corn dog

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Trips, Right Bunch, F Shuttle, Tom & Jerry Right Yellow

~ that was the play call that came in on Patrick Mahomes’ headset, from his head coach Andy Reid

In five grueling quarters of football, the Chiefs, after being shut out and scoreless in the first half, somehow just hung around - hoping either their head coach or their quarterback would get hot at some point

and when the Niners only managed a field goal in over time, the Chiefs knew they needed a touchdown to win the game

Offensive Motions and Understanding Defensive Formations

A motion in football is essentially when a quarterback summons one of his receivers to run parallel to the line of scrimmage, back and forth - before the ball is snapped, and this happens seconds before the snap. You can see Mahomes motion his receiver at the 14 second mark in the video above

A defensive player can protect an area in the field and defend offensive players running into that area (i.e. zone defense), or a defensive player can simply defend a specific player on offense (i.e. man to man defense)

That’s why motions are important, because, when a quarterback motions his receiver, and when that, said receiver, runs from the far right towards the center, if another player on defense follows him - then you know its man coverage

The defensive player who runs with the offensive player is responsible for defending him. Knowing whether its man or zone helps the offense understand defensive formations, which is a huge advantage pre-snap

It’s very rare that a motioned player essentially becomes a receiver immediately after the motion, and becomes responsible for receiving the ball on a play … no one expects that

If the timing is slightly off between the receiver and his quarterback, all hell breaks loose. Mahomes had to motion his receiver, call for the snap from his center, and time it so that his receiver can run back and receive the ball - if open. And that is just one read, if this receiver was not open, Mahomes would have to move on to his other reads to see who else is open - on that play

The Quarterback’s Coordination and Eyes

Coordinating these three sequence of events that led to that touchdown is preposterously hard

Really, it's coordination and timing at the very highest level, under immense pressure when a championship is on the line - and Patrick Mahomes makes it look so easy

Great quarterbacks also move defensive players with their eyes, before throwing the ball in the exact opposite direction at the very last moment. As Romo indicates below, Mahomes looks inside for a while that makes the defense think he is going to throw to the inside (to the left), this way he holds the defense in place (around the 42 second mark below), before at the very last moment, throwing it to the outside

Brady used to move defenses with his eyes nonchalantly too, as a defense, you cannot look at neither Brady’s or Mahomes’ eyes, that’s nothin’ but a bluff

Once again,

Trips, Right Bunch, F Shuttle, Tom & Jerry Right Yellow

In this play call, F Shuttle is the syntax that tells the player to be in motion, speed in, run towards the center of the field, then immediately, speed out, turn and run back to where he came from, and effectively become a receiver of the ball

Andy Reid named this play Tom and Jerry, a homage to the big cat chasing a speedy and an ever-elusive mouse

The motion is called corndog in the Chiefs playcall sheet, because of Andy Reid’s love for a delicious corndog … crispy and crunchy, and laced with mustard and a generous serving of mouth-watering and delicious ketchup

As the receiver moved in, so did the defensive player with him but the defensive player got jammed up by Travis Kelce, which created enough leverage for the receiver to get open

The timing was pitch perfect and Patrick Mahomes did his thing

Four hours and six minutes after the first snap in the game, the Chiefs ran the perfect play, and now, Reid and Mahomes have their third Lombardi

That last drive took 7 minutes and 19 seconds. After struggling for most of the night, Patrick Mahomes went eight for eight on a 13-play go-ahead drive. He passed for 42 and rushed for 27 - accounting for 69 out of the 75 yards on that last drive

We often said - when the bright lights shine their brightest, Brady had ice in his veins, well … Mahomes does too

Below is Tony Romo talking about this very thing !

Sources : Inside the NFL and NFL X (twitter)