When this game began I'd heard the Titans were weak in the defensive backfield. Okay, this could be a game that allows us to get back in this thing. Mahomes should be able to make it happen here. This is overall a good team we're playing and we've really got to prove ourselves against the best, as two of our wins so far have been against the not-as-great Eagles and Once-Redskins.
Speaking of the Once-Redskins, last week I pointed out we have a 10-1 record overall against that team. I must be careful of my pride, because for every one of those there is some team that can beat us at will. It was a wonderful, wonderful thing to have that playoff win against the Titans two years ago, but otherwise? The five other games in that time period we've been beaten by these guys. Badly. Remember that year's regular season game when we were ahead and lost in the last minute? Remember the opening day 2014 game we lost to a terrible Titans team that really cost us a playoff spot at the end of the season? Worst of all, remember the playoff game in 2017?
Never mind the main problem is still the main problem. Our defense is just far too mushy. Time after time after time we don't finish, we don't hit our marks, we don't cover, we bail them out with some stupid penalty...
At this point the season looks like we're done. Our guys will give it all they've got, that's fine. Even if we make the playoffs, there's a lot of work we need to do.
First of all Mahomes' rambling play has just set himself up to be hammered like he was towards the end of this game. He was being sacked and tried to make a play when a 400-pound (or so) lineman just plowed into his head while Mahomes was almost down. Our precious quarterback lay on the ground for a moment, got up wobbly, and had to be helped off the field. For his own personal sake, to say nothing about his profession, pray he's okay from all that because it looked brutal.
When he gets back at it he just needs to pick it up and learn more about what he can do over the course of the next few years if we want to recover that success he had earlier. Right now he looks lost out there. He's ditching balls. He's not trusting his pocket protection and waiting that extra tick for his receivers to uncover. In fact at one point he was doing his far-too-typical running left away from the rush and to avoid a sure sack he put the ball in his left hand that he used just so he would be able to heave the ball out of bounds. Ee-yee.
Our receivers themselves were not helping. They were not running good routes, forcing the issue against their coverage, making critical catches. Our offense also regularly bails out the opponent -- we get a fine play, then that penalty shows up that ditches it.
Whatever is happening on offense, whether it is Mahomes or his receivers, this is evident in the fact that Mahomes has to run for his life every other play. This should not be happening if our offense was what it should be like. Is it all really just the opponent simply doing a great job of smothering our receivers? I can't believe that is the case hearing about how average the Titans defense was, particularly in the backfield. Mahomes should've had a field day out there.
But he didn't. Again, he looked timid, scared, desperate -- really, it may be an exaggeration, but this Patrick Mahomes is a shell of the one who was in total command of that AFC playoff game against the Titans two years ago. Here's what I'm thinking. He is a phenomenal talent, and exceptional football player. Now he really needs to ratchet it up a notch and really master what it means to be a quarterback. Has he done amazing things as our quarterback? Of course! But today he just looked like a guy perplexed, flummoxed, overwhelmed. Solid experienced quarterbacks -- you can tell. One thing Mahomes has got to learn to do better is wait one more tick in the pocket after making his first and second read, then just firing that ball to that third read right where it needs to be.
I honestly just don't see him doing that nearly as much as he must.
Overall we look like the 2009 Chiefs, really. Just hapless, insecure, incompetent. Late in the game we actually started to do some of those things that we're used to, but it was too little, too late. Notably catches by Hill and Pringle were amazing. But with a team like this that can just run the ball to keep clock moving, when you're down 27-3 in the middle of the 4th quarter, well, there you go.
So yeah, while I can rant on about how Brett should just draft for defense for each of the next several years, if this is what we look like and Mahomes is regressing in some regrettable way, then we may have the face the fact that we have so many needs that simply cannot be filled with a couple drafts.
Call it bad game and a bad day against a good team, that's fine. But here's the thing...
If our wide receivers aren't getting Mahomes good looks, we'll need another young wide-out or two.
If our running backs aren't keeping the defense honest, we'll need another one of those.
If our offensive line isn't giving Mahomes confidence to stay in the pocket, we'll need to address that.
And on defense, don't get me started. Do I have to say we need that Ray Lewis guy in the middle yet again? One player I like is Nick Bolton, but I hear all about how he can't cover in pass defense. So now what? We need pass rushers too -- I think I heard the guy on the television say the Chiefs are dead last in the NFL in sacks. I believe it! How often do I see us get close but not close enough. Boom, their QB gets it off and it's usually a 1st-down pass completion.
Our defensive backfield? With supposedly stellar guys like Tyrann Mathieu and Juan Thornhill? My goodness, their QB, who I was told is just not the greatest ever, sure looked great today. I have been hearing for years that we need some kind of a real playmaker cornerback. Maybe.
As it is for now, with what we've got with this team this year, we can at least have the attitude of nothing-to-lose and just hoping for a playoff spot. There's still that.
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