Because I don't think the RB was supposed to run a fly pattern. He sat down in his route and only broke out of it when Smith started scrambling

I don't think smith ever actually looked at tyreek. Look at when he takes out the pocket etc. Pretty clear he was looking at kelce the entire play and once he was knocked off his path he bailed. That's why the safety stayed with k3lce.

Which is still a **** up. Kelce got knocked off.....but he could have waited the half a second to see that Harrison then turned his attention towards rushing Smith. Kelce would have picked up an easy 10-12 yards.

Watch Hill - he's not acting like a decoy. He turned to look for the ball and even threw a hand up. He even tried rolling with Smith when he saw the bailout.

Apart from blind hope, what happens there that makes you think Hill's a decoy? Moreover, what in the world would've stopped him from actually catching the pass as he continued to look Smith's way, even if he was a decoy.

I don't believe for a second he was a decoy nor do I think a professional athlete would've been so shocked by seeing a ball come his way that he'd have wet himself and turtled.

If Alex thinks that Hill can't make that play, it's not a dehydrated goat, it's a vapor-locked engine. It's picture perfect 'paralysis by analysis' and if your physically limited game manager of a QB is getting locked up by that, just exactly what is it that he does out there?

He absolutely has to make that play. He just has to.

Pretty much.

Which brings up a bigger issue to me. If you're gonna go with the thought that tyreek is a decoy there, no matter what and isn't going to get a throw whether he's open or not, why is our veteran starting qb operating a single read play like that?

Because he's done it before.....and thrown INTs doing it.

Other than the fact that he was clearly a decoy the entire game?

Collinsworth remarked on it repeatedly. How it was a clear strategy of the Chiefs to use Hill to free up the rest of the skill positions. How the Steelers chasing Hill down was freeing up gains elsewhere.

I'm not saying I know. I'm offering an alternative narrative to 'Alex shit his pants on an no-brainer and simply spazzed over to the sidelines.' It's possible he was a good soldier, AND it's possible he should have chucked being the good soldier and heaved something Hill's way, given how the play unfolded.

And as I said, even if Hill WAS a decoy, Alex still shit his pants on a no-brainder and spazzed over to the sidelines.

Decoy or not a decoy, throw the goddamn ball.

As I said earlier 3 things having nothing to do with Hill went wrong.

The RB sat down a beat too long
The DE read Alex's rollout too quickly
Alex didn't manage to loft a pass over the top to the RB anyway.

Suboptimal end to a promising start for the play, but not the blatant QB-centric spazz job of all time some are arguing.

Running ghost motion or something to be a decoysybe, but running a route like that, I can't imagine he'd be that much of a decoy.

The steelers looked to start in a 2 high safety look and dropped the rookie safety whose name escapes me down into the kelce box there. Looks like the exact look you'd want with that hill route to develop. I dunno, the way it unfolded against the initial snap look, I dunno who they're trying to get open? By Smith's reaction I'm guessing kelce but he looked to be running a flat route with the outside wr running a shallow stop to hold that corner there.

All I know is this - Alex makes that play, that one single play, and we are in the AFCCG. That long touchdown play would have changed the entire dynamic of the game.

The rb takes off on the scramble drill once the qb breaks the pocket. I don't think that's part of the design there from the get go.

Would you have been satisfied if he had completed to the RB instead of Hill?

That's what I've been saying the entire time. The RB was not running a fly pattern.

Anything would have been better than what we actually got out of that play.

My point is that the Chiefs had been contained to that point. If Alex can just spot not just an open guy, but a wide the **** open guy streaking alone down the field before feeling the need to break from a clean pocket, then an explosive play like that would have put Pittsburgh back on their heels both offensively and defensively.

We would have made the AFCCG if that play is made, I have zero doubt. Alex didn't have it in him to make that play (or even the one to the running back).