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 Deberg_1990

I’m sure this was just the ‘kick in the pants’ they needed!

I get it from that perspective that there isn't much else he can say.

What would he say?

"Yeah, other than LDT and myself this line is ****ing terrible. And honestly, I can't stay healthy so it almost doesn't matter..."

[CrowbarMan]

Did you think the OL was transformed from 9 months ago?

It's the same old song..

Inconsistency on Chiefs' OL putting limitations on Alex Smith - NFL.com, Dec 1st 2017

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300...-on-alex-smith

[TEX]

Originally Posted by Rausch

I get it from that perspective that there isn't much else he can say.

What would he say?

"Yeah, other than LDT and myself this line is ****ing terrible. And honestly, I can't stay healthy so it almost doesn't matter..."

Nailed it!
Now all the IDIOTS who defended the OL need to . We all KNOW what we saw. Only fools saw it differently. This is year 6 under Reid/ He's had PLENTY of time to "fix" the OL. LG has been a virtual turnstile the whole time. LT isn't much better. Put the two together and there are HUGE issues on the left side. The other night, our supposedly "good" RT got whipped by a back-up DE a couple of times, at the same time the usual bad stuff was taking place on the left side, which is UNACCEPTABLE. They're NOT protecting Alex Smith anymore - they're protecting the Chiefs most valuable resource in the past 34 years. Maybe the Chiefs wanted to duplicate Texas Tech's OL, so Mahomes would feel more comfortable running for his life? Bottom line is the Chiefs have far too much time & $$$ invested in the OL for it to be this bad. And WTF is Andy FKN Heck still doing coaching it?

[O.city]

Supposedly good? All pro RT? That the one?


I get that they struggled last week, but some of you guys are expecting the early 2000 Chiefs OL.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by TEX

Nailed it!
Now all the IDIOTS who defended the OL need to . We all KNOW what we saw. Only fools saw it differently. This is year 6 under Reid/ He's had PLENTY of time to "fix" the OL. LG has been a virtual turnstile the whole time. LT isn't much better. Put the two together and there are HUGE issues on the left side. The other night, our supposedly "good" RT got whipped by a back-up DE a couple of times, at the same time the usual bad stuff was taking place on the left side, which is UNACCEPTABLE. They're NOT protecting Alex Smith anymore - they're protecting the Chiefs most valuable resource in the past 34 years. Maybe the Chiefs wanted to duplicate Texas Tech's OL, so Mahomes would feel more comfortable running for his life? Bottom line is the Chiefs have far too much time & $$$ invested in the OL for it to be this bad. And WTF is Andy FKN Heck still doing coaching it?

Reid is a former O lineman and he likes athletic guys over huge mauler types.

It's his team, his choice, and he's got the pull to get what he wants.

I would point out though that while in Philly the fans griped about the same thing and he had O line issues there. He also missed on prospects there.

If you're going to roll with Andy that's one of his negatives and you choose to live with it...

[TEX]

Originally Posted by Rausch

Reid is a former O lineman and he likes athletic guys over huge mauler types.

It's his team, his choice, and he's got the pull to get what he wants.

I would point out though that while in Philly the fans griped about the same thing and he had O line issues there. He also missed on prospects there.

If you're going to roll with Andy that's one of his negatives and you choose to live with it...

Oh - I get it. BUT his "athletic" guys ought to be able to block...They can't. It's a problem. And the guy coaching them is a buffoon.

[Stryker]

If Mahomes is still upright and not on IR after Chargers, Steelers, Broncos and Jags then I will believe it. This oline has got to be changed via free agency or the draft next year. He is going to get killed.

[FringeNC]

Not sold on Andy Heck.

[pugsnotdrugs19]

Originally Posted by Stryker

If Mahomes is still upright and not on IR after Chargers, Steelers, Broncos and Jags then I will believe it. This oline has got to be changed via free agency or the draft next year. He is going to get killed.

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.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by O.city

Supposedly good? All pro RT? That the one?


I get that they struggled last week, but some of you guys are expecting the early 2000 Chiefs OL.

As a whole this line is rated in the bottom 10.

Don't trust me - look at the numbers.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by TEX

Oh - I get it. BUT his "athletic" guys ought to be able to block...They can't. It's a problem. And the guy coaching them is a buffoon.

Because it's necessary to "drop the anchor" to pass block.

This is a hard thing to spell out but it's basically having lead in your ass while still having agility (not speed, but solid movement while keeping proper balance) and upper body strength.

It's essentially having a fat ass, good legs, and still athletic enough to be strong up top.

[SuperBowl4]

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.

It should have been 8 sacks and GAME OVER!

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Rausch

As a whole this line is rated in the bottom 10.

Don't trust me - look at the numbers.

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.

[TEX]

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.

That's ladt year with Fulton stepping in. And last season was a couple slots down from 2016. With Cam Erving at LG this season, they'll be worse.

[TEX]

Originally Posted by Rausch

Because it's necessary to "drop the anchor" to pass block.

This is a hard thing to spell out but it's basically having lead in your ass while still having agility (not speed, but solid movement while keeping proper balance) and upper body strength.

It's essentially having a fat ass, good legs, and still athletic enough to be strong up top.

Seems too hard to make it all come together for everyone. Just wish they did SOMETHING really well so KC could count on it when needed.

Also - Fisher and Erving has ZERO Upper body strength but PLENTY of lead in their asses...