HappyDays

The Chiefs were 10-1 in one score games last year. This year they're 0-5. Analytics nerds rejoice.

Losing Hoecht for the year on its own doesn't bother me too much. But having it happen immediately after losing Oliver for the year is a gut punch. We just lost all of our interior pass rush ability in the span of two weeks. The only saving grace is that it happened right before the trade deadline. Adding an interior pass rusher just became an absolute necessity. There are a few good options out there that could be had for probably a day three pick.

I know I'm alone on this but I had no issue with that play call. I had an issue with our 4th and 2 attempt where we just ran a normal drop back pass play hoping someone would get open... On critical downs we have to stick to the few plays that work with our personnel. We aren't built to convert 3rd and 10, unfortunately, so there aren't any perfect options there. Once we get into 3rd and long we've kind of already lost. So I understood the thinking there - get 5+ yards from Shakir and get into 4th and manageable. Didn't work out that way which makes it worse with hindsight but I'd still bet on that concept over the normal drop back pass where one of our WRs needs to separate. Overall I think Brady did what he needed to do in this game. Other than that failed 4th and 2 he spammed Cook runs, quick passes to Shakir, and ran the downfield passing offense almost exclusively through the TEs. Those three concepts have to be 90% of our offense. If you spam those plays enough you'll get the occasional Elijah Moore splitting the safeties downfield because the defense forgets about him.

One name I haven't seen mentioned is Browns DT Maliek Collins. He's PFF's 4th ranked DT this year. I take their rankings with a grain of salt but it means something. He's a veteran at 30 years old so he could assimilate quickly. Good breakdown of him here: https://www.dawgsbynature.com/cleveland-browns-roster-players/105920/browns-maliek-collins-underrated-nfl-players-2025-myles-garrett-mason-graham His base salary for the year is $1.255M so I believe he'd count around half of that against our cap... We'd have him under contract for 2026 too at just a $5.7M cap hit. You could theoretically trade for him and Shaheed without having to do a lot of cap gymnastics.

That is what stuck out to me as well. PBUs have been a problem for us all year. It was nice to see a Bills player repeatedly knocking the ball away. Always hard to tell on broadcast footage but I thought Bishop was playing a good amount of man in this game and that seems to fit his skill set better. No thinking, just use his natural athleticism to plaster and make a play at the catch point.

From the WRs? No. The TEs, yes. This game was exactly what our offense has to look like to be successful - pound Cook, quick passes to Shakir, TEs get most of the downfield targets. Moore splitting the safeties was nice to see but let's not pretend that is suddenly a cornerstone of our offense. The WR problem still exists but we can overcome it if our preferred game script goes exactly right.

He is? I didn't see any of that on the Carolina tape. Broadcast footage is tough to judge but didn't see that tonight either. Any time the ball was thrown in his direction good things happened.

Bernard unfortunately was the culprit on at least a couple of those 3rd and longs today. Regardless of his contract and the C on his jersey, they need Thompson to be the full time starter when he's healthy. Awkward situation but you have to play the better performing player. I agree they need to put Hairston out there full time. He hasn't had to cover any big time pass catchers yet (unless I missed him covering Rice tonight) but he's been erasing his matchup players. You can tell he's confident and full of energy. Hancock I think I am okay rotating for now. He looks a bit lost and slow to react at times. Safety as we have seen is not an easy position to learn in this defense. I wonder if Cam might just be better than Taron at this point... The Carolina tape was brutally bad for him. Maybe give him another week to "recover" and see how it goes.

Allen has out played Mahomes in every matchup since 2021. Playoffs included.

The defense was coached well. But the usage of timeouts was ridiculous. The 4th and 17 was stopped on the original play, he gave them a free do over. The head coach can't freeze up in critical moments.

He was sensational today. They need to make him a full time starter.

And here's why:

Mahomes completed less than 50% of his passes for the first time in his career. The edge rush and young players in the secondary made it happen today.

Allen Cook Gilliam Kincaid Bishop Bosa

Bishop saved this game multiple times

He is done, unfortunately. There are slow motion videos on Twitter showing the Achilles popping.

Why did they blow the whistle while Cook was clearly still going forward? This officiating crew has been brutal.

Cook can catch??

Hairston's speed is a difference maker. And he doesn't look lost out there either

Wtf are we doing with timeouts in this game??

We have to many needs to trade for. EDGE, DT, WR. Just a crushing couple of weeks for the DL.

That ridiculous timeout on 4th and 17 has shocked the whole team into a rut. It is always something like that under McDermott that causes us to lose these games

I still can't believe that 4th down timeout. I just can't understand what McDermott was thinking there. You have them on the ropes. Why do you choose to give them a breather?

Thompson needs to start when he's healthy.

Felt like we had the original 4th down call stopped...