A Levelheaded Review Wk17

[DenverChief]

1. The missed XP & FG - didn't get to see another view of the XP snap - looks like Tommy just flat out dropped the ball. Love the initial effort to just take it in for 2 but when he realized he wasn't gonna get there it got ugly. Maybe Tommy is the problem. Need to figure out the XP/FG thing real quick. That will kill us in the playoffs. The missed FG at half, dunno what to say other that Butker flat out shanked that kick. I watched closely as the ball was snapped. It was a clean catch and perfect placement (laces out) Butker for whatever reason hit it like a parent chasing a child around the house.

2. EZ Interception. The Broncos seem to have figured out how to get Pat to throw picks. 4 total in the last two meetings combined. Disappointed in this one but Pat takes risks and sometimes they don't work out. I did think it was interesting that Pat didn't throw to Pat's side all game. Much respect for the Surtain.

3. Toney PR fumble was just good special teams work. Can't really fault Toney for fumbling - it was a good strip. Chiefs have to know other teams are looking to strip the ball now. Knowing that our guys aren't holding the ball with two hands in traffic.

4. Defense played really well multiple batted balls, couple of Wilson sacks and bottled their O pretty effectively. 2nd Q big 3rd down play with about a minute left. They just found the soft spot in the D, this is a direct result of LB's in coverage. Need to find that Sorenson hybrid LB/DB. Someone with size to play the run and speed to play the pass. Defense really came up big today when it counted and they have improved dramatically over the last couple of games. The addition of Brandon Williams seems to correlate with the improved pass rush and run D.

5. Watson, just when you thought he was done for he comes up with a huge play in the final seconds of the first half. Great catch - absolutely amazed at what Mahomes can make happen with very little time on the clock.

6. The Broncos are a proud organization they know the score and they are going to give us 110% every game year after year. We have to be prepared for that. Especially with the dismissal of their HC. Denver last swept us multiple years in the division from 2012 thru 2014. We have been sweeping them every year since 2016, 14 games in a row, quite the feat. Especially considering a lot our rivalry has been to split the series. They are no slouches and were projected to give the Chiefs a run for their money this year. Their Defense is really good - their offense is okay.

7. Patrick is back to playing the long ball game when it's not there. Gotta take the open stuff underneath. He missed Pacheco wide open in the flat a couple of times. Need to see the all 22 but Juju and Kelce both disappeared through the 1st three quarters. Need to game plan to get them in the game earlier.

8. Sneed wanted that pick 6 pretty bad and got absolutely leveled by Jerry Jeudy. Gotta have your head on a swivel if you are gonna dance around after an interception. Glad to see he is okay after taking that hit.

9. Referees - Pass interference the PI on Sutton was super ticky tacky as was the Williams PI. The 4th and 7th play was incredibly confusing. Illegal hands to the face (which no replay - show me the penalty - I hate them ignoring that) before the interception - 5 yard penalty makes it 4th & 2. The sticks were set up for 1st and 10 but the down marker was 4th down. Didn't matter as Jeudy got a 9 yard pass but talk about discombobulated. WTF was going on with the zebras today.

10. Injuries Thuney and Skyy. Obviously the Thuney injury hurts, hopefully it is just minor and can make a complete recovery before the playoffs.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by Best22

We can’t afford to play “vanilla” against the Raiders next week

They’re already beating the 49ers.

Well, that's interesting, but I'm not in charge of game-planning for KC. Just telling it like it is.

Oh, come on. It's 17-14 at the half. Not sure we should be panicking about LVR just yet.

[chinaski]

At the end of the day, we scored more points than they did. When you do that, you win the game. "W" is all that matters.


Chiefs Kingdom, LET'S RIDE!

[RaidersOftheCellar]

A botched hold on an XP, partially blocked FG and a punt return fumble kept this from being a breezy 31-17 W. I don’t expect any of those things to happen often, so color me unconcerned.

[JPH83]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

Will say it til I’m blue in the face. We gotta upgrade at WR. Juju disappears in stretches because he’s not a WR1. None of our guys are. And we shouldn’t let CB1s flat out take away our top WR target. Is it even debatable anymore?

Mvs is not on the same page. Some is on mahomes today but the guy is just awful at playing the ball in the air. If hardman comes back I’m not sure how you can justify giving Mvs quality reps at this point. Mahomes doesn’t look like he trusts these guys and who can blame him?

In the meantime keep at it with this efficient offense. but in the offseason give him a reliable weapon and bump every WR down one spot.

Basically agree on WRs. I'd say Toney is going to be fun and frustrating. Maybe not a WR1 every game but a guy who will have those games if he stays fit. Kinda gutted for Moore's drop after a solid start, looked promising. MVS I just don't get. Fine, use him to stretch the field, and yes he has some clutch plays but he's frequently anonymous/covered. Not all on him today but still. JJSS it was just a game we really didn't seem to play to his strengths. All in all some bad QB play made the group look worse today but man could it do with an elite WR option.

Aside from that it was another odd game. Normally those "how did we win that?" games have a simple answer. Because Mahomes. Not today, but even "bad Mahomes" and misfires everywhere remains enough to beat dross like the Donks.

Honestly, I'm not saying it's rational, but f**k Toub now. I get it, he can't catch the ball himself or make the kicks but when there are this many bad plays does nothing come back to him? It's not just bad plays, he's been outfoxed on kick offs too and when interviewed he always says they're going to stay aggressive on e.g. PRs. Your job isn't to be a hero Dave, it's not to **** us in the a**e. He's had plenty enough of "his guys" in the past. This feels like the year he hasn't got specialists onto the roster and he's had to get rotational guys coached up...and it's been atrocious, and it feels contagious. S***ty execution then bleeds into the rest of the team.

Pass rush remains horrible, Thornhill is pish etc but can't hate on the defence too much. Joshua Williams seems to have regressed through the year which is a shame, but other elements have some promise. I know the coverage of our LBs is so-so but I think better safety play helps that. Man Sneed was important today.

Phew. On to the next one I guess.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by DenverChief

News Flash - Pat Surtain is a Pro Bowler. So far this year he has played 918 snaps with 63 targets allowing 30 Completions for a competition percentage of 47.6% and 2 INTs

sure but today is a reminder of what happens when you have to rely on everyone else. Our other WRs right now aren’t good. Toney is the only guy that seems like he has any clue how to adjust to the ball. We’ve gotta get Mvs off the field sooner vs later. Watsons ok but he’s a back end WR. And I like juju but it’s not the only time he’s disappeared for large stretches. He’s a guy you play off a WR1.

The uncomfortable reality is that our offense has looked like this for much of the second half of the season so it’s not just surtain doing this.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

3) Toney failed to change hands and the ball was easily stripped. That's on Toney and the staff.

I think it was on Toney. Its also easy to see why Toney is injury prone. He wont go down and contorts his body in harms way way to often. When its not there you need to realize it.

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by DrunkBassGuitar

lol Obama was still president the last time the broncos won

Thanks Obama

[ChiefsFan63]

I agree with almost everything in your analysis. This isn't a knock on what you wrote, just a difference of opinion.

The Toney fumble was due to his bad technique. For one he failed to switch the ball from his left arm to his right. This exposed the ball to the defender. This is something you are taught in peewee football. Secondly his ball security itself was lacking. The scrape across his arm would not have led to a fumble if he were carrying the ball high and tight. If the defender had drove his helmet through the ball I would certainly agree that this was just a good play, but in this case I believe he was mainly at fault.

One addition I would make is I thought the offensive line held up very well in pass protection today. Usually if Mahomes was flushed it was after his second read or later. He really seemed comfortable with his pocket today.

Good and fair writeup.

[KingPriest2]

1. The missed XP & FG - didn't get to see another view of the XP snap - looks like Tommy just flat out dropped the ball. Love the initial effort to just take it in for 2 but when he realized he wasn't gonna get there it got ugly. Maybe Tommy is the problem. Need to figure out the XP/FG thing real quick. That will kill us in the playoffs. The missed FG at half, dunno what to say other that Butker flat out shanked that kick. I watched closely as the ball was snapped. It was a clean catch and perfect placement (laces out) Butker for whatever reason hit it like a parent chasing a child around the house


Not really on Butker

The first was on Townsend

The 2nd Townsend actudlly put it on the wrong spot. And it was partially blocked

[2bikemike]

Did anyone notice on the first TD drive they kept showing EB he looked upset about something.

[Chris Meck]

guys, it's really this simple.

A dumb INT in the endzone, a missed PAT, a missed FG, and a fumble on what, the 10?

Then a couple of questionable calls like the one on our INT, and you've got a tight game. Much tighter than it should have been.

It's the NFL. The margin of error is slim, even against bad teams. There's like 5 or 6 things that had to go the way they did to make it tight, or we'd have blown them out.

Sure we should be concerned, but it's still really up to The Chiefs. Minimize the self-inflicted wounds and they beat anyone.

Make stupid mistakes, win stupid prizes.

[ChiefsFan63]

Originally Posted by Chris Meck

guys, it's really this simple.

A dumb INT in the endzone, a missed PAT, a missed FG, and a fumble on what, the 10?

Then a couple of questionable calls like the one on our INT, and you've got a tight game. Much tighter than it should have been.

It's the NFL. The margin of error is slim, even against bad teams. There's like 5 or 6 things that had to go the way they did to make it tight, or we'd have blown them out.

Sure we should be concerned, but it's still really up to The Chiefs. Minimize the self-inflicted wounds and they beat anyone.

Make stupid mistakes, win stupid prizes.

You are correct. Even the games we lost it was more about our mistakes costing us the game than the other team taking it from us. However, the Chiefs have shown a propensity to continue to make these mistakes. It will catch up with us again if it is not corrected.

[Chris Meck]

Originally Posted by ChiefsFan63

You are correct. Even the games we lost it was more about our mistakes costing us the game than the other team taking it from us. However, the Chiefs have shown a propensity to continue to make these mistakes. It will catch up with us again if it is not corrected.

Yep.

But it's not a 'we're not good enough' problem, it's a 'focus' problem.

When you think about it, we play like three more games a year than most teams, and every single opponent is totally focused on beating us. They still rarely do, but man, it's got to be tough to maintain that 100% focus every snap, 20 games a year.

I think they just have mental lapses sometimes, I really do.

Not an excuse, just an explanation for what often seems unexplainable.

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by Chris Meck

guys, it's really this simple.

A dumb INT in the endzone, a missed PAT, a missed FG, and a fumble on what, the 10?

Then a couple of questionable calls like the one on our INT, and you've got a tight game. Much tighter than it should have been.

It's the NFL. The margin of error is slim, even against bad teams. There's like 5 or 6 things that had to go the way they did to make it tight, or we'd have blown them out.

Sure we should be concerned, but it's still really up to The Chiefs. Minimize the self-inflicted wounds and they beat anyone.

Make stupid mistakes, win stupid prizes.

It's all right there in front of them. After all the gnashing of teeth, the chances of a 1 seed are within reach.

[Hammock Parties]

the chiefs gave up way too many ****ing yards rushing

clean that shit up and the drops NOW