After ‘kick in the pants,’ Chiefs’ O-line pledges to keep Mahomes cleaner on Friday

[pugsnotdrugs19]

Article from the KC Star this Sunday with some needed encouragement: https://www.kansascity.com/sports/nf...216549170.html

Full article in the spoiler tags below:

Spoiler!

By Brooke Pryor/KC Star

ST. JOSEPH —

The way center Mitch Morse sees it, Thursday night was the kind of reality check the Chiefs’ offensive line needed.

The first string of linemen played only nine snaps in the 17-10 preseason loss to the Texans, but those nine snaps revealed plenty about the group tasked with protecting the Chiefs’ young quarterback this season.

Patrick Mahomes was hit on four of those snaps, including on the very first one.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” Morse said. “You are not going to come off of that and be OK with how it went. Sometimes you need a kick in the pants to rev it up, get out there and see what you need to work on. If anything, we are glad it happened now. We wish it hadn’t happened, but if it’s going to happen, now is the time so we can get out there and be all-cylinders firing by the end of training camp.

“It’s not going to be perfect next game. We are just going to get better little by little every day. That’s all we can ask for.”

After being drilled from behind on the first play of the day — Houston’s Brennan Scarlett and Christian Covington beat left tackle Eric Fisher and left guard Cam Erving — Mahomes got through the final three snaps of the first series without taking another hit.

But the line broke down even more on the second series.

Mahomes delivered a clean screen pass to Tyreek Hill to open the series, and followed up with another clean completion to Travis Kelce, getting the ball off just and the Texans’ pressure ramped up.

Mahomes ended his outing by taking three consecutive hits, beginning with a sack as Angelo Blackson slipped under Mitchell Schwartz to make the initial tackle. Soon after, Duke Ejiofor and Scarlett converged on Mahomes as they beat tight end Demetrius Harris and Fisher, respectively.

On the next snap, Mahomes targeted Kelce but badly overthrew him in the corner, absorbing a hard hit from Ejiofor as the outside linebacker spun around Schwartz to hit Mahomes with ball leaving his hand.

The series ended on the next play when Mahomes was taken down by Ejiofor, Covington and Carlos Watkins, grounding the ball right before he was tackled.

“Protecting the quarterback is something we work very hard at,” offensive line coach Andy Heck said Sunday. “We’ve got to continue to work hard at it. You see on the first play of the game, our quarterback got hit. As an O-line, that’s not acceptable. We know the importance of protecting the quarterback, particularly early in the game. So we’re busting our butts out here, working on throwing our hands, making sure we’re accurate with those punches in our technique.”

Even after the breakdowns in Thursday’s game, the top offensive line unit remained the same in Saturday and Sunday’s practices until right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif left early to be evaluated for a head injury. With Duvernay-Tardif out, second-teamer Andrew Wylie took over at right guard.

Each first-string player on the Chiefs’ line — LT Fisher, LG Cam Erving, C Morse, RG Duvernay-Tardif, RT Schwartz — has at least four years of experience in the NFL. Fisher has six years’ experience with the Chiefs, and Schwartz has been in the league seven years.

Even so, the group still struggled to jump into the rhythm of a game on Thursday night.

“What I saw out of that group was great effort and intensity and probably a little bit of jitters and over doing some things,” Heck said. “We’ve got a high standard. We’ve been a young O-line in the past, but right now, we’re one of the older, more experienced groups on this team. We expect a lot out of those guys and a lot out of ourselves in that area.

“So we know that we’ve got to amp up the intensity, put the pressure on ourselves, raise that bar a little bit and keep working hard.”

The Chiefs’ line will have a chance to give Mahomes a smoother start against the Falcons on Friday night before heading to Chicago the next week.

“I think you want to give the first few plays, your quarterback an opportunity to get a rhythm going,” Morse said. “As an offensive line, we need to do a better job to give him that opportunity. So we go out there and we do what we’re told. That’s part of the gig.

“Coach puts together a great first few plays, first few drives, and that’s our chance to get out there and really protect.”

Read more here: https://www.kansascity.com/sports/nf...#storylink=cpy

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Coochie liquor

Andy Heck has to be the worst o line coach in the league. Ok maybe Dungvers is worse...

Andy was the guy across from DT in the seven-sack game. I've always kind of wondered about the wisdom of having an offensive line coach who holds the record for most sacks yielded in a game when he was playing.

[Simply Red]

It's all vanilla - they don't wanna tip their hand - blah blah blah ...

[FloridaMan88]

Atlanta looked terrible in their first preseason game so Friday will have some interesting urgency for a second preseason game.

[Chiefshrink]

Originally Posted by Eleazar

Hopefully Mahomes doesn't develop happy feet and lose his confidence in the pocket when he's running for his life all year

Texas Tech prevents this from happening. But your point well taken.

[dlphg9]

I hate the preseason. It means nothing, so I'm sure the starters don't give a shit about trying their hardest in a pointless game that has no effect on their lives or if they start or not.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by GMitch

Did you ever see any of his college games? Worst O-line in the country. He was the only thing keeping that team going.

He might have been able to run away from everyone on the defense in college but that's not going to work at the NFL level.

[Chiefshrink]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

I hate the preseason. It means nothing, so I'm sure the starters don't give a shit about trying their hardest in a pointless game

I hate the pre-season as well BUT it does matter for mojo and chemistry "ESPECIALLY" with a new QB that you have to protect so that he doesn't get happy feet. 4 out of the 5 have played together for 3yrs now and all have been PAID and all have just played average in those 3yrs. Nothing like the lack of urgency in a talentless overpaid o-line that can ruin a talented new QB in a hurry.

IT DOES MATTER !!

[RealSNR]

I’d be more encouraged if they said something besides “We’re just gonna continue to work and get better.”

That implies that you’re not going to change your approach. You’re just going to do more of the practice that led you to play like utter shit.

Change something. Say, “we’re gonna watch more film” or “we’re gonna really hammer fundamentals nonstop.”

Don’t just “Keep working hard.” You know who else is just going to keep working hard? The Texans defense and everybody else who will abuse Fisher and Erving this season

[Chiefshrink]

Originally Posted by RealSNR

I’d be more encouraged if they said something besides “We’re just gonna continue to work and get better.”

That implies that you’re not going to change your approach. You’re just going to do more of the practice that led you to play like utter shit.

Change something. Say, “we’re gonna watch more film” or “we’re gonna really hammer fundamentals nonstop.”

Don’t just “Keep working hard.” You know who else is just going to keep working hard? The Texans defense and everybody else who will abuse Fisher and Erving this season

So are you worried about our o-line and 2ndary yet?

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by RealSNR

I’d be more encouraged if they said something besides “We’re just gonna continue to work and get better.”

That implies that you’re not going to change your approach. You’re just going to do more of the practice that led you to play like utter shit.

Change something. Say, “we’re gonna watch more film” or “we’re gonna really hammer fundamentals nonstop.”

Don’t just “Keep working hard.” You know who else is just going to keep working hard? The Texans defense and everybody else who will abuse Fisher and Erving this season

Eric Fisher and O-Line fierce strike next week.

[Chiefshrink]

Originally Posted by Eleazar

He might have been able to run away from everyone on the defense in college but that's not going to work at the NFL level.

True.

[JakeF]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Andy Heck did a great job with LDT. He’s also done a great job with Morse (when he’s healthy). He also did a great job with Fulton.

Fisher is who he is and Erving should not be a starting OL, ever.

Sorry but LG is on Veach and Dorsey.

Heck was also in charge of our offensive line when they couldn't handle stunts for 2 or 3 years straight. It seems like under Heck our offensive line develops slowly and lacks polish. We can't blame poor offensive line play on Alex Smith anymore.

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by Chiefshrink

So are you worried about our o-line and 2ndary yet?

I would be fine if they’d just do the responsible thing and bench ****ing Erving. He was NEVER in my assessment of the ability of the OL.

The secondary was never something I was confident about. I DID say, however, that we were better at CB than safety. That definitely appears to be the case. We have a few corners who can kind of play meh. We have exactly ONE safety, and now he’s bound for another Achilles tear apparently.

We REALLY need Eric Reid. I wish Clark wasn’t a ****ing asshole and would just tell Veach to ****ing sign him.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Andy was the guy across from DT in the seven-sack game. I've always kind of wondered about the wisdom of having an offensive line coach who holds the record for most sacks yielded in a game when he was playing.

You'd think he would have changed his name to Andy God****ingdammit after that game.

[-King-]

Originally Posted by RealSNR

I’d be more encouraged if they said something besides “We’re just gonna continue to work and get better.”

That implies that you’re not going to change your approach. You’re just going to do more of the practice that led you to play like utter shit.

Change something. Say, “we’re gonna watch more film” or “we’re gonna really hammer fundamentals nonstop.”

Don’t just “Keep working hard.” You know who else is just going to keep working hard? The Texans defense and everybody else who will abuse Fisher and Erving this season

Lol watch film in preseason?

The clearly thought Texans would play extra vanilla like they did. Obviously they were wrong but they don't really need to change anything. Just take preseason a little more seriously.
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