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.

[notorious]

Chiefs just beat the 2nd best team in the NFL in their house.

The game plan was just fine.

[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.

[jerryaldini]

They couldn't run the ball at all. Baltimore took away the short passing game. Locked down Kelce.

Outside of the last pass Mahomes threw for 36 yards in the second half. Thankfully they were finally able to win over the top when they had to have it.

[IowaHawkeyeChief]

Originally Posted by Pasta Little Brioni

I disagree a bit. It's a whole different gane if Zay doesn't fumble. We had PLENTY of chances to grow a good lead and just kept farting around. Reminded me of the Eagles game but Lamar simply wouldn't accept the gifted win.

No, if Zay would have scored Mahomes would have opened it back up. There was no reason to push it with a 2 score lead. They knew Lamar wasn't reading the Defense. Their offense was 3 big plays, all broken coverages or should be sacks yesterday. They knew Lamar would make mistakes like throwing into triple coverage. Hell, Bolton had one go right through his hands for another pick and Lamar was lucky he caught his own ball and it wasn't picked by Reid. We were in complete control.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19

Guys, the 2018 Pats offense wasn't a juggernaut whatsoever. Very comparable to us here in fact. A couple HOFers, good OL, and some JAGs.

One week against us, they scored 38 because our defense stunk and that's what they had to do. Then in the Super Bowl, they scored 13 and protected the ball because that's all they needed to do.

Just win playoff games however you can.

I came to say this. It typically takes a team effort to make it to the Super Bowl. Mahomes played it safe and leaned on the D yesterday because he could. Tom Brady made a career of that kind of thing. His rough averages in Championship Games are 260 yards, 1.45 TDs and 1.2 INTs and his numbers get much better in Super Bowls.

[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.

[pugsnotdrugs19]

Mahomes had 91 QBR yesterday, AKA a near perfect game.

[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.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

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.

I'm the opposite. Those quick slants over the middle are like the most indefensible passes in the game, IMO. I mean, Tom Brady made a ****ing career out of those plays and you knew there were coming because his number one guys were guys like Welker and Edelman, but you just couldn't stop it.

[DaFace]

I thought the same thing. He's really grown this year and learned how to win even when he's not the one who is doing the heavy lifting so to speak.

Brady and Manning both won Super Bowls when their offenses were kind of shit. In their cases, it tended to be toward the end of their careers when they were the issue. The fact that Mahomes has already learned how to turn the gunslinger mentality on and off as appropriate should be terrifying for the rest of the league.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by jd1020

I'm the opposite. Those quick slants over the middle are like the most indefensible passes in the game, IMO. I mean, Tom Brady made a ****ing career out of those plays and you knew there were coming because his number one guys were guys like Welker and Edelman, but you just couldn't stop it.

It's not indefensible when the opponent is willing to trade 5 yards for a kill shot and has been delivering them all game.

It takes one guy to slow up on that route because he's tired of getting hit to turn the game around. It takes one play where the ball is separated from the receiver and bounces up into the maelstrom to give them the turnover they need.

As a general rule I don't disagree with you, but that's exactly my point. This game was ALL about Andy not coaching to a predetermined script. All about not using the general rule.

In THIS game, what he did was the right thing to do. Because those guys were laying the wood out there. They WANTED this game to be played in between the hashes and underneath the safeties.

We refused to give them what they wanted. I absolutely believe that was what led to some of those frustration penalties.

[scho63]

I think some of the 1st down runs early in the 2nd half were too conservative. We had too many 3rd and longs entire 2nd half.

Later in 4th qtr it's OK to bleed clock but we could have used one more score. The game was too close to turtle up that early.

[petegz28]

This was very much a Marty-Ball\Bradyesque type of game. The decision to go for it on 4th down was a good one. We had been slamming the ball at will and when you need less than 1 yard in a chance to get 7 vs 3 in that situation I had no problems with the decision nor the call. The Ravens D happened to make a play that time so tip your hat to them.Had we been struggling to move the ball or struggling to stop them up to that point then obviously you kick the 3. Had we not gone for it, most of the people bitching about not kicking would have been bitching that we didn't go for it.

The 2nd half was just smart football. We were pinned deep most of the half and Andy\Mahomes were not going to chance making a mistake deep in our own territory and gift the Ravens any kind of short field, Pick 6, scoop & score, etc. Our defense was handling them and up by 10 we chose to make the Ravnes have to beat a defense they had not shown they could beat up to that point vs. getting scared and forcing something when we didn't need too.

This was an evolutionary step for both Patrick and our defense. We have shown the last few games how dynamic our entire team can be and sometimes being dynamic means playing boring, ball control offense and letting the defense hold a 10 point lead.