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.

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by Chiefnj2

I'm surprised people really think Mahomes didn't want to score any more points. Of course they did. Why in the world would they want to be so conservative and put their completely gassed defense back on the field time and time again, only to get lucky and bailed out by the punch out and taunting penalty?

The fact is Andy and Nagy called a poor second half game. Baltimore took away the first half strengths and KC couldn't adjust.

Oh here we go, another Madden XBox Champion????


The fact is Andy knew exactly WTF he was doing and it worked. Meanwhile you're crying because Andy didn't Madden or something like that I am sure.

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by DaFace

You know we won the game, right? And that Patrick himself said that he played more conservative because they trusted the D to take care of business?

Unpossible...he like a 99.999999 in Madden or whatever...you must throw the bombs!!!

[philfree]

Another game where there was TD taken off the board because of a penalty. A great play call and a great catch and run by Rice.

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by Chiefnj2

I'm surprised people really think Mahomes didn't want to score any more points. Of course they did. Why in the world would they want to be so conservative and put their completely gassed defense back on the field time and time again, only to get lucky and bailed out by the punch out and taunting penalty?

The fact is Andy and Nagy called a poor second half game. Baltimore took away the first half strengths and KC couldn't adjust.

Patrick was definitely being cautious with his throws in the 2nd half. He even took some sacks instead of forcing the ball into coverage at times. He was doing everything possible to avoid turnovers, which were a major problem for him during the regular season.

I also think Andy's playcalling was more conservative in some situations, like when he did back to back rushing plays on 1st and 2nd down even though the 1st down play went for zero yardage.

[Zebedee DuBois]

Originally Posted by BWillie

BWillie is always wrong except that hes almost never wrong!

I might point out that there is a difference between:

1.) Being almost always right.

and

2.) Being always almost right.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by DRM08

Patrick was definitely being cautious with his throws in the 2nd half. He even took some sacks instead of forcing the ball into coverage at times. He was doing everything possible to avoid turnovers, which were a major problem for him during the regular season.

I also think Andy's playcalling was more conservative in some situations, like when he did back to back rushing plays on 1st and 2nd down even though the 1st down play went for zero yardage.

It's so obviously not just Andy's playcalling that led to it.

Because when Andy gets cautious, if Pat's not on the same page, he does that stuff where he holds the ball too long, won't come off guys, waits for a first read to open up and then gets himself it or commits a turnover.

Mahomes as at the back of his drop and the ball was out - immediately. If it wasn't, he started looking for a lane to run or in one case took a sack.

It was OBVIOUSLY a concerted effort to keep the clock running and protect the ball. From Reid, yes, but Mahomes as well. It was the PLAN after halftime.

It wasn't an accident. It wasn't a necessary evil. It was how they intended to win that game and they were dead-ass right.

[Marcellus]

From an article on the Athletic. Not how you expect it to go, exact opposite of last weeks game.

The Chiefs didn’t score in the second half, but they didn’t really have to. They did just enough offensively to spell their dominant defense and run precious minutes off the clock: five minutes here, two minutes there, another four there. By game’s end, they had won the time of possession battle 37:30 to 22:30.

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

It's so obviously not just Andy's playcalling that led to it.

Because when Andy gets cautious, if Pat's not on the same page, he does that stuff where he holds the ball too long, won't come off guys, waits for a first read to open up and then gets himself it or commits a turnover.

Mahomes as at the back of his drop and the ball was out - immediately. If it wasn't, he started looking for a lane to run or in one case took a sack.

It was OBVIOUSLY a concerted effort to keep the clock running and protect the ball. From Reid, yes, but Mahomes as well. It was the PLAN after halftime.

It wasn't an accident. It wasn't a necessary evil. It was how they intended to win that game and they were dead-ass right.

I like this version of Mahomes. I know people want to see the exciting plays, but more than anything I want Patrick to avoid the dumb mistakes that hurt the team. If he can fully eliminate his Brett Favre aggressiveness for the rest of his Playoff career, the Chiefs are gonna be really hard to beat every year.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by DRM08

I like this version of Mahomes. I know people want to see the exciting plays, but more than anything I want Patrick to avoid the dumb mistakes that hurt the team. If he can fully eliminate his Brett Favre aggressiveness for the rest of his Playoff career, the Chiefs are gonna be really hard to beat every year.

Yeah I think most of us have moved on past style points, and needing to see the big bombs from the early days

If game managing/dink and dunking is the best way to win then lets roll with that... winning Super Bowls is way more exciting than a 70 yard bomb

[IowaHawkeyeChief]

Originally Posted by Sassy Squatch

I mean, it's not because Chiefs. It's because Reid. Hindsight being 50/50 we can all celebrate because we won, but it's not a fluke that he was 4-3 (now 5-3) in playoff games that his teams led by 10+ at the half. I still think they throttled WAAAAYYYYY too early and it took some egregiously stupid football by the Ravens to help secure the win.

So his 3 losses have been the Colts when we guys were dropping like flys to injury and luck recovered his own fumble on 4th down for a TD.

To the Titans when Marriotta caught his own TD pass.

To the Bengals when Pat was in la la land the 2nd half in 2021. He threw 2 picks after halftime.

If we had this defense in any of those above years, Andy would have did what we did yesterday and we win all of those games.

[IowaHawkeyeChief]

Originally Posted by BWillie

You are what you repeatedly DO.
💪🦿 @PatrickMahomes pic.twitter.com/vqM5rJsIfH

— Bobby Stroupe (@bobbystroupe) January 29, 2024

Thats a flag all day long... Brady/Pollard rule...

[poolboy]

Its against Pat's nature to not go full Air Raid on mofos..He played this one perfectly

[InChiefsHeaven]

Originally Posted by DRM08

I like this version of Mahomes. I know people want to see the exciting plays, but more than anything I want Patrick to avoid the dumb mistakes that hurt the team. If he can fully eliminate his Brett Favre aggressiveness for the rest of his Playoff career, the Chiefs are gonna be really hard to beat every year.

As opposed to...every other year...where they are hard to beat and go to the AFCCG? When were they ever easy to beat? Just checking...

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by staylor26

It's hard to really take anything you say seriously these days with takes like this.

Lol, whatever. You incessantly believe that any call against the Chiefs is BS, and every call that goes in favor of KC is automatically a solid call. Sorry, I'm not that biased. And I hate the taunting rule with a passion. 99% of them are BS. The one vs. Flowers last night was legit because he went out of his way to taunt Sneed.

I also hate all the weak RTP flags; the ones where the defensive player barely touches the helmet of the QB and gets flagged. Or when the QB becomes a runner and then slides at the very last second, after the DB has already begun to tackle and gets flagged "because the QB was beginning his slide." That's weak as shit, imo. If you become a runner, you accept the risk that you're going to get hit, in my book.


But don't talk to me about my takes; yours are worse in many instances. I just don't choose to call you out on the vast majority of them.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by CaptainMorgan

My summary of the penalties/non-calls:

1. Lamar 4th down run in the 1st quarter should have been a hold. Blatant hold on Wharton that opened the hole.
2. Both flags on Trey Smith were weak, shouldn't have been called. Especially the second one having just called one.
3. Head butt on Van Noy. Refs had already let a ton of back and forth go, and then a third party comes in and does that. It's well after the play, its blatant, its right in front of the refs, and its a third party coming in to potentially escalate the skirmish. That's getting called every time.
4. Taunting penalty on Flowers. Again, blatant. Pushed a dude down, spun the ball by his head and flexes over him. So blatant its forcing the ref's hand.
5. Connor - should have been DPI on Likely
6. Non PI in the end zone. Sorry, you throw a trash pass into triple coverage and all three DBs are clamouring for the ball, that ain't getting called ever. And its a pretty beta look from the Baltimore fans crying that the refs didn't bail them out and throw a flag in that situation.
7. Unnecessary roughness on Roquan. Again, everyone knows he's trying to take an encroachment penalty. No one is oblivious to that. Just encroach and be done with it. Instead the prick loads up and explodes into the head and face of a defenceless Trey Smith. Absolute cheap shot, hack move by yet another Ravens guy not in control of their emotions. That was a trash play that deserved getting flagged.

At the end of the day, the Ravens sent over their kicker to try and play mind games pregame with Mahomes. Think about that for a second. If that's not an all-time beta cuck move I'm not sure what is.

Okay, I'll respond to this one; I know there's a couple others that responded to my post, but if I quote them all, this post will be too long.


I don't recall ever saying much about holds in this game; they happen and don't get flagged all the time, and since they made that modification to how they were going to call it it's gotten worse. They missed some holding calls. They didn't really affect the game, so whatever.

The first holding call vs. Smith was not a great call, but the 2nd one was just not holding. But again, that shit happens. didn't affect the outcome really.

The headbutt I get why they called it, just probably should've been a double foul and off-setting. Travis was yapping his ass off all game and helped instigate that shit. Now, I doubt Travis planned it that way (I believe he was just really fired up), but he didn't help the situation. It's a playoff game and I would've probably just flagged both players.

The Flowers thing I've already addressed twice. It was a legit flag.

I don't know which one was Connors/Likely. As it goes to DPI, the refs effed that up several times during the game, going both ways, iirc. I mentioned in my original post that at least twice flags should've been thrown against KC. And it doesn't matter if it was a bad decision to throw into triple coverage or if you think the ball was underthrown. That's not how the rule is written. The fact is that the ball was in the air and was going to come down pretty close to the BAL WR when a KC DB (number started with a 2) ran OVER the WR well before the ball was intercepted. If that situation was reversed, and that was a KC WR that got freight trained, you'd all be screaming "DPI!!! DPI!!!! DPI!!!!"

It's basically the same thing as when MVS got run over vs. GB(?) earlier in the season. That was DPI, period. If the defender runs the **** over the receiver before the ball gets there, it's DPI, period. Who was around the play, and whether you think the ball was underthrown/overthrown/you don't think the WR could catch it, or what color their jersey was, has absolutely nothing to do with it.

The Roquan thing. Yeah, he was too aggressive, no doubt. but it's a playoff game, and extra nonsense happens. That was a flag that seemed a little much for the situation. Flag him for encroachment or whatever, but it didn't need to be a 15-yarder, again imo.


I don't know what you're talking about with the kicker thing, sorry. Must've missed that, I guess.



Bottom line, I hate it when refs insert themselves into games. Too often it leads to events that seem to steer the game. It's to the point now that every time a great/exciting play happens, we can't even just be excited about it; first we have to wait to make sure there isn't a ****ing flag. And then we have to watch the replay to see if there should've been a goddamned flag.

And then there's the dipsticks that basically just wait and hope that there is a flag, to help their team gain an advantage, which is more utter BS, imo. Flags suck. And I really wish there were a lot less of them overall.

I'll ALWAYS be in favor of less flags, and in favor of letting the teams/players decide who wins over the refs. That's just my position on it. Sorry, not sorry.