Mahomes' decision on 3rd and 3

[CJD]

(12-06-2022, 12:44 PM)Au165 Wrote: The term is "check and release". The back isn't even in the progression it's only there as a last ditch dump off. Mahomes is flushed by Hubbard and his eyes drop because a second rusher is coming after he avoid Hubbard he loses sight of the HB because he is too busy running for his life. It's easy for fans to say this sitting on a computer with an eagle eye view but the field of vision with a helmet on is limited at field level. This idea you see everything is one of the biggest misconceptions by fans watching games.

That's a good point. Fans like to imagine the QB is just playing Madden and has an overhead view of the field. I saw it with that Broncos game too, where Russ threw into coverage instead of hitting KJ Hamler who was wide open. 

It's hard to pinpoint why your team lost, but too often we think about it in terms of singular plays where a player didn't do something perfectly. I imagine Mahomes, in this play, thought running for the first down was the better play than dumping it off becuase, as others have said, there were 2 Bengals within striking distance that could have stopped him before he got the first down.