Originally Posted by smithandrew051:
How would you rank the top 10 players in this game? Try to ignore position value (with the exception of specialists). Assume health, but feel free to knock guys who are often hurt.
My ranking is:
1. Patrick Mahomes
2. Travis Kelce
3. Tyreek Hill
4. Devin White
5. Tyrann Mathieu
6. Mike Evans
7. Chris Jones
8. Shaq Barrett
9. Lavonte David
10. Tom Brady
Honorable Mention: Frank Clark, LJ Sneed, CEH, Sammy Watkins, Juan Thornhill,
JPP, Chris Godwin, Gronk, Antoine Winfield, Tristan Whirfs
Chris Jones has to have a monster game. When the edger rushers come after brady he can't have an easy pocket to step into. He looks like Blaine Gabbert when there's an interior pass rush. [Reply]
Originally Posted by The Franchise:
The **** is this shit?
They had the right gameplan? The singled up Hill and thought that they could stop him. And now they know they can’t handle Hill the same?
Which is it? They had the right gameplan but the throws were good? Or they didn’t have the correct gameplan and now they do?
If the goal was to give their team the best chance to win the game....Tampa didn't start off the game with a good game plan at all given that they don't have a shutdown corner against a speed wideout like Hill but later on they adjusted and started offering more consistent safety help on Hill.
Who knows what the Bucs were thinking to start the last game. They may have thought 175-225 combined yards to Hill/Kelce and limit everyone else including run game and that gives us the best chance to win. They may have just wanted to get their corner some 1 on 1 experience against Hill to see how he would do. But it is clear they changed their coverages and singled Hill a lot less after getting torched by him in the first quarter.
So, they had a bad game plan too start since on paper they didn't have anyone that can consistently hang with Hill but then they adapted in 2nd half to something much more reasonable. They will improve upon that in this upcoming game.
Tampa Bay has a history of improving their game plans during games. It is often easier to get them early than it is to get them late. [Reply]
Originally Posted by seamonster:
Chris Jones has to have a monster game. When the edger rushers come after brady he can't have an easy pocket to step into. He looks like Blaine Gabbert when there's an interior pass rush.
Also think Frank Clark could have a big bearing on the game. If he can play at even 80% of his potential it will mean that Jones can more of an impact as they won't be able to pay as much attention to him.
Interesting to hear that the big weakness on the OL is at their right guard where they are having to play a back up. Hopefully Jones can exploit this.
If our secondary can play anywhere near the level they did in the Bills game then the DL should be able to have success. [Reply]
Rewatched the Chiefs-Bucs game earlier this year a couple times last night.
NOTES:
Tampa's DC toggled between man and zone all night. There is a myth that Bowles started badly and got better. He never changed! There was no answer for Tyreek Hill and it really didn't matter if it was motion, press man or zone. Hill was killing them no matter what.
The Tampa safeties, even healthy, have limited range. Devin White is a beast against the run but a liability in the passing game. Expect KC passing and RPOs to exploit him early and often.
Tampa's defense basically is Baltimore with a better front 7 and a worse secondary. Their pass rush won't matter because they can't cover KC. The ball was often out in about a second. The few times the rush got to Mahomes it was mainly on Patrick for not hitting the wide open guy short and holding on for a longer completion.
Against Tampa O Spags can basically roll out a similar game to what he used against Allen in the AFC Championship game. While Brady/Allen are completely different QB's the same heavy blitz/confusion will be optimal for different reasons. Brady at this stage does not like to get hit. So we need to send a message continually that it is coming and gets a few free hits early on to make him throw early/knock him out of rhythm. Throw in that the ball will probably be wet from the field even if it isn't raining during game action and this all favors KC. [Reply]
Pretty interesting interview with former Bucs player Dwight Smith in the TB airwaves yesterday. Said games aren’t decided on the field, but by Vegas. The guy is a SB champion and has this take. Is it real or CTE?
Originally Posted by Coochie liquor:
Pretty interesting interview with former Bucs player Dwight Smith in the TB airwaves yesterday. Said games aren’t decided on the field, but by Vegas. The guy is a SB champion and has this take. Is it real or CTE?
Originally Posted by stevegroganfan:
If the goal was to give their team the best chance to win the game....Tampa didn't start off the game with a good game plan at all given that they don't have a shutdown corner against a speed wideout like Hill but later on they adjusted and started offering more consistent safety help on Hill.
Who knows what the Bucs were thinking to start the last game. They may have thought 175-225 combined yards to Hill/Kelce and limit everyone else including run game and that gives us the best chance to win. They may have just wanted to get their corner some 1 on 1 experience against Hill to see how he would do. But it is clear they changed their coverages and singled Hill a lot less after getting torched by him in the first quarter.
So, they had a bad game plan too start since on paper they didn't have anyone that can consistently hang with Hill but then they adapted in 2nd half to something much more reasonable. They will improve upon that in this upcoming game.
Tampa Bay has a history of improving their game plans during games. It is often easier to get them early than it is to get them late.
Tampa is a bad zone defense team, and don't have the guys to cover the Chiefs in man. If we can mitigate the pass rush, this will be a blood bath offensively and our defense will only need a few stops.
Simms talks about the 2nd half of the first game and how the Chiefs took the foot off the gas, both offensively and defensively, it wasn't great adjustments by the Bucs that slowed us down. [Reply]
The only concern is the epic horseshoe Brady has had up his ass in his career. Been watching some playoff classic game shorts and there's literally a dozen postseason games, he needed large amounts of luck/bad calls to win. It's simply unbelievable.
The latest watched....Marlon McCrea fumbles what should be a game sealing pick :-) [Reply]
Originally Posted by tredadda:
What's your top 10 then? Put it out there for everyone to see and evaluate and decide if your list is horrible.
Im not familiar enough w Bucs to make a list like that. But any list that has Watkins and Clark is a joke. Watkins barely played this season. Clark plays well in 20% of games he plays in no way he deserves to make it unless you just talking a strictly playoffs list
And then Thornhill but no Sorenson? Come on... [Reply]
Originally Posted by PAChiefsGuy:
Im not familiar enough w Bucs to make a list like that. But any list that has Watkins and Clark is a joke. Watkins barely played this season. Clark plays well in 20% of games he plays in no way he deserves to make it unless you just talking a strictly playoffs list
And then Thornhill but no Sorenson? Come on...
They’re listed as honorable mentions with several other players that have parts of their games holding them back as well.
If you’ll notice, I did say top 10 players in the Super Bowl, which is a postseason game.
Yes, I would absolutely include Thornhill over Sorensen in my honorable mention. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Pasta Giant Meatball:
The only concern is the epic horseshoe Brady has had up his ass in his career. Been watching some playoff classic game shorts and there's literally a dozen postseason games, he needed large amounts of luck/bad calls to win. It's simply unbelievable.
The latest watched....Marlon McCrea fumbles what should be a game sealing pick :-)
I think this is something a lot of us Chiefs fans are choosing to ignore.
He's had a massive horseshoe up his ass for basically his entire career. I fully expect some weird ass fuckery to present itself based on that alone; I'm just not sure what form it'll take.
If I had to guess, we'll see the collective best game his receivers have ever had (multiple insane catches) or their running game suddenly explodes, setting them up with 3rd and short/favorable red zone situations all game long.
I hope I'm wrong. The fucker's played in 10 Super Bowls and they've pretty much all been relatively close. He's due to get smoked in the big one. Who better to do it than us? [Reply]
Chiefs defense eager to blend new, old tactics in rematch against Tom Brady
by
Nate Taylor
Originally Posted by :
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two men have been on Tyrann Mathieu’s mind for much of this week. The first man is Steve Spagnuolo, the Chiefs’ celebrated defensive coordinator.
“He’s one of the greatest teachers I’ve been around,” Mathieu said of Spagnuolo following Wednesday’s practice. “So detailed, so informative. Not only are you going to know what you’re doing, but you’re going to know why you’re doing it. He never lets us get complacent, as well. He’s always trying to find a way to get us better, even if it’s by a little bit. That means a lot to him, to see us continue to progress.”
The second man Mathieu has been thinking about is Tom Brady, the legendary quarterback, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ new leader and the man he’ll make plenty of eye contact with Sunday during Super Bowl LV.
“One of the things I’ve really watched him do over time is he always knows where to go with the football,” Mathieu said Monday of Brady. “He’s another guy that doesn’t let the mistakes he’s made kind of dictate his game going forward. He can have a couple bad plays in the first half, but in the second half, he’s going to be sharp. Every time I’ve played against Tom Brady, it’s been a four-quarter game, all the way down to the last possession.”
One of the biggest subplots of Sunday’s game will be the performance of the Chiefs defense, a unit that has, yet again, played its best in the postseason. And the final challenge for Spagnuolo, Mathieu and the rest of the Chiefs’ defenders is a familiar one. Brady was the last quarterback, in 2018 as a member of the New England Patriots, to defeat the Chiefs in the playoffs. The outcome of that game led the Chiefs to hire Spagnuolo and sign Mathieu, perhaps the franchise’s most significant acquisitions in 2019.
Since then, the Chiefs have been undefeated in the two games against an opponent led by Brady. Mathieu was also correct about those previous victories: Brady turned a double-digit deficit into an uncomfortable finish.
In the Super Bowl, the Chiefs will once again rely on Spagnuolo to have a defensive scheme complex enough to confuse Brady. Spagnuolo will depend on Mathieu’s athleticism and ball skills to prevent the league’s oldest quarterback from making deep completions.
“He’s a step ahead of everything,” Spagnuolo said Tuesday of Brady. “Every film clip that you put on, he’s putting their guys in the right (place). That’s always the challenge when you go against a cerebral quarterback. We’re going to have to be really good on the back end, not to show him things. As we say, ‘Don’t let him read our mail.'”
One tactic the Chiefs defense had in the previous meeting against the Buccaneers, in Week 12, was to blitz Brady early. The Chiefs forced Brady into an incompletion on four consecutive third-down plays in the first quarter. Each play featured Spagnuolo blitzing, and each blitz was different. Mathieu was also one of two players to intercept Brady in the third quarter.
Spagnuolo, though, knows the Buccaneers offense has improved since that game because Brady, in his first season in Tampa Bay, has built true synergy with his teammates. The Buccaneers, after falling to the Chiefs, have won their past seven games, scoring at least 30 points in their previous six victories.
Playing against Brady twice in the same season, Spagnuolo understands, means the Chiefs’ defensive game plan will have to be somewhat dissimilar from the previous meeting. Spagnuolo even anticipates that some of his adjustments during Sunday’s game could mean calling defensive plays that his unit hasn’t practiced this week. With Mathieu as the unit’s leader, Spagnuolo said he can trust his players in such a scenario to help disrupt the Buccaneers.
“I’ve known Steve forever, and he’s been a phenomenal coach,” coach Andy Reid said. “I think the world of him.”
Spagnuolo is the lone defensive coordinator in league history to help two different franchises, the Chiefs and the New York Giants, win a Vince Lombardi Trophy. In 2007, the Giants defense, commanded by Spagnuolo, thwarted Brady enough in Super Bowl XLII to prevent the Patriots from accomplishing a perfect 19-0 season.
“That 2007 game is one of my least favorite football memories,” Brady said Monday. “I think Spags runs a great scheme, and I think he really caters to the strength of his players. He’s a tremendous coach. I know he’s going to have those guys ready to go.”
No matter how the Chiefs defense plans to attack the Buccaneers, Spagnuolo is aware that one factor has always been successive against Brady, whether in 2007 or this season: pressure.
In the 2007 Super Bowl, the Giants sacked Brady five times and forced him into a fumble that they recovered. Spagnuolo would love a similar performance from the Chiefs’ defensive line, which is led by two star pass rushers in defensive tackle Chris Jones and defensive end Frank Clark. But in the Chiefs’ win over the Buccaneers in November, Jones and Clark didn’t record a sack, instead combining for just three hits on Brady.
“They have a really great offensive line,” Jones said Monday. “I just hope I can get close to Brady. Those guys do a very, very good job of protecting him and making a clean pocket.”
Clark believes the Chiefs’ defensive line will have more success reaching Brady in the rematch, in part because of the experience and knowledge of defensive line assistant Brendan Daly. For five seasons, Daly was an assistant with the Patriots during the same time Brady was in New England. Although he didn’t reveal Daly’s revised instructions this week, Clark expects to have a better performance, which means bringing Brady to the ground.
“Coach Daly has done an excellent job in preparation against Tom,” Clark said. “He’s spent the most time around him than anybody else, and they’re pretty good friends, too. The goal is to stop the run and eliminate the big plays. We’re going to have fun on third down.”
Sunday’s game will be Daly’s fifth consecutive Super Bowl appearance. In studying the Buccaneers offense, Daly hopes the Chiefs’ defensive linemen can execute different techniques quicker since Brady is known for often throwing the ball in less than three seconds after the snap.
“It’s going to be a battle, in my opinion, that’s going to be won in the line of scrimmage,” Daly said. “I truly believe this game, even in these biggest moments, comes back to basic technique and fundamentals. Any time you talk about getting pressure, it’s not one person. It all has to work together.”
While acknowledging the growth of the Buccaneers offense, several members of the Chiefs defense were quick to boast about their own postseason ascension. The Chiefs defense held the Cleveland Browns to 17 points and forced two turnovers in the divisional round. The most impressive part of Spagnuolo’s unit against the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship Game was its red zone production. In five trips, the Chiefs recorded a takeaway and forced the Bills to kick two field goals.
Linebacker Anthony Hitchens presented one reason the Chiefs defense can be stellar Sunday, even if Brady has an answer for Spagnuolo’s strategy.
“Our effort,” Hitchens said Monday. “At this point in the season, there’s not too much that Spags can draw up. It’s more of us just getting our technique right and playing relentless. That’s what’s going to lead us to victory.”
Injury update
Left tackle Eric Fisher (left Achilles tendon), linebacker Willie Gay (knee and left ankle), receiver Demarcus Robinson (COVID-19 list as a close contact) and center Daniel Kilgore (COVID-19 list as a close contact) didn’t participate in Wednesday’s practice. Receiver Sammy Watkins (left calf) and running back Le’Veon Bell (left knee) were limited participants.
Superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes (left big toe) was a full participant.
“It feels a lot better,” Mahomes said of his toe Tuesday. “Having these two weeks to let it rest and heal up, especially being almost three weeks away from the injury itself, if you look at those types of injuries, that kind of gives you the normal timeline. It’s pretty close to 100 percent. I’m sure by game day it will be.”
