Chicken or egg? Pocket presence or blocking? Examining KC/LAC's pressure on Mahomes

What was really going on against the Chargers?

Any time the Chiefs offense is less than dominant in the Mahomes era (which is quite rarely), there’s a rush to judgment as to who should receive the blame.

That’s quite natural, but generally speaking we’re overly hasty in trying to determine such things. Broadcast views are limited, and the emotion of the game tends to cloud our judgment. This is especially true during a frustrating performance like what the Chiefs’ offense had on Sunday.

Post-game, a great deal of discussion circulated around how the Chargers had managed to hold the Chiefs to a mere 23 points, while hitting and harassing Patrick Mahomes throughout the day. The fingers were naturally pointed at the offensive line, particularly the interior, for failing to protect the franchise quarterback well enough, and the way the broadcast painted things (showing shot after shot of Mahomes taking… well, shot after shot) that’s quite understandable. One thing is certain: the Chiefs cannot have Mahomes getting harassed like that consistently.

However, such things are usually a bit more complicated than they appear. And while Mahomes is a tremendous quarterback, he does possess a specific pocket presence weakness that can at times make the line look worse than it is actually performing. And so I went back and charted every “pressure” by the Chargers Sunday (20 by my count) to try and ascertain what specifically went on that cause Mahomes to take as many hits as he did.

The first thing that should be noted is that the Chargers started their success against the Chiefs, at least early in the game, not on the front end but on the back end. Their coverage was consistently excellent throughout the game (and as physical as it could get, with multiple plays where the referees could have called illegal contact) and should be lauded, and Mahomes very often didn’t have his first or second option to go to. This extended plays and allowed the pass rush an extra second to get home.

In fact, the very first pressure of the game came in part because of pressure, and then compounded because of Mahomes’ tendencies and the Chargers playing off those tendencies

Here, you can see Mahomes look to several routes on the left side of the field to no avail. He progresses to the middle of the field and doesn’t see anything he likes there either. At this point an interior defensive linemen gets a nice spin off, but Osemele recovers to send him wide (and he trips over Fisher’s feet).

Mahomes doesn’t step into the natural pocket that’s created by this rush in the middle of the field. Instead, he tries to bail out right. The Chargers pass rusher is waiting for that (they were ready to break away all game for this sort of movement) and pursued him instantly. This was a case where Mahomes created the pressure, not the line.

We’ll get to the line in a bit, because more blame rests on them than Mahomes. Of the 20 pressures I charted, “blame” was allocated as follows:

• 12 pressures on offensive line failure

• 7 pressures due to Mahomes’ movement

• 1 pressure due to RB failure vs a blitz (CEH)

So it’s important to remember that there were definitely protection issues against the Chargers. However, some of Mahomes’ drops were problematic for the tackles, and it resulted in some of the hits he took. Here’s an example of when that WASN’T happening, on a normal drop by Mahomes.

Notice where Mahomes’ back foot is before and after the “drop” here. By its very nature, shotgun places the quaterback farther back from the line of scrimmage. This means that traditional 3, 5, and 7 step drops look a little different. Mahomes isn’t looking to drop back 5 yards from where he catches the ball because he’s already back from the line. Ideally, he stays in that 7-8 yards back from the line of scrimmage area. This is where his tackles are blocking for.

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Remember, tackles can’t see their quarterback while they block. They know where the “spot” is and they defend that, trying to react to what the rusher does as they go. So if the quarterback moves from that defined area it creates a huge problem for the tackles.

Here, the Chargers send an aggressive blitz, but it’s picked up by the Chiefs (in large part thanks to Mahomes’ pre-snap calls). However, despite the interior of the line being decent (despite the multiple rushers, Mahomes drifts back a full 10-11 yards behind the line of scrimmage as he surveys the field. That allows the edge rusher to run a relatively straight line towards him rather than needing to bend around the edge (where tackles can then direct them wide).

Mahomes takes a huge shot that alters his throw, and many Chiefs fans blamed Schwartz, but this wasn’t the block he was supposed to be making. Offensive linemen can’t protect a 5-yard area, especially against rushers as talented as Bosa.

A similar “drift” occurred when Bosa picked up a sack later on in the game.

This isn’t a particularly strong snap by Schwartz, so blame can be shared here. But watch where Mahomes’ feet end up after the snap. He’s once again over 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and Bosa (who started off looking to bull rush his way towards the anticipated spot) is able to run almost a straight line back to him.

Had Mahomes taken several fewer steps back here, he would have been able to step forward and Schwartz would have directed Bosa wide despite a rough initial start.

Now, none of this is to say Schwartz had a great or even good game Sunday. I charted 3 different snaps where he was directly to blame for pressure, which is well below what you’ll normally see from him. But Mahomes was responsible for multiple hits/pressures that were blamed on Schwartz initially, and for allowing Bosa to affect some plays he shouldn’t have.

There’s a nice pocket on this snap for Mahomes to step into, and Schwartz has a good rep against Bosa. But Mahomes doesn’t step up and instead tries to hurry the throw off an awkward platform, and the throw falls incomplete. Both Hill and Kelce were in a position to make a play with a good throw here, and Mahomes could have delivered it by stepping up.

The snaps I’ve shown here can’t be put on the interior line, or the tackles. They were issues of Mahomes not helping his line with his own movement, one of his very few “less than elite” traits that tends to come through against great pass rushes for periods of time.

It should be noted that as the game moved along and Mahomes saw that they were in a dogfight, his own issues dealing with the pass rush went by the wayside. This is demonstrative of his ability to adapt and correct issues DURING a game, which is something that very few quarterbacks can do. Of the final 8 pressures by the Chargers, only 1 was due to Mahomes’ movement. Other than that snap, he was willing to sit in the pocket and fire, which is where some of the offensive improvement came form down the stretch. He was also willing to hang tough against pressure (something he did do in the 1st half but did much better in the 2nd half)

Notice where Mahomes ends up at the back of his drop here. He doesn’t move as far backwards, and the edge rushers can’t just sprint towards him. Fisher has a poor snap and the pocket begins to get crushed, but rather than try to bail out Mahomes hangs in there and delivers a nice throw to Hardman.

Mahomes is the best quarterback in the league, but the Chargers (as well as the 49ers) were able to harass him into showing some of his bad habits a few times by having a tough interior/exterior pass rush as well as excellent coverage down the field. It’s a tough game plan to imitate, and of course it didn’t work out for either of those teams.

Ethan Douglas @ChiefsAnalytics

Chargers and 49ers have created a pretty clear script for how to play the Chiefs: 1): Draft a Bosa 2): Have an elite secondary 3): Play Cover 3 4): Lose anyways because Mahomes

Of course, there’s still the issue of the line. Both Fisher and Schwartz had some rough snaps against the Chargers’ elite edge rushers on Sunday, and Fisher in particular struggled giving up pressure on some stunts. However, one of the reasons Mahomes could be partially excused for bailing out of the pocket quickly was that he faced pressure in situations he really shouldn’t.

Here, the Chargers run a nice stunt, but Wylie sticks with his initial rusher rather than passing him off and Reiter appears late on the rusher moving inside (with a nice spin). Schwartz sees this and tries to help, but the angle is there and Schwartz doesn’t have leverage. Reiter, in the meantime, can’t generate enough strength and the pocket gets crushed as Mahomes has nowhere to realistically step up. This results in a big hit as Fisher’s man wins around the edge. Had Reiter been able to stop the rusher there would have been plenty of room for Mahomes here.

Reiter and Wylie didn’t have as bad a day as the narrative was from the fanbase, but when one of them lost it was badly enough to be problematic, even when Mahomes managed to make a play.

The pressure from the interior wasn’t quite as intense as people believe it to be, but it was frequent enough and fast enough that it should be a point of emphasis moving forward for the Chiefs. Wylie was the most frequent culprit, though Reiter had a few tough snaps as well. They even struggled together as a double team a few times while Osemele wasn’t directly responsible for a single one of the pressures despite being asked more frequently to take on blockers 1x1. So that needs to be addressed.

However, it wasn’t so intense that it justified the post-game narrative. The reality is Mahomes and the tackles were responsible for more of the pressure plays (14 out of 20) than the interior line.

The Chiefs ask a lot of their tackles, and count on them to win or at least play to draw in their matchups. Games where they cannot (Nick Bosa in the Super Bowl, Sunday’s game) cause them some issues. Mahomes compounded that against the Chargers by defaulting to some bad habits during the first 3 quarters.

So was it the chicken (the offensive line) or the egg (Mahomes) that struggled against the pass rush on Sunday? Well, the most accurate answer is “both,” and it helps explain why the Chargers had success against the Chiefs. When one went well, the other failed, and it became a situation where snap after snap felt like one in which Mahomes was getting hit.

The interesting (and encouraging) thing is that once one of those factors went away (Mahomes locking up his pocket presence down the stretch), the Chiefs began to move the ball with a lot more success. So if any one of those groups can tighten up (and there’s reason to believe both Mahomes and the tackles will be better in the future against pass rushers), it should be business as usual for the offense.