That sounds melodramatic, I know, FAITHFUL READER. But tomorrow truly is a must win. 8-6 with Denver coming to SoFi cannot happen. Last week was really rough. Obviously, once McConkey was ruled out it didn't seem like this would be time we finally beat KC again. What was so frustrating about the first half was that it seemed like a lot of the same issues popped up again. I trust Jim Harbaugh and Joe Hortiz, but when Cris Collinsworth correctly points out how bad Trey Pipkins is and yet we still trot him out every week...I get Daniel Popper's point that Chris Jones makes anyone look bad, but Sayler can't be much worse in pass protection. We saw it in the Titans game. The other mystery continues to be DJ Chark. He finally had one catch and was immediately never heard from again. I couldn't believe that he had like 15 snaps. Again, I don't know what is really going on with this guy but they brought him in to stretch the field and they refuse to play him. I don't believe they will even with Reaghor out. As is the case with Asante Samuel, I have to believe there is more to the story than they are letting on. They can say (or not say) whatever they want in press conferences but these are decisions that seem to be getting in the way of success.
Popper wrote an excellent piece this week which questioned why Greg Roman ignores the run when they didn't assemble a team built to pass after Harbaugh was hired. Herbert's ankle injury was 100% the result of him having to try to extend a play because we weren't doing shit on offense. If we weren't struggling so much, I doubt he'd have felt like he needed to stretch out for those few yards.
You haven't given Herbert guys who get open, so of course he's going to take a beating. The passing game wasn't working, additionally because KC wasn't afraid of the run one bit. I can't believe I'm referencing Collinsworth again but he was right when he said there was no reason for the Chiefs to respect the run. We also refuse to throw screens. I don't think Darius Davis is as much of a weapon as they do but they keep trying that run to him.
I also agree with Popper that they needed to call more run plays. If you need Fisk and Matlock to come in and tell everyone in the world you are running and where the play is, do it. They keep ending up in 3rd and 6 and I was totally content with them calling that old draw play they used to do with Sproles repeatedly after it worked once in the opener against Oakland in 2009. A run had as much chance of working in the first half and at least Herbert wouldn't have been taking all those hits. I won't spend time dissecting the decisions not to kick long field goals or go for it on 4th down. As Popper pointed out, both Lynn and Staley won in Arrowhead. Staley chased points in one game and didn't in the other. Both games ended because they couldn't cover Kelce and you could argue so did this one.
The second half was a big tease in retrospect. They ran and it worked. It opened up the pass and they came back. But Herbert handed the defense a lead versus KC and for the third time they relinquished it. We can look at the sack he took on second down or the decision to play for the kick on 3rd but the reality is that they needed the defense to close it out and they didn't. It's just that simple. It happened against Arizona also. It's too frustrating to think about Henley's missed tackle (or Hart's pulling up on a hit Mahomes ealier) or the decision to play zone on the Kelce play. All day long we hit Mahomes and as Collinsworth again pointed out they were hopefully going to pay off in the end. But unlike Spagnolo having Strahan and Tuck tattoo Brady in the Super Bowl we couldn't get the win. I sort of looked to the side on the field goal so I didn't realize it hit the goalpost at first. That would have made it worse.
Now they have a must win tomorrow. I don't care who is hurt or not for Tampa. If McConkey somehow doesn't play or if Perryman misses a third straight game they have to win if they think they are a playoff team. KC was vulnerable and as I saw Kyle Brandt say last week, Harbaugh was brought in to maybe get that win against them. They didn't and now they need to win tomorrow. That's it, pure and simple. They have two home game against tough teams and then two road ones against supposedly lesser teams. They need to win against the Bucs.
That's the post.
JIC,
RLW
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