Danna has been dealing with a pec injury since the bye week. They say he’s good to play but I think it’s very possible he’s playing through an injury that’s limiting him.
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Now, I’m not going to pretend to believe the Chiefs didn’t try to win the game last week. I think they did.

But I can believe that a few things they have planned for the Bills could have been kept in reserve. Like giving pass rush snaps to Uche.

I don’t think they were going to roll out ALL their best wrinkles for this matchup.

Take the Bills, for example, busting out the Chargers’ DL games to trick Mahomes into a scramble that is cleaned up by a spy.

They’ve tipped that hand. That very effective tactic is now “out there” and the Chiefs won’t be caught off guard by it again.

Is that worth spending for the Bills in the regular season? Probably, as their only chance to realistically catch KC for the 1 seed is winning this matchup.
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You guys talking about saving things for the playoffs are making football seem way harder and complicated than it is. Especially now that we're talking about a DE. Maybe some stunts Spags saves for when he absolutely needs them. But there's no reason at all to save a regular pass rush. "Go try your best to get the quarterback" is not some ultra secret strategy you have to save and that teams in the playoffs will be surprised by.

Especially since we're talking about Uche. He's not close to good enough to save reps for. That just makes no sense. Especially against the Bills.
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You're usually on point here with your takes. I saw today where they broke down the difference in last years playoff game and the game Sunday...and that in the playoff game there was always either Leo or Gay spying...

EVERY DOWN

And then we'd play zone and force Allen to hold the ball.

We actually played zone perfectly on that run play he had, but did not have a spy.

However....they pointed out that Chris Jones and George lost contain on their gaps...most especially JONES DID...and this opened up that gap for Allen to run through.

Andy confirmed this was a breakdown in discipline by the d-line.

So there may be some stuff we held back, but for the stuff we did do, we had some breakdowns.
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Yeah. I can see … saving a few approaches you think will really be effective and doing some things to sew confusion or obfuscate what they’d go to on must-have-it downs.

I can see holding down snap counts more in the regular season for guys you’ll lean on more in a playoff matchup. And I can see stashing a few plays on O for must-have-it moments in the playoffs.
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Jones had awful rush lane discipline the whole game. Or he was given permission to freelance (which seems suicidal against a mobile QB like Allen).
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Yup. Against Allen it needs to be a mush rush and lane contain. And Jones consistently vacated his lane gap and cost us.
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I like this scenerio over that he just sucks as to why he’s not seeing the field.
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You could just watch it happening, almost in slow motion.

He'd get off the snap, get into his blocker, Allen would watch which way he went and then just zip the other direction. And Jones wasn't doing anything to hide it - just getting into the body and doing a swim move. It's not hard for a guy like Allen to see exactly where he's going.

I understand that it can be frustrating for a pass rusher to not get much production in a day like that when you're working your ass off, but you really need to almost 2-gap it against a guy like Allen. Trying to shoot a gap against him, ESPECIALLY when your ends don't know you're doing it, is just easy money for a guy like Allen that's willing to run over the middle and absorb a hit.
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Well Verderame talked about Uche at length and thinks Spags biggest flaw is playing guys they “trust”. We all universally agree that Uche should play and he should play a lot.

He’s rushing the passer. What’s there to know? 3rd down=beat your guy and get the sack/hit on the QB? So frustrating.

Andy does this too unfortunately. They need to get Thornton out there by next month. A guy like that with those traits can surely learn enough of the playbook to run some plays. Like Uche, Thornton represents something we don’t quite have: elite speed plus elite height potential.

Kid is 6’2” with 33 inch arms and a 38.5 vertical. Get him on the field.
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Could Thornton on gadget plays be used to free Hardman up to do a little more Z stuff?

I get that they'll never trust Thornton to go out there and run option routes and such. But he can run a designed screen or sweep. He can return kicks.

If Thornton gets Hardman moved up in the offense, that's probably a worthwhile move and one that we should be tinkering with as quickly as this weekend.
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