Chiefs at Vikings

[CharVike]

I don't think the home slide ends this week. Patrick Jones won't be easy to deal with. I'm sure Ingram is working on his setup and hand placement which will cause some type of bizarre play and not in a good way either. Mahomes had accuracy issues last week but the Jets have a good secondary so the Chiefs pounded the rock instead. I see it 31-17 Chiefs.

[chicagopurple]

This is likely to be a bloodbath. KC will have a chip on their shoulder, especially Mahomes who publicly admitted to under performing last week. He is a real leader and will come to town ready to decimate. Their coach is top tier and should have an easy time picking apart the glaring weaknesses of our front lines and secondary. The only hope I see is if Mahomes tries to do it all hmself and gets reckless AND we actually manage to win the turnover battle but that seems unlikely given our current trends. KC has some very tough guys on the front line and I see Cousins gettin planted like corn all night. Maybe KC will get all hot and bothered by Ms Swift....

[VikingLord]

Chiefs are definitely the more balanced of the two teams, but in my view they haven't looked all that great, dropping their opener against the Lions and then squeaking by the Jets. Obviously Mahomes is the X Factor and I doubt the Vikings can do much to neutralize him. At the same time, the Chiefs can (and will) run it so the Vikings defense will have its work cut out. I'm not sure there is a great answer besides just playing fundamentally well, limiting Mahomes' ability to escape the pocket, and make KC earn everything.

The Vikings offense has to win up front. KOC has been emphasizing the run game and I expect that to continue, but the Vikings are going to need some big plays in the passing game and must execute in that phase of the game. Ball security and execution will be key. The Chiefs defense is good. Not spectacular or overwhelming, but solid and they will make the Vikings pay if they continue to make key mistakes.

The line favors the Chiefs by 4, which is really a TD because they are on the road, and I think that is about right. I don't think this will be a blowout because I think the Vikings can score more than they've been scoring (which I've felt every week to this point, and sans the untimely turnovers, would be accurate), so I think they'll keep the pressure on KC, but between KC's veteran leadership and refs that have been overly favorable to KC to this point in the season, I think the final score will be

Kansas City - 35
Vikings - 28

[Maelstrom88]

55-27 Chiefs

[ERIK the PURPLE]

Interesting how the line opened at Minn+5, then to +4, and now +3 1/2.

I’ve had a feeling the Vikes are due for a game where they put it all together for an impressive win. Kansas City 2nd consecutive road game.
They should have beaten Carolina 31-6.

Vikings 34-24.

[J. Kapp 11]

I am completely convinced now that the NFL is in the bag for Kansas City.

The review on the catch near the end of the first half — BULLSH*T!

The picking up of the flag on the Sneed interference against Addison — BULLSH*T!

Not calling unsportsmanlike conduct on Sneed … in fact, the refs telling Sneed to put his helmet back on — BULLSH*T!

Absolutely ridiculous officiating that cost the Vikings this game.

[VikeFanInEagleLand]

The "Make Up Rules As You Go" League.

What happened to "You must maintain possesion all the way to the ground"? If a receiver catches a ball, hits the ground, and the ball pops out, it's incomplete. When Kelce catches a ball, it's a catch as soon as he touches the ground???

Sometimes it's not pass interference if you want the other team to win. Now, you can just say "The defender was running with the receiver"???

Oh, and if you play for the Chiefs, you can take your helmet off on the field and just get scolded by the ref.

[J. Kapp 11]

The "Make Up Rules As You Go" League.

What happened to "You must maintain possesion all the way to the ground"? If a receiver catches a ball, hits the ground, and the ball pops out, it's incomplete. When Kelce catches a ball, it's a catch as soon as he touches the ground???

Sometimes it's not pass interference if you want the other team to win. Now, you can just say "The defender was running with the receiver"???

Oh, and if you play for the Chiefs, you can take your helmet off on the field and just get scolded by the ref.

You know, I hadn’t thought about that with the Kelce play.

The rule:

If a player catches a pass, gets two feet (or one shin/knee) down, and then goes to the ground, he must secure possession through the act of going to the ground.

Somebody please explain to me how Kelce met this requirement.

Freaking NFL. I never really thought it was corrupt. But when you look at how KC keeps winning games with critical controversial calls going their way, it makes me think the NFL is rotten to the core. We’re all just the Washington Generals to the Kansas City Globetrotters.

[JJBreaksRecords]

Its time to try for the Williams or Maye prize. Maybe a bigger gamble on the kid from LSU (lotsa good, talented guys coming from here). Im so done with TJoke-Hochinson, how many drops did he have today? Trade Hunter and roll from there. Maybe Kirky boy-please god. Butwe aernt a winning team. We are a terribly managed and coached team (KOC is looking like a joke of a coach to me) and some here were almost ready to marry him. Kirky is too afraid to do anything. Im afraid the fat lady sang, but Taylor Swift had the louder mic.

[Raz]

Seems the team is poorly coached clock management is beyond horrible not ready to play apparently.
That upcoming game against the 49 ers is going to be brutal there roster is so much better it will look like a jv scrimmage against state champs

[makila]

It's not the refs...

Lost fumble 1st possession. Not new. Was Oliver benched rest of game?

Hockensen drops continue. Mattison drops continue. Did KJ have one?

Horrible clock management. Wasted time outs.

Taking a sack on a hail mary attempt, thats gonna be productive and give you a chance.

It's us. Keystone cops. Doesn't seem like much accountability.

[psjordan]

Lost in all the hoopla about poor referee calls, dropped passes, lousy clock management and JJ's injury is that, well, we didn't play too badly against the SB champs.

I know the KC OL is not where it was last year, but still this was a much bigger test for our D than CAR. And I thought, in the big scheme of things, our D played pretty well. Compared to last year's D, our D played fantastic.

No game comes down to one play, but in this one I truly felt if Bynum makes that play against Watson (the 33 yd just over Bynum's fingertips), they punt and we win that game. We sacked PM on 1st, no gain on 2nd and that was a prayer to Watson by PM throwing off his back foot with pressure. IMO, our D played well enough on all but one play to win that game. And that was a "fingertip away" play. And on a lesser scale IMO, our O also played well enough but for one play - Mattison's drop.

Our O was still confused on clock management and still seems befuddled on how to get the ball to JJ when the D plays aggressively against him (c'mon KOC, you need to be A LOT better). But again, our OL did not play as poorly as in the past, and I was really surprised that for the most part we handled CJones. Part of it was Kirk being smart (lucky?) about moving in the pocket, but again, compared to recent history our OL played pretty well.

I thought TJ Hock, Mattison's drop and of course Oliver's fumble ON PLAY NUMBER ONE basically beat our chances over the head with a baseball bat. But still, this team came back and made it kind of a game in the 4th.

Do I think this bodes well moving forward? Hmmm. It's tough. You play well enough to win against one of the best teams in the league but come up short. Can you mentally fight enough to say we would fight at the same level next week and the week after, if put in the same circumstances?

Human nature says if we turn the ball over early against the Bears we're probably going to have less fight than when we did it against KC. This is where coaching comes in, both during the week and in-game against the Bears. To me, how much fight they have against the Bears will be a good barometer for KOC.

I'm hopeful this team can go over .500 from here on out. Playoff chances are extremely low, but I'd be WAY more excited to see this team in the playoffs than last year's team, which I thought was mostly a mirage in terms of wins.

Does any coach or player get an "A" grade so far? Probably not. But last year's "C" grades for the most part seem to be "B" or "B-" this year, and that's a good trend.

[CharVike]

1st play of the game fumble. How many dropped passes? Matti can't even catch a screen. Bynum gave away a late completion. I like him but that was a strange play. The finger can be pointed at many different plays. We don't play sound football and that started right off the bat. We can't play at the point. We can't beat good teams.

[VikingLord]

It's not the refs...

Lost fumble 1st possession. Not new. Was Oliver benched rest of game?

Hockensen drops continue. Mattison drops continue. Did KJ have one?

Horrible clock management. Wasted time outs.

Taking a sack on a hail mary attempt, thats gonna be productive and give you a chance.

It's us. Keystone cops. Doesn't seem like much accountability.

Oliver was not benched the rest of the game. Later in the game he pulled a Hockenson and let a pass go right through his hands for an incompletion as well.

About the only WR I trust right now to actually catch and hold on to the ball is Addison. The rest, I cringe each time the ball comes their way. Even JJ doesn't seem all that solid lately, except in his case he hardly sees the ball come his way. He is rapidly moving into Randy Moss-as-a-decoy territory.

All the miscues were frustrating, but what frustrated me more was the lack of any deep attempts in the passing game and the continuing failure of the defensive secondary to make any plays on the ball. KOC's offense seems predicated on using the passing game to extend the running game. All the short attempts are great, but KC's secondary is not great and a team with a supposedly great passing attack like the Vikings should be able to hit them over the top once in a blue moon, or at the very least try. And yet, nothing was attempted all game unless that Cousins heave to a double-covered JJ is taken into consideration. KOC does not appear to be able to put together offensive gameplans that go after the opponent's weakness. He appears to be another robot head coach who wants to do the same thing to every opponent pretty much regardless of who that opponent is or what they can bring to the table. Great. He's a less gruff Zimmer, or at least appears to be heading that way.

As for the secondary, wow. I mean, Bynum lets Mahomes complete a garbage pick heave for 30 coming out of the half? How? How does that happen? Bynum makes things like that happen all the time. If he's not running into a ref, he's somehow short of the deepest receiver on a play like that? Or what about Harrison Smith? Another similar play, and somehow Smith loses awareness of where the deep receiver is and as he tries to make up the ground and despite the receiver obviously waiting for the ball he fails to even try to get his head around to look for it? Heck, Scandling even pulled him to the ground anticipating that Smith was going to be in position to pick that ball. Were there any passing plays where a Vikings secondary player got his hand on a ball or broke on a receiver and disrupted the catch? If there was, I didn't see it. And the KC receivers actually CATCH the balls thrown to them. They don't throw their hands up at the last minute to stab at them.

The play that took the cake for me was the pass Cousins threw towards either KJ or Mattison in the end zone towards the end of the first half I think. When Cousins let the pass go in real time, I thought it was a sure TD. Then the ball just sailed past the receiver and through the end zone incomplete, and I thought Cousins just threw a bad pass or maybe the ball had been deflected.

Neither of those were true, though. No, the Vikings receiver on that play ran a route, came out of his break, and wasn't even looking back at the QB!?!?! How is that possible? The ball was delivered on time and was catchable. Every receiver in that situation should be looking back at the QB as they come out of their break. But not on the Vikings. On the Vikings, routes in the end zone apparently don't require that the receiver actually look back at the QB. I guess it was a decoy route? If there is such a thing?

Man, if I were KOC I'd literally release whoever did that (like I said, I don't remember if it was Mattison or KJ). They'd be gone.

Anyway, what a sh1tshow of a team. Crappy clock management (if you can call it that), no strategy on either side of the ball, passive defensive secondary, the highest paid tight end in the league who can't catch... The top two picks from KAM's first draft rarely see the field. Right now, the offensive line looks like it might be the best unit on the team. And the team is still up hard against the cap IIRC. If I were the Wilfs watching this I would be making it very clear the house will be cleaned at the end of this season if this continues.

[VikingLord]

Does any coach or player get an "A" grade so far? Probably not. But last year's "C" grades for the most part seem to be "B" or "B-" this year, and that's a good trend.

Fascinating how we see this completely different.

I don't think the Vikings had a chance in that game after KC scored TDs on consecutive drives to start the first half. All of the "almosts" that you listed, KC made those plays and the Vikings did not. Late in the game, for example, Kirk heaved one semi-deep to a Viking receiver (Powell?) who was open, but the KC DB leaped and got his hand on the ball. Compare that to "almost" Bynum, and plays like that over the course of the game is the difference between the team that won and the team that lost.

Even this team should beat the Bears (although I'm sure it will be close), but the 49ers are going to kill them.