Kansas City's offense hasn't been as high-powered as usual, but it's not as if the unit has been firing blanks.
The Chiefs, 4-0 entering Monday's nationally televised game against New Orleans (2-2) at GEHA Field in Arrowhead Stadium, have been effective enough to score when they've needed to score and while the average winning margin has been slim – 23-18 – Kansas City has been able to muster enough offense to make it stand.
Still, the absences of the leading receiver (Rashee Rice) and running back (Isiah Pacheco) are felt.
And those absences may allow the Saints' defense to place a little more focus on the tandem of quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce, the three-time Super Bowl MVP (Mahomes) and his Hall-of-Fame bound teammate (Kelce).
Kelce's reliably has been a security blanket for Mahomes, and though neither has posted numbers that pop out this season – Mahomes has 904 passing yards and six touchdowns, with five interceptions, and Kelce has caught 15 passes for 158 yards and no touchdowns – the Saints are aware that they always can pop off.
Kelce likely will top Mahomes' target list Monday night.
"They move him around a lot," Saints Coach Dennis Allen said of Kelce. "When you watch tape he's in a ton of different spots. They put him outside at No. 1, they put him inside in the slot, they put him at No. 3, they put him in the backfield – they do a lot of different stuff with him. So I would expect to see him continue to move around.
"Obviously, they do things to try to get the ball to him and yet they've got a lot of other talented players that they get the ball to. With this team, it's never really been a one-man show. They spread the ball around pretty good and they've got a lot of talented players to get the ball to."
That responsibility lies with Mahomes, a two-time NFL MVP who was drafted No. 10 overall, one spot ahead of Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore, in 2017.
"He's a helluva player," Allen said of Mahomes. "And you just watch him play, and you're like, 'There's nobody else that's doing that. There's nobody else that's making that throw.'
"He's not the fastest quarterback, but he is very poised in the pocket. He has great pocket presence. He somehow knows where the rush is, where the escape lanes are, he can get through an escape lane up to his right, up to his left. He can get around the pocket, and then he can throw the ball from any angle you want him to throw it from, accurately.
"He's really difficult to deal with. I look back and we played them in 2020 here, and a lot of the plays came off of his ability to kind of escape and find a guy that got to a secondary route and was able to get open. I think that's a huge challenge for us."
In that 2020 game, Mahomes completed 26 of 47 passes for 254 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions. He was sacked four times but ran for 37 yards on seven carries.
The scramble drill completions make Mahomes and Kelce especially effective.
"You've got to cover them twice," Allen said of Chiefs receivers. "We've got to cover the first route, and then we've got to be able to cover the second route. And then when we have an opportunity to get the quarterback on the ground, we need to be able to get the quarterback on the ground.
"It's much harder to throw the ball from laying on the ground than when he's able to stay on his feet. We have to finish on the quarterback when we have those opportunities. That'll be a big point of emphasis and it's easier said than done with this quarterback.
"I think they do a really good job – Kelce in particular – of finding the void in the zone. I think he and the quarterback work really well together when they get to these secondary plays and they find ways to create completions and explosives down the field when they're doing that.
"It's important that we put our eyes in the right spot. A lot of times you see guys, when the quarterback starts to move around, guys tend to want to see where the quarterback is going and lose sight of where their plaster rules are. So we've got to do a good job when the quarterback does move around."
