Chiefs explain how QB-motion play ‘Ferrari Right’ came about

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw for 372 yards and four touchdowns on Sunday in the team’s win, including a 1-yard touchdown pass to Demarcus Robinson near the end of the second quarter. That one, err... did not look like the rest.

Mahomes went into motion — and as he did, center Austin Reiter snapped the ball. Mahomes caught the snap, spun around and looked up to find a wide open Robinson for six points.

“The last three weeks Pat’s been messing around with it,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said after the game. “So I told him, I said, ‘We’re going to put it in,’ and he looked at me like I was crazy. But he had been doing it and it looked good, so, if I said, ‘If it looks good, let’s try it,’ and so we tried it. He goes down there during special teams and he was messing around with a couple things, so we put it in — and it worked.”

As has grown to be expect, Mahomes had more details to share about the play than his ever-humble head coach.

“You see me in training camp and before practice, taking snaps with centers, and so obviously I’m doing formations and stuff like that and I started going in motion,” he said. “After that, I had to go to Tom Melvin — our tight ends coach — and ask if it was legal for me to be in motion and he said as long as everyone was set. Then after I got that, I took it to special teams and started working with Trav (Travis Kelce) and Tyreek (Hill) on these different plays we could run from it. I had to start throwing little hints to coach (Andy) Reid that we needed to try it out and finally got it in — and it worked out well.”

Mahomes said that the Chiefs called the play, “Ferrari Right,” likely a nod to ESPN “Monday Night Football” commentator Louis Riddick, who refers to the quarterback as “Ferrari” Mahomes on the network.

Mahomes showed Reid his finished creation during a walkthrough for the defense.

“I did it and I think [Reid] liked how it looked there,” Mahomes said. “You have to show him, he has to see proof of it working in a live situation before he’s going to put it in there.”

Robinson, who played his part as a pass-blocker well before leaking out, was unavailable after the game — but his fellow receiver Hill could not believe it.

“The crazy thing is I really didn’t think that play was going to be put in, but it’s Patrick Mahomes,” said Hill. “It was one day at practice, he was like, ‘10, 10, 10, come over here, I got a play for you!’ ... I was like, ‘Bro, what are you doing? Why don’t you just line up and snap the ball?’ But it turned out to be a great play.

“His creativity — just him being around coach Reid. Coach Reid is wearing off on Pat — just the creativity, and the ideas that both of them have, collaborating. EB too — EB right there in the mix, too, so it’s just crazy.

“I know we’re going to have something fun after the bye week. I’m just looking forward to it.”

Ferrari Left, anyone?