The Kansas City Chiefs got blown out by the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 59. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Co. didn’t put points on the board until after they fell to a 34-0 deficit late in the third quarter.
During the 40-22 defeat, Mahomes threw for 257 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions, including a pick-six. The Eagles defense sacked Mahomes a career-high six times. While fans and analysts grappled with what went wrong, a comment made by Chiefs passing game coordinator Joe Bleymaier leading up to the big game turned heads on Thursday, February 13.
Bleymaier, who played football with Chiefs offensive Matt Nagy and general manager Brett Veach at the University of Delaware, joined the faculty in 2016 as an offensive quality control coach. After working his way up through the ranks and becoming a crucial part of the team’s success, the prospect of a three-peat seemed to add immense pressure.
While working alongside Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and Nagy he wondered to ESPN’s Kalyn Kahler on the Wednesday before the Super Bowl, “Are we utilizing [Mahomes] the best? Are we giving him the stuff that he needs? It’s just constantly second-guessing ourselves just so that he has everything he needs to go be himself.”
While second-guessing the game plan days before the Super Bowl is less than ideal, it’s another comment that drew fans’ ire.
Joe Bleymaier Admitted He Was Terrified Over Misusing Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes
Bleymaier told Kahler that coaching the quarterback who could be “the greatest of all time” was not all joy. “It makes it so much more stressful,” Bleymaier said.
“You feel the burden as a coach and as you’re putting a game plan together to not waste his abilities. To not go through a season where you don’t give him the opportunity. To not screw it up as the coaching staff. So rather than feeling like this just unbridled excitement that we could do anything, it’s actually more like a terror, like we cannot be the reason that we screwed this guy up or this team up.”
SI’s Matt Verderame read this quote and posted, “I’ve said all year the Chiefs play offense like they’re terrified. Turns out… they’re actually terrified.”
Kansas City Star’s Sam McDowell countered, “This is a false equivalence. Bleymaier is referring to the gravity of coaching an all-time great from a big-picture standpoint. You’ve equated it to literally playing scared on a play-to-play basis, the smallest of pictures. (Also, he doesn’t call plays.) Two different things.”
However, several X users called for Bleymaier to be dismissed. One Chiefs fan posted, “that’s a god awful mentality for our passing game coordinator to have. kick ROCKS bro.” One woman wrote, “I’ve said all season that it feels like the Chiefs are in play not to lose mode. His comments confirm it. That is a defeatist & constraining mentality. He should be fired immediately.”
Another person wrote, “There needs to be some house cleaning on the offensive coaching staff. Get some new blood and give up the playcalling duties.”
Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes Took Full Responsibility for His Mistakes
After the game, Mahomes shouldered the responsibility for their loss. “I didn’t play to my standard,” he told reporters.
“I’m going to have to find a way this offseason to combat what defenses are doing to me as far as rush lanes and different coverages that they’re playing. That’s the beauty of football — you never can be satisfied with just coming out there and playing and thinking you’re going to have success.
“These defense are going to continue to get better and better, so I have to get better. I take a lot of ownership in that, and I want to hopefully, come back and play better football next season.”
