Mahomes injury isn't as serious as same one suffered in 2019

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by DRM08

The Bengals just held an explosive Buffalo offense to only 10 points. With Mahomes as the QB, the Chiefs defense never does that to a team unless the other team has a backup QB or shitty offense in general. Last time KC played these guys, Cincy's offense put up 430 yards with only 1 punt. The KC defense has to step up in a major way.

Counterpoints (and I have been a Chiefs skeptic all season):

--> Josh Allen was pushed off his game, it is much harder to do to Mahomes (although notably that's what happened last AFCCG)
--> the roster was half-sick last time they played; if you watch Nick Bolton, he did not look like Nick Bolton
--> the Chiefs tackled horrifically in the game; they have tackled very well since

Spags dropped the defense a ton and banked on them to rally up on checkdowns. They sucked at that. Otherwise, Spags had them in position all game.

I suspect they'd be better if they were able to.

Keep in mind: Chiefs had this game in hand up until Kelce fumbled.

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Counterpoints (and I have been a Chiefs skeptic all season):

--> Josh Allen was pushed off his game, it is much harder to do to Mahomes (although notably that's what happened last AFCCG)
--> the roster was half-sick last time they played; if you watch Nick Bolton, he did not look like Nick Bolton
--> the Chiefs tackled horrifically in the game; they have tackled very well since

Spags dropped the defense a ton and banked on them to rally up on checkdowns. They sucked at that. Otherwise, Spags had them in position all game.

I suspect they'd be better if they were able to.

Keep in mind: Chiefs had this game in hand up until Kelce fumbled.

The KC offense was a hell of a lot better in the 2nd half of the most recent game than that AFC title game, no doubt about it. They scored 2 TD's in the 3rd quarter. They would have scored at least 6 points in the 4th quarter without Kelce's fumble and Butker's missed FG. Two massive screwups late in the game.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by DRM08

The KC offense was a hell of a lot better in the 2nd half of the most recent game than that AFC title game, no doubt about it. They scored 2 TD's in the 3rd quarter. They would have scored at least 6 points in the 4th quarter without Kelce's fumble and Butker's missed FG. Two massive screwups late in the game.

Absolutely. And you just reminded us that this may have been the dearth of the Butker experience this season.

Butker is a gamer and was nails against the Jags. I imagine that continues here.

Mahomes is probably hitting his prime next season, this tricky quarter-quarter-half defense the Bengals/Broncos run just seems to be the last defense the league has tried on him that has worked. He's not far away from truly unlocking it.

As we've been saying: if Brown can neutralize Hendrickson, the Chiefs will play around Wylie and Mahomes will do what he needs to win this game (assuming he is mostly healthy).

[MahomesIsTheMVP]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

As we've been saying: if Brown can neutralize Hendrickson, the Chiefs will play around Wylie and Mahomes will do what he needs to win this game (assuming he is mostly healthy).

OBJ is not neutralizing Hendrickson. You need to scheme around him too.