Patriots' defense last night

[Dante84]

Romo touched on this, but they had an interesting approach that looked like it gave Mahomes a bit of trouble at times.

They only had 3 DL, and their 2 DE's rushed up the field and held the sides of the pocket, creating a "box" around Mahomes to prevent him from rolling/escaping/doing his magic tricks. They then kept everyone else in coverage in his line of sight to limit his windows and throwing lanes.

The plus was he had lots of time in the pocket, the minus was he had no where to go to help his WR's get open via scrambling, reducing his throwing lanes/windows.

Thankfully our WR corps is very fast and can get open, but again, with reduced windows, it made it harder on Mahomes.

I would not be surprised if we saw this set up again this season a few times.

[O.city]

Belicheck has also designed and put that defense together particularly to beat the Chiefs. I don't think it's nearly as successful against the Ravens or even say the Browns, who want to just run it at it. The Chiefs aren't built like that.

They need to get better at it for sure, but thats never gonna be the game they'll play and they shouldn't.

You just aren't gonna play 16 games where you're emotionally invested and fully focused and things are clicking.

The Chiefs just played one and they won by 2 scores. One of the podcasts I listen to summed it up perfectly. This game tells me nothing about KC, because there's nothing to be learned that I didn't already know. They're the best team in football, maybe by a wide margin and they're the Champs with the best QB/ Coach in the league.

For this years KC team, the regular season really doesn't matter to much.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Red Dawg

Our OL isn't tough. They have faced very good defensive lines so far but our ground game is average at best. They just can't get a good push on the interior. CEH is getting stuffed over an over again.

Part of that is on CEH. He's a rookie.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

I'm sure a combination of factors - the 1 day delay, the absence of Cam, and more - led to both teams not playing their A game and it made it ugly.

On that note...why would a one-day delay cause issues, especially for this offense?

Is it just humans who have their whole lives structured for peak performance being thrown out of their rhythm?

I think the Chiefs just relaxed way too much when they learned Hoyer was going to start.

There was almost no intensity or focus on offense in the first half. Pat literally looked like he was there to **** around.

[Aspengc8]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

Have to get Mahomes under center and beat them with the running game when they do that.

They were only running that scheme in situations where KC was definitely not going to run the ball.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Part of that is on CEH. He's a rookie.

And he's always been a guy who's going to take an extra beat to find a good running lane rather than simply take what is there.

9 times out of 10 that's a fantastic trait. But he'll also press that tendency a little too much at times and turn a 4 yard run into a 1 yarder.

As you noted, he's a rookie and he'll find that line. Last night he looked more tentative at the mesh than games past. Still ran hard as hell, but seemed a little less sure of himself and let the DL take the play to him at times.

Nothing worth worrying about. The talent's there, the vision is elite - he'll be fine.

[Hoover]

And you can bet Andy is in his office today creating schemes to combat this.

Bring it bitches!

[Mecca]

We have a rookie RB and a OL that has been built to pass block 1st.

[tk13]

It's why we were running the ball so much. They pretty much were daring us to.

Having watched most of the Manning/Belichick battles, it's kind of the same idea. Put everyone in coverage, keep everything in front of you and mix up your looks and coverages. It can be beaten, but you have to be patient and running the ball helps. Also the fact that the Patriots have a good secondary helps. Not every team can pull that off.

You're basically trying to slow him down and make him go on a 10 play drive, and bank on the fact that he will make a mistake here and there, which Mahomes did.

It's beatable, but the fact is even guys like Manning and Mahomes usually leave plays on the field and Belichick is banking on that. He hasn't been shutting down elite offenses for 30 years for nothing. It's the exact thing he did to the Bills in the Super Bowl 30 years ago. Facing a high flying offense, he let Thurman Thomas run wild and shut down their passing game, and it worked.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

On that note...why would a one-day delay cause issues, especially for this offense?

Is it just humans who have their whole lives structured for peak performance being thrown out of their rhythm?

I think the Chiefs just relaxed way too much when they learned Hoyer was going to start.

There was almost no intensity or focus on offense in the first half. Pat literally looked like he was there to **** around.

Yeah, for performance athletes, any disruption can cause issues.

[tk13]

https://media.nyfootball.net/25/html...belichick.html

Here's a great article about Super Bowl 25. Bills had a HOF QB and a high flying #1 offense and were big favorites over the Giants. Belichick was just the DC but that was his plan, play 2 down linemen, let them run the ball and play the pass. The basic idea wasn't too different than what we saw last night. Lots of plays last night the Pats only had a couple guys with their hands down.

Only difference now is Mahomes can run around a lot more. But Belichick's shut down the Bills, the Rams, Manning, Mahomes, doesn't matter. It still works because he gives you looks that force you to hand the ball off and take it out of the QBs hands.

[TEX]

If they were dropping so many into coverage, why didn't KC gash them on the ground? We ran straight up the middle and got stuffed.

[TEX]

Originally Posted by Mecca

We have a rookie RB and a OL that has been built to pass block 1st.

It showed last night.

[RaidersOftheCellar]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Was going on in real-time as well.

"The Chiefs look like shit!"

Nah, they really didn't. They had some areas where they needed to improve on execution, but really the Patriots just played a really nice game. Let's not act like BB isn't probably the best defensive coach in HISTORY fellas. The guy's a brilliant defensive mind.

And he had his guys playing with a smart plan and executing at a high level.

I don't understand why we can't acknowledge that fact and instead have to insist that they were flat or shitty or whatever. That's simply not the case.

The Patriots have played SB level defense virtually every year for the last 20 years because their HC is a brilliant defensive mind. They had their defense largely intact yesterday so they played good defense.

Not sure why everyone's all in a twist about that.

But we’ve seen Mahomes tear apart better Belichick defenses than this. And he consistently makes better decisions and throws with more accuracy than he did last night.

Belichick deserves credit, but they should have hung more points on the board.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by TEX

If they were dropping so many into coverage, why didn't KC gash them on the ground? We ran straight up the middle and got stuffed.

When they're in that 7 or 8 DB set, it's really hard to stretch the field horizontally.

They're basically leaving the middle of the field wide open and shutting everything else down.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by RaidersOftheCellar

But we’ve seen Mahomes tear apart better Belichick defenses than this. And he consistently makes better decisions and throws with more accuracy than he did last night.

Belichick deserves credit, but they should have hung more points on the board.

We've also seen him shut down for entire halves vs. BB defenses and make catastrophically bad mistakes that have taken points off the board and created huge turnovers.

What you saw is Mahomes maturation process. When he was bad, he was LESS bad. That's hugely important against teams that typically don't beat themselves. You have to hang around long enough for them to slip up without cutting your own throat in the process.

Earlier in Pats career, maybe he forces a throw or two that creates a big momentum swing and a hill we have to climb in the 2nd half. It's happened on a couple of occasions in the PM vs. BB matchup.

Today Mahomes simply didn't make the key mistake, prodded for soft spots and eventually found enough to win a game fairly easily.

We're spending an awful lot of time focusing on the negatives here when there's a clear positive to take away from how Mahomes approached this game vs. how he's approached Patriot games in the past. This was another step forward in his march to unassailable GOAT status.