Home » Bucs Film Room: How TE Kelce Wrecked The D

The vaunted Bucs defense just couldn’t get right on Sunday night during primetime at home against the Chiefs. On a day where the long-struggling offense roared back to life for 31 points, the defense could not stop the Chiefs powerful scoring machine, allowing 41 points themselves in a 41-31 win. This was certainly uncharacteristic of a defense that until that point had allowed only nine points per game.

What happened on Sunday that caused such a huge change in result? What was different about the Chiefs that allowed for such a scoring explosion? Taking a look at the usual suspects leads to some solid explanations. Let’s start with the play-calling. Kansas City sports one of the most innovative and successful play-callers in the history of football. Andy Reid will most certainly be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame when he finally hangs up his headset. Reid has helmed Top 5 offenses several times in his career, especially lately with quarterback Patrick Mahomes. It would make sense that any defense would struggle against a play-calling opponent of Reid’s caliber.

But the Bucs have faced high-caliber offensive minds in two of the three matchups leading into the game against Kansas City. Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has transformed Dallas’ offense into one of the most efficient and highest scoring offenses in the league. And Matt LeFleur has developed an equally successful offense in Green Bay, helping vault quarterback Aaron Rodgers to back-to-back MVP seasons. No, the play-calling can’t account for the major difference between the results against the Chiefs as opposed to the balance of the first quarter of the season.

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and Bucs CB Carlton Davis III and OLB Shaq Barrett – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Now the quarterback would surely be the key, right? Eh, kind of. Mahomes has long been held as QB1 in the NFL among most rankings. However, the Cowboys and Packers both have top-10 or better signal-callers. And as I mentioned previously, Rodgers is coming off of not one, but two MVP seasons. I think most would agree with me that peak Mahomes probably has higher highs than peak Rodgers or Dak Prescott, while Rodgers has a more consistent set of outcomes. So perhaps the Bucs got peak Mahomes.

Honestly though, as I looked back on the game there is one common thread that stood out to me. The Bucs failed to shut down the Chiefs best playmaker outside of the quarterback position. Against Dallas, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb was held to just two catches for 29 yards. Against New Orleans, the Bucs limited wide receiver Micheal Thomas to six catches for 65 yards and a touchdown. But that was on nine targets. His 2.24 yards per route-run was solid, but not back-breaking.

The Packers rely on their running backs. Aaron Jones was held to just 36 yards on 12 carries. That’s just 3.0 yards per carry. Jones can be a receiving threat, but the Bucs held him to just three catches for 11 yards. Jones’ backfield mate A.J. Dillon had even less success, generating just 32 yards on the ground via 12 carries and only six more yards through the air on just two catches.

No up until week four, the Bucs defensive strategy had shut down the main threat each offense threw at them in a very Belichekian way. But that all changed this past Sunday. With the departure of Tyreek Hill this past off-season the Chiefs had committed to a more balanced approach to winning on offense. Their offensive line is typically better blocking in the run game, than in passing situations. And they decided to go with more of a quantity over quality approach to pass-catcher, electing to replace Hill with Marquez Valdes-Scantling, JuJu Smith Schuster, Justin Watson, and Skyy Moore.

All of that just meant that there was a larger onus on the symbiotic relationship between

Chiefs TE Travis Kelce – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce. The two have been one of the most prolific quarterback-pass catcher relationships in the history of the league. And on Sunday night against the Bucs they showed why. Mahomes targeted Kelce 10 times, connecting for nine catches for 92 yards and a score. Kelce consistently found holes in the Bucs defense to help move the ball up and down the field. Kelce pulled in catches on five of the Chiefs ten drives. Those five drives resulted in 24 points. But it was the first three drives that proved to be the knock-down blow the Bucs would never really get up from. And in those three drives Kelce proved pivotal each time.

The Chiefs were likely going to score no matter what on this drive. Kansas City was set up in prime position to take the lead, as they got the ball on the Bucs 21. On second-and-five from the Bucs 16 after a 5-yard run by Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Mahomes connected with Kelce for a 16 yard touchdown.

Kelce motions from out wide into a bunch-set on the concept side of the play. With MVS clearing the Bucs secondary on the vertical and Smith-Schuster creating a horizontal stretch to the sideline, Kelce is given a wide-swath of space in the middle-of-the field to work with. With the Bucs dropping into a cover four zone Kelce is able to use that space to create a huge window four himself. He initially releases underneath MVS and sits down on a short hitch. This invites Lavonte David to jump the route to try and prevent a quick completion to set up third and short or worse. No sooner does David widen to cover the sit, does Kelce release from the sit on a delayed slant over the middle. Mahomes sees it immediately and gets the ball to Kelce with room to run. One leapfrog of Logan Ryan later and the Chiefs have a lead they would never relinquish.

On the first play of the second drive, Mahomes gets Kelce involved in heartbreaking fashion if you are a Bucs fan. Against a spread formation with Kelce in-line as the “Y” tight end the Bucs counter by dropping eight and rushing only three. The coverage is initially very good, with the Chiefs play design lacking a vertical element the Bucs keep a hard four over-top. Tampa Bay drops edge rushers Shaq Barrett and Joe Tryon-Shoyinka into the flats and have linebackers David and Devin White into hook zones.

Mahomes looks to the left to see what he has on a double-out look. Seeing nothing there he starts to come back to his right. By this time Will Gholston has beat left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. and is pressures Mahomes. This forces Mahomes to step up in the pocket and start to create out of structure. He moves to his right, and then with nose tackle Vita Vea in pursuit he shifts back to his left. And this is when things go wrong for the Bucs. White decides to abandon his zone in an effort to bring down Mahomes for a sack. In doing so, he leaves Kelce wide-open for an easy dump off. Kelce then moves up field after the catch for a 12-yard gain. White has to trust his teammates here and stay in his zone. The chemistry between Mahomes and Kelce is too good for a defense to leave Kelce open, even on a broken play.

In a throwback to the first drive, we have another play that begins with Kelce motioning back into a bunch to the right from out wide. This time the Chiefs take advantage of some size matchups to pick up some easy yardage. The Bucs have used safety Antoine Winfield Jr. as their primary slot defender this year. On this play you see him lined up on the line of scrimmage as the initial defender on the bunch set. The receiver closest to him at the top of the stack in former Buc Justin Watson.

Watson is 6’2, 216 and Winfield Jr is…not. The Chiefs use this to their advantage on a smoke screen to Kelce. Watson is able to easily absorb the punch of the much smaller Winfield and hold his block wide to the sideline. Meanwhile the Chiefs use a quick play-action element to force edge rusher Tryon-Shoyinka to commit to following the back and ensuring he can’t track the screen down from the backside. Smith-Schuster executes a quality block on cornerback Carlton Davis and Kelce is able to snake his way forward for five yards setting up a third and easy.

These are the situations you absolutely have to win. Down 7-3 and having forced a third-and-long, the Bucs defense had a chance to force a punt and keep the team in the game. Alas, this did not happen. The Bucs line up eight on the line of scrimmage against 11 personnel, hoping to confuse Mahomes. They ultimately rush five overloading the strong side of the play. The overload doesn’t get home as the back picks up David perfectly giving Mahomes all the time he needs to find Kelce on the out route.

The defensive play call asked Devin White to be the lone underneath defender on Kelce in a critical situation. If Kelce breaks in on a slant, dig, or cross this is probably fine. But there is not underneath leverage to the outside and the Chiefs take advantage of this. I would have preferred a small change to the play design. If David drops from the strong side he has easier outside leverage underneath. White could loop to the overload side of the blitz and Logan Ryan still has the inside underneath zone. That makes the throw Mahomes has to make a hell of a lot more difficult.

This conversion keeps the drive alive. Five plays later the Chiefs score their second touchdown of the game.

What happens when you consistently drop pass rushers into coverage? Eventually they lose track of dangerous weapons. That’s what happens here on this second-and-two. Edge rusher Carl Nassib knocks Kelce on his ass off the snap in what I will charitably call a “jam”. Nassib then drops into a hook zone. Nassib is not a natural coverage guy and it looks to me he is literally trying to find a specific field marker. In doing so he leaves Kelce a giant hole to just stand up in and receive an easy pass from Mahomes for another first down. Drive continues.

In a surprise to absolutely no one, Mahomes looks to his security blanket on third down. The Bucs run zone and Kansas City takes advantage with Kelce running a whip route. Sean Murphy-Bunting and Shaq Barrett both key running back Jerrick McKinnon coming out of the backfield to the left flat. With both defenders widening there is no one to take outside leverage on Kelce. After planting on the inside turn Kelce easily widens for a six-yard gain and a new set of downs. The Chiefs score shortly thereafter.

By this point the Bucs were down 21-3 with over 11 minutes still to play in the first half. Despite their best efforts over the remainder of the game, the Bucs were not able to come back. The damage was done. Part of the reason Tampa Bay was able outscore Kansas City 28-20 from there on out, was a much more concerted effort take Kelce out of the game, combined with a Chiefs game plan that transitioned to a more run-heavy approach. Kelce would catch just three more passes for 33 yards. But the damage was already done. Reid, Mahomes and Kelce had already thrown the death punch.

The Bucs can learn from this game. When they are able to eliminate the opposing offense’s biggest threat, they have shown they can be lights out. But if the Bucs defense allows that offense to impose their game-plan and let it run through their biggest playmaker, it opens up everything else. Then you can cue the chaos. Mahomes beat the Bucs by using Kelce. Let’s hope they learn that lesson and commit to making sure it does not happen again.

I’ve moved on from that garbage game. Time for Bucs to get back on track tomorrow. Hopefully that Chiefs game was an anomaly and not sign of things to come. Yes Kelse killed them. Biggest issue though was not able to stop the run and not able to run the ball. Those two issues have been trending wrong direction last few weeks. Hope they had a good weeks practice and ready to put a beat down on Falcons. If not will be long season. I hope guys like Vea watched that tape of them being pushed backwards like bitches with…  Read more »

Reid took advantage of the blitz happy nature of Todd Bowles’ period. Abandoning your zone to rush a mobile QB like Mahomes will never work. History shows that a Todd Bowles’ defense fails once it allows a mobile QB to escape the pocket. Just the way it is

Such a silly thing to say. History shows “ANY” defense fails once it allows any mobile QB to escape the pocket. It doesn’t matter whose name is attached to the defense.

Ah No! Just a Todd Bowles defense. Go look at the data. Here are some superstars you might recognize; Mitch Trubiskiy, Tyler Heinicki, Kyle Allen, Daniel Jones. Go look up the stats for those loses it might change your mind.

When you play a team that lacks high power players, save the TE, play man and provide an extra guy to cover Kelce. When it was apparent they were ready to beat the zones, Bowles should have switched up to apply more man-press coverage. They don’t really have anyone besides Kelce who can consistently beat our guys in man, and that also allows you to stay heavy in the box and spy Mahomes. Since this season, besides injuries, has some eerie familiarity to 2020, maybe we can play them again in the SB and beat them down again. I’m just…  Read more »

If you remember, KC gave our defense a “come to Jesus” moment in 2020 during the regular season. We all saw what happened in the rematch during the SB. The defense will adjust and get back to shutting down offenses, especially over the next 3 game stretch. Their confidence should be sky high by the time we play Baltimore.

It’s not like TE Kelce was an unknown to Bowles, as he has had fairly big games against before. Not sure why we didn’t game plan to address him especially since the Cheetah was gone. That’s all water under the bridge! The schedule does seem to loosen up for us. We just need a sound game plan and then execution from the players and I’ll think we will be fine. That’s not taking Atlanta lightly, but we should defeat them handily.

The Bucs always seem to have to learn the hard way. They didn’t try to take Hill out of the first game they played against them and he burned them. Same thing happened this time with Kelce. It’s hard to watch the blundering sometimes.

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