The 1st 3 plays of the second half were full of holding and early contact..they stopped showing it after that.

It will be cast that away moreso because Brady is retiring. Terrible timing for this loss in that regard. But I agree overall, Mahomes is going to play in many more post season games. Just be glad your QB is not Rodgers. LOL

I would have ran the ball 3 straight times at the end of the 4th quarter when it was first and goal......and quite frankly, it was 4th and 1, i might have considered going for the win there as well.

But nope, we had to get cute....and butker had to bail us out.

In the offseason, Mahomes needs to leave behind the media, family, etc.......and go to a log cabin in a desolate area in Russia with Apollo Creed and get his mojo back.

Dude that was the worst half of any QB in the playoffs and it's not even close. The fact that some people are asking if he was concussed should tell you everything you need to know about his play.

I didn’t say destroy Mahomes…we were talking about the entire team and coaching staff and it’s totally fair.

You lose in that fashion after being up 21-3? You absolutely deserve to get drug…

Don't disagree, but usually after I loss, I have a good idea of why we lost, usually it's getting dominated up front. But this loss, it's really hard to understand just what happened.

Lol, worst of any qb? Get out of here with that nonsense.

People acknowledge he had a bad half. It’s one bad half out of 6 after 5 outstanding halves in the playoffs. Are you expecting me to flip out at him over that? Brady usually didn’t make the super bowl in back to back years. He had a bad half and he’ll work like hell to address it this off-season.

Wasn’t worse than Jimmy G against the Packers. He threw about 6 balls that should have been INT’s including several that should have been Pick 6’s. Aikman was torching him on TV. Somehow Rodgers did nothing to beat them.

Which performances have been worse?

He's about to play in 2 SBs...

Honestly I am more upset about the playcalling on our last drive in regulation than the one at the end of the 1st half. In hindsight KC should have kicked the FG, but they were rolling at the time and showed no signs of slowing down. No reason to believe they don't get the TD. On the final drive when they had first and goal, they needed to run behind that powerful line. To put the ball in the hands of Mahomes who was clearly off the entire second half was foolish. Run the ball, burn clock and score a TD. Worst case they don't score and end up with a chip shot FG.

And Mahomes almost threw a game losing pick 6 and almost had a game losing fumble on a play he lost 17 yards on a sack. That's in addition to the other plays he flat out missed players or did something flat out inexplicable.

EXACTLY THIS! Furthermore, the Bengals counted on Reid getting cute because they were ready. What they would NOT have been ready for was to do what you mentioned. I was yelling at the TV to JUST RUN THE DAMN BALL! 1st and goal from the 6, and you only run it once...:shake:

It he had simply a bad half we win. He was atrocious. Like all time choke levels of bad. All decision making, holding the ball, ball placement, pocket presence, etc. was first year starter levels.

Yep. I think the lounge needs to lose the “13 Second Lounge” title.

Mahomes takes responsibility though he really shouldn't to much. Bengals were basically playing with 10 guys and 1 spying on him so our WR's should have been getting open. Don't know what happened but 2 games against these guys and we put up 6 pts total in the 2nd half.

The last play before half may have shaken his confidence a bit, but I don't think that was the dagger many here do. He actually came out and threw some decent passes in the 3rd.

There was one on 3rd down on a crosser just out of Pringle's reach. Replay showed a massive hold on Pringle that disrupted the timing.

He also had a good floater over Kelce's shoulder that could have been caught if not for a good defensive play.

Otherwise, he choked really badly. I'm not exactly sure what it was but he was very frustrating to watch in the 4th and OT.

I blame myself.

I have a home jersey that every time I wear it, the chiefs lose. "Coincidence" I thought "it's impossible, superstitions aren't real and me wearing a jersey has zero impact on the game"

I'm sorry. It's all my fault

They were physically mauling the receivers knowing it wouldn't be called..it's why cbs stopped showing it.

Actually it starts with Andy Reid, wasting the time out and not kicking the fg with five seconds left in the half and no time outs.

Yes. In favor of 21-3 this week and then back to the Lounge.

I don’t understand the situational play by Patrick and Andy.

The end of the first half play was inexcusable. You can’t throw sideways and behind the LOS like that.

Then Patrick running out of bounds twice at the end of the game right after the 2 minute warning. I mean come on dude the Bengals use both of their timeouts on those plays to stop the clock if you just stay inbounds. Then it’s 1st and goal from the 5.

Then you take that ridiculous sack on 2nd down to move back to the 9 instead of being smart and throwing it away.

Man what a cluster****

On the first drive of the second half both Hill and Pringle were mugged with no call. Then in the 4th they call a ticky tack pass interference on the Chiefs

It is really hard to figure out what is going on with TV broadcast. I wish they offered an All-22 broadcast

First, I have a ton of respect for KC Chiefs and acknowledge how great they are, but:

Dude, Lol. KC has lost 2 games since Halloween. Guess who those 2 losses were to? Uh, Cincy.

You go on calling them inferior.

Ryan tannehill, Big Ben, Aaron rodgers, dak Prescott, jalen hurts, Kyler,
… get out of here with this shit. Most of these guys had bad halves on top of bad games and having limited career playoff successes.

Mahomes had a really bad half. But it’s easily the worst half of playoff football he’s played and it’s common among qbs. We are spoiled if we don’t just move on from this.

Cincinnati knows something because that's two games that they shut them down in the second half.

Mahomes trying to call a time out after that first half play when 1) The Chiefs had no time outs left and 2) The clock was at zero/half over… says everything.

Mahomes was completely lost on that play which is so out of character.

You guys complaining about the refs are a joke.

Sneed held on his INT that should have turned the momentum back in our favor. We could have easily been called for PI in the endzone on the Bengals first FG drive. They were letting them play. The refs didn't ****ing lose that game for the Chiefs. Your high flying offense cant disappear for an entire half like that. The play calling was trash and the play on the field was even worse.

Are people here complaining about officiating?

I hope not, because the Refs let them play... exactly what the Chiefs needed to win.

I can’t believe this. This seems impossible with this offense. What the ****

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chiefs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chiefs</a> ran the ball 6 times for 34 yards in the second half prior to their final drive of regulation. They dropped back to pass the ball 12 times for a net of 0 yards &amp; an INT on those same five possessions.</p>&mdash; Brandon Kiley (@BKSportsTalk) <a href="https://twitter.com/BKSportsTalk/status/1487945394130767874?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The whole thing is bizarre.

I think Mahomes had a concussion.

I think everyone is in disbelief at this point.

This is going to be the most anticipated all-22 film ever.

Wtf happened?

.

But yeah I'll give you Ben and Kyler. But yeah this was an abortion of a half from Mahomes.

Have a play in mind where he got it?

On the INT maybe?

Which is exactly why I was screaming to RUN THE DAMN BALL from 1st and goal at the 6 at the end of regulation.

There's no denying that the whole team imploded in the 2nd half. It's inexcusable, and they all know it. But were they trying to suck? No. The Bengals were being the better team, and they just couldn't over come that. They're human. It's frustrating. But it is what it is.

I'll take Mahomes over ever other QB in this league hands down. He had a very bad day.

Shhh... be careful when you talk like that... you'll be accused of bullying

This! I couldn't help but wonder about point shaving.

My very over-active imagination could imagine somebody known to Pat, walking up to him on the sidelines before the last possession of the first half, telling Pat that his friend was in a buttload of hurt on the spread with the bets made and needed to be bailed out or the big, bad goons would come calling...

But I'm sure that's just my imagination, because if such a thing really did happen and the NFL found out about it, Pat would never play another down in the NFL again.

This was a very hard hit.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I&#39;m always going to wonder on this play. <a href="https://t.co/CPsJNZOohE">pic.twitter.com/CPsJNZOohE</a></p>&mdash; Nick Jacobs (@Jacobs71) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jacobs71/status/1487975353582866441?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That?

IF he really did have a concussion he probably got it tackling the DT. Took a pretty good knee to the head.

Edit: after watching it again it got mostly shoulder

Not buying that Mahomes had a concussion.

I believe he made a major mistake on that last play of the first half and it just stayed with him and he could never shake it off.

It is different but it is Kyler Murray's pick six in his own TD zone level of bad decision making IMO.

For all the praise that we have given Mahomes, I'm sure that we can criticize him some now.

It's hard to tell for sure however there's a hit where Mahomes head snaps pretty violently, almost like a helmet to helmet hit.

I’m not sure if it was a concussion or what, but the way we ended the final 33 minutes Mahomes wasn’t thinking straight. His decision making was horrible for the rest of that game.

Look at his stats before and after that int.

Two completely different players.

8 for 18, 55 yds and 2 interceptions

It was such a jarring difference you have to ask what was going on? Did he get a concussion? Difference in opinion with the coaching staff? Maybe the emotions from last week? Something happened.

He was off in the second half before that play.

If that's a hard hit then Mahomes just can't take a real one.

Interesting sideline interaction after the interception in the 3rd between EB and Mahomes right at 2:03-2:00 mark. I would like to know what was said. But the body language points to some egos at play.

Everything in the second half was just weird.

I wonder if something will leak about a locker room argument or something.

This collapse was just different. Our players’ body language seemed off in the second half.

I don’t think they were shaving points or anything was rigged, but this was just very odd.

How do five guys not block three guys?

ALL three got the QB.

that's what I'm wondering, if something happened in the locker room. Some kind of blow up from an entire season of pressure. I know Mahomes is not a rookie but still if something hit him the wrong way that he couldn't shake. Kelce coming out flat, Hill and Hardman exchanging words on the sideline, etc. From what people who could see the sideline it sounds like the whole offense just got in their own heads.

Mahomes will never leak anything and neither will Hill or Kelce. We might never know what caused the offense to come out so flat.

People need to live with the fact and understand that Mahomes cannot get away with bad performances all the time. Over the past 3 years Mahomes had several games, including playoff games, in which he either started performing slow or it got close in the end, but the team managed the hold on onto the lead or got the better ending. As I said before, the quality in the league, especially in the AFC is insane. The gap is not huge anymore, it got much tighter. Mahomes was Superman in his first three years, but the overall situation changed. Mahomes realized that in his post-press conference. It's not given anymore that the Chiefs roll into the SB every year. It's going to be a major fight and should either he or the team dont perform it is game over.

He played a virtual perfect game against the best defensive team in the league last week and that was just barely enough to win. I think he knows the margins are slim when it gets to this point. He just played a bad game this time around.

He lost it prophetically. Who could have guessed that the cries of 13 seconds and grim reaper would predict that thirteen seconds into overtime that he would throw his final interception. I mean to be so prescient. . . .

Well, he owned it post game
“They just had a spy on me, for the most part, and I’ve usually done a good job getting around that guy, but they had a good game plan,” Mahomes said, via TheAthletic.com. “They were doing a lot of similar stuff in the first half, we were just executing at a higher level. They stayed with it. But I mean, I gotta be better. I mean when you’re up 21-3 at one point in the game, you can’t lose it, and I put that on myself.”

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...e-thats-on-me/

So Cincy adjusts and our adjustments to counter were……*crickets*…….

We adjusted. We went from getting 6+ yards on the ground to not running when the other team was daring us to continue doing what was working and instead we just watched Mahomes unravel for an entire half to lose the game.

I don’t remember what that call was. Remind me?

We made no adjustments at half time from the looks of it.

Spags didn't do crap.
Andy didn't do crap.
EB didn't do crap.

Typical.

If I'm Clark Hunt I would be livid. Andy embarrassed Clark in his own house. There need to be some serious conversations this off season.

lots of fans are reporting that the sideline mood was totally changed when they came out after halftime. Once banter was commonplace, players weren’t even talking. Several were sulking by themselves.

There were several seemingly negative exchanges between players that usually never do anything like that. We know of the Mahomes/EB and Hill/Hardman exchanges. But sounds like there was more.

Something happen in the locker room? We will probably never know.

Wonder if Gblowfish saw stuff like this too?

all three broke through at the exact same time too but the o line all has their back turned and probably thought the ball was gone by then.

Yeah that wasn’t because our OL couldn’t block them. Our OL just didn’t block them.

Makes me think Mahomes ****ed that one up. All 5 OL had the exact same thought, whatever it was.

First time I can ever remember Andy throwing a QB of his under the bus happened after halftime. Andy was furious.

To his credit, he owned up to making a bad play call at the goalline after the game, but you have to wonder if Andy was tight as a drum after being up "only by 11 -- like the last game". Just seemed like it was hugely on his mind in spite of having a two score lead, at home, in the AFC Championship Game.

Average sack on Mahomes was 8.95 seconds. That's a lot of indecision and WR's not being able to get open.

the OLINE was doing so well at the start of the game I said there is no way the Bengals can win with no pressure so they must have decided that since they can't get pressure on PM they will take away his targets. Pretty brilliant to when a team can take away the middle from Hill

The Bengals dropping 8 into coverage will do that.

Andy has called grind it out, run the ball drives in the playoffs before when teams dared him to do it.

For some reason, he didn't pull the trigger yesterday.

Running the ball was so obvious. How does a coach of Andy's pedigree not understand that?

Yeah.

I left that game completely serene.

You play that poorly for a half+ in a conference championship game, you don't deserve to advance. The game wasn't taken from us. We didn't get screwed by officials. We didn't make mistakes in roster construction. We didn't even lose to a better team.

The best, most critical player on the team (possibly in the NFL), played like microwaved dog shit for the last 7ish drives of that game and so we lost.

That's an L well earned. And it's one that's going to follow Mahomes and Reid for a very long time. And yeah - it should. For an entire half of football our Golden Boy played like Matt Cassel and so we lost.

Not sure what else there is to say about it or what else there is to take from it. Mahomes is mortal and finally demonstrated as such.

It just is what it is. So now I'll decompress for awhile, stick my head up come draft season, see what we do to deal with the pressing issues on the roster through the coming months and be ready come August. And in the back of my mind I'll even be hand-waiving regular season results because we're at the 'who gives a shit?' stage of the game.

In a lot of ways this result is pretty easy to take. It's obvious what happened. What happened was rare. It's also capable of repetition, if unlikely. Frankly it was amazing he hadn't laid an egg in the post-season yet.

So...moving on.

We really should re-name this the 'Moving On Lounge'. Mods?

That's an eternity back there... just chuck the ball 20 yards on a rainbow to the sidelines.

He'll be fine. There are many lessons here to be learned, and I have faith he will take them to heart.

Like audible to a ****ing run when they're dropping 8 every play.

Use the full offense, not just Tyreek and Kelce no matter what.

I hate, hate, hate to admit this as someone who loves Patrick as much as I do, but I hope it's a learning experience for Andy, too. It's one thing to tell Patrick to keep firing when we're down 8 with our backs against the wall in the 4th quarter. But when we have a lead and Patrick is off, we need to be able to counter with the run when teams are leaving it open for us to do so.

We've seen Bill Belichick take the ball out of Tom Brady's hands countless times when Brady wasn't feeling it in major in-game situations. Hell, we lost multiple playoff games because of that. We saw Tony Dungy do the same with Peyton Manning. We even saw Andy do this in the 2019 AFC Championship Game.

When a team is giving us the run when we have the lead, sometimes, the best move might be to take it.

I hate to say this but I think Patrick and Andy are too prideful. They both want the ball in the air too much.

And dumbasses on this board piled on anyone saying to run the ball more.

These guys drafted a first rd RB and then didn’t even use him. Talk about a wasted pick

Yup - probably needed to shut him down there. Like I said, Mahomes and Reid will wear this one and they should.

The thing is that there's just no explanation for it. Nothing happened. He shouldn't have been pressing. He shouldn't have been skittish. He wasn't getting blasted and the OL was holding up well. He had guys open but he was coming off them too soon. He was just bad. And there was no explanation for it.

So why torture yourself trying to find a solution to a problem that doesn't have a cause?

It wasn't an argument or anything like that. Just a small interaction. EB while looking at his iPad says something to Mahomes like "you can't do that", Mahomes looks like he says "I got you" and turns his head away from EB . But when he turned his head his facial mannerisms point towards something other going on there.

Don't overblow what I am saying , it was a minor incident that was very small and quick. But it was very telling from my perspective.