Dominate the Super Bowl

Chapter 591: 590 Deep Thoughts and Suffering Chapter 591: 590 Deep Thoughts and Suffering The situation had undergone subtle changes.

However, the advantage was still in the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Let’s not forget, the Kansas Chiefs Offense was also experiencing a low point, their skin and every cell feeling the traditional skills of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Defensive group.

The young Offensive group was obediently in class.

Therefore, Pittsburgh Steelers’ three-and-out was merely a brief respite for the Kansas City Chiefs, and whether they could completely turn the tide depended on the Offensive group’s upcoming performance.@@novelbin@@

The circumstances were still extremely dire.

Honestly, Mahomes was somewhat dazed—

Sometimes, he reminded himself to play according to the coach’s methods; but when his brain heated up, habits from his college games would resurface.

Different thoughts tugged at his mind, causing stumbles in the game.

Reason told him to stay calm and composed, to take it one step at a time.

But clearly, it wasn’t an easy task.

Subconsciously turning his head, Mahomes saw a focused Li Wei.

This slightly calmed Mahomes down.

No matter what difficulties they faced, they were in it together, so what they needed now was focus, focus, and—

Focus.

Indeed, Li Wei was thinking about how to adjust the advancement strategy.

Generally speaking, if the focus is on pass defense, the ground attack may find some opportunities; if the focus is on ground defense, the passing offense would have more space.

But not the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Pittsburgh Steelers bravely gave Mahomes more space to maneuver, not only gaining more strength for pass defense but also not slacking in ground defense.

They firmly exploited Mahomes’s youth and greenness to demonstrate the team’s cunning and maturity from dominating the league for over a decade.

So, was there a solution?

Yes.

Read Option Offense.

Simply put, it’s about making full use of the quarterback’s running ability, a strength for a mobile quarterback, easily resolving crises.

Only a small number of people knew that Mahomes also had the ability to run.

Mahomes was undoubtedly a traditional Pocket Quarterback, known for his impressive long passes since college; but he had exceptional athletic ability, and there was no problem for him to run with the ball, so during the off-season, quarterback coaches began to slowly polish this aspect of Mahomes’s abilities—

Just like Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers.

In fact, Rodgers was also a traditional Pocket Quarterback who enjoyed passing, but when crises arose, his running ability was no less than any mobile quarterback, and that’s what truly made Rodgers formidable.

But!

The Kansas City Chiefs did not readily deploy this tactic.

Firstly, Mahomes was still too young; it was now time for him to establish his style of play.

Reed did not want Mahomes to rely too much on the physical confrontation of runners.

Passing was the basis on which a quarterback stood in the Professional League.

Secondly, Reed knew that mobile quarterbacks faced a lot of physical confrontation and were at risk of injury.

He did not want Mahomes to engage in collisions and confrontations naively, as was done in NCAA games—

Reed had been working on correcting the showy habits inherited from Mahomes’s college days because long passes were always more exciting, more thrilling, and garnered more applause, to the extent that Mahomes habitually read for the long pass gaps in deeper zones during secondaries.

This was not good.

The last thing Reed needed now was for Mahomes to revert to college mode.

Thirdly, this was a secret weapon, and Reed did not wish to reveal his trump card too soon.

In other words, the Pittsburgh Steelers had already shown all their cards; however, Reed had not, as he still had faith in Li Wei and his team.

Reed believed they needed to look to the future.

Not only did the coaching staff need to be diligent in their thinking, but the players also had to learn to think.

They should not limit themselves to just the Pittsburgh Steelers, their current opponent.

If they wanted to truly grow, every difficulty was a precious learning opportunity.

That’s why the Kansas City Chiefs hadn’t used Read Option Offense just yet.

The pressure, naturally, fell onto the shoulders of Mahomes and Li Wei.

Li Wei was continually thinking about how to break the stalemate.

The Pittsburgh Steelers had developed a targeted defense against Li Wei through research—

They rarely used a five cornerback formation, pulling Burnett out to mark Li Wei individually.

Burnett’s role wasn’t to go one-on-one with Li Wei, unlike how Fuller did with Brown.

Burnett just needed to restrain or even delay Li Wei for a moment; once Li Wei couldn’t leverage his speed, the subsequent defense would immediately catch up, and in an instant, Li Wei would be mired down.

The Pittsburgh Steelers weren’t worried about Li Wei continuing to use Bell’s running style.

No matter how Li Wei observed, adjusted, or looked for openings, Burnett was always there, lingering like a persistent ghost.

Li Wei had reason to suspect this was a roaring message Tomlin had sent to Bell:

Tomlin was demonstrating to the entire league the correct way to defend against Bell.

But, doubts aside, Li Wei had another thought:

In the past few seasons, everyone had been studying Bell, everyone had been defending against him, and at least from a tactical standpoint, Bell remained a troublesome headache that a mere fifth cornerback couldn’t solve entirely.

What about Li Wei himself?

Li Wei lightly hopped on the spot, feeling relaxed.

He thought it was time to test the other training results from the off-season—

Tomlin surely couldn’t be naïve enough to think that off-season training with Watt was just about chatting, playing in the water, and heart-to-heart talks?

Line up.

Seventeen yards for the home side, first down with ten to go.

The Pittsburgh Steelers were still highly focused, and the Special Duty Group’s punter performed well, pushing back the Kansas Chiefs’ starting position by a few steps.

Mahomes made his second appearance of the second half, and the position was still not favorable.

The air—as if ablaze—

The Kansas City Chiefs attempted to use momentum to break out of the predicament.

The Pittsburgh Steelers sought to snuff out any sparks.

And then.

“Attack!”

Mahomes announced the kickoff, and without pause, handed the football to Li Wei right away.

The Kansas Chiefs didn’t rush recklessly into the fray; they chose to start with a ground attack.

Hayward was pleased.

Everything was as expected; Tomlin had once again outplayed Reed on a tactical level—

Bring it on.

Hayward started early, charging forward with full force right away.

But it was slightly different from usual.

Normally, Hayward would target either the Guard or the Tackle, colliding head-on to create confrontation; this time, Hayward looked as if he was set on blitzing the Quarterback, sidestepping the Tackle’s block, misdirecting with borrowed force and rushing along the edge of the Pocket.

This was a blitz.

The difference lay in the target of the sack, which was not the Quarterback but the Running Back.

Hayward’s career had seen countless such tackles, and a ferocious smile flickered at the corner of his mouth:

Sorry, poor rookie.

However, the smile didn’t fully bloom; within the next second, it froze on his lips.

Hayward didn’t even have time to spread his arms when a red hurricane slipped under his arm, leaving nothing but a blur behind.

Half a beat too slow, Hayward couldn’t stop in time, and he dove straight into empty space.

Faceplanting spectacularly.