For those of us that can keep their emotions in check yeah this game sucked but a couple of things of note.
1. If Kelce doesn't fumble that ball we most likely score at least a FG to go up 27-20 with ~10 mins left in the game.
2. We probably should have gone for it on 4th & 7 instead of the 55 yard FG - but that is really a 50/50 call at that point.
3. The Defense played good but not great, I think the GP by Spags was to play soft and make Burrow make the throws - granted we had some atrocious tackling at times but we played well enough to win the game. The Cincy WR's made some outstanding catches with Williams/McDuffie glued to their hip.
4. Andy Reid is 104-26 (80% win rate) with the Chiefs when the Defense gives up 27 points or less. All three losses this year have been 27 points or less, the Indy game (20-17) was the worst Offensive performance of the year by far with 2 turnovers and a missed FG. The Buffalo game (24-20) was the same 2 Turnovers and a missed FG. This game was a single turnover and a single missed FG. WE HAVE to protect the ball and not miss scoring opportunities.
5. Pacheco is a beast I would have given him the opportunity (or at least Mckinnon) on the 3rd & 3 @ the Cincy 33. I'm impressed with his development I just wish we would feed him the rock more.
6. We really do miss the speed on our offense. Hardman/Toney make our offense so much more explosive. Hopefully Toney can come back next week and finish out the season without any more issues. Having Hardman back for the playoffs will be huge.
7. Buffalo still has to play at home vs the Dolphins, Jets and Pats and a road trip to Cincy, still plenty of opportunity for them to drop another game.
8. KC finishes out with Denver x2, @ the Faid, @ the Texans and at home against the Seahags - very good chance we run the table and finish 14-3.
9. I think we forget the other team gets paid to play too and they have good players. We cannot give them Buliten Board material to amp them up. Shame on Justin Reid for the smack talk. Never give them something to play for.
10. We aren't going to win every game, I'll take this this kind of loss over the Indy loss anyday. [Reply]
We didn’t do too bad on the TOP this go around. But Andy needs to plan on only having 7 possessions the next go around. Has to make every drive count. These fuckers can run out the clock on us like we’re the worst D in the league [Reply]
Originally Posted by RaidersOftheCellar:
Come on, man...aside from the fact that allowing 27 isn't exactly impressive, you have to look beyond the score.
The Bengals punted once the entire game, and that only happened because they were flagged for a 10 yd penalty. They moved the ball with ease on every other drive. Imagine if Dunlap doesn't make that 4th down stop or if Boyd doesn't drop a wide open TD pass. There's two more TDs. They also could have scored on the final drive if they'd wanted to. That would have been 40+ points in only 8 drives. That's horrible. I don't know how you could interpret what you saw as good defense.
BUT it's not about what could have happened but what did happen. I mean Mahomes could have been sacked in the Superbowl instead of completing the WASP pass....we have to evaluate based upon what DID happen. Yes, there was some poor tackling, but we played well against a talented team. I would be more concerned about the offense except we were missing Hardman/Toney and Thuney. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good - as in the dropped TD pass.
The Bengals only held us to one punt. Had we not fumbled the ball we get a least 3 on that drive and most likely 7. That changes the entire outcome of the game. That changes the Chiefs offensive performance from anywhere to 30 to 38 points of scoring.
Like I said this was not a bad performance by the Defense, was it outstanding? No. But it was adequate enough that an offense without turnovers wins the game. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
After 13 weeks we really thought that we could win a SB with a WR room that didn't have a true 1. Well, now we know better. We have a room that's overall more talented across the board, but the lack of a true WR1 was glaring today.
We also still have issues on D. And it's not just the DL, though that's a big part of it. But DL definitely needs to be addressed by the draft picks we make next year. I think the secondary is just still young and inexperienced, but they should grow into a better unit down the stretch. I think they'll be as good as many top tier groups by next season.
The offense has just been struggling to score TDs the last couple weeks. Without watching the A-22 I can't say exactly what's going on, but I'm sure Kurt Warner, Brett Kollmann and JT O'Sullivan will be happy to figure it out for us, so there's that. My guess is that the lack of a true man-beater WR1 a la J. Chase/S. Diggs/D. Hopkins is a big part of the problem.
2016 and 2018 Patriots won a SB without a true #1 receiver. Arguably the 2012 Ravens as well [Reply]
Originally Posted by TEX:
Their defenses were much better.
2018 D wasn’t much better aside from turnovers, which was key
We’re 9-3 and despite being -4 on turnovers this season. We’re on pace to be the only Reid Chiefs team to finish in the negatives in that category [Reply]
The thing with the #1 WR is we don't really know how that's gonna go until we get to January. It's been good during the regular season, but that was always gonna be the case.
Depth wins in the regular season.
Once you get in the playoffs, you generally need a "dude". [Reply]
Originally Posted by DenverChief:
BUT it's not about what could have happened but what did happen. I mean Mahomes could have been sacked in the Superbowl instead of completing the WASP pass....we have to evaluate based upon what DID happen. Yes, there was some poor tackling, but we played well against a talented team. I would be more concerned about the offense except we were missing Hardman/Toney and Thuney. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good - as in the dropped TD pass.
The Bengals only held us to one punt. Had we not fumbled the ball we get a least 3 on that drive and most likely 7. That changes the entire outcome of the game. That changes the Chiefs offensive performance from anywhere to 30 to 38 points of scoring.
Like I said this was not a bad performance by the Defense, was it outstanding? No. But it was adequate enough that an offense without turnovers wins the game.
I am talking about what did happen. Their offense moved up and down the field the whole game. Again, they punted once and only due to a penalty that took away a good gain and backed them up 10 yds. There was very little resistance.
27 points in 7 possessions is not something to be proud of. What would they have scored if they'd had the typical 10-12 possessions? The point total is misleading, just like it would be misleading to say the Chiefs "only" scored 24. KC's offense was good, aside from the fumble. They just had very few possessions. [Reply]
Originally Posted by RaidersOftheCellar:
I am talking about what did happen. Their offense moved up and down the field the whole game. Again, they punted once and only due to a penalty that took away a good gain and backed them up 10 yds. There was very little resistance.
27 points in 7 possessions is not something to be proud of. What would they have scored if they'd had the typical 10-12 possessions? The point total is misleading, just like it would be misleading to say the Chiefs "only" scored 24. KC's offense was good, aside from the fumble. They just had very few possessions.
But this is my point that is getting lost I THINK the Defensive Game Plan from Spags was to play soft - make them move the ball in increments - how many blitzes did you see? I saw maybe 1-2 thats super odd for our D and especially since Sneed corner Blitzes are a staple of this Defensive strategy. Spags KNEW that sending extra was going to get us burned so play soft and make them make plays and it worked to a degree- they dropped a few critical passes - had the Offense not fumbled there is a good chance the Bengals offense falls apart. We can "what if" forever but given the circumstances where the Offense put the Defense in awkward positions, I think we did well. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DenverChief:
We played soft - dared him to make plays with other players and he did.
They had a better gameplan and we could not adjust to overcome it. Double CJ, for the rest, beat your man. It worked. Our guys simply could not win against their man... and that really sucks.
When we blitzed, they picked it up. Burrow got the ball out fast, and accurately. We REALLY needed our guys to bat down passes, but they didn't. We got worked in the trenches.
All of that said, we still had a real opportunity to put the game away, but turned it over. Fumble. Missed FG. Game. [Reply]
Good thread DC. Lots of good thought provoking information in here.
Here's what I posted in Meck's thread, which I believe is a levelheaded reaction. Feel free to tell me to fuck off, but after a day or so I think it is still where I'm at.
Originally Posted by Buehler445:
Good writeup Meck. Hard to disagree with much.
I fucking hate losing, but I'm strangely fine, here. Mahomes has calmed a shitload of my anxiety.
Here's the thing, I'm under no dumbass idea that we need to win the super bowl every year. I have to park that side of my brain, because it isn't happening. Even Brady who cheated incessantly, was the NFL darling, and invariably got a shitton of calls because large market and they had a 10 year drought. It will suck, but we're going to miss some super bowls. But my objective is to enjoy Mahomes, and if we accomplish shit, enjoy that too, because Mahomes is the best there has ever been. I'm here to enjoy it.
Viewing the world from that perspective, yeah this one sucked, but I'm strangely fine. Don't get me wrong we needed this one. Needed it for seeding. Really needed the bye. Needed it for our confidence, just to know we could house them. There's no hiding it. We needed it and they took it from us.
But here's the thing, this one falls into the margins of "football". If you look at these teams on paper and their performance, they're good. If you line these up 100 times it's probably 60/40 Chiefs I'd guess. Maybe 50/50 in Cinci. We lost this one, and they played well. They were ready. They played well largely. Couple shit ref calls, a couple missed reads, couple dumbass plays, probably 10-15 plays that went their way that could have flipped the game.
But they had a few too. If we pulled it out, their message boards sound like ours. "Why didn't we run Perine more?" "Catch the MOTHERFUCKING BALL." "OL played well enough to win" "Our DL sucks, why can't we get to Mahomes" "Who is this Pacheco motherfucker, we suck so much if we're going to let a JAG run all over us?" "WTF was Joe doing on that fucking pick?" "Refs won't call holding." "Their DBs are holding all day long."
So longwinded way of saying that it is a close game of 2 teams that are close to each other.
And that's fine with me. It isn't great that both the top of the AFC teams beat us. But similar deal. Buffalo BLEW US OUT last year and we beat them in the playoffs. The inexplicable shit pisses me off way more, like the buttfucking Colts game. If we line up 100 times with the Colts, no way they win more than 10 of those matchups, right? MAYBE 5. Those pisses me right the fuck off more than this one.
Sometimes you don't get the bounces. But we're right there with them. And that's about all I can ask. And is it the worst thing in the world to potentially have to go rip these cunts souls out in their place in the playoffs?
It sucks, we have shit to fix, but we aren't winning them all. I'm here for the Mahomes.
Sidenote: I'm glad I'm not alone in loving Pacheco.
I fully acknowledge it is a pure homer thing. At this point in his career he is probably an upper tier JAG, but goddamn it, he's my upper tier JAG (with lots of tools to build on) and I'll be damned if he isn't easy to root for.
I've said it before that the dude HATES EVERYBODY. Or at least runs like it. But he brings an energy that is hard to not notice. There have been lots of frenetic energetic runners, but he appears to not be interested in talking any shit, just get the ball to the ref and haul ass to be the first one in the huddle. I love that kind of shit. It does fuckall for productivity, but really limits the bad shit that can happen. And the dude is obviously engaged and all in.
Love it.
Hopefully he develops in the pass game and brings the noise in space and continues to develop his vision and experience with the line.
But I'm glad I'm not the only one going irrational homer on the dude. [Reply]