‘The Broncos are more the Chiefs than the Chiefs are’ – RC applauds Denver’s execution | NFL Live

‘The Broncos are more the Chiefs than the Chiefs are’ – RC applauds Denver’s execution | NFL Live

Unfortunately though, it was a game to forget for Sam Darnold, who tied a career-high with four interceptions, posted season worse in yards per attempt in total QBR. He especially struggled when pressured, finishing 5 for1 with three interceptions in those situations. He had just two interceptions when under pressure through his first nine games this season. But after the game, listen to this from linebacker Ernest Jones defending his quarterback. I mean, Sam’s been balling. Like if we want to try to define Sam by this game or what, man, Sam’s been had us in every game. So for him to sit there and say, “Oh, that’s my fault.” No, it’s not. There was plays that defensively we could have made plays. There were opportunities where we could have got better stops. Um yeah, I mean like it’s football, man. He’s our quarterback. We got his back. And you got anything to say, quite frankly, you I love it. I love that. No, straight up though, that’s the type of teammate and leader that you want on your team. He changed this organization when he was traded here from Tennessee. You know, and and along those lines, RC, I mean, I know some of the narrative today is like, oh man, you know, Sam Darnold came back down to earth and all of this. It’s one game. Just how would you describe this for Darnold? Bigger picture. Yeah, I think the first part is it is just one game, but you can’t forget about history, right? It’s one game added to the history of Sam Darnold added to the way he played in Minnesota. But the way that season finished with the Detroit game and then the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs. The one thing we knew about both of these teams is they had units that could win a Super Bowl. And we had two quarterbacks playing at an MVP level. Now, Matthew Stafford wasn’t his normal 2025 version of himself either, but for Sam Darnold, I saw it early. He threw that first interception and he continued to press to try to erase and delete that mistake and you just can’t do that against a team as opportunistic with the pressure of the Los Angeles Rams. Well, yeah. And I mean, a lot of credit goes to that Rams defense. Mina, how did they force Darnold into bad decisions at times? I think what was concerning from Cox’s perspective is the way they did it was very similar to what happened in the playoff game. And this isn’t about narratives. This is about exos and football and Sam Darnold having problems with interior pressure. And the way they got to that interior pressure of the four interceptions, three of them, there was some sort of simulated pressure. The Rams would run stunts to get guys coming up the middle and then he would end up making that. The other one, by the way, was a four-man rush, but Raiden Fist just bulldozed the center. Again, you get interior pressure. Chris Schula in both this game and the playoff game, I thought, has done a fantastic job of finding ways to attack the Seahawks in the interior of that offensive line. That has led to bad decisions from Sam Darnold. The other thing I’ll say is this. This is something we’re going to see more and more against Seattle. The Rams lived and dying personnel, six defensive backs basically dare them to run the football and if they can’t, that’s something they’re going to continue to see. Yeah. Well, I look, the interior pressure was the obvious thing last night, MK, and you are absolutely right. It was just the panic nature. I I I don’t Look, man, quarterbacks have bad games and they they have some games where you want to forget about them. The problem with Sam in this particular situation when we leave this game, not the not only the fact that it’s reminiscent of what we saw last year, it’s the panic that you see from him in these situations. And I think a lot of people forget Sam Dorno is an athletic quarterback. Like I think at times he needs to use his athleticism to get himself out of some of these situations, even if it’s just a throwaway. You look at the interior pressure here. Mina just brought it up. Look at his body position when he throws this football. There is no no way in the NFL unless you probably Josh Allen or Pat Mahomes that you think you can even get that pass off. And we know that Sam has a strong arm. You look at this this interception. It’s just it’s look at the body position of of of him. The outside is open. Go get some space and see if you can create or play for a throwaway. These were the things that had me more disgusted with the performance than anything. Man, I’ve been in games where you got a quarterback number and he has nowhere to go with the football and he has to understand in these games, one, you’re gonna be judged because of what we saw last year. But also, man, like it’s time, it’s at times when you get in these situations for Sam Darnold, lean on the fact that you can go make a play without panicking. Like, go out, get out of the pocket, especially with that defense. Yeah, you got to play differently, right, Dan? Go ahead. I’d also say this. I mean, the the daring of Sam, we’re we know you’ll throw the ball downfield. I think the philosophy for the Rams was there’s different ways to disrupt the timing of a pass game. They’re not necessarily like a bump and run team. I know Marcus, you talked about the first interception. Here’s the second. Look at this stunt. Now, the defensive tackle goes through the outside shoulder of the guard. And here’s this defensive end, the corner. RC knows this. Gets to sit and squat knowing that Stunt is going to win. You go to the third interception. This is first down. They’re just carrying these verticals. Carrying the vertical knowing you don’t really want to take the check down. Sam’s feet normally would tell him to take that check down, but he doesn’t because it’s first and 20 and he’s aggressive this year throwing the ball downfield on early downs. There’s the pick. And then the last one, the simulated pressure thought that Mino was talking about. There’s this wrap stunt by this defense inside. Here comes that internal pressure. Sam’s feet normally would tell him to either throw the corner route up top or take that in route. For some reason, he turns it into the scramble route and there’s those zone eyes from the defense. And so, the end of the day, the the thought for me is, well, pressure inhibits progression. And I’m not talking about the progression of a player. I’m talking about getting through the progression of a play. And that’s something that Darnold has been so great on this year. And it was the weakness of yesterday’s game. Well, I mean, it’s getting hot here cuz Nelly is warming up, so you can’t really hear much, but that’s exactly how Sam Darnold felt in the pocket. And you know, for players, you can’t forget about your history either. And everybody hears what’s going on on the outside. For Sam Darnold, it’s to now settle himself and work moving forward next week to correct some of the things we see on film. It’s not a wildly different roster, right, compared to last season. Why so many struggles for Kansas City right now? I think the first month of the season we were like, “Well, wait till Rasheed Rice gets there and wait till Hollywood Brown’s fully healthy and wait till Xavier, they’re all there and and they’re all playing. They were 12-0 in one score games last year. They’re 0 and5 in one score games this year.” And the edge that the Chiefs always had was that they were always better than you at the little things, special teams and penalties. Yesterday, their special teams was a disaster. And that’s what scares you. Marvin Mims here has this incredible 70ard punt return. This doesn’t happen to a Dave Talb special teams unit. They had a bunch of special teams flags and the late extra point attempt by Harrison Bucker, which would have put him over, was blocked. That is unlike Chiefs football. They had 10 penalties for 69 yards. That is not Chiefs football under Andy Reid, especially off a buy where they were 22-4 under Andy Reid, both with the Eagles and the Chiefs. They have the same players. They’re in these closed games and they’re not winning. Things like special teams and penalties, they’re not sexy, but they matter. Yeah. And to continue that narrative, the Broncos are more the Chiefs than the Chiefs are right now. They entered this fourth quarter tied. And you’re telling me you’re going to take Boone Knicks and Vance Joseph over Patrick Mahomes and Steve Spagnolo? You absolutely are. There’s a sequence in this game late in the game, the last two possessions, and you see Vance Joseph who fununga comes up with a huge PBU. Then you pressure Patrick Mahomes and move him out of the pocket. And then after moving Patrick Mahomes out of the pocket on second down, there’s a play by Jaquan McMillan where there is the sack. They add to the pressure. They’re going to drop a backer into the coverage and Patrick Mahomes doesn’t even see him. He doesn’t get the ball out of his hands. Kareem Hunt is not on the outside of the line of scrimmage to protect Patrick Mahomes backside. And then we watch Bo Knicks. It’s a third and 15. It’s a third and six. And then it’s the huge pass to Troy Franklin. This wasn’t about the Kansas City Chiefs not executing. This was about the Denver Broncos executing exactly what they plan to do. We have to give them credit. McMillan guy who we should be mentioning more by the way. The Broncos drafted a corner in the first slot in No, I’m holding on to this job. I’m so good. Um I was okay. So Patrick Mahomes did not play well in this game, but I was also befuddled by some of the Chief’s decisions particularly on those last two drives. Um one of which is just how they used Rashid Rice. I understand through a lot of the game he was being double bracketed, but on that final drive he’s in the back field at one point. He’s in the flat and then he was blocking and I’m like, “This is your number one wide receiver. Why is he blocking on this crucial down?” It did not make sense to me. And then I keep I’m a broken record on this. We all are for a reason. But once again, the Chiefs were so much better running under center in this game, but they just won’t do it. And I don’t I want somebody to explain this to me because it’s been a seasonl long issue. Once again in this game, 75% success rate running under center for Kareem Hunt and they just wouldn’t do it. They only ran the ball 13 times. I mean, it’s the second time that we’ve seen a team go, “Hey, we’ll dare you to run at Buffalo did it.” Rasheed Rice, six yards per catch yesterday. It’s outrageous. Uh Chris Schula, Mike McDonald, and Vance Joseph, those three defensive coordinators head coach outstanding master classes with it with their schemes yesterday. Third downs, it was doubling different people. the rolodex of doubles. Early on it was Rashi Rice and Xavier Worthy. So up top they double Rice. In the middle they double Worthy. They’re going to give give Kelsey and Thornton one-on- ones. Patrick takes the shot, but it’s a very difficult ball to go hit one-on-one down the sideline. Third and three down in the red zone. This time it’s Kelsey and Worthy. The defense is going to double team those guys. I’m shocked Patrick doesn’t find Rasheed Rice there with those other two players getting doubled, but he doesn’t. into the pressure that RC is talking about. It’s the only time they brought it. Now, here’s what happens. You got eight up at the line of scrimmage. Now, watch Patrick kick. He goes to the line of scrimmage because he’s on the road. Once he goes to the line of scrimmage, changes the protection. It’s the last time he can communicate. The defense knows next time he kicks, here comes the ball. The timing of this is absolutely phenomenal by McMillan. He creeps creeps. No one’s there to protect him or change it. And there’s that really gamechanging sack. I thought the plan by Vance Joseph and not only the doubles, but who they doubled and when and not allowing Kansas City to get a beat on when that double was going to happen and then the final pressure. It was a masterclass when it comes to being ahead of the play callers for the Chiefs. And this new on NFL Live, Kevin Oonnell today talking about his quarterback situation. He’s made of the right stuff. He’s going to keep working at it. we’re going to go back to work and continue to find um every avenue, every way to try to help build the consistency uh to to his uh to his mechanics. And then I just I firmly believe the accuracy will come um from that. It’s it’s been tried and true and tested with uh other players and and guys that have been on their journey before and and that’s what we’re going to keep working towards. um and knowing he’s got what it takes to do some of the things he’s been able to do late in games and be at his best late in games. We just need to find a way to find that consistency early. All right. So, I’m told by our producer Mark Eisman that Dan, you were making some faces like you weren’t buying that as Kevin Oonnell was talking. Why is that? Because when you look at the mechanics of JJ, they’re not flawed. I went back and watched these misses. The misses are egregious and When coach um Okonnell says to to build the accuracy, JJ is accurate. There’s multiple clips of him having high level accuracy. That’s a perfect throw right there. And if we’re going to blame JJ, we can blame some of the pass catchers cuz there’s significant drops. So, it’s not the the ask to be accurate, but the misses are so extreme. And I was going, okay, is it to the left that he misses it? Is it to the right that he misses it? Is it down the field? Is it he’s locking his front leg? Is are his feet displaced? No. I mean, mechanically, when he misses egregiously, I still say he’s mechanically sound. I think that’s the the rub here is trying to figure out why and what’s going on with it. I don’t want to belabor the point Dan just clear just talked about it. The inaccuracy was is what stands out, right? And the fact that your coach is recognizing it in his press conference matters. Now it’s about how do we win games with this issue and I think this backfield and making things easy for him can become a part of the narrative to maybe get him in rhythm. He talked about late in games and we saw him we were in Chicago uh the first time the first game he played late in that fourth quarter he made a bunch of plays made plays with his legs. Maybe you have to move him off the spot a little bit. Maybe you have to get a screen game going. Lean into Aaron Jones and Mason. But again, we we I don’t think it’s I don’t think it’s fair based on what we’ve seen from JJ at this point during the season to ask him to somehow in one week fix these egregious issues that we talk about with inaccuracy. You have to call plays to help him in this particular situation. And look, I think Kevin Okono is the best one doing it. He revived Sam Darno when when when last year we saw him do this with quarterback Kurt Cousins a couple years ago playing at an MVP level, but you got to fix this with play calling. I believe I don’t think you can ask him to take the shots that you’re asking him to take right now. Yeah, big dog. This is what I would say. This wasn’t the case in Michigan. He This was nowhere a part of his game in Michigan. And it’s Dan, let me let me let me let me say this to you. That Michigan offense was about Blake Corum. Yeah, it was that Michigan was about that offensive line and that that’s all I that’s all I mean. I don’t you got to throw the football in the NFL as a quarterback, but right now you may have to protect him from itself is my point. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Mina Kimes, Ryan Clark, Marcus “Swagu” Spears and Dan Orlovsky join Laura Rutledge on NFL Live to react to the Seahawks’ loss to the Rams, Chiefs’ struggles this season and the Vikings’ offensive issues.

0:00 Seahawks-Rams reaction
6:01 Chiefs’ struggles
10:29 Kevin O’Connell’s comments

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