pick at your own 30 and give your awesome defense very little to work with. Suddenly the awesome defense doesn't look so awesome anymore. That was the whole story of last year.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by Bl00dyBizkitz

Being aggressive on offense is great until suddenly you throw a pick at your own 30 and give your awesome defense very little to work with. Suddenly the awesome defense doesn't look so awesome anymore. That was the whole story of last year.

Interesting take. I don't recall the Chiefs offense being particularly aggressive last season. I do recall them being the worst 2nd half offense in the league. One of the worst on 3rd and long. One of the lowest scoring offenses in the league. I recall Pat's ADOT being one of the lowest in the league in 2023.


But I don't remember them being very aggressive. Is there a link to an article or some vids I can look at?

[tyton75]

When you have 3 RB's that are averaging 3.5 yds a carry or better. (Kareem at 4.5); you are going to be able to win a lot of games with the kind of defense we are playing.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by -King-

So wait, it is injuries and trying to figure it out or are they holding things back and they don't need to play well cause the defense is awesome? Can't have it both ways.

They're pretty clearly doing both.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by tyton75

When you have 3 RB's that are averaging 3.5 yds a carry or better. (Kareem at 4.5); you are going to be able to win a lot of games with the kind of defense we are playing.

KC is averaging 3.9yds/carry. Making them 26th in the league in rush yds/carry. Currently, league-average appears to be about 4.7 yds/carry.

[Basileus777]

They don't score a lot of points when they go run heavy, especially since they get no explosive run plays. They're probably holding back some red zone plays, but the idea that this is all by design is a lot of cope.

[Bl00dyBizkitz]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

Interesting take. I don't recall the Chiefs offense being particularly aggressive last season. I do recall them being the worst 2nd half offense in the league. One of the worst on 3rd and long. One of the lowest scoring offenses in the league. I recall Pat's ADOT being one of the lowest in the league in 2023.


But I don't remember them being very aggressive. Is there a link to an article or some vids I can look at?

Maybe aggressive is the wrong word.

We couldn't protect the football last year. And were also not doing a great job protecting the football this year. And what's the one thing that kills a great defense? Giving them a short field with no time to rest.

[Bob Dole]

I'd like to dedicate this song to Megatron.

https://youtu.be/TZnraQmPFq8?si=pWdpCExl4nh5tDqY

[Coochie liquor]

Originally Posted by Frazod

Seriously. Dude used to hate pick against us pretty much every week. I guess he finally got tired of looking foolish.

But it is nice to hear one of the more prominent talkingsportsheads acknowledge what we've all known for years - a regular season game against us is pretty much ALWAYS viewed as the opposing team's Super Bowl. We almost always get their best game, no matter what. Granted, I don't watch these shows and mainly only see snippets of the shit they say in YT clips, but I don't recall anybody else saying that.

It’s clear. When a team beats us in the regular season, their fans are chirping about it for years. Despite the fact that they have nothing to show for it, and the Chiefs are filling their fingers with rings!

Guy I work with who’s a Lions fan STILL talks about how they beat us last year game 1. Even through we won the SB. And he brings up the ****ing preseason game. YoU sTaRtEd KeLcE aNd MaHoMeS…..

[Chief Pagan]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

I absolutely believe if this D wasn't elite and we needed 30+ ppg to win, then Patrick Mahomes would be playing at an MVP level. He knows he doesn't have to, so he doesn't play as good. I'm sure dragging this team got pretty exhausting, so now that he doesn't have to he's gonna let the D do it.

Well yea.

Imagine as a counterfactual that Hollywood and Rice and Pacheco were 100% and KC lost Chris Jones for the season and the linebackers were in various states of coming in and out of the line up.