Originally Posted by Bowser:
It's just self-flagellation at this point, but I'm still stuck on trying to imagine what this offense would have looked like had we not lost Hollywood, Rashee, and Pacheco while receiving straight average play from Wanya/Kingsley at left tackle while watching Noah Gray progress into the bigger receiving threat he's becoming, and STILL pulling the trade for DHop.
Nothing comes easy in this league, and yet here we are with 11 wins at the beginning of December.
Fantastic post. Mahomes is on a trajectory to have one of his worst statistical seasons in his career, and yet it may end up being his best overall season to date given all he's had to work with/around/against. It won't be acknowledged as it should be due to Chiefs fatigue around the league's talking head, but it's absolutely the truth.
It’s unfortunate though at the same time it’s what got us dhop. And I’m hoping he gets mahomes comfortable with contested catches in the same way Hollywood can get mahomes’ intermediate and deep throw mojo back. Love what we have in rashee but it also kind of made Mahomes tunnel vision into a conservative catch and run offense. I even think about mahomes throwing a few passes way too high to dhop in the end zone because he is almost overthinking putting it in a spot the defense can’t get to. So in the end maybe it works out for us. [Reply]
Originally Posted by jLoy88:
Receivers really aren't the problem.. the slice of swiss cheese playing left tackle is.
WRs aren't a "problem" per se, but a player like Brown would be a big boost. Right now the top receiving weapons (Hopkins and Kelce) are pretty slow. Brown is basically a stronger, more seasoned version of Worthy. [Reply]
One thing that's very intriguing is how will teams defend KC with Hopkins, Worthy, Kelce and Brown on the field? Because right now they are doubling Kelce a lot and pushing coverage over to Worthy's area because of his speed. This is leaving Hopkins one on one and the guy is causing huge problems as over the last two weeks he has drawn several penalties because corners can't handle him in single coverage. Right now Hopkins and Watson are facing one on one's. Brown replaces Watson and now defenses are gonna be put in a serious bind because he's adding more speed and is a twitchy guy who can create separation in short areas quickly. Man I can't wait to see how it all unfolds. [Reply]
Originally Posted by UChieffyBugger:
One thing that's very intriguing is how will teams defend KC with Hopkins, Worthy, Kelce and Brown on the field? Because right now they are doubling Kelce a lot and pushing coverage over to Worthy's area because of his speed. This is leaving Hopkins one on one and the guy is causing huge problems as over the last two weeks he has drawn several penalties because corners can't handle him in single coverage. Right now Hopkins and Watson are facing one on one's. Brown replaces Watson and now defenses are gonna be put in a serious bind because he's adding more speed and is a twitchy guy who can create separation in short areas quickly. Man I can't wait to see how it all unfolds.
Don't forget the possibility of Skyy Moore's return. It will be a game changer for opposing defenses to contain us. [Reply]
Originally Posted by SHOWTIME:
His speed will help, but Humphries is the key addition for the offense. ~
Being able to beat man coverage quickly will be enormous for this offense, with or without a notable upgrade at LT.
We're so easy to defend on passing downs right now. 1st and 2nd down, you keep your powder dry and play zone (keeps your secondary fresh). 3rd down, you play man across the board, send an extra rusher and just create havoc.
And it's worse still now that teams are selling out to stop the run on 1st and 2nd down. It's putting us in more obvious 3rd down passing situations. Our 3rd down conversion rates are declining because we're facing worse down/distance scenarios on 3rd and the recipe for defeating there us is fairly clear (especially since Mahomes and Worthy can't get on the same page).
But if you can get a guy in Hollywood out there who can find space in a single stride, that lets you attack quick and short against man coverage.
Yes, improved LT play will help (it may help the ENTIRE protection scheme) but don't underestimate how badly this team has suffered for not having a man-beater in obvious passing situations. Especially one that can take a quick slant and make it into a 10-12 yard gain.
We need that. Biggly.
Brown will make a MASSIVE difference. He's been the ingredient that's been lacking all season even when the OL wasn't getting strafed.
If you're not excited about his return, you haven't been paying enough attention. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
If you're not excited about his return, you haven't been paying enough attention.
Yup. I think the narrative this postseason if we do what we can will revolve around how our offense turned it around and picked up the slack from a more middling defense.
I think the defense has found its wall and we’re going to need the other side of the ball and Mahomes to step up at this point. [Reply]
Originally Posted by TwistedChief:
Yup. I think the narrative this postseason if we do what we can will revolve around how our offense turned it around and picked up the slack from a more middling defense.
I think the defense has found its wall and we’re going to need the other side of the ball and Mahomes to step up at this point.
And man, it sure feels like the stars are aligning for this to happen.
The teams in sports (most sports for that matter) who blow out other teams through the early and middle part of the season seem to come up short more often than not.
It’s the team that struggles but hits its stride late that seem to win it all.
One of the best ways to help this defense out is to take pressure off of them. This defense is way better than what we had through several of Mahomes’s earlier career (2018 and 2021 especially). The offense just needs to get back to its old form. LT and WR improvements would get them there. [Reply]
Originally Posted by TwistedChief:
Yup. I think the narrative this postseason if we do what we can will revolve around how our offense turned it around and picked up the slack from a more middling defense.
I think the defense has found its wall and we’re going to need the other side of the ball and Mahomes to step up at this point.
I'm still hopeful that Williams can get his feet back under him and if so, they can use Johnson in a more limited capacity that might allow McDuffie to move back inside more (and get Connor out of that slot role where he's just getting slaughtered).
Additionally, Omenihu's return could lessen the need to blitz (and maybe someday Spags will get comfortable with Uche) and keep us from asking those safeties to play as much man as we are.
Those guys just CANNOT do the man coverage work we continue to ask from them. That's where we're dying. Remember how much the defense improved just by putting Mathieu back there to do safety things? Keep a 12 yard gain as a 12 yard gain instead of a 30 yard gain sort of things? That's what we need our safeties doing.
We cannot have these situations where when our safety gets beat, it's 6. And we shouldn't - right now it's scheme that's creating those situations as often as we're seeing them.
We may not be able to re-create the 'great' defense of last season, but if we can so much as minimize the implosions, we can get this defense back to credible.
With Humphries and Hollywood, 27 points against a quality defense should be a readily makeable target. We can beat good teams with that and a credible defense. They won't be easy and they WILL be stressful, but they can be had. [Reply]
We may not be able to re-create the 'great' defense of last season, but if we can so much as minimize the implosions, we can get this defense back to credible.
I think this is the goal. Johnson has been so bad that I'm very, very excited to see if Williams and his length can play to what we thougt his potential is/was. But he was bad previously so I feel like we're grasping a bit.
As for the DL, I think it's promising that the pass rush looked better this past week. Jones lining up on the outside and making waves. Karlaftis having some success. And Omenihu able to bull rush from inside and collapse the pocket and having that sort of flexibility going forward. But damn, the run defense was so bad on the flipside of that in a disappointing way.
I don't understand how Uche doesn't have more of a role. Have Uche and Jones as DEs and Karlaftis and Omenihu lined up inside on 3rd and long and let's see how it winds up. Or just switch it up and throw some curveballs in there. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Being able to beat man coverage quickly will be enormous for this offense, with or without a notable upgrade at LT.
We're so easy to defend on passing downs right now. 1st and 2nd down, you keep your powder dry and play zone (keeps your secondary fresh). 3rd down, you play man across the board, send an extra rusher and just create havoc.
And it's worse still now that teams are selling out to stop the run on 1st and 2nd down. It's putting us in more obvious 3rd down passing situations. Our 3rd down conversion rates are declining because we're facing worse down/distance scenarios on 3rd and the recipe for defeating there us is fairly clear (especially since Mahomes and Worthy can't get on the same page).
But if you can get a guy in Hollywood out there who can find space in a single stride, that lets you attack quick and short against man coverage.
Yes, improved LT play will help (it may help the ENTIRE protection scheme) but don't underestimate how badly this team has suffered for not having a man-beater in obvious passing situations. Especially one that can take a quick slant and make it into a 10-12 yard gain.
We need that. Biggly.
Brown will make a MASSIVE difference. He's been the ingredient that's been lacking all season even when the OL wasn't getting strafed.
If you're not excited about his return, you haven't been paying enough attention.
Originally Posted by TwistedChief:
I think this is the goal. Johnson has been so bad that I'm very, very excited to see if Williams and his length can play to what we thougt his potential is/was. But he was bad previously so I feel like we're grasping a bit.
As for the DL, I think it's promising that the pass rush looked better this past week. Jones lining up on the outside and making waves. Karlaftis having some success. And Omenihu able to bull rush from inside and collapse the pocket and having that sort of flexibility going forward. But damn, the run defense was so bad on the flipside of that in a disappointing way.
I don't understand how Uche doesn't have more of a role. Have Uche and Jones as DEs and Karlaftis and Omenihu lined up inside on 3rd and long and let's see how it winds up. Or just switch it up and throw some curveballs in there.
Don't know what the future holds but Williams has experience on the biggest stages and this is his 3rd year. Imo he has all the tools to take his game up a level like Watson did. I just think Spags had a blindspot for Johnson like he did with Soreson. Now if Williams gets a fair run of games we'll finally be able to see what he's made of. [Reply]
Originally Posted by UChieffyBugger:
Don't know what the future holds but Williams has experience on the biggest stages and this is his 3rd year. Imo he has all the tools to take his game up a level like Watson did. I just think Spags had a blindspot for Johnson like he did with Soreson. Now if Williams gets a fair run of games we'll finally be able to see what he's made of.
A month ago I disagreed with you and thought Johnson was a better option. He has since dramatically underperformed expectations - even if some were reasonable coverage but bad outcomes - and it’s time to go back to Williams. I just think we need some corner with length given what McDuffie’s shortcomings are illuminating.
Neither option is good but this team needs something different because the defense is foundering in a bad way. [Reply]
