Looks like Dee isn’t 100%. I’ll be interested to see how many snaps he plays. He’s only averaging 28 snaps per game in the playoffs.

Yeah, it's been just bizarre to watch the national guys try to make this into some 'EUREKA!' moment.

Getting pressure with 4 has been the preferred way to do it since time immemorial. Especially against quality QBs.

My new favorite stat is "Mahomes has thrown 16 of his 17 interceptions against 4 man rushes...."

Without acknowledging that Mahomes has a 109 passer rating against said fronts vs a 116 against the blitz. They're trying to make it sound like he's just out there slinging picks left and right when you put 7 in coverage but ultimately he just faces 7 in coverage a LOT more often.

The context these guys are having to willingly strip from the dialogue to make it sound like they've unlocked the Rosetta Stone here is just silly. Yes, it's ideal to get to him without sending an additional rusher. No, that guarantees you no particular level of success as he's still REALLY ****ING GOOD when you do that.

My only worry is that zone defenses take a little bit to get a feel for and he hasn't seen quite as much of those of late (on account of him routinely dissecting them). So I could see another iffy 1st quarter for him. Maybe another iffy 1st half.

I hope not - this will be a tough team to come back against if you let them get a 2 score lead. But it could happen if he struggles early with the disguised zone looks and has to fire before his guys can find a place to settle down into the holes.

The fact that you think the 2019 Seahawks were anything more than a speed-bump demonstrates yours.

"Probably worth the 15 yard penalty to take Dee's knee out ...."

~M Florio

49ers fans have this really weird view of the Seahawks, they thought if they got them in the playoffs they'd lose...they view them like they are the almighty God, I guess years of beatings does that.

I noticed that both Clark and Jones mentioned last night that they absolutely had to contain the run first and foremost. Clearly it’s a message that the coaching staff pushed onto them.

I think you have to be very unpredictable in your schematic approach though cause if Shanahan knows what he’s getting consistently, he’s going to find ways to beat it.

That front line has to win the LOS more often than not to have a real shot at limiting their rushing output. Jones has to wreck some plays, Clark and the other ends have to set a firm edge. They seemed to understand that too, and that it was a necessity if they were ever going to have the chance to get after the QB.

Similar to how the entire AFC West views KC.............

:evil:

:banghead: Agree to disagree. Enough time wasted on the topic.

There it is folks. Richard Sherman is winning the SB for Kobe Bryant. Knew it was ****ing happening.

Here’s the kicker: Manning and Brady are statues. Mahomes is as athletic as Russell Wilson at evading rushers and extending plays. That’s a huge difference.

It must be so goddamn hard to be a DL going against Pat. Rush to outside and he’ll just step up. Rush inside and he’ll step out of the pocket and buy time.

That’s got to be infuriating

Your assertion is the Seahawks were dominant this year? Or have had a dominant run?

I'll give you the latter point. The former? Not so much.

Dominant teams don't have one-score wins against four teams picking in the top 10. Dominant teams don't have three more one-score wins against .500 teams.

The Chiefs have played several run-first offenses this season. The Niners have played no one even close to the Chiefs in terms of play calling and scheme. There's no one like KC.

Pass Rate on First and Second Down Through First 3 Quarters


https://i.imgur.com/t83M07F.png

Posted this earlier, but it's so interesting it deserves to be posted again.

Well when you spend the entire season convincing yourself of the "The NFC is brutally dominant" narrative, I guess you have to buy into the Seahawks.

I mean lord knows a Kirk Cousins Vikings squad isn't shit and I saw more than enough Packers football to know they were a mirage. The NFC East isn't even worth laughing at.

So unless the Niners and the Saints (before Brees ran out of gas) were enough to make a conference a bloodbath of some sort, you need to talk yourself into some 3rd team also being really good. Well Wilson shows up on highlight reels a lot and occasionally does some truly jaw-dropping stuff so let's just start saying that the Seahawks were really good despite having a damn near even point differential.

BUT MUH SCHEDULE STRENGTH!!!!

Yeah, worst thing that can happen to the Chiefs is to get "put in the rocking chair..."

You see changeup pitchers absolutely mind-**** hitters sometimes and it's a hilarious thing to behold. Poor hitters get so deeply buried in trying to guess fastball/change that they're slow on the fastball, fast on the changeup and completely helpless.

It doesn't happen often because it almost takes a mind-meld between pitcher/hitter for the pitcher to get in that kind of groove, but when it does you almost feel bad for the batter because they look stuuuuuupid.

Well if you have the team so hell-bent on stopping the run that they make themselves less aggressive against the pass, Alex Smith 2.0 there in SF has just enough ability to feed balls to Kittle and Deebo the same way v 1.0 did here in KC w/ Kelce and early Hill and hurt you badly. So after a couple of drives of that you adjust to pass and Shanahan is running now and the next thing you know your DL is struggling to tell which way is up.

Just let 'em play fast and aggressive. It'll open you up to some trap plays here and there but with a really stout set of DTs, they should at least be able to make enough of a mess inside to keep those to 8 yard gains instead of 80. It isn't about holding them to zero first downs - they'll get theirs. You just have to continue to make things difficult for them and eventually you'll get your stops.

His strategy failed pretty bad. I think you have to get pressure on any QB. Niners have a better chance of doing this with their front 4 compared to the Titans.

The 49ers D line is good, but the Chiefs will score on them all the same. The biggest concern is the ability of our defense to slow down their running attack without leaving themselves vulnerable to getting burned by play action.

I really wish people would read this shit 20 times. No defense is out there shutting other teams out completely. But you get into the game thread and people act like the defense from last year is out there.

The 49ers are going to score points. It’s going to ****ing happen. If you’re going to bleed out of your vagina because of it....then do that shit now and keep it out of the game thread.

Looking at you, Showtime.

Other than Mahomes is discussing that Kobe meant a lot to him and frankly...I still maintain if there are fishy calls in this game they go our way, the NFL has a star making opportunity here with a young player that says all the right things.

The thing is Dean Pees has an insanely long track record of having really good defenses and coming up with great gameplans, what he said and did speaks volumes to his respect for Mahomes.

Wouldn’t surprise me. The Narrative so far has been all about the Great QB vs the Great Team...almost like they’re giving Mahomes an excuse if the Chiefs lose and anointing him a hero if the Chiefs win.

It’s either:

Mahomes didn’t have the supporting cast to win. He still has several more opportunities.

Or

Holy shit. Even with the worse supporting cast, Mahomes took the Super Bowl over and won it. He’s only just getting started too.

Re-watching some of the Colts game still has me a tick nervous.

Beating a zone is really easy when someone makes a mistake and often teams will. But man, if you have smart, responsible zone defenders and 4 linemen that can get there in under 3 seconds, those zones (especially the Cover 3s, IMO) can be awfully damn difficult to deal with.

And for all the talk about Mahomes legs of late - zone coverages kinda take those out of the equation as well. Mahomes is a smart runner but he's not a dynamic one - he's not gonna go creating yards against dudes that are facing him.

Saleh could hit all the right notes. That's the weird thing I've noticed about zone defenses over the years - they're oddly rhythm based. For whatever reason, they either seem to work really damn well or just completely fall apart. Either the DC has found the right keys in his game-planning and his guys are seeing them well, or it's swiss cheese.

If the 49ers zone comes out early and holds strong, that's the kind of snowball that can oftentimes turn into an avalanche.

The 49ers running game will get yards, but as long as it's nothing insane, it should be okay on its own. The only aspect of the 49ers offense that really concerns me is their PA game. They're basically a better version of the Titans with better WRs, a great TE, and a good stable of RBs, though none as good as Henry.

Luckily, the Titans should be a good tune-up for this.

The Colts played like 80% man that game IIRC. And that was without Hill and Watkins...

I'm a little less worried because they have 1 good CB and you can dictate his matchup so that is an advantage.

That game is irrelevant.

No Tyreek, no Sammy, no Fisher, No Wiz at LG. Pat’s ankle was hurt.

The Titans tried playing zone against Pat and he destroyed them. Even with a quality rush, Pat is buying time to extend plays to 4-5 seconds. He constantly gives himself more time to see the holes and let guys move to get open.

Pat is too talented and smart. He knows who is going to have the favorable matchup pre-snap. If that’s taken away, he’ll buy time.

Yeah, but can they do it all game, against Mahomes?

Even if they come out early and hold strong, 15 is pretty good at finding a way.

It'll take longer than 2 years to shake the influence of Martyball in this town.

Too many people cut their teeth on 13-7 games and the idea that any points scored were borderline disastrous. And if the defense gives up 17 and we lose, it's somehow the defenses fault.

If the Chiefs score fewer than 24 points with these weapons and these rules, I don't care if the defense gave up 24 to yield the L - that loss is the offenses fault. This team is backwards from everything we grew up on. The offense will dictate what the opposing offense can do just as much as our defense can. And ultimately it takes a few drives for the offense to impose that kind of pressure AND they have to actually execute to do it.

Defense these days should be measured in punts and turnovers. Hell, with his offense you see a FG as a win. Yards and first downs just don't matter a whole hell of a lot over 60 minutes. Keep making them work, hold them out of the end-zone by hook or by crook and sooner or later the pressure exerted by the offense can/should force them out of their comfort zone.

I understand the folks that don't like it, but it's the way the NFL works these days and the Chiefs are largely at the front of it. It's a nice place to be for once...

:clap::clap::clap:

Your analysis the last couple of days has been 100% spot on, brother.

No Sammy and Tyreek was big. Even bigger was Mahomes’ ankle problem that happened in the 2nd quarter. They were moving the ball and scoring before that.

The NFL isn't in business for games to be 13-7, that shit is bad for ratings.

A little bit, yes. But it's proof of a viable concept. Yeah, it required injury to do it, but it proved that if you CAN do it because you have more talent available than the Colts did (the 49ers do), it can work.

I'm not saying I'd expect that kind of performance if the 49ers were trotting Kemoko Turay out there against Fisher like the Colts were against Erving. I'm saying that the 49ers have enough of a talent upgrade on the Colts to partially offset the talent upgrade the Chiefs have seen with the return of injured players.

And I will again note that Patrick Mahomes probably played the best football game I've ever SEEN last Sunday against TN. And as I said earlier in this thread, if he plays like that again, this isn't a game. Nobody will beat him when he's playing with complete command of everything like he was in that game. The TN zones actually worked really damn well - Mahomes just never made a mistake or even a decision/throw that wasn't textbook.

But to make any of this discussion worth having we have to assume that Mahomes plays merely good football (in the highest pressure situation of his life) as opposed to God-level. Because if he plays at God level, this shit is all moot. Yeah, he picked apart TN's zone because he was simply locked. My question is what happens if he's merely very good?

That's when the 9ers scheme could create some headaches.

Probably not. Like I said - everyone will get theirs.

It's always a question of making things a slog until a critical mistake is made.

The 49ers basically played their perfect game against the Packers. They’re going to have to do it again against us to be able to win.

And that still required the Packers to shit their pants.

I know Davis didn't ultimately have a huge game, but I'm still damn nervous by how overmatched Breeland was against him for most of that outing. And how slow our LBs can be to diagnose and recover.

Deebo and Kittle could really **** us up in ways that the Titans were just ill-equipped to be able to do. And before that game is over we will all yell at some point "Why the hell aren't we covering Juszczyk!!!!" because Shanahan does some really interesting stuff with him as well and he spends a weird amount of time out there in space. I know the numbers don't support it but he really can do damage out there.

That's not to say that Shanahan wouldn't prefer to just run for 250 yards and coast to a win. But I don't think it's the only card they have to play.

Teams that have a top 10 offensive line in pass protection average 30 points against the 49ers defense. The Chiefs are ranked #5.

Don't give him any more confidence. He's already unbearable to deal with.

Oh don’t get me wrong.....the 49ers have weapons everywhere. It’s not a matter of shutting down that offense. It’s a matter of stops and FGs like you said.

The thing the 9ers can do, similar to what those Giants teams that beat the Pats could do, is drop 7 and create havoc with 4 up front. That's when things get tough.

If they can't get pressure, they'll get carved up similar to what will happen to the Chiefs if they can't slow down the run game.

Just peakin' at the right time, O. You can call me Showtime if you want.

{counts on fingers number of posters ranked ahead of me in the CP Top 50...}

Don't hate brotha.

<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/3ohs7StY4gwL9VrB8A" width="480" height="480" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/showtime-season-8-shameless-3ohs7StY4gwL9VrB8A">via GIPHY</a></p>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Air Raid fans will know this concept as Y-Cross, it&#39;s been around forever and it&#39;s one of my favorite passing concepts.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Saints?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Saints</a> catch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/49ers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#49ers</a> in 1-Hole, allowing Thomas to work his Over vs. the Nickel Williams on outside leverage.<br><br>Great stair step by Thomas here, too. <a href="https://t.co/D7uP6I3mrv">pic.twitter.com/D7uP6I3mrv</a></p>&mdash; Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) <a href="https://twitter.com/Nate_Tice/status/1221837131909230593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Chiefs run concepts like this all the time...

Keep in mind that Mahomes was gimpy, Fisher was out and perhaps another one or two olinemen, not to mention the LG wasn't playing well (and has since been replaced with Wisnewski). Did Hill play in that game? I don't think he did. Actually, I think both he and Watkins were out in that game.

Wow...you just had to prove him right!!

These guys are motivated. They’re sick of the disrespect.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Two things strike me about the Chiefs&#39; defensive players: They are willing and eager to talk about their teammates. Very little me-first here.<br><br>Also: They know what you think of their defense, and they&#39;ve arrived in Miami with several chips on their shoulders.</p>&mdash; Doug Farrar (@NFL_DougFarrar) <a href="https://twitter.com/NFL_DougFarrar/status/1222199655120896000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Clark hears the noise it would seem and issues a warning... https://twitter.com/therealfrankc_/s...735132678?s=21

I hope there are plenty of Dilfer style predictions in the media over the next few days and I hope all the KC players see it and are very driven to prove them wrong.

They weren't able to get pressure on Brees and the Saints put up 46 points and 450+ yards. Would have been even worse if Cook didn't have to leave the game early with a concussion. He had already torched them on 2 consecutive TDs to start the game.

I can't wait to drop 40 plus on this overrated 49ers defense. Tired of hearing about them.

The Chiefs and Saints ended the season with two of the best adjusted sack rates, which were almost identical. This despite the Chiefs playing with a patchwork OL for half of the season and Mahomes on 1 leg.

The Chiefs OL is getting criminally overlooked. It’s an elite pass protection group. They can’t really run block, but that doesn’t really matter in this offense.

And for all of the comparisons between KC and Seattle, here’s a stat:

Seattle allowed 23 more sacks than KC did this year

Seattle had an Adjusted Sack Rate of 7.9% compared to 4.9% for KC

KC allowed the 3rd fewest sacks in the League, while Seattle allowed the 9th most

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Y’all playing with fire that’s all imma say. 🔥</p>&mdash; Frank Clark (@TheRealFrankC_) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRealFrankC_/status/1222203314735132678?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Yeah, because they play us, Aaron Donald, and Chandler Jones twice a year.

Real football doesn't exist outside of the NFC West according to Niner fans.

Oh and we don’t play Von Miller and Bosa/Ingram twice a year....

You’re so ****ing stupid it’s unbelievable. The Seahawks OL is ****ing trash.

We play Von Miller, Bradley Chubb, Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram. As of two years ago it was all of them + Khalil Mack.

AFC West is as good of a pass rush division as yours

Or better

Skip really just said Dak had a better year then Mahomes

Sack Counts:

Miller - 8
Chubb - 13
Bosa - 11.5
Ingram - 7

Donald - 12.5
Jones - 19
Fowler - 11.5
Armstead - 10

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LMAO yea Fowler and Armstead are better than Miller and Ingram! Just look at their sack totals in one individual season for proof!

With the exception of the insane year by Chandler Jones, those numbers are pretty comparable

I just laid out facts, Mr. Sensitive

So, just throw out the best pass rusher in the NFC and they are comparable, got it. Also, an interior lineman had a better year than anyone of those players listed.

You should just come out and say it then. Which team has stronger pass protection? Seahawks or Chiefs?

4th Best Protection vs 2nd Best Pass Rushing... Unstoppable force vs Immovable Object indeed.

The KC OL faced 3 teams in the top 10 in adjusted sack rate:

5th - Minnesota - 5 sacks (No Mahomes though)
6th - Jacksonville - 0 Sacks
8th - New England - 1 Sack

For comparison sake, SF faced 6 teams in the top 10 in adjusted sack rate including all the teams in the top 5.

Our DLine faced the got 4 sacks against the #1 pass protecting team (the Rams) in our first matchup and 0 in our second matchup.

You do know that Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati all managed 3+ sacks on Russell Wilson this year, right?

One player could be considered an outlier.

Also, the Broncos offense was such shit that they didn’t play with many leads (especially with Flacco). It’s not a surprise to see Miller and Chubb have their numbers dip when they’re playing from behind constantly.

You contradicted yourself in your own post. The Chiefs were 4th in adjusted sack rate (as you said at the beginning of your post), so the 49ers did not face all the teams in the top 5.

Nah, Von Miller had 8 sacks this year, Chubb had 1, Ingram had 7... for a total of 16 sacks between them.

Chandler Jones had 19 by himself.

According to adjusted sack rate:
2nd SF
7th LAR
10th KC
11th DEN
15th ARI
25th LAC
27th OAK
30th SEA

So no, this year the pass rush in the AFCW wasn't even close to the NFCW.

Tyreek is enjoying every minute of this hahaha

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tyreek Hill is about to mess around and win a grammy 😳😂<br><br>📹: <a href="https://twitter.com/NPNowCarver?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NPNowCarver</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChiefsKingdom?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ChiefsKingdom</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/cheetah?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cheetah</a> <a href="https://t.co/4MhJLLSsfj">pic.twitter.com/4MhJLLSsfj</a></p>&mdash; Chiefs Focus (@ChiefsFocus) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChiefsFocus/status/1222205791828049924?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

KC is 4th in Offensive Adjusted Sack Rate (i.e. Pass Protection) and 10th in Defensive Adjusted Sack Rate (Pass Rush).

The 49ers played the rest of the top 5 pass rushing teams:

PIT, SF, CAR, WAS, MIN.

KC only played one of them.

So you played one of the teams in a 9-0 monsoon game where the pass rush was irrelevant and the other you blew out 51-13 so the pass rush was also irrelevant.

This is the problem of looking at stats without context. I don’t care about the Redskins/Panthers stats. You aren’t going to tell me that their pass rush could’ve even been a factor in the games you played.

Ah. My mistake. I though you were saying the 49ers played all of the top pass protection OLs.

Nah, it's a weird stat that has the same name for offense and defense and I didn't specify. My bad.

All I know is Mahomes had a trash OL in college. It’s not possible at the NFL level for his OL to be worse in NFL terms than the college OL compared to other college OLs. So my response to the hype about the Niners pass rush is bring it on! There will be plays they have plenty of success, but Mahomes is also going to have his fair share of success making those pass rushers look kinda silly at times.

What's your point?