Ten Things About Today's Game Week 14: KC 27 BAL 24 OT

[gblowfish]

Ten Things About Today’s Game Week 14: KC 27 BAL 24 OT

10. Feel free to use all the words that end in “OUS” that you want tonight: Stupendous, Fabulous, Marvelous, Righteous…. because they all apply. Congratulations to our Chiefs being the first AFC team to secure a playoff spot. Today was not pretty and felt a lot like the game we eventually lost to Tennessee a couple years ago when Andy iced Succop, who got two shots at the kick and beat us with his second attempt. It just felt like it was going to be a back sliding, missed chances kind of day, one of those days where it just ain’t your day. But we have the 2018 version of Young Elway. And this kind of day is what puts people in Canton at career's end.

9. I’m on the shady side of the field, and it was chilly. This time of year the sunshine is always on the visitor's bench. But it was dry and the field was in good condition. It felt really nice when they did the player introductions and they shoot off those big columns of fire from the flame throwers. The game was a tale of two halves: Chiefs offense being better than the Ravens defense in the first half, Ravens defense being better than the Chiefs offense in the second half, until there was around 90 seconds left in regulation. That’s when the play of the year thus far happened, keeping KC in the game with a chance to tie it up in the last minute. I’m amazed that Mahomes was able to pull this game out, and I’m absolutely thrilled about the outcome. But I think it’s important to talk about three things that could certainly end up being our weakness in the playoffs: a) Run Defense; b) Penalties at inopportune times; c) Special Teams.

8. Everybody knew the Ravens were going to try to run the ball down our throats, much like Tennessee did in the second half of our playoff loss last winter. And they basically did just that. Baltimore looked like a wishbone team that just threw the ball occasionally for kicks. Jackson ran for 71 and Edwards for 67, although two Ravens TDs were on passes. Turns out save for Kendall Fuller, our pass defense wasn’t too good this week either. Hitchens, Ragland and Fuller led the team in tackles. Baltimore’s running game the first half was unstoppable. Their first TD was a 75 yard drive where EVERY PLAY was a running play. In the third quarter, KC came up with a big running game stop to get a turnover on downs on a fourth and one. Mahomes ended up giving it right back with a pick a few plays later. The warning sign here is that teams will be able to look at this film and see how the Ravens ran on us. They averaged over five yards per carry. That’s potentially disastrous in a playoff game.

7, Penalties at inopportune times were a huge negative. Sometimes they don’t seem like a big deal when they happen, but they certainly can happen to lead to big problems and bad plays. And they adversely affect other aspects of your game as well, like play calling and special teams. Here’s a couple of examples: When the score was tied in the 4th quarter, The Ravens forced a Chiefs punt. On the punt play, Harris is called for holding, and a Ravens player is called for a block in the back. So the Ravens get the choice of a re-kick. We re-kick, and Jones for the Ravens runs it back 55 yards to set up the eventual go ahead TD. Inside two minutes KC calls time out during their final desperation drive to tie the score. Mahomes had just thrown an Alex Smith check down special to Ware on a 3rd and 4 and gained nothing. Out of the time out, Robinson has a false start, and 4th and 4 goes to 4th and 9. That’s much worse down/distance, and it took the play of the year by Mahomes and Hill to overcome it. These kind of penalties to give opponents second chances, or to make it harder on Mahomes to move the chains at critical times could mean playoff disaster. We lucked out today. KC may have got some home cooking from the zebras. Fuller has about three pass defenses that could have been called DPI, but he got away with all three. Ravens played very Chiefs-Like in the penalty department. They ended up with 11 for 112 yards. A lot of that was holding penalties that the refs are finally starting to call when Ford, Chris Jones and Houston are QB hunting.

6. I said last week that Special Teams were eroding. They took yet another step backwards. Toub’s unit has not given up a punt or kickoff return for a TD in six years. That almost changed today. Jones didn’t score, but the Ravens took the lead late because of the poor punt coverage flipping the field. Buttkicker was 2 out of 4 on field goal attempts. Sure, he got the eventual winner, but he should have hit the 43 yarder at the buzzer. It wasn’t all his fault. Winchester’s snaps have been off target enough to throw off the placements. On the two misses, the snap was low and inside to Colquitt, and on the OT kick the snap was low and inside too. We’re not getting any real punt or kickoff returns, but part of that is because teams kick out of bounds rather than kick to Tyreek. On kickoffs we’re learning we’ll probably have a better chance just giving the offense the ball on the 25 and let them do their thing. There hasn’t been a positive contribution by the Special Teams for several games now. That needs to trend up.

5. Three big heroes today: Hill, Ware and a Williams. I saw Hill come off the field early in the first quarter holding his hand. I thought he may have got it pinched between a couple helmets while he was blocking. Looked like he either hurt his hand or wrist. Then later in the game, he came up lame and had an issue with a heel or ankle. He taped it up, gutted up and played with the pain (I’m looking at YOU Eric Berry.) Hill had No TDs, but did have 8 catches for 139 tough yards. Like Jamaal Charles, Tyreek is small is stature but tough as a truck stop steak. Another hero was Spencer Ware. He had 139 in all purpose yards and was five for five on pass target receptions. He landed hard on his right shoulder right before the half, then came back in and ran tough in the second half despite the painful shoulder. Damian Williams had two TDs: One rushing for the Chiefs first score, and one receiving to tie the game in the final minute. Not bad for a guy who seen almost no action. If you put Ware’s day plus Williams day together you get….ta daaah…a typical big game from Kareem Hunt. So, we got Hunt-like production, but used two guys to make the magic. Kudos to both for stepping up when called on.

4. Mahomes got beat up again this week. He’s been taking some serious shots starting with the Rams game. He was sacked twice and threw a pick off his back foot, with the ball landing somewhere between Kelce and Hill. But even with his day being rough he still threw for 377 and came up big when the game demanded it. After the Chiefs tied it, he was also on the sideline screaming encouragement at the defense, and just about lept out of his shoes when Houston got the strip sack on Jackson. Buttkicker couldn’t seal the deal, but since we got the ball first in the OT, Mahomes was able to get us down for a go ahead field goal. Then Baltimore’s offensive line imploded because Houston and Ford were screaming off the edges, drawing holding penalties and piling penalty yardage on Jackson. In years past, that’s the kind of crap that would happen to us; and Elvis, or Huard, or Alex, or whoever would wet their pants and we’d crumble. It was great that we could do that to our opponent. Ravens having to end the game with RG3 instead of Jackson was sweet, especially after they beat up our guys all day long.

3. Ravens were 5-12 on third down and 1-3 on fourth down. Notice how teams are going for it on fourth down against us more and more often? I think they figure field goals will do them no good, so if they’re on the Chiefs side of the field, they’re going to go. BTW: Was Romo doing his impression of Dan Fouts today? I came home to watch the highlights and he was fellating Harbaugh and Jackson the entire game. Truth of the matter is Baltimore is now a 7-6 team, and that’s just a notch above mediocre in my book. KC ended the year undefeated against the AFC North. That’s impressive.

2. Kelce made NFL history today. It was the first time a tight end had 80 or more catches for 1000 plus yards in their first three seasons. That’s better than Gonzalez, or Gates, or Mackey, or Newsome or Gronk. Congrats to Kelce. Well done. It was a little fearsome that he disappeared in the second half. He only had one catch in the second half. He may have been drawing extra attention after Tyreek got slowed by his injury.

1. So we are in the playoffs, and if we can hold serve the road to Atlanta will come right down Arrowhead’s main street in January. It is possible….POSSIBLE… we could actually see an AFC Championship game at Arrowhead, and win the trophy that has CHunt’s daddy’s name on it. Still a long way to go. Phyllis managed to squeak past the Bengals. Denver lost to Frisco, Indy beat Texans, Oakland shocked the Steelers and Miami beat the Pats. So right now the only team in our rear view mirror is the Bolts, and they have to come to Arrowhead on a short week for a Thursday nighter. Hopefully it’ll be cold, and Tyreek can heal up a bit. Should we put out the bat signal for Eric Berry? It’s time for him to rise and shine. Thursday will be here before we know it. Exciting week. Today was big. Thursday will be even bigger.

[Rain Man]

On a couple of random notes...

1. Do we think that Sutton made an on-the-fly adjustment to put his heavy d-linemen in the game in the second quarter? They were killing us with the run and then all of a sudden Hamilton and IllumaNnadi were in there consistently, and they kind of put a stop to it. I wondered if that was by design or if they were adjusting.

2. Minor note, but there was one play in the first or maybe second quarter where the Chiefs had the most pre-snap motion I've ever seen on a play in my life. I think all five skill players moved, and then they all moved again, and then I think a couple of them moved a third time. The play didn't go anywhere, but the motion was entertaining.

[Katie]

Is it just me. Or did Ford get totally owned on that 4th and 2 play when they got the touchdown?

[suzzer99]

Great read George! I said at the time that long punt return could help us by giving us enough time to score. I just didn't feel like we were stopping them in that spot with 6 minutes left. They could just run-run-run, kick a FG and get out of there.

[Hammock Parties]

Rewatching the game and Jeff Allen is still a turnstile. Can run block but a disaster in pass pro, especially in obvious situations.

I really hope Cam is OK.

[BlackOp]

One note...I dont think KC got flagged for a single defensive holding call...to bail out the opponent and gift them a 1st down.

That has to be the first time all year..

Maybe the Chiefs have found their super-secret formula for success....face a team that runs 80% of the time.

[Trivers]

thank you. A great read!

[UK_Chief]

Can I have the first ‘hand between two helmets’ joke?

[JakeF]

Damien Williams looked pretty good. Our defensive line played better.

[KCUnited]

Bring Meesh in for a look at LBer.

Nice write up. Looking forward to not getting shit done all week at work just waiting for Thursday night.

[Otter]

That was an awesome game! The last time I've been that fired up is when Grbac hit Rison for the TD to beat the Raiders.

Thanks as always GB!!!

[Chris Meck]

My biggest concern is that the injuries are piling up.

Still-we beat Baltimore without Watkins, with a gimpy Hill, no Hunt, and back-up guards. That's a good sign.

Ware+Williams is a fine 1-2 punch, although I'll miss Hunt hurdling defenders.

[oldman]

Good job, George. My game day isn't complete until I read your 10 Things.
I'm going to hammer Sutton once again for his unit's inability to stop the run. You know the Chargers and others are watching that film right now and planning to do the same thing. I thought the geezer woke up enough to make adjustments when he started bunching our interior 3 up a little more and that stopped some of that nonsense. But he seemed to have a memory lapse in the 2nd half and we were getting gashed again. If the opposing team continues to control the ball, our D is going to give up more points that PMII can score.
Kudos to both Hill and Ware, both warriors. Both had injuries but returned to the field because the team needed them. I guess they're a little tougher than some others. We'll need them both Thursday night.
Speaking of Thursday night, could the zebras have had instructions to make sure the Chargers game was "A BATTLE FOR THE AFC WEST"? I can just hear the hype from FOX already. Or did "New York" finally review the continual mugging of our pass rushers?

[crispystl]

Originally Posted by Easy 6

Tough as a truck stop steak

Thats some wordsmithery

Yes I stealing this

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[CupidStunt]

3 things I really do not want to see again:

1) Reid being conservative at the end like that. A 43-yard field goal IS NOT A GIMME. Maybe it should be, BUT IT'S NOT. Try to get more yards!

2) Kelce once again walking the line to get a 15-yard flag for being an idiot. Just DON'T DO IT. Be a leader, let's win a ship, not gloat in our opponents' face. (I could add him dropping passes, but I mean, it's hard to be perfect. At least he makes so many huge plays to make up for his costly drops.)

3) Returns unit getting burned. We are SUPER spoiled in this regard, so we were overdue it happening, but hopefully not again, especially in the playoffs.

[BlackHelicopters]

Great! Thanks George!