Chiefs ****The Clyde Edwards-Helaire Thread***** - Page 205

Mahomes was great in the red zone yesterday in terms of making quick decisions. That’s not the place to ad lib. Play within the offense down there
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Originally Posted by O.city:
He doesn’t

Don’t ask him to, run straight ahead

Problem solved

If we all can see this, why cant the coaches? He just runs into the pile so many times when it looks like he has room to run if he goes left/right. That seems to me to be a core skill that's needed to play RB in the NFL.
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Originally Posted by BigRedChief:
If we all can see this, why cant the coaches? He just runs into the pile so many times when it looks like he has room to run if he goes left/right. That seems to me to be a core skill that's needed to play RB in the NFL.

He's done a good job reading the holes the last couple of games. Granted, some of them were massive, but he had a few were he popped out into the B gap and found some room to work.

That's where both he and his OL strengths lie. I suspect we'll see more of it going forward.
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Originally Posted by BigRedChief:
If we all can see this, why cant the coaches? He just runs into the pile so many times when it looks like he has room to run if he goes left/right. That seems to me to be a core skill that's needed to play RB in the NFL.

That's hasn't been true these last 3 weeks.

If he can keep running the rest of the season the way he ran yesterday he should statistically finish as a top 5 RB.
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Here's something I've noticed. Andy used to be known for his screen passes, like an obnoxious amount of screen passes in his offense. CEH seems like a perfect fit for the screen game but we don't run them with anywhere near the same frequency that we used to. So...what's up with that?
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Originally Posted by Couch-Potato:
Here's something I've noticed. Andy used to be known for his screen passes, like an obnoxious amount of screen passes in his offense. CEH seems like a perfect fit for the screen game but we don't run them with anywhere near the same frequency that we used to. So...what's up with that?

We've run a few more than it seems - they just haven't been working terribly well.

I think part of it is the youth on the OL. 2 weeks ago there was a screen that could've busted for 20+ yards and there was one guy to beat. I think it Smith who was looking downfield instead the guy immediately to his left and the LB just cut in behind him to blow it up.

If Smith takes that guy out, it's a big play. And until Andy sees it work routinely in practice, he's just not going to lean heavily into the screen game.

Also - remember that screen plays really depend on aggressive defenses to work. If you have teams looking to drop into short zones in order to keep Kelce contained and they keep 2 safeties back to keep Hill from going over the top on them, that's just a real nasty look to run a screen into because there are so many defenders still out in front.

Mahomes is so good against the blitz that running an aggressive D on him is damn risky. Part of the absence of screens is almost certainly the defensive looks we're getting because you just cannot fly upfield against this offense. And if you do, PM is so good at hitting the vacated space, you just kinda let him do that instead of forcing a designed single-look play on him.

Short answer may just be that the offense is too good for screen passes to work all that well.
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Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
No, he probably doesn't.

But we also don't have the OL designed for that sort of approach. You still need someone that can curl and get a seal block in there. Or some really difficult reach block. Or a pulling G or something along those lines. Your OL has to be extremely athletic in space for those kinds of plays to work from that far out.

Ours just isn't that kind of OL. And to my eyes we intentionally got away from that when we moved on from more mobile guys like Fisher, Wylie and Schwartz and replaced them with straight up maulers like Brown, Niang and Smith.

The only RBs that could house one from 10 yards out by simply sprinting to the pylon are generationally fast guys - the CJ2K sorts. That's just not a reasonable expectation. No, Damien Williams wasn't just outrunning guys 10 yards past the LOS and blowing angles apart. He had athletic blockers that could get him that edge and then he could outrun a MLB. For most guys they need blockers that can get 1 or 2 key blocks in space. Our line's just not built for that.

Most obvious difference is likely our center.

o
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Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:

Also - remember that screen plays really depend on aggressive defenses to work. If you have teams looking to drop into short zones in order to keep Kelce contained and they keep 2 safeties back to keep Hill from going over the top on them, that's just a real nasty look to run a screen into because there are so many defenders still out in front.

Mahomes is so good against the blitz that running an aggressive D on him is damn risky. Part of the absence of screens is almost certainly the defensive looks we're getting because you just cannot fly upfield against this offense.

This is the answer.

Or in other words, the Screen is thought to be an effective tool against man coverage in which the defenders back's are turned to the play, and they can be locked up and isolated.

It's considered to be rather ineffective vs zone defenses because the defenders are always looking forward, allowing them to easily sniff it out and run downhill to gang tackle.

And as we know, no one would dare play the Chiefs in man coverage unless it's in very specific spots.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try it, or at least find creative ways to get the ball in the hands of CEH/Hardman etc.

Hardman was very involved in the short passing game on Sunday.
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Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla:
Most obvious difference is likely our center.

I took him off the list because I really didn't feel like having the 'Reiter sucks at life' conversation.

But yes, Humphrey is a far stronger player at the point of attack and should help immensely in our efforts to run between the tackles.
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Originally Posted by Detoxing:
But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try it, or at least find creative ways to get the ball in the hands of CEH/Hardman etc.

Hardman was very involved in the short passing game on Sunday.

CEH should be used more in empty sets, IMO.

I don't even care if its as a WR3 sort of player. Go into the huddle in a 'heavy' formation with CEH and Burton, then send CEH in motion into the slot with Burton in the backfield to pick up a blitz.

The defense will see your FB in the huddle and stay in their base defense. Then you can get Clyde in space. He's really a good route-runner so you can use him in ways you can't use most RBs.

Trying to use him as a poor man's Bell in the passing game should work pretty nicely. Especially if you use it as a tendency breaker.
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It's refreshing to see that Clyde was held back by the ankle injury in preseason and not the hip injury in 2020.

He clearly has improved burst and that is making his vision look better too. I think we dodged a bullet.
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Clyde has 0 rushing TDs in 4 games.

Don't care what you say, his burst ain't good enough.

Damien was scoring gobs of TDs in the postseason with this team.
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Originally Posted by Hammock Parties:
Clyde has 0 rushing TDs in 4 games.

Because they sub in Williams or just throw one of those middle screens.
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Originally Posted by Hammock Parties:
Clyde has 0 rushing TDs in 4 games.

Don't care what you say, his burst ain't good enough.

Damien was scoring gobs of TDs in the postseason with this team.

Williams has vultured a couple TDs from CEH.
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His burst is IMPROVING and not where it can get to yet hopefully. He was clearly being affected by his ankle and is getting better.
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