Most disturbing moments from NFL divisional rounds: Patrick Mahomes’ playing, coaching blunders make the list

On Saturday, we watched Patrick Mahomes traverse the field at Arrowhead Stadium as he led the Kansas City Chiefs to their fifth straight AFC championship with a 27-20 victory over the up-and-coming Jacksonville Jaguars. . It also saw the Philadelphia Eagles beat the NFC East rival New York Giants, 38-7, to his biggest playoff win in franchise history.

Sunday around the NFL was pretty wild too, with the Cincinnati Bengals marching into Buffalo and beating the Bills 27-10. Stop the AFC Championship Game on Neutral SitesThe Cowboys had many chances but couldn’t beat them Running back Tony Pollard injuredthe same as their poor executionin a season-ending 19–12 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

The high level of football was evident in Week 2 of the NFL Playoffs, with the league’s top eight teams participating. But there was also a lot of confusing football on the weekend. Here are some of the head-scratching decisions that occurred over the weekend for this divisional round.

Chiefs response to Patrick Mahomes injury

Every Chiefs player, coach and fan had their worst nightmare when the Chiefs won 27-20 in the opening game of the Division Round Playoffs on Saturday afternoon. First for his team in 2022, his All-Pro passer was sandwiched between two Jacksonville defenders for his Jaguars when he threw a pass. bend his leg to a painful angleMahomes initially grabbed both his right knee and ankle in pain after the play.

Mahomes begged head coach Andy Reed to stay in the game, but watching him skip to play hopscotch and perform a basic under-center handoff to running backs is a headache He had not received a brace before returning to the next play. Mahomes then returned to the game with taping on his ankle and never missed a play.

Ultimately, the Chiefs backed up the quarterback Chad Henne to the game. Henne, who led Kansas City to a win against the Cleveland Browns in the 2020 AFC Division round after Mahomes’ injury, led Kansas City with a 98-yard touchdown drive and a run to tight end Travis Kelce. It closed with a 1-yard touchdown pass. That pass marked the first touchdown of Henne’s playoff career.

The game was tied at 7-7 when the injury occurred. The Chiefs turned that drive into a field goal to make it 10-3 and extended their lead to 17-7 after Henne’s first career postseason TD pass. Still, Mahomes returned to the field to start the second half. Mahomes was still flying around while executing an under-center handoff near the goal line in the 4th quarter, and his mobility, a presumptive league MVP, saw none of his 18 passes out of pocket after injury. Not going outside was clearly hampered by injuries.

Patrick Mahomes before and after injury

Although in the postseason, it was still strange to see the Chiefs risking a long-term injury to the franchise’s face. Mahomes could also be at a disadvantage in next week’s AFC Championship Game. Diagnosed with an ankle sprain.

Andy Reed loses timeout on unnecessary challenge

2nd and 7th from their own 23rd and with 7:48 remaining in the third quarter, Chiefs running back Isaiah Pacheco caught a swinging pass from Mahomes toward the left sideline, gained 6 yards, and pulled the line. First down marked just before. Instead of facing 3 inches and 1 inch, Reed decided that in 2 plays he would get a first down quickly instead of getting just under a yard.

With calls on the field not reaching a first down, Reed needed incontrovertible video evidence to win the challenge, but that didn’t happen. Executed a direct snap to Gray and opted to pick up the first down that was packed by the Jaguar defensive line. That sequence showed some poor coaching decisions regarding the use of play calls and time-outs, but it didn’t hurt the chief of the week, but that type of sequence wasn’t a bad idea on a team that ended the season. Could come back to burn them against some Bengals…a year ago in the AFC Championship.

Bengals wide receiver Jamar Chase regularly blows out defenders for wide open touchdowns as he has the most 6 receiving scores of 50+ yards in the entire NFL since he entered the league in 2021 . The Bengals and Bills’ yardage touchdowns to start his AFC Division Round matchup were surprisingly wide open against a secondary ranked within the top 10 with the fewest passing touchdowns allowed in the regular season. , was unusual.

It seemed like a coverage bust occurred in the middle of Buffalo’s zone coverage, but it’s still mind-boggling to see such a high-profile top option open up in a divisional round playoff game. Thanks to NextGen Stats, defensive coverage looks even more daunting when you watch the play in dot format.

Controversial TD overthrow

Initially, Chase caught his second touchdown of the first half on Sunday. This time, they were 10 yards out on the third-and-goal. However, a replay review overturned the on-field call for a touchdown, and Cincinnati settled for a 28-yard field goal to take a 17-7 lead instead of a 21-7 lead. The NFL rewrote its catch rules several times, especially after receiving backlash from the Cowboys and their fans when Dez Bryant’s fourth-down catch was overruled in a replay review with just over four minutes left in the 2014 divisional round. rice field.

Since then, its stance on surviving the ground has softened, but the NFL seems to want perfection when it comes to football moves while securing catches. It’s very understandable to only see calls on the field that were pulling in touchdowns.

Kyle Shanahan’s first half timeout usage

Following Dak Prescott’s second interception in the first half, the 49ers took over at their own 28-yard line with 1:24 remaining in the first half of the tie. Head coach and offensive playcaller Kyle Shanahan chose a strange sequence of playcalling: a run with wide receiver Deebo Samuel and a run with running back Christian McCaffrey. With those two plays gaining only nine yards, Shanahan seemed content to enter the locker room tied at six.

But he called the 49ers’ second timeout after those two plays, leaving the team 3–1 with 30 seconds remaining. Following a timeout, quarterback Brock Purdy threw a 10-yard pass to Samuel that reached 47 yards and Shanahan called another timeout. His first two plays and subsequent conversions were considered by most to be the end of the first half. But then the 49ers had zero timeouts and a first down near midfield. It worked out in the end for Shanahan and San Francisco as Purdy sandwiched his 21-yard completion between his three incompletions.

The 49ers were able to take a 9-6 lead going into the break, but Shanahan seemed unable to decide what he wanted to do to end the half, leading to the use of timeouts and mixed messages. rice field.

The Cowboys were on the ropes after punting the football back to the 19-12 49ers with just over two minutes remaining, but had four opportunities to stop the clock between the two-minute warning and three timeouts. . 2 or he 3 had the first down handled properly, the game would have been sealed and the Cowboys couldn’t pass up one last chance.

Fast forward to 1:53 left in the game and the 49ers are facing second and ninth. The Cowboys were already using timeouts, so keeping the inbounds for another first down would have nearly sealed the game. Got a new downset. However, there was a problem here. He is now out of bounds. Whenever a player finds himself in such a situation, he goes out of his way to do a baseball slide on the field to keep the clock running, but Mitchell’s adrenaline gets the best of him when he jogs out of bounds. That decision allowed the Cowboys to get the ball back and he was lucky his defense was solid. You will have to deal with these thoughts.

49ers conservative final attack drive

Kyle Shanahan has earned accolades for his offensive innovation and, unsurprisingly, his play calling on the final drive has become very conservative, with a risk-averse play calling allowing the Cowboys to score the ball one last time. was able to get the After Mitchell picked up the first down, his next three plays combined gave him 0 yards: Mitchell ran up center for his 1 yard, another Mitchell ran up center. but there was no profit. A horizontal pass from Purdy to McCaffrey was lost. yard. Because of his fullback, tight end, and unique usage of all his moves on the receiver, Shanahan once again had the game stumped as he went run, run, and pass when the first down ended.

Cowboys humiliating end of season

In college football, a catch can be completed with one foot down on the inbounds. However, you need two legs to do so professionally. Schultz looked like his head was farting over those rules in a huge place. It looked as if it made a gain of Unfortunately for Silver and Blue, Cowboys tight his end clearly didn’t put his second foot down in review and pushed back 24 yards to his line.

Dallas appeared to have chosen a hook-and-ladder play to attempt a miracle touchdown, but multiple components of the play failed to execute. In the first, the return he mans wide to his receiver Cabonte uses his turpin as a player and throws the ball to a sprinting teammate. Turpin is the fastest player on the Cowboys. That meant he should have received the pitch after the first catch rather than preparing the play. Another of his shortcomings was the execution of Turpin in the Initiator He Spot. Because Turpin couldn’t get the ball out of his hands fast enough for even one of his other cowboys to touch the football. A failure of planning and execution doomed his final play of the 2022 season for the Cowboys.