NFL 2021: The Week 8 thread

*Legion* wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

Wow. If KC loses this one, there is a better than average chance they miss the playoffs.

In the end, they were still playing against the Giants.

I told one of my coworkers in Wichita this morning that they cannot have this much trouble with a team in Tank Division.

Looking at the rest of their schedule, I see the following:

Green Bay
Vegas
Dallas
Denver
Vegas
Chargers
Steelers
Cincy
Denver

Out of those, I see two, maybe three wins. They need seven to make the playoffs. None of their four wins have come against teams presently over .500.

This is not what I expected out of the "new dynasty" this year.

It's the NFL parity league.

Would be 0% surprised to see them rip off 6 wins in a row. After the Packers game

jowner wrote:

It's the NFL parity league.

Would be 0% surprised to see them rip off 6 wins in a row. After the Packers game :D

Was six just a number, or were you intentionally saying they won't make it past the Bengals?

UpToIsomorphism wrote:
jowner wrote:

It's the NFL parity league.

Would be 0% surprised to see them rip off 6 wins in a row. After the Packers game :D

Was six just a number, or were you intentionally saying they won't make it past the Bengals?

I have seen nothing from the Chiefs that indicate that they are going to turn this around. Whatever their problems are, I don't see them solving them midseason.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:
jowner wrote:

It's the NFL parity league.

Would be 0% surprised to see them rip off 6 wins in a row. After the Packers game :D

Was six just a number, or were you intentionally saying they won't make it past the Bengals?

I'm not sure what to make of the Bengals.

The Bengals clearly have some good talent but then they went and lost to the Jets. The NFL parity league! Better game plan, couple calls going their way and the Bengals really should of thumped the Jets.

Paleocon wrote:
UpToIsomorphism wrote:
jowner wrote:

It's the NFL parity league.

Would be 0% surprised to see them rip off 6 wins in a row. After the Packers game :D

Was six just a number, or were you intentionally saying they won't make it past the Bengals?

I have seen nothing from the Chiefs that indicate that they are going to turn this around. Whatever their problems are, I don't see them solving them midseason.

I agree but it's the NFL and they do have Mahomes. Me implying they will turn it around also had alot to do with other teams.

I saw the graphic last night also where they have the hardest strength of schedule remaining. 4 of those games are Denver and Vegas though.

Hell I wouldn't be surprised if they beat the Packers this coming week in a fluke game. Really hope Davante is back as the healthier the Packers are really will shrink the randomness aspect of the NFL.

jowner wrote:
UpToIsomorphism wrote:
jowner wrote:

It's the NFL parity league.

Would be 0% surprised to see them rip off 6 wins in a row. After the Packers game :D

Was six just a number, or were you intentionally saying they won't make it past the Bengals?

I'm not sure what to make of the Bengals.

The Bengals clearly have some good talent but then they went and lost to the Jets. The NFL parity league! Better game plan, couple calls going their way and the Bengals really should of thumped the Jets.

Paleocon wrote:
UpToIsomorphism wrote:
jowner wrote:

It's the NFL parity league.

Would be 0% surprised to see them rip off 6 wins in a row. After the Packers game :D

Was six just a number, or were you intentionally saying they won't make it past the Bengals?

I have seen nothing from the Chiefs that indicate that they are going to turn this around. Whatever their problems are, I don't see them solving them midseason.

I agree but it's the NFL and they do have Mahomes. Me implying they will turn it around also had alot to do with other teams.

I saw the graphic last night also where they have the hardest strength of schedule remaining. 4 of those games are Denver and Vegas though.

Hell I wouldn't be surprised if they beat the Packers this coming week in a fluke game. Really hope Davante is back as the healthier the Packers are really will shrink the randomness aspect of the NFL.

In a weird way, I think the problem is that they have Mahomes. And by that I mean that they have relied for so long on his ability to heroball his way out of bad down and distance situations that they have engineered their offense around it. He is definitely an amazing asset, but without some significant rebalancing, I see their problems continuing. They need, more than anything, to be able to stay on schedule in the down and distance because other teams have largely taken away their ability to generate chunk plays. Unfortunately, they don't appear built for that, particularly with the sidelining of Clyde Edwards-Helaire, but even before then.

I know the talk is really tired, but in this case, it is worth revisiting. The talk at the beginning of the season was how coaches around the league had "figured out Lamar Jackson". And in a sense, they had. Part of that had to do with the fact that he lost all of his running backs and was unable to play the sorts of games with the mesh point that screwed with defenses so much the last few years. That said, Lamar Jackson did a considerable amount of offseason work with Tee Martin and Keith Williams to turn the Ravens' passing game into something entirely different. The result is that coaches prepared for (and figured out) the wrong thing.

In interesting contrast, it appears defenses have mostly caught up to the Kansas City long ball by watching the Tampa Bay film. Keep contain and stunt a rusher up the middle to take away the step up into the pocket and you force Mahomes to make off schedule throws into traffic. He is good enough to make a LOT of them, but the law of large numbers is on your side if you are willing to be patient and take advantage of your takeaway opportunities. And those opportunities have come this year. So much so that they cannot be attributed to bad luck or bad bounces. The problem is that he is just good enough that he expects to make those throws as he has in the past and will continue to do so and the defense is not good enough to carry them if he doesn't.

Paleocon wrote:

In a weird way, I think the problem is that they have Mahomes. And by that I mean that they have relied for so long on his ability to heroball his way out of bad down and distance situations that they have engineered their offense around it.

"Sounds familiar," says Peyton.

"Really does," says Aaron.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

In a weird way, I think the problem is that they have Mahomes. And by that I mean that they have relied for so long on his ability to heroball his way out of bad down and distance situations that they have engineered their offense around it.

"Sounds familiar," says Peyton.

"Really does," says Aaron.

If that is the expectation, though, the recent history would indicate that either it is an unreasonable one or that Mahomes is short of the mark and should be playing better. I think the former is more likely than the latter.

Paleocon wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

In a weird way, I think the problem is that they have Mahomes. And by that I mean that they have relied for so long on his ability to heroball his way out of bad down and distance situations that they have engineered their offense around it.

"Sounds familiar," says Peyton.

"Really does," says Aaron.

If that is the expectation, though, the recent history would indicate that either it is an unreasonable one or that Mahomes is short of the mark and should be playing better. I think the former is more likely than the latter.

Half a season really isn't enough to make that kind of supposition, though; Mahomes has absolutely has a rougher year, he's been the best QB in the league for the prior three years. I mean, 114 TDs and 23 picks? That was an INSANE three year run. The Chiefs clearly haven't fixed their offensive line issues and the defense is just godawful this year, and Mahomes is currently looking like a young Favre in that he thinks he has to win the game himself on every throw, and that's not great, but I'm going to take the bulk of his career as far more evidence than the eight games of this year.

Happy trade deadline day! Hopefully something happens that's interesting. Who wants to send a bunch of picks to San Francisco for an exceptionally handsome QB? Did you see his two rushing TDs last game?

Baker, OBJ and a second for someone good!?

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Baker, OBJ and a second for someone good!?

That could like actually maybe work.

*Legion* wrote:

Happy trade deadline day! Hopefully something happens that's interesting. Who wants to send a bunch of picks to San Francisco for an exceptionally handsome QB? Did you see his two rushing TDs last game?

*Matt Rhule has entered the chat*

Melvin Ingram to KC for a sixth.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Melvin Ingram to KC for a sixth.

Teams who still are playing the Packers can please stop trading for pass rushers.

I guess the positive for me is David Bahktiari is probably back this week.

Draw Play Dave is really playing with fire:

If the Jags win, I will draw Urban Meyer and Shad Khan grinding on each other wearing buffalo skulls

Stop making me root for Urban Meyer to win.

Henry Ruggs involved in serious car accident. Story says it was at 3:40 a.m. in Vegas, and I have to imagine the old adage of "nothing good happens after 2:00 a.m." is even truer in Las Vegas.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Henry Ruggs involved in serious car accident. Story says it was at 3:40 a.m. in Vegas, and I have to imagine the old adage of "nothing good happens after 2:00 a.m." is even truer in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas police to charge Ruggs with "DUI resulting in death."

Apparently a Corvette rear-ended a Toyota RAV-4, and somebody in the Toyota died. Going to go out on a crazy limb and guess Ruggs wasn't driving a Toyota, meaning he didn't even have the decency to kill himself or somebody stupid enough to be riding with him. It was just somebody sitting in their car.

I want to say snarky and cynical things, but I'm just gonna go with sadness over the senseless loss of life.

Trade deadline over, Watson still a Texan...ish.

It's like the only person who thought he could be a good qb is no longer there for... unrelated reasons.

I pretty much stopped paying attention to trade deadline news after the Ruggs news.

Not that any "news" really popped up. A couple situational pass rushers with good pressure rates but not much in the way of sacks (Melvin Ingram to the Chiefs, Charles Omenihu to the 49ers), and then, pretty much nothing.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

It's like the only person who thought he could be a good qb is no longer there for... unrelated reasons.

The part that gets me is that they waited for the trade deadline to pass, suggesting they thought there was a possibility of someone trading for him.

Paleocon wrote:

Wow, the Eagles had zero chill about the beatdown they put on the Lions.

I just assumed they'd notched a W somewhere in there. I had no idea they were o-fer.

Jordan Love time. Oh boy.

Are the Packers the only team catching Covid? Florida teams? Anyone?

jowner wrote:

Jordan Love time. Oh boy.

Are the Packers the only team catching Covid? Florida teams? Anyone?

Hear that, that is the sound of a million lines moving, and a million gamblers being silenced.