Patrick Mahomes preseason game two: something smart, something special

Last week, we previewed two of the formats for Patrick Mahomes film analysis you’ll get every week during the regular season. Now it’s time to reveal the third.

Every week on Arrowhead Pride, I’ll do three Patrick Mahomes pieces focused on different things. We want to have three separate conversations.

• Part One (yesterday’s article): Something good and something bad from Patrick Mahomes’ performance

Overview. Let’s identify a simple positive and negative takeaway from the game.

• Part Two: Something smart and something special

Hope. Let’s look the things that should have you excited about his mental acuity and rare talent

• Part Three (preview from last week): Something Mahomes has improved upon and something that needs improving

Growth. End the analysis every week discussing what he’s got better at and where he still has room to work.

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit the piece we reveal today isn’t going to be the most fun. I want the middle article of the weekly analysis to be looking at the mental makeup and special talents of the second year quarterback.

Here’s the final reveal for our plans for Patrick Mahomes film analysis:

Something smart

We talked yesterday about Mahomes getting impatient and deciding he was going to take a shot before the snap. It didn’t go well and he threw his first interception of the preseason. How did he bounce back?

Only a few plays after a youthful mistake, Mahomes was faced with the prospects of a third-and-long backed up near his own goal line. After his drop, Mahomes is in his own end zone and is quick to feel backside pressure. He slides up and sees space to work to.

There were two choices Mahomes could have made after his escape from the pocket that would’ve been smart. He might have been able to get the ball to Hunt in the flats quick enough that Hunt could step out of bounds before a defender closed on him and stop the clock. He does that, it’s still smart and safe but likely leads to a third-and-long and a chance the clock doesn’t stop. The other option was to run with it, which is what he ultimately elected to do.

I like that Mahomes didn’t double up on bad decisions after the interception. He thought about trying to push the issue to Travis Kelce, but the cooler head prevailed in this situation. Instead, he ran, got nine yards and used one of the two timeouts he had remaining. He put his team in a more favorable third-down situation, allowing them to run the ball for a first down, and a few plays later lead into...

Something special

What else would you be expecting? There’s a lot of good things to unpack here. Mahomes appears to be working from Kelce to Tyreek Hill on this play. He gets off Kelce early but hangs on to Hill as he steps up and away from pressure.

The fact that Mahomes was able to get the ball 69 yards down the field is impressive before you consider the fact that he merely stepped up into the pocket to deliver it. There are people that can throw the ball that far, but it typically requires a running head start to deliver it. Mahomes stayed within the structure of the pocket to deliver the bomb down the field. He stayed more space efficient than he did last week.

Where he placed the ball was also impressive as well. Mahomes threw the ball to space, away from the chasing defenders. He drew Hill out of the triple team and to open grass. It would’ve been a difficult challenge for Hill to track the ball straight over him, and where Mahomes threw the ball created separation from the defenders.

What’s more, the ball was released a little inside the left hash mark and landed near the right numbers. The very smart and tall Craig Stout figured out the throw distance was more than the 68.6 air yards in the stat sheet.

That’s special.