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.

[Mecca]

We just aren't built to be a smash mouth run the ball offense so defenses are going to dare us to do that and until we prove we can expect more teams to try this.

[gold_and_red]

Is Mahomes stepping into the pocket as often? It feels like he is itching to scramble to the sides.
Our interior OL needs upgrading if we are to fully use CEH and play action. We can't seem to get more than two yards running up the middle. I am afraid that such an approach is more philosophical with Reid and may not be truly fixed.
With the secondary being a team strength (what a turnaround in just two years) the focus must be on OGs. We need nasty.

[Deberg_1990]

Thankfully the Chiefs have multiple ways to beat you now. They aren’t just relying on Mahomes to be magical all the time.

[MahiMike]

Mahomes and the entire team looked like they had the China virus in the 1st half. Sluggish.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Dante84

Agreed - we need a stronger RB2.

Why? RB1 struggled as well.

The issue last night had nothing to do with the backup runningback.

Originally Posted by Mecca

We just aren't built to be a smash mouth run the ball offense so defenses are going to dare us to do that and until we prove we can expect more teams to try this.

You don't need to be 'smashmouth' against 4 man lines and/or 5 man boxes. You have a numerical advantage there - there's no reason that a zone scheme couldn't have popped open running lanes if the plays were executed.

I'm betting when the analysis is done on this you'll see a bunch of basic fundamental failures on the OL. Things where combo blocks and/or reach blocks just flat didn't get made. There were likely miscommunications where two guys focus on a single player and in the process someone else goes untouched. What we often see in plays where run blocking fails is a guy who's responsible for cleaning up the second level fails to disengage and go get their man.

I'm betting that play after play after play in those running situations we were just being out-executed. And this OL isn't gonna be a bunch of maulers going out there and throwing multiple guys out of the way, but there's NO reason they can't execute when they have the numerical advantage they had so often last night.

I expect they'll get a real thorough film-review session and we'll see some of that stuff tighten up.

[Dante84]

We need better IOL and a strong RB 2 - like a Spencer Ware type, who can fall forward for 4 yards, and still catch out of the backfield.

Takes pressure of CEH, and doesn't allow the defense to sit back in coverage all day.

[Molitoth]

Originally Posted by MahiMike

Mahomes and the entire team looked like they had the China virus in the 1st half. Sluggish.

Huh? They marched right downfield the first drive, unfortunately had to settle for a field goal.

Marched down field again and Sammy Watkins decided to get punched.

I think that hurt the momentum for a bit though.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Molitoth

Huh? They marched right downfield the first drive, unfortunately had to settle for a field goal.

Marched down field again and Sammy Watkins decided to get punched.

I think that hurt the momentum for a bit though.

Yeah the false narratives this morning have been weird.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by gold_and_red

Is Mahomes stepping into the pocket as often? It feels like he is itching to scramble to the sides.
Our interior OL needs upgrading if we are to fully use CEH and play action. We can't seem to get more than two yards running up the middle. I am afraid that such an approach is more philosophical with Reid and may not be truly fixed.
With the secondary being a team strength (what a turnaround in just two years) the focus must be on OGs. We need nasty.

Dante made a good point.

What you see as 'itching to scramble' is mostly Mahomes playing chess out there. He's trying to change throwing lanes to create havoc in the secondary. That's something that secondary just cannot anticipate, especially with a QB that can roll to his left and throw across his body to the right.

His ability to move around simply cancels out the opposing DC's plan in the secondary because you cannot plan for the lanes he'll create. So if/when a team can keep him in the pocket, they can actually set up a coverage scheme that stays largely to script.

Mahomes looking to move those throwing lanes is almost always a good thing. It's not happy feet and it's not 'itching to scramble' - it's intentionally creating havoc in the secondary. It's getting those guys to be reactive. The Patriots plan to contain him was a smart one and the Chiefs will have to execute at a higher level to keep more teams from doing it going forward.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

Yeah the false narratives this morning have been weird.

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.

[IowaHawkeyeChief]

Recievers need to settle in areas open in the zone defense. Need to run more floods to overwhelm zone areas. I didn't see a lot of that in the first half and Mahomes missed several throws as well. We started finding the zone openings in the 4th quarter, hardly had the ball in the 3rd, and made progress.

The above being said, we score two TD's on the first two drives instead of FG's from inside the 10, and Sammy doesn't fumble. This conversation is moot.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Dante made a good point.

What you see as 'itching to scramble' is mostly Mahomes playing chess out there. He's trying to change throwing lanes to create havoc in the secondary. That's something that secondary just cannot anticipate, especially with a QB that can roll to his left and throw across his body to the right.

His ability to move around simply cancels out the opposing DC's plan in the secondary because you cannot plan for the lanes he'll create. So if/when a team can keep him in the pocket, they can actually set up a coverage scheme that stays largely to script.

Mahomes looking to move those throwing lanes is almost always a good thing. It's not happy feet and it's not 'itching to scramble' - it's intentionally creating havoc in the secondary. It's getting those guys to be reactive. The Patriots plan to contain him was a smart one and the Chiefs will have to execute at a higher level to keep more teams from doing it going forward.

Game was a chess match. I actually enjoyed it. But probably because the Pats played Hoyer and Stidham did i ever fear they would lose.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Why? RB1 struggled as well.

The issue last night had nothing to do with the backup runningback.



You don't need to be 'smashmouth' against 4 man lines and/or 5 man boxes. You have a numerical advantage there - there's no reason that a zone scheme couldn't have popped open running lanes if the plays were executed.

I'm betting when the analysis is done on this you'll see a bunch of basic fundamental failures on the OL. Things where combo blocks and/or reach blocks just flat didn't get made. There were likely miscommunications where two guys focus on a single player and in the process someone else goes untouched. What we often see in plays where run blocking fails is a guy who's responsible for cleaning up the second level fails to disengage and go get their man.

I'm betting that play after play after play in those running situations we were just being out-executed. And this OL isn't gonna be a bunch of maulers going out there and throwing multiple guys out of the way, but there's NO reason they can't execute when they have the numerical advantage they had so often last night.

I expect they'll get a real thorough film-review session and we'll see some of that stuff tighten up.

They weren't executing last night, it was fairly easy to see. And not just the line. CEH missed a few holes because of bad reads, Mahomes overthrew some passes. The whole offense just executed poorly for most of the game.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Dante made a good point.

What you see as 'itching to scramble' is mostly Mahomes playing chess out there. He's trying to change throwing lanes to create havoc in the secondary. That's something that secondary just cannot anticipate, especially with a QB that can roll to his left and throw across his body to the right.

His ability to move around simply cancels out the opposing DC's plan in the secondary because you cannot plan for the lanes he'll create. So if/when a team can keep him in the pocket, they can actually set up a coverage scheme that stays largely to script.

Mahomes looking to move those throwing lanes is almost always a good thing. It's not happy feet and it's not 'itching to scramble' - it's intentionally creating havoc in the secondary. It's getting those guys to be reactive. The Patriots plan to contain him was a smart one and the Chiefs will have to execute at a higher level to keep more teams from doing it going forward.

I'll push back here. Mahomes leaves clean pockets sometimes. I get why, you laid it out here. But I think he needs to hang in there and let WR's do what they do.

When he did that last night, they had success.

[Mecca]

I think moving the game had an affect on the players, they weren't crisp or sharp.