How Patrick Mahomes is taking the NFL by storm:

Week two

Kansas City Chiefs v Los Angeles Chargers

Following up a four-touchdown performance in a big divisional win is hard to top, especially at Heinz Field, but Mahomes made it his mission to absolutely torch the Steelers in week two.

Since the Steelers saw Tyreek Hill burn the Chargers on a long punt return in the season-opener they decided to pin the dangerous weapon along the sideline when they went three-and-out, but the Chiefs counters by dropping two extra return-men deep just before the snap and De’Anthony Thomas takes the ball back along the sideline all the way to the opposing 10-yard line. As if it wasn’t hard enough to stop this Chiefs attack, Mahomes & company are in scoring range right off the bat. After a nice lead-run by Hunt a holding call put the offense back to the 15, but they come out in an empty-set with trips to the left and as the single-high cheats over to Hill’s side, Mahomes drills in a seam route to Chris Conley out of the slot where the corner just can’t get to open the scoring party.

A broken coverage by the Steelers allows a big chunk play to Sammy Watkins. The Chiefs motion Hill from trio right behind the single tight-end on the left, the right cornerback Cameron Sutton bumps Sammy Watkins and keeps his eyes on the QB as if they were playing cover-two over there, but the single-high safety stays in the middle of the field and Watkins releases outside for a forty-yard gain on a fade route. However, it is the play after a stretch run that I want to focus in on. Once again Kansas City comes out in trio left with Kelce in-line to the right and they motion Hill to a tight split on the right. Pittsburgh originally counters with single-high safety alignment, but as Sutton follows Hill on the motion he already slightly drifts back signaling a two-deep shell. At the snap Mahomes’ eyes go towards safety Sean Davis on the two-receiver side and when he sees him move outside the hashes to the left, he immediately shifts back to the opposite side and can now see which way Sutton leans as he plays half field. Sutton opens up his hips to Hill on a wheel route and Mahomes shreds the Pittsburgh with another seam ball to backside of Kelce, where he can avoid a hit from linebacker Jon Bostic, who is way too slow to play Tampa-2 against a tight-end of that caliber.

Following a missed PIT field goal attempt the Chiefs offense starts their ensuing drive at their 39 already. A clever drive with Mahomes hitting a wheel route to Watkins booting to his left, draw plays, jets sweeps and zone runs the KC offense is back at the Pittsburgh five-yard line in a hurry. That is when Mahomes misses one of his only throws of the game, when he diagnoses man-coverage across the board through another Hill motion across the formation and has him and Kelce running quick-in routes while Hunt is going into the flats. Sean Davis and rookie Terrell Edmunds mess up and both take Hunt in the flat, leaving Kelce uncovered, but the balls a little high and in front. However, the Chiefs come out with the same formation, only now Watkins is the inside receiver and comes across. Once again Burns moves with the receiver in motion and give the Chiefs cover-zero with a six-man rush. Watkins runs a slant to clear out room to the outside. Now Mahomes has two options – Kelce on a whip-route working back to the outside or Hunt running a swing route. He goes to his back, who breaks a tackle and makes the score 21-nothing.

After the Chiefs defense almost gets a scoop-and-score, but sees it called back by an Orlando Scandrick holding call, the Steelers go on to rally all the way back to tie the game at 21. Even though Mahomes & company didn’t manage to score on their two possessions in-between due to false starts and sacks putting them in third-and-long situations and an incompletion forced by a hit, there was some good stuff by their young leader to watch. On one play Kansas City goes with a two-by-two set with a tight-end on the left side and they run shallow cross with Conley on a drag route from the right and Kelce with a dig from the left. Before the play starts, Mahomes sees Davis backing up deep and Edmunds staying low, signaling cover-three with a robber and Mike Hilton lined up in the slot. Once Mahomes takes the snap he confirms that Hilton stays in the flats and now he can just read how Morgan Burnett leverages himself. The veteran drops out a little and stays balanced, so Kelce can get some easy separation breaking inside and the ball gets there right on the number to protect the TE from a hit. Had Burnett jumped on that immediately, Mahomes could have simply gone to the crosser.

With just 18 seconds left, Kansas City takes a knee and gets the ball back to start half number two. A nice back-shoulder fade to Hill after Artie Burns misses the bump and a good run after catch takes the offense all the way to the PIT 25. The Chiefs move from trips right to an empty set with Kelce and Conley coming across the formation and the RB going out to the right slot position, They now have the wide side to work while the defense still has to respect Watkins out wide into the boundary. Running four verticals versus cover-four usually isn’t the best option, but this is all about spacing. The front-side safety Edmunds has to stay at the level of the second receiver with everybody on that side going downfield and as Kelce is bending inside, the opposite safety Davis would have to sprint all the way to the middle of the field immediately to be able to make a play on the ball. The placement low and away from contact is perfect, so all Davis can do is give Kelce a shove into the end-zone even though he has his eyes towards the trips side the whole time.

With the Steelers putting together a long touchdown drive themselves, this explosive offense is asked to keep the scoring up. Kansas City now comes out in empty a lot and Pittsburgh counters with cover-two man. After hitting a whip-route to Kelce, Mahomes doesn’t really have a man-beater called, but feels T.J. Watt jumping inside off the right edge and scrambles for a first down. Following another one of those little touch sweeps with Hill, curl and stick routes being open now that the Steelers are afraid of being burnt deep and another huge gain to Kelce right in-between the numbers, the Chiefs are already back inside the PIT five. The following play they come out in ace right with an I-formation behind it. They fake zone left with Hunt sprinting out to the opposite flats where Mahomes is rolling, Kelce runs off the CB on a corner route and Burnett sucks up as Sherman comes back underneath the O-line. Therefore Mahomes finds Demarcus Robinson crossing the field at the back of the end-zone throwing slightly across his body to go back out in front.

The KC defense finally forces another punt and their offensive attack looks to give them a little cushion in this shootout. After completing another curl route to Watkins out of the slot and him turning that into a 25-yard gain, followed by a couple of trap runs, they are at the back at the opposing 26-yard line. As they present a double-wing empty set, Hunt motions from out wide to the left all the way directly into a swing screen fake to the right. Kelce and Hill run crossing fades over of the top of that while Harris and Watkins do the same to the left. Mahomes looks off the free safety by staring at Hill all along and then quickly shifts back Watkins, as he knows that he has man-coverage to that side. I would have liked to see that ball placed further to the inside, because Watkins had a step on his man and a perfect would have resulted in a touchdown, but this shows just how much Mahomes can manipulated defensive players already when you look at how long it takes Davis to redirect to where the ball is actually going.

An illegal hands to the face by one of the offensive linemen would have washed away whatever happened anyway and pushed them to a 1st & 20. After a tunnel screen to Williams out wide and forcing a neutral zone infraction, Mahomes comes right back in empty set with trips to the short side. The single-high alignment leaves Burns one-on-one on an island with Hill out wide to the short side. Davis is the free safety and all Mahomes needs to do now is hold him in the middle for a second by looking to the far side before throwing a beautiful go-route to Hill for his sixth touchdown of the day.

While Mahomes still completed another post-route on an RPO, this would prove to be too much for the Steelers to overcome. Overall the young signal-caller 23 of his 28 passes for six touchdowns and no picks. That means he had more touchdowns than incompletion, which is ridiculous. While I think his week one performance might have been even more impressive, Mahomes once again showed coverage recognition and manipulative skills to open up throwing lanes, while having the arm talent to hit all of them outside of those mentioned.