Patrick Mahomes is a thief. On Sunday night, he slipped into his pocket, dived first, stepped out of bounds, and won from the Cincinnati Bengals. He also put full-back Joseph Ossai in his sights for all the wrong reasons.
As the main character of the NFL, Mahomes’ deux ex machina comes in the form of a rough call by passersby against Ossai. Mahomes’ incredible acting skills worked. The moment he felt the impact on his back, he collapsed, selling it like a pedestrian who was run over by a luxury car, doing everything but complaining about his neck and back. until the ambulance arrives. Do not go full Collinsworth of Mahomes’ admiration, but he deserves props for feeling the moment.
What is Joseph Ossai thinking?
However, when Mahomes fired up his turbo jet for the first time all day and stepped out of bounds to stop the clock, Ossai’s brain activated and his lizard brain tried to play. game. hero. The second year’s defensive finish crosses the line between hero and goat, but immediately goes to the wrong side. Blocking Mahomes’ tackles should have ended the game, but Ossai was too late. A few weeks earlier, Ossai had edged past the Captain’s end-game lap by grazing Mahomes’ ankle in 3rd and short in their Week 13 win.
In the moments of decline of AFC Championship, Ossai’s hero is unnecessary. Mahomes was cornered 43 yards away. With just eight seconds left, Harrison Butker was staring at a tough scoring attempt at 60 yards. Given the way the NFL has spoiled quarterbacks to extremes throughout the season, caution is the best course of action. Breathing on a quarterback without breath mint is 15 yards. For passers in the modern NFL who come into contact with quarterbacks, it’s been written deep into their heads to make sure they’ve dotted their i and crossed their t, otherwise flags will fall like rain. Sometimes the flags come even after they’ve gone through the proper process of being gentle with the tournament’s golden calves.
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The yardage that officials tacked onto the end shrunk the distance on Butker’s game-winning attempt from the outer rim of his range to a comfortable 45-yard toe-tap. But amid all the jubilation from the Chiefs, CBS’ cameras were trained on Ossai, who was inconsolable on the sidelines. To add insult to actual injury, Ossai’s knee also buckled on the play, and has an MRI scheduled to determine the extent of the damage.
However, the image of Ossai on the sideline is haunting and more memorable than (another) Chiefs’ coronation. The usual vitriol reserved for athletes who commit brain farts was probably mitigated by the visual of Ossai. Ossai appeared genuinely troubled on the sideline and, in the locker room afterward, teammates formed a cocoon around him. There was a short clip of defender Germaine Pratt angrily asked Ossai as they entered the dressing room, but it seemed to be a heated moment the rage was quickly crushed.
Ossai’s teammates supported him
Instead, tackle the defense BJ Hill captures the mood in the dressing room by standing next to Ossaibluntly announced to the media around his dressing room, “Any silly question and I’ll shut it down.”
In the way that reporters have show lack of ingenuity first and Ossai’s emotional state, his irritation is understandable. Ossai’s intellectual invention eventually sank the Bengal, but that’s why we watch this movie. If we wanted the real-life live sports movie characters to hit their cues perfectly and perform like a robot, the league commissioners would just hire Aaron Sorkin or ChatGPT to write. script for their tournament in front of a live stadium audience. The hindsight is always 20/20.
Game of Thrones are more popular HBO series than The Newsroom because they accurately depict the human wrong decision-making process. and the devastating consequences that humans suffer from miscalculation. Ossai turns sharper than Benioff and Weiss’s last season, but the Bengals wouldn’t even be there without Tyler Huntley confusingly underestimating his verticality and cramming in midair. when he tried to break through the defense inside the 2-yard line.
A few driveways earlier, electric Patrick Mahomes had a problem when he lost the ball while making a fumbling, throw, and gave the Bengals a place in midfield. The failure of Mahomes helped Burrow and Co. drove down a short pitch, scored and ended the game with a score of 20.
Mahomes plays unscripted a lot, but his ratio of perfect plays to blunders is what makes him the face of the league. There is more joy derived from watching him than from mediocre Belichick patriots.
While the captains prepare for the Super Bowl, Ossai’s focus will be on his mental and physical health. He can allow this moment to make or break him. Ossai’s mistakes hurt, but what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. If that’s any consolation, mistakes are human – and much more interesting, if we’re being honest.
