KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Skyy Moore came across the Kansas City Chiefs’ formation from left to right, taking a handoff on a jet sweep.
Rather than turn up field on second-and-goal from the 4-yard line, Moore drifted back and threw a lateral across the field to Patrick Mahomes.
The ensuing second “pass,” a bullet intended for Travis Kelce at the goal line, was knocked away by Los Angeles Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey.
On the third-down play, Mahomes started to scramble up the middle, stopped short of the line scrimmage, started to throw a pass to Kelce, thought better of that as well, and wound up firing an interception into safety Nick Scott’s midsection.
“It wasn’t a no-look,” Mahomes said. “I was going to throw it to Trav and, at the last second, I didn’t think I could get it in. It was one of those I tried to pull it down a little bit and I threw it directly into the dude’s stomach. I’ve got to make sure I don't do that, especially in the red zone, because those are the ones that kill you in big games.”
That pretty much summed up the Chiefs’ red-zone success Sunday against the Rams at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, all sizzle and no steak.
“That’s a place we’re normally pretty good, but we were off just a tick tonight,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid said. “We’ll go back to the drawing board on that and make sure we take care of that.”
The Chiefs only converted one of six red-zone trips into a touchdown after entering the game ranked third in the NFL with a 72.1% red-zone percentage with an NFL-best 31 red-zone touchdowns on the season.
Kansas City’s defense, which only allowed Los Angeles’ stunted attack to muster 198 total yards, made sure it didn’t matter, but the offense knew its red-zone performance wasn’t good enough after the 26-10 win.
“Especially in the red zone, we’ve got to execute at a higher level; I’ve got to execute at a higher level,” Mahomes said. “I’ve got to take out the one dumb play I make every game, it seems like. If I can take that out, I think we’ll be all right.”
Kansas City made sure to credit a Los Angeles defense that entered the game ranked second with a 48.1% red-zone percentage for its role in stifling the offense nearer the goal line.
“They did a good job,” Reid said. “We’re not playing a JV team. That defense is a top-10 defense. It’s not like they’re no good.”
The Rams managed to anticipate and take away a lot of the Chiefs’ preferred red-zone routes, but some of it also came down to missed opportunities.
“They did a great job of passing off crossers down there,” Mahomes said. “They were in the right spots, kind of where I wanted to go. So, they had a great game plan. ... I missed a lot of open guys from the tablet, it looked like. We’ll see on the film. I’ve just got to be better.”
Kansas City had a touchdown nullified by penalty, but Mahomes only went 3 for 13 for 11 yards with an interception in the red zone against LA.
Isaiah Pacheco, who scored on a 3-yard run for the only red-zone touchdown of the game, finished with 11 red-zone carries for only 20 yards, further highlighting the Chiefs offense’s inefficiencies.
If there’s any good news, Reid seemed to have an idea of what went wrong — and presumably how to fix it.
“There is, but I’m not going to tell you because we’ve got to play Cincinnati coming up here,” Reid said.
