Best defenses I've seen vs Patrick Mahomes are probably the Chargers & 49ers. That of course requires you to manufacture a pass rush using 4 down lineman named...Bosa, Ingram, Buckner & Bosa. Good Luck.
You have to get pressure by not sacrificing people in coverage. You bring a blitz & you are dead meat.
The combination of Mahomes, Andy Reid as a play designer and caller, and the Chiefs WR's makes the Chiefs nearly impossible to cover. This season, defenses have hoped to prevent the big passing play by using two deep safeties. It is the best way to slow down the Chiefs offense that I've seen. Buffalo kept two deep and a light box up front in order to dare the Chiefs to run. The Chiefs obliged but the Bills couldn’t stop them on the ground. The Chargers were able to use that deep coverage and add on with four-man pressures that allowed for more coverage on the second level. And just by keeping the game close, that still left a chance for the Chiefs to pull away at the end of the game for wins.
The coverage aren’t so much about if the Chiefs will beat the defense but more so how the Chiefs will beat the defense. That’s the problem with stopping the Chiefs offense, solving one problem creates another. This is incredibly oversimplified, but Tyreek Hill has been able to feast on single-high coverage and when the Chiefs face two-high safeties, it’s time for Travis Kelce. Pick your poison.
Even the best corners in the league haven’t been able to hold up and few safeties have the range to get from the middle of the field over to the sideline in order to catch Hill on the outside. Take the Tampa Bay game when the Buccaneers tried to run their typical defense, but even Carlton Davis, who had played like one of the better corners in the league, could only do so much in man coverage. He repeatedly got burned in the first quarter. Hill had six receptions on seven targets for 188 yards and three touchdowns against single-high coverages in that game.
Kelce’s ability to work the intermediate middle of the field when the safeties are playing deep has been a huge part of the Kansas City passing game this season and a big reason why he has had the greatest season by a TE in NFL history as teams have been employing the 2-high tactic. Between Reid's route concepts and Kelce’s run after the catch ability, he’s been one of the more productive receivers after the catch.
For as much as defenses have tried to vary game plans against the Chiefs, the best defense this year has been an offense able to keep up. That’s how the Raiders gave the Chiefs their lone loss with Mahomes.
Buffalo might still present the most interesting test as a team that figured out how to slow down the offense, but couldn’t stop the run when they dared the Chiefs to do it. But since that game, the Bills’ run defense has improved, which could limit the damage done on the ground, though it’s no guarantee the Chiefs would give in to the light boxes again. But the Bills’ pass defense has also improved after a rough start and on its best day, the Buffalo offense has the ability to put up points.
Still, we’re talking about everything breaking just right for a team to defend and hang with the Chiefs. It’s not impossible, but even without blowing teams away, Kansas City has made it as hard as possible to take them down.
Good Luck!
