2021 NFL Season

[wavedukefan70s]

Baseball teams have been known to play stall ball if they have the lead after five innings and a thunderstorm is on the way.

Sorry, ump, my hamstring is really bothering me. Just take a few to work out the kinks. Just a few.

I have seen some shady stuff at lower level baseball .not just assuming stuff . Actual provable and things that have been caught .

[TexHawk]

Okay, now that I’m done laughing, I tend to agree that the Chiefs look poised to continue their dominance in the AFC. That said, it only takes a few key injuries and bad personnel decisions to bring a team back to the pack. Even players who are not knocked out by injuries are slowed by age and cumulative hits.

It is very impressive what Kansas City has done building and maintaining the team that they have now. The question is whether they will be able to find ways to extend that run as they lose key players along the way.

As a close observer and season ticket holder, comments about KC's inevitability are really not close to reality. The team isn't exactly built on a house of cards, but they are SUPER top-heavy. Mahomes/Kelce/Hill cover a lot of holes. Mahomes is tied to the franchise for his career, and he will (hopefully) always keep them above water, but...

• The WR room outside of Hill is a disaster. They took Mecole Hardman over AJ Brown, DK Metcalf, and Terry McLaurin. He's basically a gadget player + part-time punt returner. The Chiefs desperately need to find a #2 WR early in the draft. Pringle, Robinson, Gordon will all be out of the league in a year or two.
• Speaking of Hill, he's 27 and has a minor-to-serious injury every other month. Don't get me wrong, he's tremendous, and imo a clear Hall-of-Famer, but his game is almost entirely athleticism. What will he bring when he's 30+? (He's also a free agent after next season.)
• Speaking of aging players, Travis Kelce is 32 and takes more hits than any other TE in the league. He's played almost an entire extra season of games over the last 5 years in the postseason. (The Chiefs really need Gray to step up next year to give him some plays off.)
• The starting secondary got barbecued last night, and 4/5 of the starters are free agents.
• Frank Clark makes $20m per season and has delivered 15 sacks in 3 seasons.

There are other spots that are strong. Chris Jones, the o-line, the young linebackers. But the front office really needs to hit free agency and the draft to keep this going.

[TexHawk]

Lol, touché. To me, the losing team deserves it in the NFL too if they lose the coin toss and their defense lets the opposing offense shove it down their throat or up their rear for a TD on the first drive like the Bills did last night. The fact that the Bills also couldn’t hold a 3 point lead with 13 seconds left further proves they weren’t worthy of winning as a team in the big picture. Their offense put on an amazing show and I have nothing against the Bills. I was actually pulling for them. How can you not like their fans? Bills mafia is so fun to watch get into the game and support their team. But they did not deserve to win that game after that total meltdown with 13 seconds left. It’s like they were caught being fan boys of how amazing Josh Allen was on their last drive they totally forgot how to coach and execute special teams and defense. Maybe they’ll be back next year better than ever after a long offseason stewing on how to win a game up 3 with 13 seconds left. I hope they are. I’m tired of seeing the Chiefs in the AFC title game.

Here's the problem I have with this line of thinking: Switch things around, do you really think the Chiefs were stopping Allen and the Bills on any of those drives? Bills get the ball down 3 with 90 seconds left, 13 seconds left, and at the start of OT like the Chiefs did. Bills then shove it down KC's throat in OT, and you could write almost the same post word-for-word. (And yes, with Allen's arm and KC's secondary injuries, they could easily pull off the 13 second comeback too.)

That alone makes the coin toss dumb.

[rsvman]

I don’t see why they couldn’t just tweak the college football playoff idea. Give each team the ball at their own 40. Advance 60 yards for a TD or 30 (or whatever your kicker needs) for a field goal. Winner of the coin toss decides who gets to play offense first, loser chooses which goal they want to play toward.

In the case of the Chiefs against the Bills, if the Bills won they toss, they would probably elect to let the Chiefs go first. The Chiefs would start at the 40 and do their best. In this case, they score a touchdown.

OK, next the Bills offense comes out and starts on its own 40, going the other way. If they score a touchdown, the game is tied and goes to a second OT. If they do not, they lose the game.

Just like in college, after the first or perhaps second possession, teams are no longer allowed to kick an extra point after a touchdown, but are forced to go for two.



This would be fair, like the college game, but also involve more real football. In the college OT, the problem is not how they actually run it, but that they let the teams start on the 25-yard line, where a field goal is practically a given. My version, outlined above, would make you earn a FG, too.

[DukieInKansas]

Don’t forget the Chargers.





Okay, now that I’m done laughing, I tend to agree that the Chiefs look poised to continue their dominance in the AFC. That said, it only takes a few key injuries and bad personnel decisions to bring a team back to the pack. Even players who are not knocked out by injuries are slowed by age and cumulative hits.

It is very impressive what Kansas City has done building and maintaining the team that they have now. The question is whether they will be able to find ways to extend that run as they lose key players along the way.

Chiefs are having a pretty impressive season with an entirely new offensive line.

[SouthernDukie]

As a close observer and season ticket holder, comments about KC's inevitability are really not close to reality. The team isn't exactly built on a house of cards, but they are SUPER top-heavy. Mahomes/Kelce/Hill cover a lot of holes. Mahomes is tied to the franchise for his career, and he will (hopefully) always keep them above water, but...

• The WR room outside of Hill is a disaster. They took Mecole Hardman over AJ Brown, DK Metcalf, and Terry McLaurin. He's basically a gadget player + part-time punt returner. The Chiefs desperately need to find a #2 WR early in the draft. Pringle, Robinson, Gordon will all be out of the league in a year or two.
• Speaking of Hill, he's 27 and has a minor-to-serious injury every other month. Don't get me wrong, he's tremendous, and imo a clear Hall-of-Famer, but his game is almost entirely athleticism. What will he bring when he's 30+? (He's also a free agent after next season.)
• Speaking of aging players, Travis Kelce is 32 and takes more hits than any other TE in the league. He's played almost an entire extra season of games over the last 5 years in the postseason. (The Chiefs really need Gray to step up next year to give him some plays off.)
• The starting secondary got barbecued last night, and 4/5 of the starters are free agents.
• Frank Clark makes $20m per season and has delivered 15 sacks in 3 seasons.

There are other spots that are strong. Chris Jones, the o-line, the young linebackers. But the front office really needs to hit free agency and the draft to keep this going.

In other words, think of what they really could have done to Buffalo if they weren’t hampered by all those negatives you mentioned.

[CameronDuke]

Here's the problem I have with this line of thinking: Switch things around, do you really think the Chiefs were stopping Allen and the Bills on any of those drives? Bills get the ball down 3 with 90 seconds left, 13 seconds left, and at the start of OT like the Chiefs did. Bills then shove it down KC's throat in OT, and you could write almost the same post word-for-word. (And yes, with Allen's arm and KC's secondary injuries, they could easily pull off the 13 second comeback too.)

That alone makes the coin toss dumb.

If neither team was stopping the other team on Sunday and the Bills got the ball back and scored in OT, then the Chiefs would have gotten the ball right back and scored so they would have won anyway and your point would be moot.

I think Andy Reid up 3 in regulation with 13 seconds left would have squib kicked to burn some clock, too.

[CameronDuke]

Instead of teams hypothesizing about OT rule changes or lobbying the NFL to change the rule, energy would be better spent studying defensive playbooks, scouting defensive talent, working on defensive schemes for late game situations, practicing, watching film, and preparing to dial up defensive packages with a good chance of stopping other offenses on late game drives or at least keeping them out of the end zone and holding them to a FG. It seems a lot of energy is being directed to a rule that has already had attempts to be altered (by the Chiefs no less) and the owners got it shot down. Don’t see the NFL changing it unless something crazy happens. So now that NFL teams are aware of the constructs of the game, it’s time to stew on ways to win football games within those constructs. And being up 3 with 13 seconds left and going to OT is not a great way to have to deal with the OT rules if you don’t like them. You have to win the game up 3 with 13 seconds left. Period. You don’t have much of a leg to stand on to complain about the NFL’s OT rules with that kind of meltdown. The Bills held the Chiefs to 20 points all game in their initial meeting in the regular season and forced 4 turnovers including picking off Mahomes twice. They also forced 2 FG attempts and 2 punts that game. They just needed to do one of those things Sunday to get the ball back. They did literally the only thing they couldn’t do to not get the ball back and that was give up a TD. So this stuff about the Bills simply couldn’t stop the Chiefs offense is bogus. They’ve shown they can. And they did multiple times when they beat the Chiefs. It’s time for their defense and coaching staff to take some accountability and admit they got exposed at crunch time.

[doctorhook]

All of this could have been moot.

Why did the Bills not squib the kickoff? 3-4 second runoff leaves time for only one play.

With most teams you may not do it but with Mahomes the fewer the plays the better.

[bundabergdevil]

All of this could have been moot.

Why did the Bills not squib the kickoff? 3-4 second runoff leaves time for only one play.

With most teams you may not do it but with Mahomes the fewer the plays the better.

If they squibbed the kick, how else were they going to Buffalo? It was extremely low probability that they would Buffalo in those circumstances but to their credit, they did everything right, and were able to Buffalo in the end.

[elvis14]

If they squibbed the kick, how else were they going to Buffalo? It was extremely low probability that they would Buffalo in those circumstances but to their credit, they did everything right, and were able to Buffalo in the end.

You must spread some Comments around before commenting on bundabergdevil again.

Blast from the past. Hilarious.

[SouthernDukie]

If they squibbed the kick, how else were they going to Buffalo? It was extremely low probability that they would Buffalo in those circumstances but to their credit, they did everything right, and were able to Buffalo in the end.

Yep. That was one of the points I made right after the game. Buffalo is Buffalo. As they were setting up for that kickoff, I was saying to my daughter, "If Hill is back there you dare not give him a chance to touch the ball, even on a squib kick. But if not, then do it for sure and eat up more time." I don't believe he was back there to receive (can anyone verify?). If not, a huge coaching blunder by Buffalo.

[CameronDuke]

I haven’t read anywhere on here anyone giving Andy Reid credit for having 3 timeouts left with 13 seconds left in the game to utilize to his advantage to set up the FG attempt to send it to OT. If I missed it, I apologize. If he burns just one of those in the prior 29:47 of the 2nd half, the Chiefs probably don’t get that FG look from that yardage to send it to OT. He is a legendary coach that doesn’t get enough credit.

[ClemmonsDevil]

I haven’t read anywhere on here anyone giving Andy Reid credit for having 3 timeouts left with 13 seconds left in the vans to utilize to his advantage to set up the FG attempt to send it to OT. If I missed it, I apologize. If he burns just one of those in the prior 29:47 of the 2nd half, the Chiefs probably don’t get that FG look from that yardage to send it to OT. He is a legendary coach that doesn’t get enough credit.

I dealt with this somewhat during the Braves series run, but how does that work? And now, presumably, we never have to listen about it as Braves fans anymore...but how does a city have a collective jinx? Coach screwed up. But he would have screwed that up in Miami, Dallas, or Foxboro.

[CameronDuke]

I dealt with this somewhat during the Braves series run, but how does that work? And now, presumably, we never have to listen about it as Braves fans anymore...but how does a city have a collective jinx? Coach screwed up. But he would have screwed that up in Miami, Dallas, or Foxboro.

Lol what

[ClemmonsDevil]

I haven’t read anywhere on here anyone giving Andy Reid credit for having 3 timeouts left with 13 seconds left in the game to utilize to his advantage to set up the FG attempt to send it to OT. If I missed it, I apologize. If he burns just one of those in the prior 29:47 of the 2nd half, the Chiefs probably don’t get that FG look from that yardage to send it to OT. He is a legendary coach that doesn’t get enough credit.

I mentioned that. This was the entire difference between the Cowboys and Chiefs situations.

[ClemmonsDevil]

Lol what

The idea that Buffalo is destined to screw up is dumb to me. It's a fallacy of small sample sizes argument.

Dangit! Tagged the wrong post. My bad!!!!!

[Acymetric]

Instead of teams hypothesizing about OT rule changes or lobbying the NFL to change the rule, energy would be better spent studying defensive playbooks, scouting defensive talent, working on defensive schemes for late game situations, practicing, watching film, and preparing to dial up defensive packages with a good chance of stopping other offenses on late game drives or at least keeping them out of the end zone and holding them to a FG. It seems a lot of energy is being directed to a rule that has already had attempts to be altered (by the Chiefs no less) and the owners got it shot down. Don’t see the NFL changing it unless something crazy happens. So now that NFL teams are aware of the constructs of the game, it’s time to stew on ways to win football games within those constructs. And being up 3 with 13 seconds left and going to OT is not a great way to have to deal with the OT rules if you don’t like them. You have to win the game up 3 with 13 seconds left. Period. You don’t have much of a leg to stand on to complain about the NFL’s OT rules with that kind of meltdown. The Bills held the Chiefs to 20 points all game in their initial meeting in the regular season and forced 4 turnovers including picking off Mahomes twice. They also forced 2 FG attempts and 2 punts that game. They just needed to do one of those things Sunday to get the ball back. They did literally the only thing they couldn’t do to not get the ball back and that was give up a TD. So this stuff about the Bills simply couldn’t stop the Chiefs offense is bogus. They’ve shown they can. And they did multiple times when they beat the Chiefs. It’s time for their defense and coaching staff to take some accountability and admit they got exposed at crunch time.

You're getting to hing up on what the teams should do and what they deserve. That isn't the issue here, it is that the current overtime rules result in anticlimactic endings to what were otherwise thrilling games. You get that this is all for the fans, right? Would be an easy fix. Fair to disagree and prefer the current setup, but all the stuff about team accountability and the like is a red herring.

[CameronDuke]

The idea that Buffalo is destined to screw up is dumb to me. It's a fallacy of small sample sizes argument.

Dangit! Tagged the wrong post. My bad!!!!!

All good!

[TexHawk]

Yep. That was one of the points I made right after the game. Buffalo is Buffalo. As they were setting up for that kickoff, I was saying to my daughter, "If Hill is back there you dare not give him a chance to touch the ball, even on a squib kick. But if not, then do it for sure and eat up more time." I don't believe he was back there to receive (can anyone verify?). If not, a huge coaching blunder by Buffalo.

He wasn't.

Hill was booted off special teams after he fumbled a punt against the Texans in the 2019 playoffs. He was brought back for one punt return against Pittsburgh last week, and one against Buffalo. He hasn't returned a kickoff since his rookie year in 2016.