Patrick Mahomes Week 13 film review: Good, but cracks are showing
The inconsistency on offense is starting to cause a "chicken or egg" issue with the Chiefs' star QB
You know the drill. Every week (well, most weeks) I’ll be charting every dropback by Patrick Mahomes this year, just like I’ve done for… well, his whole career. As I laid out in the Week 1 film review (which is unlocked so you can see the methodology in more detail), statistical analysis of quarterbacks, especially in small sample sizes, doesn’t really tell us the whole story or even most of it. So I chart things that the QB can control, such as accuracy, pocket presence, franchise throws, going through reads, and more.
Patrick Mahomes is not playing quite up to the standard he set last year. And I think I know why, at least in part.
We all know that the Chiefs offense struggled against the Packers, at least to close out drives. And I’ve covered in a fair amount of detail some of the issues that came from others on offense, from issues with the deep ball plays to inconsistency in being in the right places to shooting themselves in the foot.
However, we’ve reached a point now that, from what I can see, there’s definitely unfolded a bit of a “chicken or egg” problem on some plays in which Mahomes is feeling the need to make up for problems elsewhere himself. And that, while it has upsides, has affected him in ways that are tangible and are contributing to the offense struggling (even as he continues to play well above what the vast majority of QB’s are capable of).
And heck, it’s hard to blame him. It’s been a frustrating season for the offense. Some of his best plays/throws aren’t even counting at this point, and even Kelce isn’t blameless (this is a tough catch, by the way, but one he has to come up with even with the defender contesting well).
Let’s talk about Mahomes’ film against the Packers, and how the Chiefs need to keep searching for easier answers on offense consistently in order to avoid a situation where he continues to revert to his 2018 style of play (in a bad way).
-Week 1 (UNLOCKED, lays out the terms and methodology)
-Week 3 (no article, but the numbers are there in a week he was virtually flawless)