Patrick Mahomes paced up and down the Chiefs’ sideline, yelling toward everyone yet no one in particular.
His first-half pep talk, a waste.
His body, bruised.
His frustration, public for all to see.
If you didn’t know any better — if you didn’t check the date on this column — you might have guessed I ripped the scene from Christmas Day a year earlier.
Except for just one tiny detail.
The Chiefs won. They beat the Raiders 19-17 on Friday at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, and for all of the close, funky conclusions that have defined this season, we have a masterpiece: a botched snap.
A year after the Raiders robbed the Chiefs of a Christmas Day celebration, they gifted them a victory when center Jackson Powers-Johnson snapped the ball before quarterback Aidan O’Connell expected it. Nick Bolton pounced on it. That’s how the Chiefs just beat the worst team in football.
Look, the Chiefs are still a very good team, but with the record of a very great team requesting to be judged on the curve of the very best teams the league has to offer. That’s not some unfair grading system we invented for them — it’s how they judge themselves. Been that way for a while now.
And about the only positive thing I can offer from Friday’s game — other than, you know, the win — is to wonder if perhaps the outcome will convince Raiders owner Mark Davis that head coach Antonio Pierce is a good fit for the job.
The Chiefs’ offense gained just 4.9 yards per play, the third-worst mark among the 12 teams to play the Raiders this season. The Chiefs defense allowed 6.9 yards per play, 1.3 more yards per play than anyone had allowed the Raiders this year.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid botched a fourth-down decision in which he elected to put the end of the game in the hands of that defense, rather than his quarterback.
Everyone shared some blame. But for all of that, there are no bigger concerns than the root of Mahomes’ outburst.
Left tackle.
For the third time this year, Reid benched his left tackle in-game, enacting a full-on state of emergency that sent Joe Thuney, an All-Pro guard, to protect Mahomes’ blindside.
To hell with it, Reid apparently said, and who could blame him? Starting left tackle Wanya Morris, who doubles as the replacement for the first guy KC benched this season, allowed 11 pressures and a career day not from Maxx Crosby, but from K’Lavon Chaisson — who had eight pressures, per Next Gen Stats.
A ticket-taker slows traffic more efficiently than Morris slowed the Raiders’ navigation to his quarterback. On three occasions, Chaisson reached Mahomes is less than 2 1/2 seconds.
Those plays were over before they started.
“He’s playing against a couple of good players,” Reid said of Morris. “But you gotta do better than what we did there.”
At one point, visibly frustrated, Mahomes stretched out both arms from his sides and turned his palms skyward, as if to ask the very question that will hover over the rest of the Chiefs’ quest for the NFL’s first three-peat:
What now?
Well, it sure seems like one of the most important players to the Chiefs’ Super Bowl hopes just became someone who hasn’t put on a football uniform in more than 11 months — someone who has never put on a Chiefs uniform.
D.J. Humphries, you’re up.
After spending the past 11 months out of football — not even a practice since his ACL injury with the Arizona Cardinals last December — the Chiefs have little choice but to ask Humphries to step into one of the most important jobs in the sport.
A risky solution.
I’ll listen for others.
The Chiefs have survived subpar left tackle play in this era. They’re almost stuck with it, given the constraints of their salary cap paired with their draft position falling at the end of every round.
Donovan Smith was below average a year ago, even if time has elevated that memory. Heck, Cam Erving protected Mahomes at one point. They’ve managed.
This is different. They aren’t even giving Mahomes a chance. Before the season, I could not offer you a single example of a left tackle flat-out whiffing on an edge rusher. I’m sure it’s happened. I don’t remember it.
Today, if asked for that example, I would reply with a question: Which one?
Morris continually elected to just try to punch at Chaisson. He came about as close as a 58-year-old boxer on Netflix.
To Morris’ credit, and this will be dismissed more quickly than it should, he remained by his locker as media entered the room after the game. He took every last question he was asked.
“There’s no better time to learn than when you get your (rear-end) beat,” Morris told me, and he did not say rear-end. “It sucks to get your (rear-end) beat, but when you get your (rear-end) beat, you can have two responses: You can lay down, or you can get back up and try something new. I’m going to get back up and try something new.”
What’s becoming obvious: The Chiefs cannot afford him that chance.
They cannot afford their second-round pick, Kingsley Suamataia, that chance, either.
A year ago, the Raiders supplied the Chiefs a wake-up call: They’d better take the rest of the season seriously if they intended to make another Super Bowl run.
This year, the wake-up call is how drastically one position can derail their plans.
On a first-half drive Friday, Mahomes completed a no-look pass to tight end Noah Gray for 26 yards. A few plays later, tight end Travis Kelce lateraled a ball to running back Samaje Perine for a first down.
Three more plays later, Mahomes absorbed a shot to the chest but managed to somehow flick a pass to receiver Justin Watson, who made a contested catch for a touchdown.
A no-look.
A lateral.
A contested catch, which this team almost never makes.
That once comprised the look of a team showing off. On Friday, it comprised the requirements for scoring. It was the recipe for the only time the Chiefs reached the end zone.
Those plays I glossed over? They were interrupted by the constant pressure. Even the touchdown should have been interrupted by the pressure.
A miraculous throw, really.
But the Raiders — and that outburst — illuminated something in the process.
Even a franchise savior has a limit.