This season, the Kansas City Chiefs reinvigorated the offense around quarterback Patrick Mahomes and started generating explosive plays again, whether through handoffs to running back Kenneth Walker or downfield throws off play action.
In Week 7, the Seattle Seahawks kept the Chiefs from finding any long gains, and suddenly, the offense looked as horrendous as it has in any game in the era of quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Mahomes finished with 165 yards on 19 of 33 passing, posting the fifth-lowest marks of his career for passing yards per attempt (5) and passer rating (58.3).
It was only the second time Kansas City has scored three or fewer points with Mahomes at quarterback. The other game was also in Week 7, in 2021, a 27-3 loss to the Tennessee Titans.
According to NFL Researcher on X, the Chiefs totaled the fewest yards and first downs of any game started by Mahomes.
It was a frustrating night for the two-time MVP, who played without two of his top wideouts — Rashee Rice (hamstring) and Tyquan Thornton (dislocated ankle) — and his starting right tackle, Jaylon Moore (concussion).
Still, Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense have produced more in similarly tough spots before. It was a failure from start to finish in Seattle. Head coach Andy Reid pointed to one key factor in the abysmal performance after the game in his post-game press conference.
“You got to keep yourself out of third-and-long situations,” Reid said at the podium. “You’ve got to do better on first and second down. We can do better. We had some penalties in there also that got us going in the wrong direction. Got to take care of those.”
On Kansas City’s opening drive, the Chiefs moved the chains on third-and-7, but the officials called an illegal shift on tight end Travis Kelce, wiping away any offensive momentum. Late in the first half, two incompletions opened a drive, and the Chiefs failed to convert on third-and-10 with a screen pass to running back Emmett Johnson.
Those possessions put the Chiefs in a hole, and Mahomes couldn’t dig him and the unit out of it. He threw an interception on a second-down pass in Seattle territory that could’ve been avoided. He also fumbled on a third-down play when he didn’t feel the pressure, ending a promising possession.
Mahomes reflected on the game at the podium in Seattle.
“In order to have success in this league, you got to be able to sustain drives, and we weren’t able to
do that,” Mahomes acknowledged. “And obviously they contained the explosive plays. So it’s stuff we have to continue to get better at. You can’t have those mistakes versus this defense.”
At one point in the first half, Mahomes was 7/14 with an interception and just 63 yards. He had five straight incompletions in the second quarter, including the interception.
“Especially early in the game, I thought my feet were kind of getting me into trouble, where I could have maybe sat in the pocket and made some of the throws down the field,” Mahomes admitted. “I got better a little bit later in the game. But at the same time, when you play a team like that, you can’t let them get ahead and get into a game they want to play.”
As the gunslinger settled into primetime, his receivers couldn’t step up with him, and the absence of Thornton was felt as heavily as it has since he was injured. When the offense found a rhythm in the second half, a drop by wide receiver Xavier Worthy had many in Chiefs Kingdom — including Mahomes — wanting to pull their hair out.
These feelings are part of a blowout loss, and the Chiefs quarterback knows it’s important to embrace them to move forward.
“The biggest thing is you got to feel it. This sucks,” Mahomes said. “You don’t want to perform like this in primetime on a big moment like this. You got to feel it on that plane ride home and understand that it sucks, but then how can you build off it?”
Whatever the solution is, it needs to happen for the offense to keep humming as it did in Weeks 1-4. Running back Kenneth Walker was held to just 36 rushing yards, which is simply not a winning formula.
“We have to help [Walker],” Mahomes said. “When they put so many eggs in that basket of stopping the run game, we have to have the play-action game and the movement game to be able to throw the ball. And if we’re not proving that, they’re going to continue to put those guys at the line of scrimmage, and that is hard for the run game.”
