Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Yeah, in person all you really notice is energy. You can tell when an opponent comes out fired up but not really how they're executing. I could tell in the Week 17 game against LAC that the defense was playing their tails off, but couldn't really tell if they were playing well (apart from Derwin James). I never bothered to re-watch because ultimately I didn't care that much.
And on Sunday I could tell that the Titans weren't laying down, but I didn't see just how close they were coming to making plays on balls that would've been incomplete but/for amazing manipulation of the pocket and/or throwing lanes by Mahomes. He was just making subtle changes on throws left and right and sneaking them just a bit past defenders. Or on the rare occasion that the Titans would try a zone, Mahomes would just know exactly where to go with the ball and exactly when to go there. I only saw a single play where he lost Robinson(?) on the backside of a play that took awhile to develop before he just kinda gave up on it and fired one into the ground. Maybe it was Williams. But he had a gods-eye view of the field and was playing that defense like a fiddle.
I kinda feel like Vrabel is a bit of a mongoloid but I'll give him a lot of credit - those cats absolutely thought they were going to win that game and you can see it in their focus and their execution. They definitely didn't see that as 'house money' - they went out there with a job to do and ultimately I thought they made a pretty incredible effort.
Mahomes was just next-level great and the defense was playing with a ferocity we just haven't seen from them since the Schottenheimer days.
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Speaking of energy, I LOVED the shot of Vrabel right after Mahomes hit Watkins with the 60-yarder. You could see the lifeforce leave his body as the one eye rolled back into his head...it crushed his spirit. I almost felt some empathy, because I've been there - we've ALL been there - but they thought they were still in that game until that point. It was right then that Vrabel knew he'd been Mahomesed. It was glorious.