Some Quick Things
 

Tough, hard fought football game against a physical Titans team that always gives Andy and Mahomes fits.

1. I don't think Titans win with a hobbled Tannehill, either. Willis' outside mobility was their second best weapon. Tannehill would've completed some passes, but also would've been a sitting duck and the Chiefs' pass rush was improved.

2. Chiefs defense was outstanding. Derrick Henry is a MAN out there, and other than the one big run, they bottled him up pretty well. Those of you calling for Spags head are NUTS. Spags has been a magician this year, playing all these rookies, and still dials up the perfect play in the crucial moment.

3. Saunders needs MOAR SNAPS. He's clearly better than Nnadi. In fact, he certainly appears to be our best DT not named Jones.

4.Wylie blows goats. He's absolutely terrible, and overmatched on an NFL field.

5. Trey Smith...I don't know what's going on, but he's not been playing all that well either.

6. OBJ is not good enough. At his best, he's average. Demanding top of the market pay when you're not very good is a bad look.

7. 68 passes? Yeesh. Our inability to run the ball has got to be fixed. You can't do that every game. You just can't. I know Wylie can't run block either, but I don't understand why the other four just cannot open holes when that's supposed to be each of their strong suit.

8. The Titans are what they always are; they're a problem. They're tough, they're physical, they're well coached. You can hate Vrabel if you want, but he always has his guys ready to play hard for him. That was a VERY disciplined defense. I didn't see anything all that fancy happening coverage-wise. They just executed. They're going to be back in the play-offs again.

9. Butker. What's up with that? Dooooooood.

10. We should recognize the Titans; they're the 90's Chiefs. They played hard, they played physical, they were disciplined in coverage, they throttled the superior quarterback for 75% of the game...and then the HOF'er dialed it up and beat them. Elway used to do that shit to us all the time. Now we have the boogeyman. Damn, it feels good to be a gangster.

I've been saying this about the Tits for years. The parallels with the 90s Chiefs' team and this franchise are uncanny. Great call out.

Good post. Especially #10. It’s nice to be on that side of the equation.

I’d like to add Mahomes is the best there has ever been. I’d have to rewatch to get good numbers but he biffed like what 4 or 5 passes. And that seemed more important because Martyball, but the fact is there was nothing easy. There were maybe 3 or 4 times that the checkdown looked open from the couch, but it may not have been. Either from offscreen coverage coming or pressure pushing him away.

But the man was throwing into tight ass windows all ****ing game. Their DBs got away with playing physical but the other thing they did is play really well and cover our dudes up. There were no easy throws and Reid is the king of cooking up easy shit. You’d like to see 10 easy schemed open passes a game and there were a couple? And one was Kelce just being the best TE to ever play.

****in Mahomes man. He’s the best that’s ever done it. Many will point to this game as a detractor from that but ain’t nobody else getting done what Mahomes got done. Maybe Jackson because he’s a better runner than Mahomes and that’s the part that was open. But you’d think they secondary would close on him quicker. And even ravens fans aren’t deluded enough to think Jackson is making very many of those throws.

Mahomes.

Oh. And **** Clete Blakeman

https://media.tenor.com/qXLXlNO2nccA...ave-to-say.gif.

A few things I feel...

If you're too nervous about running your RB on 1-2 yards even on early downs you have a massive RB issue. Get rojo ready to play asap and see if he can do what the others can't. was CEHs role last night a sign that the chiefs are ready to move on? Andy's comments indicates he wants to see rojo at some point and ceh seems like the guy most vultuted in that scenario.

The chiefs have an easier stretch of games finally. Do we need to start resting some guys wuo aren't 100%? Limit butker (kickoff Reid). Bench trey smith until he's 100%?

WR is a very big issue and we can't be bipolar with this opinion just because they have good games and bad ones. Tenn used the same blueprint they've always used against us that bellichick has had success with. Clobber our guys, especially Kelce. And to their credit, it works. We are too finesse for that. So how do we deal with physical teams? We need way more toney as our quick strike offense was great when he was in the game. We need less mvs in these types of games.

Toney was a really active blocker. I did not see that coming. Very welcome surprise.

We have an offensive line problem. Our OT's are bad. No running back in football was getting much in this game. We need to make some changes in personnel and/or scheme if we're going to fix it.

That's where I think you need a rojo option. You need someone who can just power through for a few even where there's nothing there. We have to have a snowplow option at least some of the time

I think it would make zero difference.

Tennessee rushes 4 and drops everyone else.

They get some pressure and Pat just turtles.

He missed throws he usually makes last night because of it. Yeah Wylie and rhe run game and this or that.

But Mahomes can’t freak the **** out in the pocket like he did at times last night.

Yep. If our QB was a statue back there, this game would have been really ugly. Something else I find interesting -- Mahomes had 68 attempts and Moore and MVS had just one target each!

You're right, it's more about the OL not being able to open up a hole, than it is our RB's. The holes are rarely there.

Re-read your post.

They rush 4 and drop everybody else, so if they're disciplined, nobody's open. It's a numbers game.

He missed some throws? Yeah, when multiple rushers just blow by the offensive line, I imagine so.

Freaking out in the pocket? Too many times, there was no pocket. A few times there were, and nobody was open.

It's the line. We can't run the ball at all, which puts EXTRA pressure on both the line themselves as the rushers don't have to honor their run fits and can just pin their ears back and go upfield AND Mahomes.

What's even more remarkable about getting stuffed every single running play was TN did that even after playing a ridiculous number of snaps. We couldn't do anything against a tired D on the ground.

Just glad Reid all but abandoned the run. Some games he sticks with it too long.

Im not sure I agree. Watch second half highlights here. This is the kind of runner we need in games like this. Thuney - creed - trey are fine enough that we shouldn't be this awful with up the gut runs. We need someone who's way more decisive and powers into these holes. Pacheco and ceh are more one cut guys. Rojo isn't gonna be a home run hitter. But in a game like yesterday we badly needed some pennies and nickels
https://youtu.be/gactFGBYBH8

I think Wylie Coyote blowing so many goats has started to affect Trey Smith next to him.

Good analysis, Chris, especially on points 4 and 6. Even though Pencilneck was praising his talents in the 4th last night, you can't mask the number of hits and pressures coming over his spot. And don't get me started about Brown.

I still don't think Buttkicker is 100%. I don't fault him for missing a 47 yarder, but we don't need XP drama.

One thing was obvious and that's the importance of Juju. You can't double everyone.

*whispers*

Mahomes holds the ball forever and a coverage sack that isn’t OBJ’s fault is marked as OBJ’s fault

We've got to figure out how to win games where defenses knock our guys around. Especially kelce. These are the games you can see Kelce look flat out spent at the end of games. First, the refs need to do their jobs and call it. But what else do we do? We historically have done very poorly recently against these chippy defenses

I'm aware. That's not really what I'm talking about. Plenty of snaps he just gets blown by. Wylie's even worse. That's what I'm talking about.

Well, we did win.

But that doesn't change the fact that we have some problems that need addressing.

Pressure with 4 and dropping makes it tough. But they have guys open, he's gotta stay in there and hit them.

They've gotta be able to run the ball some for sure. I don't know what the fix is for that (I think it's getting a RB worth a shit).

You should be able to run the ball against a light box, period. There should be holes. Too often, there is not.

Wylie blows goats. We could start there.

I'm shocked Vegas doesn't adjust their spread for him doing games against Mahomes.

Pat has a winning record in every situation BUT a Blakeman led crew. Unreal.

I hate to say it because, well, ****, but they've gotta be able to run the ball in these situations. Atleast a little bit.

Patrick has been great taking what the defense gives him but he still wants to go deep too often when he shouldn’t.

Multiple times they only rushed 4 and pushed everyone back like the Bengals did last year and the RB was open in the flat.

Just take that and get 5 yards every time until they are forced to move a LB to the out side opening up the middle of the field

Tenn has Henry and their defense.


And an attitude of taunting

We need to overhaul our RB room in the offseason including getting a RB coach who was an actual RB not a WR. Hopefully Niang can play in the next week or so.

Yeah, the quick game was working, they got away from it, then went back to it and it was still working.

Good post, I think I agree with pretty much all of it. As for the offensive "struggles" and particularly the run, i mean, I try and keep it in perspective! This is a team that is beating up on all but the very best Ds and it's faced some very tough ones. But the challenges aren't new, we all saw them from the beginning of the year.

It's a mixture. The OTs have played badly, Trey has been banged up and taken a step back. We have a scheme that doesn't seem to maximise our RB's strengths, or at least mask their weaknesses - and our OL doesn't seem to execute these plays that well. Against good secondaries playing man we miss an elite WR who can separate - and Mahomes has maybe held on for a tick too long on occasion, but it's connected. It all adds up. BUT - point 8 is right, this was a very, very good D. As good as this offence can be we're not going to put 40 on these teams every time. We're not going to put 40 on SF every time.

One of the things I really liked seeing was Juju working the intermediate stuff well. The fact that Toney was involved is promising and I STILL think Moore will be a valuable piece. The cavalry isn't coming or the OTs and run game, same with the DL. If we win it all it'll be partly in spite of these things and partly just better execution and cohesion.

I don't think you're gonna get much from Moore this season. I don't know what the deal is there, but he just doesn't seem ready for this level yet.

Cris Collinsworth was praising Wylie last night multiple times.

That's some Bizarro World shit right there.

agreed. I want to see the snap counts but I thought I saw more of Watson last night then in previous games.

Yeah, I thought the scouting report was that he's a fast learner and hard worker. I am plenty sure that he is. And yet he seems to give up on some of his routes and doesn't seem to have a great understanding of how to adjust his routes. I think a lot of this is lack of confidence.

Really glad they tried him out as a punter now...ffs. Like I say, think he'll come good, but no doubt it's been underwhelming so far.

That game brought back memories of what Elway used to do to us in the last few minutes of a game. We would have the lead and then he would scramble out of a sack and make some stupid, ridiculous throw for a 1st. Then he was scrambling in for a TD, etc.

Next thing you know our lead with under 10 mins left is gone and we are wondering WTF just happened?

Mahomes put the team on his back and willed them to win. MVP performance.

We threw the ball on 70+ passing attempts. If the dude can't or won't block, it ain't happening man. This is like the backup QB stuff we did for years. Turns out Ricki Stanzi sucked too. Same deal here.

Reid has tried a lot of shit in the running game, and if RoJo was an option, he'd have tried that too.

Yeah, we won a game we had no business winning. Their defense (and cocksucking Clete) performed really well and should have won that. But Mahomes did Mahomes things and their going home and looking in the mirror wondering WTF?

They'll probably be fine, and they'll probably win the south and they'll probably give someone (hopefully not us) fits in the playoffs.

IMO, the answer to the question, is scheming up RBs in the flat. Reid was absolutely disgusting at that in Philly. I understand we don't have Brian Westbrook, but McKinnon is ****ing good and Pacheco can get it. Plus CEH's best plays have come in space.

I'm a ****ing moron, but that's what I'd like to see against these type teams.

Check that. I'd like to see A MOTHER****ING FLAG ON AT LEAST THE MOST BLATANT INTERFERENCE. But that's another matter.

Agreed. Even though I would like to see Rojo. I think it's a scheme thing as much as personnel as to why the run looks so terrible. We don't look creative at all with the run game in addition to getting our s***t kicked in up front across the board. There's a reason why when one back looks bad the others do too and vice versa

When's the last time we ran a true draw play? I remember seeing a boatload of those in the AS11 days (and being frustrated), but I'd think it could be a lethal "gotcha" play with Mahomes' arm as the ultimate decoy.

Agreed. Our RBs are struggling a lot right now, but part of it is because our line is generating no push.

It's just puzzling on rojo. If he was a liability in pass coverage we should have released him. Even more puzzling Reid specifically said they're going to get him involved. If I'm being optimistic it's that they're optimistic he can improve on pass pro. But given hes a vet I'm skeptical.

If it's an ongoing issue I just don't understand keeping him on the roster.

I do think pass pro issues aside rojo fills a spot that our other RBs can't. He is a north south power runner and I don't think any of our other guys are that guy. He wouldn't have dominated yesterday but I think he would've fared much better. Purely as a runner.

There were plenty of times he had a pocket and dropped his head.

He wasn't on his game last night. But he's a great player so he kept shooting. That's fine and it's something the best will do.

But he was surprisingly shakey for most of the night considering he was responsible for 500 yards of offense. He missed a LOT of guys out there. That FG in OT came after he missed a walk-in TD to JJSS on a skinny post right before the 4th down conversion. He missed Hardman several times and he seemed to get into that 'wait wait wait' mode when it came to taking his underneath guys, especially his check downs.

He had a bulldog night; one of those nights where an elite pitcher doesn't have his stuff but battles through for 6 innings and 2 earned to give you a chance to win the game. But unlike a pitcher, the person he gave the chance to win was him.

But for all the credit Mahomes will get, it was the defense that saved our ass. That D was exceptional. The 2nd half+ shutout will get all the credit, but man, they were actually pretty damn good from from the 55 yard run by Henry onward.

Mahomes didn't have an A game at all. But it's worth giving him (and the team writ large) credit in that a C- game for him ended up being good enough to beat a quality opponent.

Throw the ball 60+ times and there are going to be pressures, but apart from a couple of pressures up the gut that Smith surrendered (man he's off), PM had decent time on several occasions and just wasn't seeing the field as well as he usually does.

That I agree with. I saw at least a couple of plays that were 3rd and manageable and instead of trying for the first down he chucked it deep to receivers that were covered.

Dude had a 500 yards of total offense while forcing it to two guys. I'm confused on whether he sucked or not. I already had it in my mind that this was another afc south loss and sure enough he made this game harder than it should have been with his tunnel vision and missing throws. He was definitely panicked last night

The defense played really well all things considered.

Saunders was really good up front. Get that dude more PT.

I think people are overreacting about the running game. It was non-existent last night, but that was probably the best run defense in the league.

More often than not, the rushing offense has been okay this year. Against Tampa, it was great.

Best analysis on the ****ing internets.

Threw 120 pitches in 6 innings and walked seven and escaped because he struck out 13.

He looks like he drops his head alot but he really doesn't.

Perfect illustration

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/Chiefs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@chiefs</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/PatrickMahomes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PatrickMahomes</a> did it all when they absolutely had to have it. 3-17. No down or distance is safe when the ball is in #15 hands. Great game; perhaps they see one another in the playoffs <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/chiefskingdom?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#chiefskingdom</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BaldysBreakdowns?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BaldysBreakdowns</a> <a href="https://t.co/M8LhF52vyl">pic.twitter.com/M8LhF52vyl</a></p>&mdash; Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/BaldyNFL/status/1589653756609589249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

He did and he didn't.

So a major difference between Willis and a quality QB, let alone an elite one like Mahomes, is that Willis, when he dropped his head, was DONE. And shit, Smith did that to. As soon as he came off his targets to find the rush, he was not gonna hit the Triangle button and bring those passing icons back up. He was looking to scramble from that point forward.

PM and other great QBs don't do that. They'll drop the passing icons, hit X to break the pocket, then bring the passing icons back up JUUUUUST in case someone gets back open.

But Mahomes, when he's truly dialed in, doesn't bother with any of that. He's just gonna know where everyone is and even on a play like the one Baldinger is talking about, he makes a smaller movement up to buy a tiny bit of space and lets it go.

He was dropping the icons more often than usual last night. Oftentimes without truly needing to. Again, I think because of Wylie's struggles and some really bad beats from Smith, we're acting like he was harassed all night - he really wasn't. I mean think of that throw into double coverage to Moore (that could've/should've been an arm punt) - he had all DAY to throw. And if my memory serves, he had MVS running wide ass open for about 12-15 yards. He just didn't come off the deep shot even though it very clearly wasn't there.

Never would have assumed the defense was playing that well if you were in the GDT.

Offense needs to be a lot better in AFC games. When you exclude Justin Herbert’s Pick 6, the Chiefs offense is averaging 21.4 points per game against 5 AFC teams this year. That 21.4 scoring average is similar to the 20th best scoring team in the league.

They’ve had 3 very explosive games on offense against the NFC, but they need to break the lower scoring trend in these AFC games.

You guys are blowing up Wylie and not looking at the Titans secondary. Our receivers weren't separating. I don't care how good the OL is. If there's nowhere to go with the ball then you're equally dead. Mahomes took advantage of their backs being back to him late in the game. That and the aggressive edge rusher losing contain because they were looking to end it.

Andy said he thought they looking pretty good in pass protection but the running game... not so much.

lmao didn't see him spike the ball like keith cash live LMAO

I have started to wonder what it will take to get a roughing the passer call for the hits on Mahomes?

The NFL sure seems to want him playing in Prime Time, why are they not protecting him at least as much as Qbs like Carr?

Mahomes got knocked a round a lot early. 5 QB hits and 2 sacks before we even got to half iirc. Even he isn't immune to phantom pressure after getting hit that much.

Great point about breaking the pocket and going back to look down the field. It really comes down to how confidant he feels about his protection whether he starts to bail or not. He had like 4 sacks last night all in the pocket?

Yeah, well...

Said it a dozen times to this point but the 90s Chiefs aren't even possible these days.

The defense just put forward as good a game as you can expect in the modern NFL. The Titans got the game script they wanted and had every opportunity to use Henry to salt that game away.

The D stood tall and wouldn't allow it.

Y'know who was maybe the best defender on the field last night?

David Long Jr. He looked like peak Jayon Brown for the Titans. I mean they were using him all over the place and he was making plays everywhere.

For us, Jones and Bolton were both outstanding. Sneed also quietly had an outstanding game (he smothered a lot of those boots by not biting and staying on the underneath/out routes). But it seemed like every time I looked I saw #51 in the middle of the shit. He played a great ballgame.

Yeah, there were a lot of passing plays where Pat was just standing back there waiting for 5 seconds, but no one was getting open downfield, except for maybe the checkdown. There were a couple where Pat simply missed the open man, but mostly TEN did a great job in the secondary, though I saw more than a few DPIs that weren't called as well.

But it felt like a playoff game, and the refs typically don't call ticky-tack DPIs in the playoffs. So the bottom line is that our receivers have to get better at creating separation as the season progresses, because we're going to see this type of mugging in the playoffs.

And man, Noah Gray looked as close to Kelce-ish as we've seen from anyone on this roster in a long time. Obviously the deep seem rout will be remembered but he made a catch on the sideline where he caught it with his hands and pulled it down/pivoted the other direction all in one move that looked JUST like something Kelce would've done. I can't recall if he ended up converting a 1st down with it, but if he didn't it was awfully close.

He and Watson had great nights as complementary weapons. It's just the kind of contributions you need on nights where the offense just isn't quite in sync.

Long was everywhere. Couple times we had a run blocked up and he just outquicked out G to make the tackle. That's a damn nice use of a 6th round pick, he's really developed into a nice player.

I remember one in particular where he just made Trey Smith his bitch. Smith's going for the punch and Long makes a perfect pass-rusher move to swipe his hands off at the same time he breaks off his outside shoulder. He ended up in the hole like a bullet.

It was textbook.

Yeah, they've done an excellent job developing him. He was solid as a replacement for Brown a couple years back but he is a genuine difference maker out there now.

From what I can see, Henry had 8 carries for 23 yards in the 2nd half and overtime.

"But he wears defenses down!!!"

They simply took him out of the game. You can't keep giving him the ball when he's averaging 3 YPC. You end up behind the sticks almost immediately.

The Chiefs defense was outstanding.

Did anyone see Payton call out Clete and roll his eyes on the Monday night football Manning cast last week? Pretty funny.

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Kelce, JuJu and Noah's concentration on catching the ball on the last drive. Were awesomeness xxx. CEH had nice one earlier

I'm doing my standard re-watch thing and really, the broadcast is telling me some of the same things I saw at the stadium.

Brown was fine. Hell, I think Brown was actually pretty good. He got beat by Mario Edwards pretty badly on that overthrow to Kelce and had a hand in one of those sacks, but by and large, he played a strong game. I think Thuney was our best OL (unsurprisingly) but I think OBJ was right there behind him.

Wylie was bad but fellas - Trey Smith was worse.

The combined effect of those two guys has hurt us badly all year. Folks keep wanting to get Wylie out of there and yeah, I get it. But man, Trey Smith is doing nobody any favors and when the right side of the line is just collapsing on any given play, it makes things awfully tough.

I think it's probably time to give Smith a break. If he's healthy, then he's mentally ****ed up and could use a re-set. If he's hurt even coming off a bye week, then he needs some time to rest and get healthy. Allegretti is a competent blocker and right now I have little doubt that he'd be better than Smith is playing.

Wylie, again, isn't an 'on an island' guy - he absolutely has to have credible help to his left. He's not getting it even a little bit and the combined weight of those two guys struggling is snowballing rather than being greater than the sum of their parts.

I agree. Which I guess begs the question of if we needed Jody fortson last night. On the one hand I'm glad gray got a chance to shine as a receiver. Still, Reid loves those three TE sets and I wonder if they could have helped last night particularly in a game where they were pushing us around.

I was willing to give Smith the benefit of the doubt early in the season that he was maybe playing hurt. I am starting to wonder if maybe last season was an outlier. Hopefully whatever is wrong gets fixed.

Was Fortson dinged up or just a gameday inactive?

Because the latter is a mistake, IMO. Especially when it was just so you could have the privilege of having TWO "Dave Toub Memorial Special Team Scrubs' on the roster. 3 if you count Cochrane.

I mean lord, do you REALLY need Kemp? FFS, stop acting like Gunner is as hard to play as ****ing QB is. Or as critical.

If you are hell bent on keeping Lammons on this team, you can't also be sitting guys like Fortson so you can play Kemp. It's getting unreasonable, IMO.

That's probably why Wylie looked better last season. Smith was playing much better last season. Now they both stink and teams are learning how to use them against each other.

Fortson was Inactive because he was hurt all week

Fortson got hurt during practice earlier in the week.

That's what I thought.

'Zilla's comment made me wonder if I wasn't mistaken and that his inactive status was more of a 'voluntary' thing.

Obliged.

That's absolutely the case.

The two of them last year formed a solid pair on the right side. And they were very complementary.

Now they're the inverse of it.

It isn't just a Wylie thing. It isn't just a Smith thing. But both of them are making matters worse instead of better.

Shit happens but this feels like it should have been a win for Trey

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Teach tape fill &amp; tackle from Zach Cunningham against a high-level puller. <a href="https://t.co/aJxPLRTHLb">pic.twitter.com/aJxPLRTHLb</a></p>&mdash; Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrandonThornNFL/status/1589681756294500352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Smith was in position to blow him up and just...whiffed...

He had a head of steam and probably 80lbs on Cunningham and didn't even knock him off his spot.

Yeah, as others have said, he was hurt. But you have to wonder with the way we bombarded sf and Tampa with a 3 TE set if it couldn't have really helped us yesterday. But I do like that we were able to let gray loose.

I thought Andy said he got hurt early in the SF game and had a contused thigh or something that he played through for the rest of the game. Maybe he was talking about someone else, but I thought he was talking about Fortson.

We got spoiled with Mitchell Schwartz. Having just one bookend tackle would help immensely, even if its just on the Right Side.