Patrick Mahomes looks at the MacBook laptop screen, studying his movements from 180 days earlier.
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It’s an August morning after a training camp practice, and the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback hunches over a round folding table in Missouri Western’s Blum Union, focusing in on the patterns he now knows by heart.
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The safety taking the bait. The celebration that ensues afterward.
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And now, he says, it’s time to tell the rest of the story.
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The conversation began with a question to Mahomes — one that has some significance again this week with the Chiefs set to face the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night in a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl.
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What, you ask the quarterback, was his favorite throw from KC’s 38-35 Super Bowl LVII victory?
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The one he chooses, he says, has special meaning.
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This call wasn’t supposed to be in the Super Bowl playbook. The Chiefs figured they’d run it too many times recently. They knew the Eagles would be preparing for it.
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And yet, leading up to the game, Mahomes’ meetings with coach Andy Reid, then-offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and then-QBs coach Matt Nagy guided all of them to the same place.
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“We were just like, ‘We’ve got to put this play in,’” Mahomes said.
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The decision ended up altering KC football history.
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Mahomes’ most revered pass in Super Bowl LVII, he says, is from the offense’s opening drive: an 18-yard touchdown to tight end Travis Kelce in the first quarter.
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That leads Mahomes to an anecdote, and also an Easter egg you might not have noticed.
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Two of the biggest throws of his career, it turns out, have now come on this exact same play.
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What the Chiefs needed
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The key, current Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy says, is the coverage tendencies.
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For the “out-and-up” to work — the route Kelce executed on his 18-yard touchdown catch — the Chiefs need to get a specific defense across from them.
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Film study led Mahomes and the coaches to this conclusion: As much as the Chiefs had shown this play, it still had a good chance of success against the Eagles.
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In these types of red-zone situations, Philadelphia had a tendency. It typically went with man-to-man coverage or Cover 4 Zone, which charges deep defenders with taking a quarter of the field each.
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Here’s the kicker, though: With either of those looks, when Kelce breaks his route toward the sideline, he’ll essentially be going against a single defender.
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And that was likely to be either a linebacker or safety.
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“We liked that matchup,” Nagy said, “between (that defender) and Kelc.”
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This takes some faith in your quarterback as well. If the Eagles mixed things up, Mahomes would be tasked with getting to a different progression while finding someone else on the backside of the play.
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Here, though, the Eagles went with man coverage.
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And if they’d have gone with Cover 4?
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Well, the Chiefs already knew they could beat that — and on the biggest of stages, too.
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Copying a game-winner
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Mahomes says to go back and look at the replay. You can see it then for yourself.
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Kelce’s famous out-and-up in the Super Bowl was the carbon copy of another famous moment in Chiefs history.
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And that was the game-winning score — in overtime — of KC’s “13 seconds” playoff victory over the Buffalo Bills in January 2022.
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“It’s the same play,” Mahomes said.
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And a closer inspection shows just why the Chiefs like it in these scenarios.
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Buffalo is playing Cover 4, which means linebacker Matt Milano’s responsibility is to cover Kelce when he initially runs to the flat.
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That doesn’t go well for Milano. Kelce shakes outside — with Milano closing on the out route — before the tight end shimmies back upfield. Then-Chiefs receiver Tyreek Hill, in this instance, attracts two deep zone defenders with a post route in the end zone, clearing all the room that Kelce needs.
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The video shows Mahomes giving a quick pump-fake toward Hill for good measure, then firing to Kelce for the touchdown near the sideline.
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Milano is in pursuit. But there’s nothing he can do.
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“It’s perfect for these coverages,” Mahomes said.
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Which is why the Chiefs got it ready again a year later in the Super Bowl.
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Even if the Eagles might’ve guessed it was coming.
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Mahomes-Kelce magic (and belief)
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Nagy remembers his initial thoughts once he heard coach Andy Reid call Kelce’s play on the headset of Super Bowl LVII: “There’s a high percentage of this being a completion.”
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It was more than just preparation, though. Nagy said there’s something to be said about a call when everyone believes it will work.
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“We’ve run it throughout the year and the previous years,” Nagy said. “But when you have a play that guys have confidence in … first of all, it’s going to Kelce. Second of all, Pat has confidence.”
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And on this snap, the Eagles played it precisely as the Chiefs hoped.
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Philadelphia had man coverage, putting safety Marcus Epps on Kelce. Epps had done his homework, Mahomes says, which is evident as he rewatches the replay.
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“We run this play a lot where (Kelce) has the option to break in or out, and we did the out-and-up,” Mahomes said. “You can tell the DB knows we run this play a lot, because when (Kelce) breaks out, that DB tries to trail to that back hip, thinking I’m gonna throw the ball.”
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Mahomes, however, does not.
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He waits until Kelce completes his fake-out, as the tight end acts like he’s headed toward the sideline before jerking back upfield.
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Epps stumbles while trying to cover the double move.
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Checkmate.
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“They bit on it,” Nagy said, “which made it easier.”
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From there, Mahomes says it’s “all about just putting it out there and letting him (Kelce) make a play.”
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Kelce cradled the pass over his right shoulder at the goal line, slipping on the turf before celebrating the touchdown that tied the game at 7.
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“It was a sweet call,” receiver Justin Watson said.
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“I think it kind of jumped everything off for us,” Mahomes added.
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“Especially to start the Super Bowl with a touchdown to those two guys,” Nagy said, “that was awesome.”
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Mahomes sees the touchdown as more than just a few seconds of proper execution, though.
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It was the Chiefs knowing the opponent … but also themselves. It was realizing the other team knew what might be coming … but having the chutzpah to call it anyway.
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It was the audacity to call the same Kelce route that had already won a game for the Chiefs in the playoffs.
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And when it all came together in Super Bowl LVII? The result is a pass Mahomes says he’ll always remember as his favorite.
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“Obviously,” he said, “we like the play.”
Jesse Newell – ele ganhou um EPPY de melhor blog de esportes e anteriormente foi eleito o melhor plumitivo de sua circulação pelos Editores de Esportes da AP – cobre os Chiefs para The Star. Seu interesse em estudo esportiva vem de seu pai, professor de matemática, que distribuía réguas para os Trick-or-Treaters todos os anos.