A Levelheaded Review week 1 2024

[DenverChief]

Worthy is gonna make this offense exciting again. The jet sweep really showed off his speed and the blown coverage was just beautiful to see.

Kingsley really held up well in his first start gave up a sack but overall was a good performance.

Pacheco has really upped his game - those jump cuts he uses now are just nasty.

J Taylor and his false start penalties again. Really hope he can get his early jumps worked out.

Chris Jones was feasting on a young inexperienced Ravens Oline.

The DB's didn't look as bad in this game as in the pre-season. The LB's (Bolton) were made to look silly a couple of times. I'd like to see some of the big gains cleaned up but I think a lot of that was all the time Lamar had in the pocket trying to contain him. Not super worried about it.

Connor had a couple of big hits and just missed getting an INT. I think his eyes got too big on that dropped INT and dropped an easy one.

Lamar was their whole offense and we still struggle to contain a super mobile QB - BUT I'll take making them into basically a one weapon team.

Hardman was a good choice as a PR/KR.

Juju was out there making some good blocks and almost had a TD.

Rice is gonna feast over the middle this year.

Starting the season 1-0 is great. Next week is going to be even better. I think this team is back to boat racing teams in scoring and turning them into a one dimensional offense trying to keep up.

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by scho63

The Positives:
1. Our defense is very fast
2. Our offense looks MUCH better than last year when we won another Super Bowl
3. Rice, Pacheco, Worthy, Jones, Karlaftis, Chenal, Nnadi all played great.
4. Spags game plan was fantastic
5. Defense held Henry to under 50 yards
6. Only 1 defensive holding
7. We have an excellent punter and a great kicker.
8. Steele is real deal.
9. Our center snaps were much better
10. WE WON

The Negatives:
1. Andy got too conservative at end of game and SHOULD have cost us game but it didn't
2. Kelce 1 great play but a drive killing penalty, drive killing drop
3. Jawan Taylor false started 4-5 times and luckily only got called twice but Jesus Christ dude, WTF???
4. Our OLine is wobbly and not great
5. Bolton's WORST game as a pro and he brought back some scary memories of bad LBs of the past. He was lost, out of place, 5 yards behind most plays and may be a bad sign for the future.
6. We got lucky. Baltimore was Raider-like with all the mistakes and misses. Penalties, missed wide open receiver for TD, missed FG, fumble, turnover on downs with a horrible play call, and lastly a WR with a size 14 shoe who needed a size 12.
7. Our defense had nothing left. They spent the second half watching Jackson run all over. Our containment was horrible.
8. Kelce and Mahomes were just OK

Overall we had a lot more positives than negatives. Mahomes did have to scramble a little too much.

It was an exciting first game and we will get better, much better.

Our O-line did a fantastic job considering a rookie was starting at left tackle and they only gave up 2 sacks.

Our D had nothing left because the Ravens TOP was 34 minutes compared to our 26 and its September - they haven't played a full 60 minute game to this point.

[xztop123]

Originally Posted by Wallcrawler

Does it matter who drops them? Kelce, Juju, Pacheco, and Perine all had drops that would have been great plays.

I'll say that it is nice to see that even without Hollywood, we were still able to put up 27. That's huge for a team that failed to reach 20 points in over half the contests last year.

The most jarring stat was only 4 tds of 20+ last season, and Worthy had 2 in the opener.

Need some depth on the d line, those guys were shambling corpses at the end of that one.

I agree with this post the most. What’s going on w d line rotation.

[JPH83]

Feel much better about the DBs than the DL. The pass rush was Jones and...that was it. Yes Lamar is slippery as all hell, but the rest of the DL was very average. They'll improve but it's the one obvious area the team needs more.

[Calcountry]

Originally Posted by Punwit

If you just listened to Collinsworth you'd expect Lamar to be Superman.

No, wait, you mean he isn't?? OMG, I have been gas lit AGAIN!!

[Gary Cooper]

Originally Posted by scho63

The Positives:
1. Our defense is very fast
2. Our offense looks MUCH better than last year when we won another Super Bowl
3. Rice, Pacheco, Worthy, Jones, Karlaftis, Chenal, Nnadi all played great.
4. Spags game plan was fantastic
5. Defense held Henry to under 50 yards
6. Only 1 defensive holding
7. We have an excellent punter and a great kicker.
8. Steele is real deal.
9. Our center snaps were much better
10. WE WON

The Negatives:
1. Andy got too conservative at end of game and SHOULD have cost us game but it didn't
2. Kelce 1 great play but a drive killing penalty, drive killing drop
3. Jawan Taylor false started 4-5 times and luckily only got called twice but Jesus Christ dude, WTF???
4. Our OLine is wobbly and not great
5. Bolton's WORST game as a pro and he brought back some scary memories of bad LBs of the past. He was lost, out of place, 5 yards behind most plays and may be a bad sign for the future.
6. We got lucky. Baltimore was Raider-like with all the mistakes and misses. Penalties, missed wide open receiver for TD, missed FG, fumble, turnover on downs with a horrible play call, and lastly a WR with a size 14 shoe who needed a size 12.
7. Our defense had nothing left. They spent the second half watching Jackson run all over. Our containment was horrible.
8. Kelce and Mahomes were just OK

Overall we had a lot more positives than negatives. Mahomes did have to scramble a little too much.

It was an exciting first game and we will get better, much better.

Yeah, I never missed Marvcus Patton and Mike Maslowski as much as I did last night watching Bolton cover. But we all knew that's not his strength. He does other things well besides cover.

[Easy 6]

Can't say enough good things about Worthy and his potential

Two touchdowns on three touches in his rookie debut?

Sheeeeeeit

[neech]

Originally Posted by Molitoth

That could be head to head home field advantage. Huge win.

And hopefully we can rest our starters on the week 17 game (Donk's) to be fresh for the post season.

[frozenchief]

Originally Posted by scho63

The Positives:
1. Our defense is very fast
2. Our offense looks MUCH better than last year when we won another Super Bowl
3. Rice, Pacheco, Worthy, Jones, Karlaftis, Chenal, Nnadi all played great.
4. Spags game plan was fantastic
5. Defense held Henry to under 50 yards
6. Only 1 defensive holding
7. We have an excellent punter and a great kicker.
8. Steele is real deal.
9. Our center snaps were much better
10. WE WON

The Negatives:
1. Andy got too conservative at end of game and SHOULD have cost us game but it didn't
2. Kelce 1 great play but a drive killing penalty, drive killing drop
3. Jawan Taylor false started 4-5 times and luckily only got called twice but Jesus Christ dude, WTF???
4. Our OLine is wobbly and not great
5. Bolton's WORST game as a pro and he brought back some scary memories of bad LBs of the past. He was lost, out of place, 5 yards behind most plays and may be a bad sign for the future.
6. We got lucky. Baltimore was Raider-like with all the mistakes and misses. Penalties, missed wide open receiver for TD, missed FG, fumble, turnover on downs with a horrible play call, and lastly a WR with a size 14 shoe who needed a size 12.
7. Our defense had nothing left. They spent the second half watching Jackson run all over. Our containment was horrible.
8. Kelce and Mahomes were just OK

Overall we had a lot more positives than negatives. Mahomes did have to scramble a little too much.

It was an exciting first game and we will get better, much better.

I agree we will get much better. I would add some observations:

1. We did allow Jackson to run all over but in part that's because our d-backs were doing a great job of covering receivers. Jackson wound up running because there were no open receivers so he would take off. That is encouraging in part because few QBs can run like Jackson. To cover their receivers does leave open Jackson rushing but we forced Jackson to beat us by throwing instead of running. And as seen last night, he couldn't do it.

2. Andy does get too conservative. A prime example was punting on Baltimore's 40 when we needed 5 yards. Our defense was setting the tone against Baltimore's offense and so you punt? We only 'gained' 20 years, hardly enough to make a difference. He should have gone for it.

3. Frustrating to see dropped passes. 2 drops, 1 by Rice and 1 by Shuster-Smith, made a huge difference in this game.

4. O-line was wobbly at the tackles. We did well running between tackles but our tackles were the worst part of the O-line. Not a surprise. We have Taylor on one side and a rookie on the other. I think Kingsley did pretty well considering he's a rookie but overall, while they were 'wobbly', they weren't bad and O-line performance tends to improve over the season as they get used to playing together.

5. Our offense is fast. Just adding Worthy made a massive difference. When Brown gets back on the field, the rest of the NFL should be terrified. We just need Andy to keep his foot on the gas until the game is truly out of reach.

6. I do wonder about the interception. I read somewhere that pass was tipped. Is that correct? Didn't see it at the time and I watched at a local pub so sound was down on the game.

All in all, it was a good win over a good team. Yes, Baltimore made their fair share of mistakes but so did KC. Baltimore is one of the best teams in the league and on a short list of teams anticipated to go deep into the playoffs. The difference between teams at this level is frequently miniscule. I mean, the game winning difference in this game was about 1.5" of toe. I think this will be a good year.

[Abba-Dabba]

Originally Posted by JPH83

Feel much better about the DBs than the DL. The pass rush was Jones and...that was it. Yes Lamar is slippery as all hell, but the rest of the DL was very average. They'll improve but it's the one obvious area the team needs more.

I'm not very concerned about the DL right now. I'd expect the edges to improve. Wharton looks to have made some strides. They were having some success with rushing just 3-4 at times.

[Chiefnj2]

It was also a good job by Andy and the staff getting the OL to set properly. Harbaugh apparently didn't get the message.

[saphojunkie]

Originally Posted by RealSNR

Game 1 last year: Lose because of our WRs

Game 1 of this year: Win because of our WRs

I take pride that my upvote brought this post to...

20-0

[FloridaMan88]

Originally Posted by Abba-Dabba

I'm not very concerned about the DL right now. I'd expect the edges to improve. Wharton looks to have made some strides. They were having some success with rushing just 3-4 at times.

And they will be adding Omenihu into the mix at some point.

[VAGOMO 4 LIFE!]

Originally Posted by Abba-Dabba

I'm not very concerned about the DL right now. I'd expect the edges to improve. Wharton looks to have made some strides. They were having some success with rushing just 3-4 at times.

Wharton was a beast last night

[RedRaider56]

Originally Posted by frozenchief

I agree we will get much better. I would add some observations:

1. We did allow Jackson to run all over but in part that's because our d-backs were doing a great job of covering receivers. Jackson wound up running because there were no open receivers so he would take off. That is encouraging in part because few QBs can run like Jackson. To cover their receivers does leave open Jackson rushing but we forced Jackson to beat us by throwing instead of running. And as seen last night, he couldn't do it.

2. Andy does get too conservative. A prime example was punting on Baltimore's 40 when we needed 5 yards. Our defense was setting the tone against Baltimore's offense and so you punt? We only 'gained' 20 years, hardly enough to make a difference. He should have gone for it.

3. Frustrating to see dropped passes. 2 drops, 1 by Rice and 1 by Shuster-Smith, made a huge difference in this game.

4. O-line was wobbly at the tackles. We did well running between tackles but our tackles were the worst part of the O-line. Not a surprise. We have Taylor on one side and a rookie on the other. I think Kingsley did pretty well considering he's a rookie but overall, while they were 'wobbly', they weren't bad and O-line performance tends to improve over the season as they get used to playing together.

5. Our offense is fast. Just adding Worthy made a massive difference. When Brown gets back on the field, the rest of the NFL should be terrified. We just need Andy to keep his foot on the gas until the game is truly out of reach.

6. I do wonder about the interception. I read somewhere that pass was tipped. Is that correct? Didn't see it at the time and I watched at a local pub so sound was down on the game.

All in all, it was a good win over a good team. Yes, Baltimore made their fair share of mistakes but so did KC. Baltimore is one of the best teams in the league and on a short list of teams anticipated to go deep into the playoffs. The difference between teams at this level is frequently miniscule. I mean, the game winning difference in this game was about 1.5" of toe. I think this will be a good year.

Didn't Kelce also have a drop?

[JPH83]

Originally Posted by Abba-Dabba

I'm not very concerned about the DL right now. I'd expect the edges to improve. Wharton looks to have made some strides. They were having some success with rushing just 3-4 at times.

I thought Wharton might have been our second best DL guy. I'm looking forward to Cam Thomss getting up to speed, Omenihu coming back, and Nnadi being fired into the sun and replaced by absolutely anyone. We just need bodies.