Chiefs run, stumble, fall flat on their asses, limp back to K C, not just beaten but embarrassed.
Personally I got it wrong, very wrong. I thought that the complete lack of an offensive line, whilst not ideal, would be easy to overcome. How wrong could you get! I have seen a stat showing that Mahomes ran 458 yards in the game. Only a few of them were past the line of scrimmage, mostly he ran for his life. The idea that they could play quite so poorly was just not realistic. How wrong can you get? What degree of wrongness would you prefer?
Florio and Sims on Pro Football Talk agree that the officials were very poor and the Bucs had a great plan to wind up Chris Jones and Tyrann Mathieu. And it worked. But, the better team won. And they did it with great defense and just enough offense to keep the Chiefs off balance all night.
Make no mistake no team with a non - existent offensive line and receivers who dropped more balls in one game than they have in 16 weeks was ever likely to win the Super Bowl. Then there are the penalties.
This is a tough one. If you complain about the officials it just sounds like sour grapes. And, so the accepted wisdom goes, poor calls happen and in a blow out they make hardly any difference. I disagree. No-one can predict what might happen in an alternative universe, but to contend that bad calls have hardly any effect is as simplistic as it is erroneous. Just imagine if the Mathieu interception had been allowed to stand. The game is changed dramatically. Who knows what might happen next? The refs have a lot to ponder and I believe that the Chiefs will be asking the league to look at some of the calls to try to improve the situation for other teams. My guess. Chiefs still lose by at least 10 points.
We move on.
But before we do some explanation of how things went so horribly wrong is required.
Firstly Mahomes was injured far more than we thought. The turf toe that seemed only an inconvenience turned out to be a debilitating, game changing problem. With that said, he played quite well all things considered. It was not enough, for he got precious little support from his offensive buddies. Even the usually reliable receiving corps had the dropsies.
The twitteratti are smoking with condemnation of Bret Veitch, the Chiefs GM.
They confirm what many have suspected for many years. The Chief’s O-line is really not up to scratch and Veitch has done little in either the draft or free agency to fix it. It seems that both Reid and Veitch have been so enamoured with Mahomes that they really believed that he could overcome any problems with his brilliance. Perhaps on two good legs this may have been so, but the days of poor draft choices and free agents must be over. In 2018 the Chiefs had six picks. Only Derrick Nnadi has significantly contributed to the team’s success. Three are gone and two are just hanging on (Dorian O’Daniel and Armani Watts). 2019 was not much better. Veach traded round one pick for Frank Clark. Clark has been good, but not spectacularly good, especially in this year’s Super Bowl where he had one sack of Brady and then not much else. Mecole Hardman was drafted to be the possible replacement for Tyreek Hill and has contributed on special teams and occasionally as a wide-out. Safety Juan Thjornhill has been very good until he was injured and missed last year’s Super Bowl. He’s working his way back, but slowly.
Defensive tackle Khalen Saunders has had limited action. Cornerback Rashaud Fenton is only occasionally seen. Nick Allegriti has seen plenty of action - despite being a seventh round pick. Moving to 2020, the choice of Clyde Edwards-Hellaire as pick 32 was met with some skepticism by many, including me. He has been good. But, has he been first round good? - Willie Gay Junior was a top pick and has played - some. Next year will see if he is a boom or bust. The jury is still out on lineman Lucas Niang (opted out of the Covid-year), L’Jarius Sneed was a find from the fourth round and Mike Dana looked not bad until injured. The other pick - in the seventh round - Bo’Pete Keyes was inactive most of the season.
All in all, The GM just has not invested in keeping Mahomes either upright or healthy. This must stop.
Taken as a whole, the season was a litany of errors and missed opportunities. Even in games they won, the tribe were often relying on the big play offense to overcome a poor defense and - for the first time in a long time - special teams that did not really deliver. Tommy Townsend for one has a lot to make up for. Forgetting that he has had quite a good rookie year, in the big one he muffed big-time. Expect a real fight next year to see if he is the punter going forward.
Andy Reid has a plan. He expects some time off and then to evaluate the roster. He stressed that the team must not just be defined by one game. Unfortunately, this is the NFL and they will be evaluated by the Super Bowl loss. Super Bowl Winners: Kelce, Mahomes (qualified as he was more injured than we expected), CEH (who had a good game), Clark. Losers: the o-line, Reid, Townsend, Hardman, a plethora of penalties, and some very uncharacteristic dropped passes.
The off season should be interesting
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