[stevegroganfan]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

My unsolicited (and no doubt unwanted) thoughts on an amazing AFCCG

1. First, amazing game. Put aside the rooting interest and the result, and that was one hell of a crazy, entertaining football game, with multiple lead changes and more drama than any damn reality show has to fake create. The game earned the highest TV ratings of any show since last year's Super Bowl, and it delivered. A Patriots beat guy tweeted that the game was "bananapants" with about four minutes left to play, which was before like two touchdowns, a FG, a couple of replay reviews, and an overtime!

2. As Chiefs fans, it looks to me like you have some great years ahead of you to look forward to. Mahomes is obviously the real deal, though still raw, and you have him on an underpaid contract for two more years I understand. Huge competitive advantage. Hill and Kelce are rare talents. Your OLine could be better, though, and your defense. Well, I don't need to say much there.

3. If it helps, think of it this way -- it took the GOAT coach and GOAT QB overtime to beat you even though (1) the Patriots had few penalties, and the team overall played very disciplined all game, (2) the Chiefs defense just sucks right now, (3) Patriots somehow held the Chiefs scoreless in the first half, (4) the Pats kept Hill/Kelce to under 100 yards total, (5) the Chiefs running game was shut down, and (6) the Patriots successfully played "keep away" from the Chiefs offense for most of the game, running about 2 plays on offense for every 1 the Chiefs had. I mean, it's ridiculous how much effort that took. IMHO, the fact that the Patriots KNEW the Chiefs had a hell of a team is proven by Brady's over the top joyous reaction to winning. He's the ultimate "been there, done that" guy and he still acted like a rookie who had won the championship itself when they won.

4. IMHO Belichick and the Patriots coaches won this game far more than any individual player on the Patriots side. I thought Brady was unexceptional most of the game -- but the Patriots game plan was outstanding, on all sides of the ball. Keep away on offense by pounding the ball relentlessly and chewing up clock. Demoralizing/tiring the Chiefs defense. Not allowing the Chiefs offense to get into a rhythm. Good pass rush which kept Mahomes in the pocket, generated pressure, but didn't allow Mahomes to scramble where he is so ridiculously dangerous. It was honestly a thing of beauty as a game plan, in my opinion. It's a great demonstration of why Belichick is the GOAT coach.

5. The Chiefs OLine didn't look good at all. The Patriots completely shut down the run, and were able to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. That's not surprising for the Patriots OLine, which is excellent, but for the Chiefs OLine to be that poor is troubling. Not sure what is up there as I haven't seen many Chiefs games, but if that's a trend you should be concerned. Mahomes style of play is higher risk than you'd like, and keeping him safe should be a high priority.

6. Mahomes is obviously going to be a great one, if he isn't already, but he's still young. He failed to recognize a number of things the Patriots had going on, such as the McCourty blitz. When a safety who is usually playing deep is cheating near the line, that's a signal. He also needs to work his reads/progressions faster. But he's a freaking first year QB. His 50 TDs were "inflated" due to his ridiculous support at the skill positions, but that crap doesn't happen by accident, and we all know most QBs would not have gotten anywhere near 50 TDs even with that talent. Hell, Mahomes' arm and Hill's speed are a match made in heaven for you guys, and a combo that could power you to great heights.

7. I stayed silent during the week building up to the game, but I never did understand how so many Chiefs fans thought they would completely blow the Patriots off the field. I know their year has been one of ups and downs, but if you've watched the NFL over the last two decades, you should've known the Patriots weren't going to come in and roll over for you guys the way the limp-ass, young, inexperienced Colts did. Hell, if it wasn't for the "Miracle in Miami" that game would've been in Foxboro instead of Arrowhead. A tip for the future -- learned the hard way -- NEVER underestimate your opponent. If the 2007 Patriots could lose to the freaking 9-7 Giants, then "any given Sunday" is an absolute reality, and not just a pithy phrase.

8. I have to end with a comment on the many Cheatriots comments. They are sad. When the Patriots keep winning just as relentlessly after these ridiculous scandals as before, what does that tell you about whether or not these scandals made any sense at all? Apparently some want to believe the Patriots just have other ways of cheating to keep on winning, or that they can blame the weak AFC East. Neither makes any sense. The fact is you lost to the greatest dynasty in NFL history, the GOAT coach and GOAT QB, and while they might be in decline, they certainly ain't dead yet, as they proved yet again.

Good luck next year. May we meet again in the AFCCG, with an equally entertaining game and the same result!!

Patriots fan here who strongly disagrees with you on Brady's performance. I would rate his performance an A and it was still a strong performance before 4th quarter. It would have been an A+ without that end zone pick that probably cost the Patriots 3 points.

I think folks are wrong in thinking Brady had anything less than one of his better games throwing the ball vs the Chiefs in terms of throwing accuracy. Some times excellent accuracy given the circumstances can still lead to INTs when the QB is making super quick decisions most of the time.

30-46 is pretty darn good considering many pass attempts were intermediate range, several short passes contested and a few long passes thrown in there.

Let's dig into numbers deeper.

1) At least 6 catchable passes were dropped(Hogan, Gronk, White, Edelman, Patterson twice) but at least one of those(Patterson) was highly contested so I credit Chiefs D.
2) At least one pass batted down at line of scrimmage.
3) At least 5 passes were actually intentional throw aways like on the flea flicker to avoid sacks/fumbles since a pass rushers had beaten his man or wide receivers all covered. With his peripheral vision, Brady was great at recognizing when his offensive lineman were beat and he just threw it away where he couldn't be flagged for intentional grounding but no one could catch it.
4) The first Brady INT was probably thrown exactly where he wanted to throw the ball but the Chiefs defender played it smart and Brady thought he had fallen for the run. The zero sacks stat very misleading....Chiefs pass rush was excellent throughout most of the game. That actually didn't let them down. I do think they got gashed a little too much at times vs the run to open the game but they adjusted and even played the run better.

On the other hand, that Hogan one handed catch was such a great catch that I think of it as an incompletion/inaccurate throw since normally that is an incompletion. Given KC challenged most -- not all -- short passes to the backs, I think the notion that Brady was inaccurate is just way off base.

Adding this all up, I think Brady only threw around 4 passes or so in the entire game that didn't go where he intended them to go.

Chiefs offense let them down a little bit in first half in my opinion. Given it is Mahomes first post season, I gotta blame Reid for not anticipating what the Patriots were going to do defensively and coming up with plays more likely to get first downs. Chiefs should have had 7 points at half without Mahomes overthrow and I just don't see that as a good enough first half offensively for them given they were at home.

Other than 5-6 plays, Chiefs defense was very good vs the Patriots until OT -- this is taking into account how accurate Brady was and potency of New England offense. It is fair to say, they forced 3 turnovers. 2 Brady picks and 1 4th down stop. Even though the Edelman ball was tipped and should have been caught by Edelman, Chiefs defense overall contested enough short throws that it was likely for one of them to be tipped and intercepted sooner or later. Easy to see why it is so hard to normally put up 30+ point in Arrowhead.

The Chiefs were a little lucky that they didn't have a turnover themselves on a Mahomes fumble(which he did), interception etc.

Due to a lot of respect for Chiefs pass rush, Brady was getting rid of the ball quick. If he saw the rush was coming from his peripheral vision sooner than normal, he got rid of it even quicker. I would have moved up the safeties and risked a huge 35 yard gain of Edelman going deep or even a game ending touchdown to an outside receiver rather than allowed the Patriots to methodically march up the field in OT.

Going into the game, if Reid was told Patriots offense would get tons of yards but trick Brady once into a goal line interception, defend well enough to get an interception off of a tipped ball and almost get one more and stop them on 4th down once, I think he would have taken it. Brilliant passing by Brady on third down saved the Patriots. Chiefs capitalizing on all of their scoring chances but one is what kept the game close.

So I think everyone is getting this narrative of this particular game a little wrong. Chiefs offense play design/execution hurt them in the first half. And I think Reid made a mistake calling timeout when Patriots had it I believe 3rd and 5. If they had it 3rd and 10, it makes sense to take that gamble but with 3rd and 5, I would have been happy to go into halftime losing 7-0. And make adjustments.

As for the refs, besides the pick play, I thought KC got away with many holds vs Patriots receivers and a pass interference vs Dorsett -- who scored anyways -- that should have been called and that were more egregious than what Patriots called for. On the other hand, the roughing the passer seemed like a bad call.

I do think Kareem Hunt could have made a serious difference in this game for KC so they may want to pick up another running back like him. His replacement did very well but Chiefs could have used Hunt to take pressure off of their long range passing game.

Chiefs have a great shot to win Super Bowl over the next 2 years before Mahomes gets a market rate contract so it will be interesting to see the moves they make.