Apologies to Patricia

I told my boys before Mahomes made his 1st down run on 3rd and long, that he would probably run for the first down.
The middle of the field is way to open when double and triple covering Travis Kelce.

I saw the same thing. When they had doubled Kelce on the previous play, I thought, “That means he can probably run for 30 yards.” Not sure how we didn’t plan accordingly if it was that obvious.

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Yep. They were bracketing Kielce with both Jones and Davis.

But look at the flip side, if we went Davis or Jones on Kelce 1on1 and left one to spy Mahomes that’s a completed pass, right?
I really don’t think either could handle Kelce one on one. Perhaps a different coverage concept altogether might’ve worked but it’s pick your poison.

My main complaint in that final drive would be to speed up the game. Take chances. Make them take deep shots and if they score leave our gunslinger some time.

All of that said, he’s a first time HC and this team is turning the corner, or appears to be. They are demanding respect and can hang with ANY team in the league.
When the coaches and team gel, the sky is the limit. I’m beginning to think that can happen in time for the Lions to be a legit playoff team. Not just a team lucky to back into the playoffs.
I don’t like the feel of yesterday’s loss, but, it doesn’t hurt nearly as bad as the AZ tie did.
The Lions are for real!

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I kind of feel this way too. All out blitz. It works, you win. It doesn’t work, you get the ball back with more time on the clock.

But I don’t know if I’d have the guts to make that call on the field in real time, especially since the coverage-heavy defense had been working all day. Definitely some arm-chair quarterbacking.

Also, if they had Davis shadow Mahomes instead of double Kelce, does he make that run? Or does he just chuck it to a now-open Kelce? IDK. It’s easy to second-guess one play that didn’t work. Overally, though, an impressive, if imperfect, game by our D.

But doesn’t that go back to game management in a way. He’s got to get better with the clock, challenges, etc.

He’s clearly quite brilliant with scheme and I believe a very good teacher of fundamentals (think PP brings a lot in that regard as well.)

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Exactly. One on One LBer coverage against Jelce wasn’t going to work

Where was Tavai yesterday? I don’t think I heard his name called all game.
He was in on 14 defensive plays but had zero tackles.

Just a bad matchup for him.