Patrick Mahomes, Tyrann Mathieu Identify Room for Improvement From Win Over Texans
Despite a 14-point win over the Houston Texans in Week 1, the Kansas City Chiefs have their eyes set on offensive and defensive growth.
Both quarterback Patrick Mahomes and safety Tyrann Mathieu discussed the Chiefs’ weak areas during their post-game press conferences Thursday.
For Mahomes, the offensive issues were in the deep passing game. He noted that some of the shortcomings had to do with Houston’s defensive scheming, which was different from when the two teams met in the AFC Divisional round.
“They changed it up a lot,” Mahomes said. “They did a lot of stuff at the line of scrimmage and they kind of stayed back and put the safeties back. They put a guy over 10 [Tyreek Hill] pretty much the whole entire game. So, I think that’s what makes this offense so good week-in and week-out, we can change between games, we can go throughout our game plans and find ways to score and find ways to move down the field. It was running the ball and taking the short passes.”
None of the Chiefs’ receivers finished with over 100 yards, something that last showed on their box score in Week 17 of last season.
Wide receiver Sammy Watkins led the group with seven receptions for 82 yards and a touchdown. Tight end Travis Kelce and wide receiver Tyreek Hill were next in the stat-sheet, recording 50 and 46 receiving yards respectively. Both hauled in touchdowns as well.
In total, Chiefs receivers averaged 8.79 yards per reception from Mahomes. The number would’ve been larger if Demarcus Robinson kept control of what would’ve been a 39-yard touchdown. Robinson caught three of his six targets.
“Yeah, I mean there's just some missed opportunities here and there. I mean, obviously the D-Rob [Demarcus Robinson] touchdown, he made a heck of a play and just didn't finish it off at the end of the thing,” Mahomes said. “We had another drive where I didn't pick up a blitz the right way. I had to throw it hot and flat to Darrel [Williams] and if I had it picked up, we had guys open downfield.”
Despite the missed opportunities, the Chiefs' defense found a way to support the offense’s 17-7 halftime lead — with the exception of the fourth quarter.
The Texans got the best of the Chiefs' defense in the fourth, scoring their second and third touchdowns on back-to-back drives. One was a 19-yard pass from Deshaun Watson to Jordan Akins. The other was a one-yard Watson run.
Watson’s passing game to wide receiver Will Fuller combined with the ground-threat of running back David Johnson caused the trouble that led up to the scores. Mathieu said he wasn’t too happy about it happening.
“I’m pissed off,” Mathieu said “I felt like we played fairly decent, you know up until probably the last couple stretches in the fourth quarter. We started giving up big plays, big chunks — things that we weren’t necessarily doing throughout the game. In my mind, we have a lot more work to do. If we would’ve held those guys to seven points, it would’ve been a much better feeling. I think those guys scoring 20 leaves a bad taste in our mouth. We got a lot of work to do. I’m looking forward to next week.”
The Chiefs head to Los Angeles for a matchup with the Chargers in Week 2, set to kick off at 3:25 p.m. Sunday, September 20. It'll be the Charger's inaugural game at SoFi Stadium, which they'll share with the Los Angeles Rams.
