Because of all the interest in this thread, I've place all of the video content of Patrick Mahomes II's college career, and draft day goodness into a single post that can be found here. Enjoy! [Reply]
Originally Posted by Best22:
Yep. Our margin of victory now is less than week 6 last year, but our offense is far more explosive
I hate to pile on the defense because we all know it’s a problem, but if they are only “stopping” the other team once or twice a game then Mahomes can’t have any hiccups at all or we risk falling behind. I think KC was counting on teams not being able to maintain drives over 75% of the time, but we are making it pretty easy on nearly every team we face. Sure we get some pressure, which helps, but unless it results in a turnover we let teams get out of tough situations way too often for those good plays to turn into defensive stops. How many times do we see a sack or small gain on first be followed by a 8-9 yd run to let them get into 3rd and short or pick up a first down without even getting into 3rd down situations. It’s really quite amazing. [Reply]
I think the Chiefs thought Ragland, Hitchens and Fuller would be better. They also believed they would have their two starting safeties and don't. That is a very big deal. We were down 6 of 11 on defense that start. If we were 100%, we would have housed the Pat's. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Talisman:
You're right. We supposedly made some moves to improve the defense in the offseason and used pretty much the entire draft on that side of the ball, and yet we are hemorrhaging yards and points. Much worse than last year. So comparisons to possessions and points year over year is pretty much moot.
I should have left it at "we appear to be punting less which seems like a good thing."
There might be a net improvement still. I guess we would have to run the numbers! I do agree that we are doing a better job sustaining drives with Mahomes and are better at getting TDs rather than FGs. I think all of us would have thought we were blowing people out of the water if we would have been told our offense stats through 6 games. We all thought the d would be a problem, but not historically bad like this. [Reply]
Originally Posted by prhom:
There might be a net improvement still. I guess we would have to run the numbers! I do agree that we are doing a better job sustaining drives with Mahomes and are better at getting TDs rather than FGs. I think all of us would have thought we were blowing people out of the water if we would have been told our offense stats through 6 games. We all thought the d would be a problem, but not historically bad like this.
My first reaction to the defensive struggles would be "Well, we're getting out to big leads and so the other team has to abandon the run and we know our secondary is trash." But honestly, teams have been running on us just as effectively. There's no reason to abandon the run when you can gash out 8-10 yards on most rushes. It's actually the safer way to move the ball down the field against the Chiefs.
I honestly thought our run defense would be improved. I remember Ragland having multiple big hits at or behind the line of scrimmage every game he played last year. Now those have seemingly dried up (there was one Sunday night). Hitchen's highlights made him seem like he'd be a big upgrade over an aging Hali, and he just doesn't look right out there. I was defending these guys during the offseason and even the first few games saying they just needed to get well and knock off the rust, but at this point it looks like they might just be rust colored.
I'm curious to see how well the defense plays Sunday night back at home. They had a really good game against the Jags and they should be itching to prove they don't suck as bad as they showed a national audience they did last week. Well, guys, the lights are back on but this time you'll have the energy of a pumped up, sold out Arrowhead behind you and I'll be there with my dad losing my voice. Get angry! Get aggressive! Look at least like you marginally know what you are doing! [Reply]
If this loss was a stepping stone to Mahomes development, and also a "development" for the rest of the team and the fans in regards to seeing that we CAN adjust at half time, take over a game, and do our best work in the 4th, that we are NEVER out of a game, then so be it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by RunKC:
Anybody hear the Nate Bukaty interview?
He said Hill and Kelce said that Belichick threw stuff at Mahomes in the first half but by halftime he figured it all out.
Belichick was trying several different things in the 2nd half and NONE of it worked.
People were saying Mahomes was amped up and it was affecting his throws. I thought he was seeing phantom pressure and he was rushing his throws. I don't know if it was all the Pats' schemes or maybe he wasn't fully trusting Devey but whatever it was, you could see he basically said "**** this shit" and went into god mode in the second half. [Reply]