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

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by O.city

Which numbers? Which ratings?

Cause if I look at the numbers from last year, it seems they're right in the 15/16 range. Which allowed them to have one of the better offenses in the NFL last year.

Look at the individual rankings - not sacks allowed.

If you just look at sacks allowed we don't seem too damned bad.

When you look at the breakdown of a player and if he lost ground/held a block/got pushed back it doesn't score so well.

Alex will forever be elevated as my second favorite KC QB not because of what he did but because of what he didn't do while holding together a sinking ship his first 3 years.

IMHO he's Cap fighting Thanos and holding the glove up for a few seconds because that's who he is. It's what he does.

The best way I can put this is when people look at draft picks they want to know the floor and the ceiling. When we got smith he had an 85 floor and a 92 ceiling. He would never, EVER, lead the league in anything but he would always play good enough to make the playoffs.

He took a team with the no 1 pick to the playoffs the following year. Don't forget that.

How many times has that happened?

Mahomes has a 99 ceiling and a 65 floor. If he doesn't progress and he doesn't learn he's a guy with a career 6-10 record with Mike Vick levels of rare talent.

When he's on he can make throws no one, NO ONE, else in the league can make. If he gets lazy, if money gets him, if he marries the wrong person, he'll make 2 of those throws a game and we'll lose.

People don't know how smart Mahomes is. He's a quiet guy. He's humble.

There's a difference between faith and facts. I have faith in Mahomes.

The facts will or won't come...

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Rausch

Alex will forever be elevated as my second favorite KC QB not because of what he did but because of what he didn't do while holding together a sinking ship his first 3 years.

Alex Smith sucks.

[Bwana]

A Pledge?

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Fish

Alex Smith sucks.

Yes, but he sucks LESS than most starting QB's that suck.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Bwana

A Pledge?

By the way there are no current allegations against him for being a pedophile.

That gif is approved for public consumption.

All comments in this post are tentatively approved only on current information and all statements therein are allowed to be deleted or changed up on request or protest based on future allegations, political winds, or whatever helps me to personally stay in good standing.

[lcarus]

Glad to hear they have addressed it and are hellbent on improving protection. No "preseason" excuses or any BS. They sucked, they know it, they gotta do better.

[TEX]

Originally Posted by lcarus

Glad to hear they have addressed it and are hellbent on improving protection. No "preseason" excuses or any BS. They sucked, they know it, they gotta do better.

Yes. Very good sign.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by FringeNC

Not sold on Andy Heck.

To be clear I am not a believer in our current O line coach.

Not at all.

And by that I'm saying he should be fired immediately and replaced.

[KChiefs1]

OL will be the downfall of this team.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

OL will be the downfall of this team.

IMO it's one of the bottom 5 in the NFL.

It's ****ing terrible.

And we have a rookie starter at the helm.

We didn't even burden a retread like Smith with this shit...

[TEX]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

OL will be the downfall of this team.

I completely agree. It's terrible. It's going to really hurt Mahomes.

We knew the _efense would have issues, especially the Secondary. I thought that the plan was that the Chiefs would build a great offense to overcome the defense. All the skill position players in the world won't help if the line is terrible. Mahomes can't air it out or learn anything lying on his back.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19

It will be interesting to see where Veach prioritizes money going forward offensively..

Right now one could argue that KC has the best overall set of weapons in the NFL, and that’s great. But if the OL struggles consistently, it won’t matter a whole lot..

Truthfully, if you give Mahomes the Cowboys awesome OL and their poor set of skill players, I think he’d do just fine and make those WRs look good.. but it’d still be a struggle to find open receivers early at times.

But hopefully we can find a balance somewhere in the middle. Which is what I thought we would have this year with an OL that should at least be average.

I totally agree.

[crayzkirk]

Isn't it about time for the "I've got to do a better job" video?

[Buckweath]

Those guys are all pretty much in their prime and have been playing together for a few years.

I would be quite surprised if they are anything worse than slightly below-average but I guess anything is possible.

It just doesn't make much sense to me that they would be much worse than last year. And they were plenty good enough last year despite not being anything special.

[TEX]

Originally Posted by Buckweath

Those guys are all pretty much in their prime and have been playing together for a few years.

I would be quite surprised if they are anything worse than slightly below-average but I guess anything is possible.

It just doesn't make much sense to me that they would be much worse than last year. And they were plenty good enough last year despite not being anything special.

Fulton helped a lot last year. He's gone now.... With the $$$ invested and having played together for a couple of seasons now (except for LG as usual) and with the task of keeping our first Franchise QB in 34 years upright, the goal should be higher than simply being "good enough."