[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

So when I read something like that, I think I start to realize why DC's make the same mistakes so often.

"Well the safety took the wrong read and Mahomes burned them. That's okay - I'll coach my guy not to make the wrong read and we'll pick that off..."

M'kay buddy - whatever you say. I think too many coaches fail to give enough credit to their opposite numbers (as fans, we're always guilty of this) and I think they especially fail to accept the fact that their players are not robots and they ARE going to make mistakes (and as fans we're definitely guilty of this...)

It's the old baseball axiom at work - good pitching beats good hitting. And it usually does. But pitchers never execute 100% of the time. The difference between mediocre hitters and great hitters is that A) great hitters won't defeat a perfect pitch, but they may spoil a few until the mistake gets there and B) they don't miss the mistake.

So what separates a mediocre QB from a great QB is that the great QB will have plays where the other side executes. And when that happens, he won't make the major screwup and create a sack/turnover that botches the drive. He'll foul the pitch off, so to speak, and live to play another down. Then when the mistake does come - he doesn't miss it. He sees that seam and hits it.

If I'm a DC - I simply do not play single high against him apart from some odd circumstances and maybe an occasional change of pace to keep the reads from getting too repetitive. I certainly don't play it as often as Pitt and SD did. But watch - a slew of DCs will look at that tape and say "yeah, but if I just make sure my safety doesn't bite, he'll be okay" or even with the Cover 2 looks when they try to send some extra pressure "Well if I just make sure my safeties get the proper width - we'll be in good shape"

They won't. Not every time. When they do, you'll probably come away with an imcomplete pass. You may even string a few of those together and force a punt. But by God, they're gonna make a mistake and when they do, Mahomes is gonna gut 'em. Probably best to just accept that and work on mitigating the damage.

Perfect example of that is the missed TD to DAT with Derwin James in coverage. James is a freak and that's the ONLY reason that wasn't a TD. You run that play another 10 times......and it goes for a TD 9 out of those 10.