Originally Posted by Youngbuck17:
I haven't gotten to watch much of the Chiefs recently. What's your current evaluation of their WRs. Mahomes looked dang good even with the bum ankle, but still need dependable people to catch the ball besides Kelce. I assume Reid still runs alot of screens? He fricking loved screens in Philly.
JuJu Smith-Schuster is #1, possession guy who can convert first downs consistently. Plays the X
MVS is the Z. Speed, speed, and more speed. Has iffy hands at times, but dropped absolutely nothing against Cincy... was overall top receiver for the weekend, statistically.
Toney/Hardman/Watson/Moore are slot guys with speed, shifty, and super dangerous on jet sweeps. Latter two are used on deep passes and posts, respectively.
Kemp is a big body that can high point passes, but rarely sees the field.
Kelce is the top receiving target in this offense, and is a top receiver in the league, but plays from TE position. Dude is an absolute stud. First ballot, HoF, GOAT.
Gray and Fortson are "backup" TEs that can kill you as a receiver. They are patterned after Kelce, so their game is eerily similar.
Bell is the big bruiser prototypical TE.
Another receiving threat that you really have to plan for = RB McKinnon. His nickname is "Jet"; he is one of the most dangerous red zone receivers in the league.
Pacheco has shown excellent hands out of the backfield as well.
If that looks like a lot of potential targets/options, it is... Mahomes regularly spreads the ball around to 8-10 different receivers per game. That makes this passing attack nearly impossible to stop. You can gameplan to take away one or two guys, but it just means Mahomes will shred you elsewhere. [Reply]
So I dug into the Eagles pass protection and pass rush a bit. Some interesting things I found:
On 5 occasions they played a team that ranked in the top 10 in sack percentage allowed. They tallied 14 sacks in those games. 6 came against the Cowboys in Week 16, when they allowed 40 points. 4 came against the Jaguars in Week 4 at the beginning of a 5 game losing streak for the Jags. They managed 4 total in the other 3 games.
44 of their 70 sacks came against the 9 teams they played who ranked 18th or worse in sack percentage allowed. 37 came against the 7 games against teams they played ranked 25th or worse.
They allowed 13 sacks in 4 games against the teams they played in the top ten in sacks. Another oddity from the Cowboy loss is that they allowed 0 sacks in that game, despite the Cowboys ranking 3rd in sacks. The Cowboys tallied 4 sacks in their loss. They allowed 6 sacks to the Saints who ranked 5th in sacks.
They allowed 2 or fewer sacks in 8 games. Of those games, only two of the opponents ranked in the top half of the league in sacks (Cowboys as mentioned before and Commanders). The other 6 ranked 18th or lower. 3 of them ranked 26th or lower.
They allowed 3 or more sacks in 9 games. The average sack rank for those teams was 12. 7 of the 9 ranked 10th or worse. 3 were 16th or worse.
For reference, the Chiefs ranked 2nd best in both sack percentage allowed and total sacks. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Holladay:
We talk about their vaulted Oline but they were 11th in sacks given up with 44. Denver was the worst with 63. We gave up 26, which was 3rd best.
If their line is so good, how did they give up that many sacks?
Probably because their QB scrambles so much. He's elusive but is bound to get sacked more frequently than pocket passers with quick triggers. [Reply]
Karlaftis isn't great against the run (yet), and Nnadi and Saunders are not anything to write home about either. But they're not doing that. That is atrocious.
I'd like to see big Williams in on all obvious run downs. Williams is punishing dudes. [Reply]
I wish I had anything insightful to say, but I really know nothing about the Eagles. Other than they're stacked with talent. Gonna need to get healthy. [Reply]
Hurts is no slouch. He’s a better passer than he gets credit for. Their line play is solid. Handled SF pass rush without much issue, granted that SF defense was gassed af with the short offensive possessions. That being said if we force Hurts to beat us with his arm we win. Gotta control the line of scrimmage and take away those underneath routes. Make Hurts air it out. When he tucks and runs God bless his soul. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ArrowHeader:
Hurts is no slouch. He’s a better passer than he gets credit for. Their line play is solid. Handled SF pass rush without much issue, granted that SF defense was gassed af with the short offensive possessions. That being said if we force Hurts to beat us with his arm we win. Gotta control the line of scrimmage and take away those underneath routes. Make Hurts air it out. When he tucks and runs God bless his soul.
You also need to make them play from behind, they're entire setup on offense is about playing with a lead. [Reply]
I know the Eagles have Haason Reddick and he makes a big difference, but their lines were the same minus him last year and we seemed to do very well against them.
I’d say the 49ers DL was much better than this Eagles line. Reddick is good but in no way is he Bosa.
Also noticed blitzing Hurts forced him to make quite a few mistakes. He’s gotten better but he’s still very vulnerable there. [Reply]
Chiefs Running game was a disaster in the AFCCG, however a good omen has been they've always bounced back with strong running performance the next game. We will need it can't have quick 3 and outs against Philly [Reply]
Originally Posted by RunKC:
I know the Eagles have Haason Reddick and he makes a big difference, but their lines were the same minus him last year and we seemed to do very well against them.
I’d say the 49ers DL was much better than this Eagles line. Reddick is good but in no way is he Bosa.
Also noticed blitzing Hurts forced him to make quite a few mistakes. He’s gotten better but he’s still very vulnerable there.
Bosa was noticeably in pain after that weird fluke injury against the Eagles. We didn’t see him at his best in that game. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Youngbuck17:
I haven't gotten to watch much of the Chiefs recently. What's your current evaluation of their WRs. Mahomes looked dang good even with the bum ankle, but still need dependable people to catch the ball besides Kelce. I assume Reid still runs alot of screens? He fricking loved screens in Philly.
The Chiefs' WR group, when healthy, is deep and has a variety of skills. But 3 of their top 4 WR were not available by the 4th quarter on Sunday.
Kadarius Toney tweaked his ankle in the 1st quarter and didn't return.
Mecole Hardmann re-aggravated his pelvic injury in the first half and didn't return.
Smith-Schuster's knee got dinged and he missed the 4th quarter, too.
Smith-Schuster gives them a physical receiver who can work underneath, is really good against zone, and can make contested catches/back shoulder catches.
Hardman is a pure speed/gadget guy. If he's healthy, he adds an "every blade of grass" threat to the offense.
Valdes-Scantling's the deep speed guy. He can be schemed up really well against zone to stretch or beat it. In man, he forces the safeties to respect the deep areas of the field.
And Toney can give them a little of all of that.
Overall, at full strength, it's a much healthier WR room.
And you also have to consider the TEs. Travis Kelce is the top dog receiving target, obviously, regardless. Noah Gray gives them a receiving threat/movement TE in 12 sets. And Jody Forston is a large converted WR who is dangerous in the red zone and when he gets the opportunity to take a LB vertically without help over the top.
If that whole group is available, the Chiefs' have a lot of cards/approaches to pull in the passing game. [Reply]