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]
Originally Posted by Bearcat:
The FG call was a bad one. I just don't think you can play for the tie there with 3 minutes left. As bend-not-breakish as the defense was for much of the game, getting into FG range and winning the game would have been nothing for the Bengals offense.
Bingo.
Of course hindsight is 20-20 but CIN had all their TO's left and a ton of time. But at the time I felt it was the wrong decision. [Reply]
McKinnon is a better RB than Pacheco. He's patient enough and has vision to find the hole and blow through. Pacheco runs like a maniac, I love him too. [Reply]
Good post. I feel the same way, we are still in good shape for the 1 seed.
The Bengals are a really bad match up for us. We get a lot of our sacks by blitzing and you cant blitz Burrow. I thought our D line would be able to get to him but they couldnt.
Our secondary is NOT good. We knew that. They are a work in progress and thats a situation we can not overcome against the Bengals. Not yet anyway.
If we see them again (likely) we will have learned from this game. Most of our DBs werent here for last year. Now they have seen it for themselves.
This one hurts, for sure but we still have control of our destiny. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DenverChief:
Ah yeah I forgot he came limping off the field - but that just solidifies my argument to give the rock to Pacheco/McKinnon on 3rd down and then if we have to go for it put it on Pat's shoulders - gotta put more trust in the runners.
Yeah against that front I would have liked a run. They basically were saying you won't so now we can double everyone. That needs to be punished. I'm not furious though because its mahomes so whatever. But 4th down we should have gone for it. [Reply]
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. [Reply]
I feel like we held back on defense and offense with how things stand in the long term. We are about winning playoff games not regular season petty revenge games. [Reply]
Defense needs to capitalize on offensive mistakes. There were multiple 1st and more than 10 that ended up being first downs. The expectation can't be that Mahomes always has to be perfect and make magic
Give him a margin for error that's all you need to do you don't have to shut teams out [Reply]
Of course hindsight is 20-20 but CIN had all their TO's left and a ton of time. But at the time I felt it was the wrong decision.
We werent able to stop them all game, I felt like we should have gone for it. A field goal even if he made it wasnt going to win. To risky for Andy but thats what it would have taken to pull the game out. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Red Dawg:
I feel like we held back on defense and offense with how things stand in the long term. We are about winning playoff games not regular season petty revenge games.
Will be hard to beat the Bengals in any situation. They match up very well against us. It's no coincidence. 3 wins in a row is pretty telling. [Reply]