Flores Gets Another Shot at Chiefs Offense
Few coaches have had much success slowing down the Kansas City Chiefs offense since Patrick Mahomes took over as the starting quarterback in 2018, but Brian Flores has done it twice.
Sort of.
Allow us to explain.
In 2018, before he became the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Flores was the de facto defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots (only thing missing was the title) and he got two cracks at the Chiefs during Mahomes' MVP season — once in the regular season and once in the playoffs.
And both times the Patriots were able to control the Kansas City offense — though only for the first half.
The 2018 AFC Championship Game (played in January 2019) actually marks the last time any team has been able to shut out the Chiefs in the first half.
And, as fate would have it, the player perhaps most responsible for that first-half shutout was none other than Kyle Van Noy, who's coming off a performance good enough for the Dolphins to have been named AFC Defensive Player of the Week.
The Chiefs had four possessions in that first half at Arrowhead Stadium. Van Noy ended the first with a third-down sack; he teamed with Malcom Brown to stuff former Dolphins running back Damien Williams for no gain on a third-and-1 to stop the second; and Van Noy ended the last one when he sacked Mahomes and forced a fumble after the Chiefs had the ball at their 42 with 27 seconds left in the half.
Flores, Van Noy and the Patriots had a lot more trouble in the second half of that AFC Championship Game, with Kansas City scoring 31 points before New England pulled out a 37-31 victory in overtime by scoring a touchdown after winning the coin toss.
It was a scenario similar to what had taken place in the regular season at Gillette Stadium.
That time, the Patriots held Kansas City to three field goals in the first half before Mahomes threw four touchdown passes, though New England again pulled out a victory, winning 43-40 on a last-second field goal by Stephen Gostkowski.
Two years later, Mahomes and the Chiefs offense is every bit as dangerous, if not more.
Interestingly, Mahomes will come to Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday with the same passer rating (113.8) he had during his 2018 MVP season.
The challenge of slowing down that offense is equally daunting for Flores as it was two years ago.
“I remember it was hard to stop them," Flores said Wednesday morning. "It’s still hard to stop them. It’s probably harder to stop them now. ... When you talk about kind of seeing a team evolve, they’ve got a little bit of a killer instinct. Mahomes has got it. (Travis) Kelce has got it. (Tyrann) Mathieu defensively. (Chris) Jones. When they smell blood in the water, they go after you.
"Yeah, you’ve seen a lot of growth obviously since the last time I was on the field coaching against this group. They’re better. They’re confident. They play hard. They execute. They’ve got good coaches. If E.B. (Eric Bieniemy) is not a head coach here soon, something is wrong. It’s a good team. It’s a great challenge for us and we’re going to have to prepare and practice well this week, and play a competitive ballgame.”
Flores expounded on the challenge when he was asked if he had thought about how would go about covering dangerous wide receiver Tyreek Hill.
“Who are you going to put on (Sammy) Watkins?" Flores said. "Who are you going to put on Mecole (Hardman)? Who are you going to put on (Demarcus) Robinson. We’ve got to handle the backs too. (Clyde) Edwards-Helaire is a good back. Le’Veon Bell isn’t a slouch either. I wish we could have 14 defenders. That would be nice."
