For over a dozen seasons, Kansas City Chiefs fans have learned the importance of head coach Andy Reid’s opening offensive script.
But that 15-play plan was dealt a crippling blow in Friday’s 27-21 season-opening loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil. Second-year wideout Xavier Worthy — widely expected to be the team’s primary offensive weapon while fellow receiver Rashee Rice serves a six-game suspension — was lost after suffering a dislocated shoulder on the offense’s third play. With Worthy in the locker
room, the Chiefs punted on each of their first three drives, gaining only 28 net yards over a dozen plays.
Even so, quarterback Patrick Mahomes has confidence in the team’s other wide receivers during Worthy and Rice’s absences.
“I think it’s more just getting guys into the right spots,” the face of the league told reporters before Wednesday’s practice. “Obviously, you try to rep and give guys opportunities at every single receiver position, but there’s only limited reps. So, when you have an injury, you have guys going in different spots [where] they haven’t got those reps before.
“But I thought the guys did well as the game went on — adjusting to that, stepping up and making plays. I thought they did really good in the second half of giving us a chance to go out there and try to get a win.”
The Chiefs’ offense did come to life in its three second-half drives, gaining 208 yards and scoring 17 points. Mahomes believes his first big connection with one of the players stepping up for Worthy — former New England Patriots second-round pick Tyquan Thornton — sparked the rally that made the game competitive. With the Philadelphia Eagles on tap for a Super Bowl LIX rematch on Sunday, Mahoems knows the pace will need to pick up much earlier in the game.
“I missed a couple of shots,” Mahomes recalled, “but once I hit that one to Tyquan down the sideline towards halftime — I thought from then on, I did a good job of kind of recognizing when to take shots, when to hit the stuff underneath and just getting the ball out to guys and letting them make plays. So [I’m] just trying to do that faster, so that we’re not in that deficit.
“It will be important this week — especially with how [the Eagles] play football, and how they can run the ball and throw the ball on their side of the football — being better from the beginning and not just as the game goes on.”
One receiver the Chiefs will likely try to get heavily involved against the Eagles is veteran Hollywood Brown, who finished Friday’s game with 10 receptions for 99 yards — including a 49-yard bomb from Mahomes late in the fourth quarter as the Chiefs attempted an unsuccessful comeback.
“I think Hollywood just kind of got more and more comfortable as the game went on,” Mahomes observed, “and we asked him to do a lot of things. He kind of had to run his routes, Xavier’s routes and all the in between. So, I thought he did a good job of recognizing what he needed to do, recognizing coverages and making plays happen. He’ll be big this these next couple of weeks as we try to get Xavier back… but it’s something I think he’s ready for.”
Speaking after his quarterback on Wednesday, Brown reminded reporters that the team’s wideouts cross-train on routes and formations. This way, the game plan doesn’t necessarily have to be abandoned after a crucial injury.
“I don’t think it went by the wayside,” Brown remarked of the team’s offensive plan. “We’ve got guys that we’re interchangeable, but X was a big part of the game plan. We had to step up, [and] guys had to move around. I feel like everyone did a good job of knowing different spots and different places that we had to move.”
Brown missed most of last season with a shoulder injury of his own. When Reid spoke on Wednesday, gave a shout-out to Brown and fellow veteran JuJu Smith-Schuster — who caught five passes for 55 yards on Friday — for stepping up in Worthy’s absence.
“I thought all the guys did a good job,” said Reid. “They kept us in the game there, so I thought they did well catching the ball [with] a few yards after the catch — JuJu included in that that bunch. Hollywood had a big day. It was good to get him back in the swing.”
