I used to be truthfully pleasantly shocked with our group this week. I anticipated a whole blowout and bought an entertaining sport that got here all the way down to the wire.
The extra these dropping seasons stack up, the much less helpful any speak about ethical victories is. That being mentioned, it was good to see the gamers having quite a lot of struggle left in them. I see that as them feeling like one thing higher is feasible after lastly eliminating a coach that wasn’t getting them wherever good.
That being mentioned, the No Bull fact is that they misplaced the sport and that sucks.
Offense
I truthfully cherished what the group did on offense on this sport. They used movement liberally, ran the ball successfully, and even labored in some learn/possibility wrinkles to maintain the protection on their heels.
It was what this offense wanted to seem like with Russell Wilson on the helm all season lengthy. Too dangerous it took getting the top coach fired with two meaningless video games to go earlier than the Broncos lastly bought there.
Russell Wilson performed nicely. I favored seeing his killer intuition on his two landing runs. He’s bought the hearth for that form of play nonetheless. Hopefully, he’ll even have extra of the physique for it subsequent season.
Our working backs and the offensive line ought to get some credit score for his or her effort on this sport. They continually churned out constructive run performs which is a giant key for profitable with a quarterback like Wilson behind heart. I don’t know if both again will likely be with us subsequent season, however I wouldn’t be shy in any respect about bringing again Latavius Murray as our #2 again in 2023.
It was good to see Albert Okwuegbunam making performs once more. My eyes inform me that he’s a receiving menace as a TE and wasn’t on the sector a lot this season as a consequence of some difficulty with the coaches that we’ve not heard a lot about.
Protection
The place our accidents confirmed up most on this sport was on our protection. We had little or no efficient go rush on this sport (regular in opposition to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs… they might not have the perfect offensive line, however Mahomes could be very, VERY cagey and an amazing passer in opposition to the blitz).
Pair that with a depleted secondary and you’ve got the one player-based cause the Chiefs even gained the sport. We’re working with our #4 and #5 choices at nook and security in spots and people expertise differentials led to actually good performs for the Chiefs. I’m not even going to call the blokes as a result of it isn’t truthful to them in my thoughts. They’re growing gamers attempting to make it within the NFL and to their credit score, they performed their tails off. It could not have been sufficient, however they largely had been in the correct place (with all due credit score to glorious defensive teaching from Evero and his employees).
Any day that your protection holds the Chiefs to beneath 3 ypc and retains Travis Kelce beneath 50 yards of offense with 0 TDs is a win on protection.
Particular Groups
The particular groups unit appeared very stable on this sport (for a change). I nonetheless assume our punter may very well be higher, however exterior of that we had been sound on protection and didn’t have many misfires on returns.
Massive shout out to Eyioma Uwazurike for his blocked FG on the finish of the second quarter. That was nice timing and execution by the younger defensive lineman.
Last Ideas
This sport truthfully doesn’t imply a lot for our group in any respect. It simply doesn’t transfer the needle for having any severe influence (and in the event you as a fan disagree, that’s high quality, simply perceive my requirements for this group are a lot greater than yours).
That being mentioned, it was fairly maddening to see the refs serving to out Kansas Metropolis so blatantly and truthfully pathetic that the Cheifs wanted that a lot assist to win in opposition to a supposed trash group just like the Denver Broncos (which speaks to the standard of the roster truthfully). There weren’t one, not two, however three impactful ref gaffes that I famous:
- A defenseless receiver hit on Kendal Hinton on an out route that wasn’t caught. It was a blatant hit whereas he went for the ball.
- The OPI name on Courtland Sutton was fully bogus. The arm swipe that Sutton did is one thing you see on at the least 50% of all NFL passes every week. It didn’t transfer the defender and was simply regular arm-fighting. There was no DPI both…the gamers concerned had been all attempting to make a play and it was a catch.
- The no-call on roughing the passer within the Broncos’ remaining drive by Chris Jones. He flung Russell Wilson sideways into the bottom which isn’t authorized (and Jones was flagged for in a distinct sport really).
It’s encouraging to see the group rally and struggle exhausting on the finish of one other tragic season. Our hopes are actually turning to the group lastly getting a reputable coach who will proper the ship and will get us again into some semblance of profitable soccer once more.
