HappyDays

Nice arm punt

They might want to switch up the 1st down play calling. KC came prepared to shut down the run, you have to punish them for it.

Philly is doing an excellent job with their contain rush. Mahomes messed up not just running for that but he gets off his game when you keep him corralled in the pocket.

This roster is on another level completely IMO. You could make a case they have the very best player at LT, RT, G, DT, RB, and top 5 players at C, G, WR... Might be the very best QB excluded roster in NFL history, honestly.

McDuffie is having a rough start. I don't think he's as good as people say. Big pass catchers are a big mismatch against him as Mack Hollins showed.

Philly is just absurdly talented at every level. This is the ultimate overall talent vs QB/coach matchup.

There's no controversy. What happened on that first drive is plain to see for everyone watching

The problem is that whether there's a conspiracy or not, the results are identical to if there was one.

I'm real close to 100% buying into the conspiracy thing. It defies any other explanation

But I was told the Chiefs opponents have more penalties than them. Never mind the timing of when they're called

Nice work NFL

I think this is going to be a big focus of the offseason. I know everyone is focused on the DL. But it almost doesn't matter when the QB is able to get the ball out in >2 seconds because his receivers are winning immediately. Elam is officially a bust so they need to make another significant investment there IMO. If the goal is to play more man as recent moves would indicate they need to upgrade 3/4 of their secondary. I know the man/zone splits against Mahomes were in favor of zone, but the splits against Lamar the week before were the exact opposite. From the Athletic: Also to my eyes it wasn't going more zone-heavy that affected Mahomes in the 2nd half, it was being more disciplined in our contain rush. In the 1st half we were getting burned in zone and man, it really didn't matter. So personally I don't care if it's a man or zone heavy approach. Either can be successful or not. The coaches and players simply have to perform better in either case. In man we can't have massive mistakes like Hamlin ending up 1v1 against Worthy in the slot. We can't have all of our CBs at equal depth creating easy rub opportunities. In zone we can't line both CBs 7 yards off their man and then pointlessly blitz off such a soft look. More important than any specific scheme is that McDermott and Babich and Beane need to figure out exactly what kind of defense they want to run and plan accordingly this offseason. By the end of this past season they were reeling and seemingly just calling the defense at random, likely because they had no confidence they could do any particular thing well. Compare that to the offense where at times it may have felt like a slog, but at least it had an identity and a package of plays they knew they could call successfully, and it came into every game with an intent. I couldn't tell you what the defense's intent was against KC. I guess pray and hold on for dear life.

I'm desperate for WR upgrades but even I say pass on this. Not what the room needs and way too expensive for a declining player. I can't see any team taking on that salary. Maybe the Pats just because they're loaded with cap space and need any weapon they can get.

Something that's dawned on me is that the MVP discussion is emblematic of the terrible shape this country is in. It's downright shocking when you really think about it. 50 randomly selected journalists vote on a completely subjective award, and it's devolved into shouting matches over race, literal death threats, grown men having an online meltdown for days on end. Social media I think has ruined the social fabric of the country, maybe permanently.

It's an incentive which goes on our cap next year.

Yes, in fact he's the only MVP voter I will never question because he's consistent and he explains his reasoning.

Scott Kacsmar is melting down on Twitter lol

Sweet looks like I called it. Lamar and Allen both had MVP type years so the voters decided to honor each of them. Lamar the all-pro for having historically good stats, Allen the MVP for carrying a talent deficient offense to historic production. Individual production vs individual value. The voters nailed it IMO.

Does that mean everyone who wants to keep McDermott is guaranteeing we will win a Super Bowl with him?

I'm not impressed with Philly's coaching. I think they will lose for that reason despite the talent gap. I think San Fran lost last year because Purdy is a marginal QB talent that has been elevated by an elite system, and he just couldn't hang against a dynasty. If our defense performed as well against KC in the playoffs as our offense does, we would be the dynasty.

This would be the easy answer but unfortunately no. Other teams' offenses have much more trouble scoring against KC's defense than we do, but other teams' defenses have a much easier time slowing down their offense. @Mikie2times has the data tattooed somewhere on his body if you want to see it.

I of course wish we had a game wrecker like Chris Jones but by and large I don't think the personnel differences are as stark as people on here say. KC just gets the most out of their players. Sneed was an all-pro caliber player for them, he went to Tennessee and became a nobody. Meanwhile we have Poona Ford and Tim Settle having legitimately good to great seasons with their new teams. I think most people on here would say Karlaftis is a superior player to Rousseau based on their production. My take is that if Karlaftis goes to another team he'll fade away into obscurity. Bryan Cook their starting safety is a perfectly mediocre player, I would put him around the same level as Hamlin honestly (PFF for what it's worth does as well). Yet on here you'd think Hamlin is an unplayable player that gives us no chance, while Cook just fits in and nobody talks about him because KC doesn't give us a reason to talk about him. You think if we had Xavier Worthy, Spags would let him end up 1v1 against Cook in the red zone? No chance. Blitz packages are just part of it. The overall coaching details from player development to player usage to game planning to play calling, etc. just aren't at the level of KC. Not even close. That's why our defense is regularly giving up historic production in our playoff losses while KC's is stepping up its level of play.

I don't know I've kind of run out of hope that he's going to get better. In every playoff loss to the Chiefs we've allowed basically their best offensive production of the season including playoffs. The Bengals loss was the same except they took their foot off the gas pedal early because our offense stunk. I genuinely did have hope coming into this last game... but once again KC's offense performed like they haven't all season and I just can't expect that to change until I see it happen. It's not just about the number of blitzes, it's the packages. Spags has the most unpredictable blitz packages in the league. Ours are easy to diagnose and as a result don't have as much success. It just sucks that our coaching is severely lagging behind in all three phases against our rival. Every time we face KC everything looks so easy for them and so hard for us. I'm really just sick of it. I'm sick of saying if this if that, I want our coaches to just get it done.

That final blitz Spags threw at us. I can't imagine McDermott ever doing something like that. On a critical 4th down to maybe end the game, no way. It's frustrating that our rival has the best defensive coach in the NFL as a coordinator, while our head coach is defense-minded and never has an amazing play call like that in the playoffs.