Here’s Patrick Mahomes planting his back foot and putting his hips into a throw that will span half the football field. And, oh boy, the other end is a rare sight: Marquez Valdes-Scantling has three yards on the last Eagles defender. A short while earlier, here’s Mahomes on a third down turning to his right. And, man, he has to be pleased with what he sees: Justin Watson has two steps on Philadelphia cornerback James Bradberry. A short while earlier still, here’s Mahomes immediately recognizing a blitz and throwing deep along the sideline. And you wouldn’t believe it, but there it is again: Valdes-Scantling is behind every member of the Eagles’ secondary.
The Eagles beat the Chiefs 21-17 on Monday Night Football, and the reasoning is such an unusual sentence that it feels strange to type. The Eagles didn’t just let a few receivers slip open downfield. They dared Mahomes and the Chiefs to beat them downfield — and then strutted out of GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium with a win because of it.
A Chiefs offense quarterbacked by Patrick Mahomes and coached by Andy Reid is among the most frustrating, agonizing and just plain hard to watch in all of football right now. The Chiefs are the very worst second-half team in the league. They haven’t scored a point after halftime in a month.
We’re left to an all-too-familiar conversation, trying to diagnose how fixable (or not) their struggles might be. But for an entirely new reason. A more worrisome reason. The Chiefs have snapped into one of the league’s worst teams throwing the deep ball — and after a rainy Monday night, there ain’t an excuse left in the Rolodex for it. For weeks — nay, months — I’ve talked about it and asked about it, and the response is consistent. That’s just the way defenses are playing the Chiefs. And you know what? That rationale had some legitimacy. Had.