An up-and-down rookie season for Chiefs wide receiver Xavier Worthy continued with an up-and-down game in last Sunday’s loss to the Bills.
Worthy got the ball on the first offensive play of the game for the Chiefs and closed the first half with four catches for 61 yards and a touchdown as the team made him a focal point of the offense. Worthy was targeted a fifth time, but a deep ball that could have gone for a touchdown was incomplete when Worthy stepped out of bounds.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes blamed himself for that one for not throwing the ball further inside, but a bigger issue on the way to the loss might have been the team’s failure to get the ball to Worthy at all in the second half. Mahomes lamented that during a Wednesday press conference and said he hopes the first half can be a stepping stone to more production.
“I think more than anything, you saw the confidence that he was playing with,” Mahomes said. “You can tell he has more confidence in himself and what he can do within the offense. Whenever he’s playing confident, and not thinking, he’s playing fast and it’s hard for people to account for how fast he is. I’m excited for him. I thought that was a good jump-off point. We’ve got to keep him more involved in the offense throughout the second half.”
Mahomes said he thinks the offense will “really take off” once he and Worthy can consistently make connections and having that happen in the next few weeks would seem like an ideal way for the Chiefs to head into the postseason.
