Purdy throws far too many wtf passes in big games, even when he's otherwise playing well. San Fran was very lucky to have made it out of the NFC, and I think KC is well equipped to steamroll them if San Fran gets off to another slow start.
Championship Weekend: Chiefs @ Ravens, Lions @ 49ers
- Thread starter DeadlySplitter
- Start date
Gus Edwards had just 3 rushes (for 20 yards). It's like Harbaugh/Jackson set out to prove that Lamar is an excellent drop back QB, and it just failed miserably. It was a terrible idea, and then Lamar had a terrible game trying to execute it. I don't know how they come back from this.
Well, if they're smart, they come back from it by getting back to what works for them, and by being consistent with their approach. And letting Lamar win regular season MVPs and letting the ground game do the work in the playoffs.
I was watching with a diehard KC fan and he was laughing because Baltimore kept calling pass plays instead of running the ball. At one point he even said Edwards' nonuse and not enough designed Lamar runs are going to kill them. Sure enough, he was right.
Actually only 6, 3 each for Edwards and Hill, the other 2 were end arounds to Zay Flowers.
Legit one of the worst playcalling performances we've ever seen in the playoffs
It's so fundamental. Baltimore's rush attack got them to where they were, it was truly elite, and is anchored by arguably the greatest rushing QB in NFL history. KC's run D is pretty bad, but their pass rushing talent is excellent. With Marc Andrews clearly hobbled and playing a Gronk SB 46-level decoy, Baltimore's receiving corps was pretty mediocre. KC's secondary is elite.
Ran the ball six times. Barely any RPO to speak of. Drop back after drop back after drop back.
What???
Ran the ball six times. Barely any RPO to speak of. Drop back after drop back after drop back.
What???
Yep. I can understand it if you're down by 24 points and needing huge plays to catch up. But it was a close game the entire time. KC only scored 17 total. Absolutely mind blowingly awful coaching and play calling. Inexcusably bad.
Also, Lamar avoiding rushing so many times when if he rushed, he would have gained 5-20 yards. He had lanes. The difference between the Ravens and 49ers yesterday was Purdy used his legs in huge spots and succeeded. Lamar didn't and it cost them. He was running early.
Lamar is the best running QB in the league. And he had basically the same rushing yards as Purdy did yesterday.
Sure, but the stars were aligned this year. Lamar wins MVP, the Ravens get the 1 seed (in dominant fashion), they get home field in the AFC title game, KC and Mahomes had an off year (on offense at least), multiple top QBs get hurt (Burrow, Rodgers). Of course they aren't closing shop and trading Jackson and firing Harbaugh, but it's impossible see them back in the playoffs next year in a better position to get to the super bowl than they were yesterday. At least Josh Allen and the Bills can hope that someone else knocks off Mahomes and the Chiefs, since that seems to always be the team in the way for them. Lamar is 2-5 in the playoffs, with losses to Rivers, Tannehill, Allen, Burrow and now Mahomes. They could eventually break through, but there's no particular reason to be optimistic about it. Jackson has been godawful in the playoffs (they've averaged fewer than 15 ppg in his playoff losses), regardless of the opponent.
Yeah, unimpressive in two victories makes it really puzzling to me that they opened as favorites. I'm not a better person, but if I were I'd have immediately gone hard on KC.
Have to give props to any team for two come from behind victories, that they didn't self-destruct (though, again, how much credit? Purdy threw passes vs GB that would qualify as self-destructing if only the defenders had made easy plays), but that doesn't mean one ignores they got some very lucky bounces and breaks.
This ignores that KC was keying on Lamar runs. Very effective game plan to focus on containment more than sacks. Which begs the question if KC will use the same technique vs Purdy. Purdy may have been erratic in his throwing, but his running instincts were super impressive. At the same time, he's not Lamar so would be hesitant to have a defense make that their key.
They're more than capable of winning the AFC. They just have to stick to what works. For some idiotic reason they chose to go away from it and play to Lamar's weaknesses instead of his strengths. If they correct that one thing, they have a legit shot at winning.
I watch sports because I like to see excellence but I do enjoy the Ravens falling flat on their face again being the number one seed and at home again. John Harbaugh just continues to ride that win in the Super Bowl in 2013 into the sunset.
As much as I would've loved it, Lamar didn't lose to Burrow in the playoffs. While they'll always be contenders due to Lamar/generally good drafting, this was absolutely their best shot. They had excellent health after that being a bugaboo the last two years - now they have a ton of free agents and could very well lose Macdonald who turned a bunch of street vets into gold. It seems insane to move on after a year like this (I guess Marty was the last one), but I wouldn't be shocked if they fired Harbaugh to keep Macdonald - he's a wizard and Harbaugh has one playoff failure after another since Lewis and Reed left.
Agreed. Spags had Lamar seeing ghosts everywhere, he's going to crush Purdy. I hope I am one million percent wrong on this but the guy is an excellent DC and oh yea, they have Mahomes on the other side of the ball. How on earth is KC the underdog???
As per my post in another thread: It's a really, really stupid labor market.
It felt to me like they got rattled by those first two hot-knife-through-butter KC drives and decided they were going to have to go into shootout mode. What was really puzzling was that the Ravens stayed in that mode even after their D calmed things down and pitched a shutout in the second half, and even when it was clear that Lamar didn't have it throwing-wise. As others have noted, they played right into KC's hands - making "Spags" look like a genius.
He had the misfortune of taking over a Rams team in the midst of one of the worst stretches in league history, going 15-65 from 2007-2011 and finishing last in offense twice.
Is it though? I mean, being a HC entails so much more than just focusing on one aspect of the game you know? I totally get how someone can be aces at knowing how to work with one subset of the team but totally be overwhelmed and out of their league managing all the aspects a HC has to deal with.