HappyDays

He was our best player against Baltimore IMO. Has been our 2nd best overall player this season. As a non-premium position I needed him to become an elite player to live up to that contract. Well, he got there. In fact he's a legit difference maker. Kromer is a miracle worker.

That's fine but this year he hasn't been that guy, clearly. It isn't just scheme. There have been plays where he's the designed primary read but can't separate - last week against Denver, the broken play that ended with a missed throw to Knox in the endzone was actually schemed up for Kincaid to get open on an angle route but he lost the rep. Him and Allen often are not on the same page. In general he was drafted to be a reliable pass catcher/chain mover and instead he has a 58.7% catch rate and only 6 yards per target. I say all of this as a huge Kincaid fan coming out of Utah. He was my draft crush and I couldn't believe it when he fell to us. But I have to be honest about his performance on the field. The traits that I fell in love with haven't translated to the NFL. At least not yet.

I mean how should we be using him? He doesn't do a particularly good job making himself available to his QB. He's often not where Josh expects him to be. He can't separate downfield consistently. His hands haven't been nearly as good as I thought coming out. There's a reason Knox has been out-snapping him - Kincaid just hasn't been good enough. I'm hoping the light turns on for him next year. He's very talented but the details aren't there.

It seems like he has a lot of trouble reading defensive leverage and making himself available to his QB. That skill is what makes Kelce the GOAT. Here's an example from the Ravens game, first play in this clip: So the debate I've seen on here is it a bad throw or a missed catch? To me it's more about Kincaid's route. I think he needs to flatten his route out and not drift upfield randomly. Allen throws it when he's made his cut and is at the 39, but Kincaid drifts and is at the 41 by the time the ball gets there. If he flattens his route I think the ball is right where it needs to be. This is an issue of understanding leverage IMO.

Hamlin was genuinely quite good in this game, he just had the one really bad play that jumped out. He had several great run stops including that almost home run you mention, and showed excellent technique to bring Lamar down in a disadvantageous 1v1 situation which led to a turnover. He gets all the criticism but he just keeps doing what he's supposed to.

I mean the easy response to this is that the "h8ers" were right when they begged McDermott to do these things and not do the same old crap we get trampled with year after year in the playoffs. Good on McDermott for making those adjustments, seriously. But the adjustments also prove that his defensive coaching in past playoff games has been subpar. Thankfully he recognized this and now we have a real shot at a Super Bowl.

Wrong again. The best player in the game was Spencer Brown.

If the roles were reversed this board would have burned to the ground. I have no clue what you're talking about. You're the only person I've seen anywhere with this take, and I even checked out the Ravens forum last night. There's no luck involved in throwing a horrid INT and inexplicably dropping the ball. The INT was rookie in his first start bad - fail to look off the safety, stare down your target, throw an inaccurate floater. This is who Lamar becomes in the playoffs. This year I honestly thought he would finally shake that stigma because he showed so much improvement in the regular season, but turns out it was the same old story.

History won't look back at this game. We'll either win the Super Bowl or we won't. That's what history will remember.

According to Banged Up Bills on Twitter the median timeframe for a first concussion is 9 days... We just have to hope he clears it faster than the average like Ray Davis did.

The Chiefs win like 75% of their games because their opponent makes a big mistake in a big moment. That's championship football. The media is right about the narrative but they are wrong about the meaning behind it.

Meh those spot challenges have minimal chance of being won and I thought saving the TO for a potential game winning FG drive was a lot more important. Now I have plenty of criticism for Brady in this game, including that 3rd down play call. McDermott ultimately owns his OC's mistakes so I'm not letting him off the hook for that. But as far as the normal head coach game management stuff I thought he was excellent.

Ugh I'm sick of important Bills players getting randomly injured on the final play of the game. Hopefully Benford makes it through protocol.

If you want to say our coaches won the 1st half and theirs won the 2nd half, that's more than fair.

I had exactly zero confidence that FG was taking us to OT. Zero. In my mind that game ended on the Hamlin fake punt and everything that came after was a gag gift. I don't want to re-litigate previous playoff losses thought. For this year I think McDermott has done a great job in the playoffs. No unforced coaching errors like we've seen in the past. The players are as focused and ready as ever. Tell Brady to knock it off with whatever he was doing yesterday and let's go win this thing.

The weird thing is Lamar has played some of the cleanest QB play in the entire league the past two years. But then he gets past the wildcard and makes mistakes. If it was like the Dorsey/Allen days where mistakes were the identity of our offense then I would agree coaching needs an upgrade, but since these issues only pop up for them at a very specific time of year I don't know how you blame coaching. Lamar just has to make it a point to not be the reason they lose in January. It's a stigma that's only going to get worse.

Him and Andrews both. Two of the most important players on the team made multiple backbreaking mistakes that had nothing to do with coaching. Fittingly those two combined to make a game sealing mistake on what was effectively the final play of the game. If people want to compare that to some of the awful playoff losses we've had under McDermott over the years, have at it. I don't need to stretch the truth - McDermott and Harbaugh were both excellent in their roles yesterday. Ultimately one side's players made mistakes and the others didn't, and that decided the result.

Two awful plays by Lamar had nothing to do with the gameplan. They didn't punt once! Lamar has to stop choking in these games.

Harbaugh needs his QB to stop choking in these games. That's been their biggest problem over the years in getting over the hump. Look at the AFCCG last year, Baltimore shuts down KC's offense in the 2nd half but Lamar throws an inexplicable pass into triple coverage that is easily intercepted. If Allen was doing that kind of crap in playoff games the heat would be off McDermott somewhat, but since he instead consistently raises his play in the playoffs it actually raises the pressure on the coaching staff. Also Harbaugh has the Super Bowl victory to lean on. I've said on here and I'll stand by it - if we get 1 Super Bowl win with McDermott, I will not even raise the idea of firing him ever again. For yesterday I give McDermott a lot of credit in managing the game well and I don't have any criticism for him today. And I won't argue for him to be fired this offseason no matter what happens next week. He's earned that by taking the team further than anybody expected.

What coaching errors are we pointing to from yesterday? Or in any of these playoff losses? The Ravens honestly should have controlled the game against because of a good gameplan and great 2nd half adjustments. But Harbaugh can't control for his QB and best pass catcher making multiple unforced errors.

I don't mean like 20+ yard plays downfield, I just mean literally passes that go more than 5 yards forward to a WR or TE. And yes by memory that's what Baltimore's passing offense was running through for the entire game. Whereas it felt like we ran a lot of screens and quick one-read passes or checkdowns. I see the argument that our personnel limited us somewhat but the overall gameplan seemed very deliberate, not just caused by circumstance.

Chiefs have a much better defense than we do, as did the Pats in their dynasty years. Small ball, ball control offense works when your defense can shut the opponent down. Baltimore on the contrary was moving the ball at will in the 2nd half yesterday. I felt pretty confident they were going to score another TD until Bernard made a great play... I was surprised and disappointed in how little urgency we showed to try and close the game out on offense. My thoughts are we should use the run to establish the game, but use Allen to close it out. And I don't mean just increasing our pass attempt numbers, I mean actually giving him free reign to go make some plays.

Ravens were passing downfield just fine. So I don't really buy weather as the reason.

Yes the first play of the 2nd half set the tone. Baltimore was obviously going to adjust to shut down the run. We had an opportunity there to take them by surprise on that first play and ultimately establish an insurmountable lead. Instead we fed into their adjustments and turned an easy win into a nailbiter. I really don't mind the run heavy approach. When it works it really works. But when the defense is about to adjust we have to be one chess move ahead of them and start attacking through the air right when they've sold out to stop the run.

For me it's not about the number of attempts, it's about the quality of attempts. Brady called our passing offense like our backup was in. It was kind of bizarre. I don't need Allen to be Superman on every snap but we should put the ball in his hands and take the leash off to let him close out games.