What the ::mnnnph:: is wrong with our offense?
Yes, it could be a good Browns defense, give credit and all the rest of it.
But dang.
We are just getting nothing. We've had five series so far, and we've got a touchdown but that was the series that started deep in Browns territory after a muffed punt recovery. Otherwise we've punted four times, with an effective three-&-out every time -- I think we did get one 1st down on the first play in one of those.
All I'm watching is what I was so aghast watching in the Chargers game last week. We're running the ball well enough, but when it comes time to pass -- here all set up for us with something of a good running attack -- Mahomes is just throwing the ball wherever.
Really.
Really -- what is up with that? Our receivers? Our tackles? Mahomes just not being so good before he must perform that patented magic show late in the game? Guh? Right now it is raining so that may be some of it.
Funny, the Browns do have Myles Garrett, if you don't remember, he was the guy who was the first pick of that 2017 draft that delivered us Patrick Mahomes at No. 10. He is still very good.
And as we watch this game right now, the Chiefs are deciding to do what we've all been screaming them to do: RUN - THE - FOOTBALL. Worthy just had a nice sweep run. Hunt and Pacheco are taking care of business. And sure enough, Patrick: back to pass... nothing, nothing, nothing, refusing now to just throw the ball nowhere - and he sprints through the line to get a 1st down.
We just got our first 3rd down conversion here with six minutes left in the half for a team that has been excellent at converting 3rd down. Whaddya gotta do with this team.
Annnd... Touchdown. Finally. Running the ball does wonders.
__
Now I've zipped down to the end of the game. We finally closed this one out.
There at the beginning of the 4th quarter holding a 21-7 lead it was clear Mahomes had to pass the ball out of the fine play of our running game. If he didn't, they just key on our running game. That was really what started to happen. Our running game started getting stuffed, and Mahomes was still failing to get the ball to our receivers. Yep, it started to look like the beginning of this game. Lots of three-&-outs or just getting slogged down simply because Patrick could not make those connections.
In fact, at the beginning of that 4th quarter he was 15-32 for 128. Horrible. I mean that is just pathetic for a team like this. Again... what - is - up - with - that.
Patrick's last play of the game in the middle of the 4th was a futile jump pass, and it resulted in an injury to his foot. He did get absolutely plastered on that play, it was ugly. But I was thinking, huh, that amazing jump pass completion he made to Xavier late in the Chargers game last week, probably the most important play of that game, it was truly a Mahomes magic play.
But did that in some way give him the incentive to try that kind of stuff more often? Is this wise? After all he's now out and we must all wonder about the extent of his injury.
And just plain why is he feeling like he must be Superman back there? What is the deal with him just stepping back, calmly scanning the field, and firing it right into the hands of our very capable receivers? Why aren't we doing that?
Carson Wentz came in, and with just under four minutes left of game time and needing just a single first down to really salt this one away, made two straight completions, to Hopkins then Worthy, to get that key 1st down with just under four minutes left. I'm not saying for two seconds we should think about putting Carson in if Mahomes is good to go, but dang. really, can I say it?...
We've got this regular season. It is ours. We may even get the No. 1 seed, that'd be very nice. But here's the thing...
I know... Scandalous. Sacrilege. Heresy...
How about giving Mahomes a rest next week. Let his foot heal if indeed it is only something like that -- just hoping it isn't anything worse. Let a very capable and very healthy and rested Carson Wentz practice to the hilt this week and play the entire game next week.
As it is we got tremendous help from a mostly stagnant Browns offense along with a whopping six takeaways and five sacks from our defense.
But yeah, here we are 14 games into the season and we've just got to stay healthy and be ready for the playoffs. Chamarri Connor looked like he got clocked pretty good. Other key players are nursing injuries. Even a previously injured Harrison Butker missed a gimme field goal today.
And this was the first of three games over the course of eleven days, the next two against two of the best teams in the conference, the Texans and Steelers. This is brutal. Again, the key question...
How about just resting Patrick Saturday? No matter what? Give him a nice recovery rest, to refresh, to renew, to restore, to recapture his game?
___
Annnd then there's this. Just saw this a bit after posting here. I can't neglect to share it because it comes from a guy pretty well-versed in all this.
I have shared it before, but here it is well-considered from someone else. How many others? Who else is really looking at this and wondering... feeling exasperated... Really...
Who else considers the problem is not our tackles, or receivers, or the other team just suddenly having a world-class defense, or anything but... ahem...
Is there even a remotely possible chance I will have the overwhelmingly compelling desire to write another "The Exasperating Reid" post? How can that be when, really: Scoreboard, baby. He wins, baby. He's gotten the Chiefs three Super Bowls in the last five years, baby.
What to do with that?...
___
The photo of JuJu scoring our 1st TD of the game is from Mikayla Schlosser at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.
___
No comments:
Post a Comment