Chiefs stopped the Bengals on downs inside the 1 but Sneed was called for hands to the face on Boyd on a somewhat questionable call. Would have had around 2 mins left for Mahomes to get a FG but Bengals ran the clock down and kicked a fg with no time left to win it.
Darrel Williams was really good in that game fwiw [Reply]
Originally Posted by penguinz:
I expect Andy and Pat to go full throttle the whole game. KC will put up 35+.
Hell yes, if they're ever going to keep the pedal down in a regular season game, this is the one. If the Bengals win, the narrative will be that they are officially "in KC's head"...and it might be true. [Reply]
Originally Posted by AdolfOliverBush:
Hell yes, if they're ever going to keep the pedal down in a regular season game, this is the one. If the Bengals win, the narrative will be that they are officially "in KC's head"...and it might be true.
One time is bad luck. Twice is a problem. Three times is a trend. [Reply]
Originally Posted by :
Watched a video on the Chiefs using a lot of 1-4 splits pre-snap to mess with the 2-deep zone stuff, especially Cover 6, teams have been throwing at them for the last 18 months. Lining up 4 guys to one side, or 3 but motioning to 4 at the snap, to flood zones even more efficiently and even out the numbers against the "box coverage" to the strong side. Normally a Cover 6 would have 4 in coverage over 3 WRs to the strong side and 3 over 2 to the weak side, so numbers advantage both ways. But motioning to a 4th strong side messes with that box coverage by making it 4v4 instead of 4v3.
This has worked for them this season because it causes all kinds of issues for zone defenses and it's one of the main reasons their offense is suddenly #1 in the league again despite not having a REAL WR1 on the roster. It's also a huge reason why Kelce has absolutely gone of this season, as I'll touch on more below.
But it also seems like the kind of gimmick Lou will figure out, if not before the game at least by halftime and adjust to it. The way you counter this is by playing more Man, which we could do since they don't have any WR1s, or by shifting the 2 deep underneath zones to the strong side to get a numbers advantage again.
Both of those situations will leave Kelce in a 1v1, and he'll likely like up as the backside X opposite the 4 man split strong, just to try and leverage his match up. Meaning Flowers (or Dax) are is going to be HUGE in this one because that will be their matchup in Man. But it will also be down to Apple or CTB to do the same from some Cover 6 looks. They'll basically be playing Match or Solo Lock from the weak side, and while it might be possible to shift Apple or CTB to the slot to put Flowers on the boundary vs Kelce, that would be a huge schematic change to make. So these two will likely have to hold up on the weak side for us to play the 2 deep stuff Lou loves. Otherwise we'll be stuck in Man a lot so we can get Flowers over him.
All that said, I have faith in Lou. He has shut down KC in both 2nd halves, and shown us he's the king of HT adjustments in plenty of other games. He'll figure it out.
Originally Posted by :
Both the Bills and Titans held them to 20, we could conceivably do the same. They might get 17 or 20 in the 1st half and then only 3 or 6 in the 2nd, as we know Lou is a master of HT adjustments right now.
All we need to be able to do is get to 27 ourselves. 30 would be good, 27 SHOULD be enough. Our OL will basically determine how the game goes.
scared shitless of our pass rush
Originally Posted by :
KC ranks top 5 in pressure rate, top 10 in knockdown %, and top 5 in sacks. They blitz a ton (6th most) so our guys will have to be very sound in their pre-snap checks and post-snap reads. Nobody on the edge is particularly scary but with our OTs sometimes even average DEs can look great, especially guys with power to their game.
On top of that, Dunlap could be especially motivated playing his former team that "ran him out of town". But it's really just Chris Jones who will be an issue. Dude leads all DTs in pressures, sacks, and pass rushing grade. He also ranks 2nd in win rate, just a few decimal points behind Aaron Donald. He lines up everywhere including both left/right 3-Tech and 5-Tech. I'm sure he will Cameron Heyward Volson a few times - hopefully Cappa will hold up 1v1 on his side.
Originally Posted by B_Ambuehl:
The Bengals season stats don't really tell the story of what they are now. Their new Oline has really come together lately. Last year in the playoff game vs the Titans they gave up 9 sacks. Last week vs the Titans they gave up 1. Their run game has also really come on as of late. Their Oline has 4 new starters and is much better than the oline that played in the AFC championship.
Cincy's OL is allowing 3.2 sacks a game on average, 28th in the NFL.
KC is tied for #2 by comparison at 1.5.
Here is an even better stat-
Rushing offense KC is #19 at 114 YPG. Yea Mahomes makes up a bit of this for sure.
Cincy is #27 at 96 YPG.
Their OL is still shit. Stats are stats whether you want to discount them or not. [Reply]
