Posted on 09/09/2020 9:02:46 AM PDT by Kaslin
If the Chiefs can blitzkrieg opponents as they did in the playoffs last year, they may find themselves on their way to changing the game of football.
A new National Football League season kicks off this week, after a turbulent and eventful offseason. During the last seven months, two national stories dominated the football headlines: The coronavirus outbreak and its effects, and the summer’s protests over race and policing. Both will affect the season, with fan-less stadia and player protests likely to continue.
On the field, however, two stories will resonate. Tom Brady’s offseason decision to leave the New England Patriots placed a spotlight on his new team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The improved roster of the Buccaneers, including Brady’s New England teammate Rob Gronkowski, has garnered media attention and speculation about the revamped roster reaching the Super Bowl — set to take place in Tampa Bay’s home stadium.
The intense offseason focus on Brady and the Buccaneers has allowed the Kansas City Chiefs to remain under the radar, as they attempt to defend their first league title in half a century. In February, the Chiefs managed a come-from-behind victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV, capturing their first NFL crown since they won the Super Bowl’s fourth edition back in 1970.
How the Chiefs managed comeback wins en route to their championship — they trailed by 10 or more points in all three playoff games — speaks to another dominant champion of recent years: Basketball’s Golden State Warriors. Just as the Warriors revolutionized NBA play with their high-powered offense, burying teams in a blizzard of buckets, so Kansas City’s point-scoring potential could change football strategy in the years ahead.
Consider how Kansas City won its title, by turning deficits into leads during each of its playoff victories last season:
Basketball’s Warriors used a similar approach during that team’s run of five straight NBA Finals appearances. Golden State’s heavy emphasis on three-point shooting meant that, while the team could go through dry spells, once shots started to fall — as they almost inevitably would — they could overcome just about any deficit, no matter how large, by overwhelming the competition. Basketball writers have spent much time in recent years analyzing the power of the spurts the Warriors produced, which normally (but not always) came during the third quarter of games.
Like the Warriors, Kansas City plays an up-tempo style that lends itself to quick, potent bursts of offense. While the Warriors have stretched basketball defenses with an emphasis on long-range jumpers — making the three-point shot the hallmark of their offense — the Chiefs stretch the field with the threat of deep passes to speedster wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins.
Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs’ quarterback and MVP of last year’s Super Bowl, bears a passing resemblance to Warriors point guard Stephen Curry. More importantly, the two stars similarly play their respective games, leading fast-break offenses and using their athletic abilities to distribute the ball to their teammates in such a dizzying manner that opposing defenses often don’t know what hit them.
At the end of the first half of the Super Bowl, San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan used an unorthodox clock-management strategy. Rather than stopping the clock to give his offense enough time to march down the field and score, Shanahan let the clock keep running until mere seconds remaining in the half.
The Super Bowl broadcast showed that even John Lynch, GM of the 49ers, questioned Shanahan’s strategy; Lynch instinctively made the “time out” signal after the team’s defense stopped Kansas City’s offense — but Shanahan would not call one. The reason for Shanahan’s decision to let the clock run?
While he didn’t give his offense much time to try to score, Shanahan said the goal was to make sure that Patrick Mahomes and his quick-scoring offense would not have a chance to get the ball back before halftime.
Of course, by preventing Kansas City from getting the ball back at the end of the first half, Shanahan also gave his team less of a chance to score points on its last possession of the half. It speaks to how the foreboding offensive potential of the Chiefs forced Shanahan to make a decision that ultimately cost his team.
While Kansas City’s run through the 2019-20 NFL playoffs showed hints of the Warriors’ dynasty, only time will tell if the Chiefs can create a dynasty of their own. While Golden State won three titles amid five straight trips to the league’s championship series, this era’s version of the Chiefs holds only one title as of yet.
But if the Chiefs can blitzkrieg opponents as they did in the playoffs last year, they may find themselves on their way to a status akin to the Warriors — and change the game of football in the process. It’s one key story to watch as this NFL season unfolds.
USAA is one of the primary advertisers for the NFL. They blow most of our subscriber savings on advertising now to bring bigger bonuses to the executives (not like it used to be - 35 year member).
With the NFL going woke and dishonoring the flag will USAA continue to give them our money?
If they do it is not acceptable to me. They have a good product, but there are other options out there.
Marxism ruined my favorite sport. And all the other sports.
If you are cheap on claims it helps produce lower rates.
The Chiefs have me confused with someone who gives a shit!
Professional bicycle racing has thus far eschewed any such nonsense. It’s the only sport I watch.
I’m in the same boat...just when I thought we had a great thing going!
Having watched Mahomes at Texas Tech, go Red Raiders and at KC that guy can do anything with little time left, have not seen that since Montana or Aikman.
Why is the Federalist promoting the NFL?
“MLS is dead to me.”
This summer, it seems like of al the professional sports, MLS was the worst for virtue signaling. It was so over the top and so non-stop.
Who cares what any pro sports teams do? Don’t know anyone still watching.
Thanks for that info on them (USAA). I will not support any entity that cowtows to his crap. I’m goina contact then ASAP! Even if it costs me a little more.
The sissy NFL will fold three games into the season. The Nazi commissioner will declare massive kungflu infections and cancel the season to cover up the fact that no fans are watching.
Reminds me of the St Louis, Greatest Show on Turf with Kurt Warner etc. How long did that last? At that level anyway.
Deflection. Won’t work
Nebuchadnezzar animal brains
Basically 3 seasons. Then Warner got hurt. And Martz became overly addicted to complex plays that take forever to develop (an addiction he never got over), and then the band broke up.
Federal. Federal reserve private, insurance bundlers, fake Congress buries direct 1200, only for “targeted govt Stimulus 2. Fake Rep, Dem, both sides. Counterfeits.
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