Patrick Mahomes: Game Manager

[DJ's left nut]

So i re-watched the 2nd half last night just for grins.

And during the game I was just aggravated that we simply wouldn't push the ball. But on re-watch and after listening to the post-game, it's clear that this was Mahomes just going full Alex Smith out there.

He wasn't concerned anymore about scoring points. He (and Andy) were wholly content bleeding clock and leaning on their lead. He knew that if he just didn't make a mistake, the Ravens weren't going to come back and win it. So he took ZERO risks.

Contrast that with how he played on the first two drives. And hell, the throw he made on 3rd down when they had to have it. He HAD big plays. He HAD yards and probably points on the board. But he dialed that risk/reward calculus waaaaaaay down because he wanted to make sure there were zero mistakes.

And I think part of it was because he knew that if he needed to pick things back up, he could. He would. He was in complete command of the game and game script.

It was part of a continued evolution from Mahomes. If he needs to breath fire, he will. But when he doesn't need to, he knows how to just keep the game under control. He can be Rodgers OR he can be Brady.

He's a scary scary dude even when he isn't.

[jd1020]

I just dont understand the thought process behind "not needing to."

This team should never be content. Too many games reach uncomfortable stages because we get content. The game was only ever 10 points of separation for 3 quarters. I can't imagine a world in which that little of a lead should ever be considered "enough."

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by jd1020

I just dont understand the thought process behind "not needing to."

This team should never be content. Too many games reach uncomfortable stages because we get content. The game was only ever 10 points of separation for 3 quarters. I can't imagine a world in which that little of a lead should ever be considered "enough."

Agreed. Slow the game down when you're up three scores, but not when you're up by 10 coming out of halftime.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by jd1020

I just dont understand the thought process behind "not needing to."

This team should never be content. Too many games reach uncomfortable stages because we get content. The game was only ever 10 points of separation for 3 quarters. I can't imagine a world in which that little of a lead should ever be considered "enough."

It's not that they weren't scoring because they didn't need to.

They weren't scoring because they put the risk knob to 0. And the Ravens defense is very good.

If you're going to score on them, you're going to have to make higher risk plays (the flip to Kelce on 3rd, for example). But the squad seemed to understand that the Ravens, if given a long field, were going to make a mistake before they score. They knew the Ravens couldn't drive a long field.

So rather than risk giving them a short field, they chose to play the field position game, force them to execute for a full drive and get it into the end zone.

And Baltimore simply never could. Every time they got to the red zone required a big play. We went into a shell on defense AND offense. Because it's pretty damn hard to do one but not the other. If you're going play the way we were playing defensively, you need to complement that offensively and continue to force them into long drives.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

It's not that they weren't scoring because they didn't need to.

They weren't scoring because they put the risk knob to 0. And the Ravens defense is very good.

Did we though? We went for it on 4th down at like their 20 yard line. I dont see how we turned the risk knob to 0. We were struggling.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by jd1020

Did we though? We went for it on 4th down at like their 20 yard line. I dont see how we turned the risk knob to 0. We were struggling.

That was earlier in the game when we still weren't sure what Baltimore had on offense.

I don't think we came into this game expecting to do what we did. I think we decided in the 2nd half that the adjustments to make were to take the air out of the football and force Baltimore to work to win it.

If 4th down play happens in the 3rd quarter, we take the points, IMO. But at that point in the game, we were still feeling out the game script.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

It's not that they weren't scoring because they didn't need to.

They weren't scoring because they put the risk knob to 0. And the Ravens defense is very good.

If you're going to score on them, you're going to have to make higher risk plays (the flip to Kelce on 3rd, for example). But the squad seemed to understand that the Ravens, if given a long field, were going to make a mistake before they score. They knew the Ravens couldn't drive a long field.

So rather than risk giving them a short field, they chose to play the field position game, force them to execute for a full drive and get it into the end zone.

And Baltimore simply never could. Every time they got to the red zone required a big play. We went into a shell on defense AND offense. Because it's pretty damn hard to do one but not the other. If you're going play the way we were playing defensively, you need to complement that offensively and continue to force them into long drives.

Only thing I disagree about yesterday was not taking the FG on 4th and 1 which made me believe that after Lamar's only TD Andy thought it could be a possible shootout.

Just take the points Andy. Omenihu gave us a great turnover in FG range and we wasted it by going for it against by far the leagues best rush defense that has done well all year in those short yardage situations.

Not getting points there hurt. Get what you can with this defense bc it's gonna be hard for any offense to score TD's on us

[wazu]

Originally Posted by jd1020

I just dont understand the thought process behind "not needing to."

This team should never be content. Too many games reach uncomfortable stages because we get content. The game was only ever 10 points of separation for 3 quarters. I can't imagine a world in which that little of a lead should ever be considered "enough."

Of course we'd all love to have more. The results of the game show we didn't "need" it. By not taking risks we instead were going to force Lamar to drive the field on our elite defense. The Ravens D was able to hold us from scoring, but they were never able to get that game-changing takeaway to make things easy for Lamar. I love it.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by jd1020

I just dont understand the thought process behind "not needing to."

This team should never be content. Too many games reach uncomfortable stages because we get content. The game was only ever 10 points of separation for 3 quarters. I can't imagine a world in which that little of a lead should ever be considered "enough."

Have you not watched enough early Chiefs game this season to see what happens in close games when players don't execute?

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by The Franchise

Have you not watched enough early Chiefs game this season to see what happens in close games when players don't execute?

So why play like we can just execute at will? Even Mahomes has shown he can't execute at will this year. If it's not there, dont take it, but dont completely remove the option for it to be there.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by jd1020

So why play like we can just execute at will? Even Mahomes has shown he can't execute at will this year. If it's not there, dont take it, but dont completely remove the option for it to be there.

That's not what we did or would have done.

We would've simply amended the number of risks we would've taken knowing full well that we couldn't execute at will.

And the reason we were unwilling to take many risks on offense was because failure to execute could've come at any time creating the turnover that could've given Baltimore the life they needed to do something on offense that they WEREN'T able to do without the benefit of a short field.

It was complementary football.

You know, the stuff that everyone said Reid couldn't do for a couple decades. He coached the hell out of that game, IMO.

[Bl00dyBizkitz]

Originally Posted by jd1020

So why play like we can just execute at will? Even Mahomes has shown he can't execute at will this year. If it's not there, dont take it, but dont completely remove the option for it to be there.

I dont think the option was there in the 2nd half. The Ravens D adjusted. We couldn't get anything on the ground. And our YAC was completely minimized. They wanted us to throw downfield. They wanted us to make a mistake and give Lamar a short field. We wouldn't let them. We forced them to earn it. And they failed. That was the gameplan.

Build a lead, sit on it, force them to drive the length of the field to score points, and watch them crack under the pressure. And that's exactly what happened.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Bl00dyBizkitz

I dont think the option was there in the 2nd half. The Ravens D adjusted. We couldn't get anything on the ground. And our YAC was completely minimized. They wanted us to throw downfield. They wanted us to make a mistake and give Lamar a short field. We wouldn't let them. We forced them to earn it. And they failed. That was the gameplan.

Build a lead, sit on it, force them to drive the length of the field to score points, and watch them crack under the pressure. And that's exactly what happened.

And the Ravens play a ton of trail coverage and are very very good at it.

An underthrow on a deep shot is getting picked against Baltimore. It's how they use their coverage. Their guys are constantly in that trail coverage looking for a ball they can undercut. Even the play to MVS looked for all the world like a ball Maulet was hoping to undercut. Had the blitz gotten home just a little sooner and kept Mahomes from being able to put that high arc on it and sail it out that deep, that may have been exactly what happened.

The Ravens were hoping we'd get aggressive and make a mistake. Mahomes refused to oblige them.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by jd1020

I just dont understand the thought process behind "not needing to."

This team should never be content. Too many games reach uncomfortable stages because we get content. The game was only ever 10 points of separation for 3 quarters. I can't imagine a world in which that little of a lead should ever be considered "enough."

I get it, because crazy shit happens... and crazy shit is the only way the Ravens scored yesterday. After the holding penalties in the first half though and some of the really tight coverage and that one dude flying around.... I can see why they wanted to hand it off or get the ball out quickly.

I wanted to see more ~4-7 yard stuff to Kelce and Rice instead of so many screens and the lack of creativity in the run game... but end of the day, the Ravens offense just didn't have it.

If it's say 27-17 I'd probably say... sure, they've scored a few times and could make it closer again. Seven points at halftime though and through 3 quarters..... meh, that offense probably isn't more than doubling their output, especially considering the first TD was such a broken play.

The Ravens were working damn hard for first downs, much less getting into and scoring in the red zone.

Sure, it puts pressure on the defense and they were playing with fire a bit, but I get why they did it and it's amazing they can lean on the defense like that.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

I get it, because crazy shit happens... and crazy shit is the only way the Ravens scored yesterday. After the holding penalties in the first half though and some of the really tight coverage and that one dude flying around.... I can see why they wanted to hand it off or get the ball out quickly.

I wanted to see more ~4-7 yard stuff to Kelce and Rice instead of so many screens and the lack of creativity in the run game... but end of the day, the Ravens offense just didn't have it.

If it's say 27-17 I'd probably say... sure, they've scored a few times and could make it closer again. Seven points at halftime though and through 3 quarters..... meh, that offense probably isn't more than doubling their output, especially considering the first TD was such a broken play.

The Ravens were working damn hard for first downs, much less getting into and scoring in the red zone.

Sure, it puts pressure on the defense and they were playing with fire a bit, but I get why they did it and it's amazing they can lean on the defense like that.

The 4-7 yard shit over the middle was exactly what I DIDN'T want to see.

That's where balls get knocked into the air for interceptions. Or guys end up in the middle of 4 dudes flying downfield to knock the ball out.

I wanted to see a couple deep shots to try to open up the sideways/screen/run game a little bit. But barring that, the LAST thing I wanted to see were balls in the short/intermediate areas over the middle. The juice doesn't justify the squeeze there, IMO.