Ten Things About Last Night's Failure

[gblowfish]

Ten Things About Last Night's Game

10. I didn't -or should say couldn't - write this last night immediately after the game for several reasons. A) I was really pissed off, and I don't write worth a damn when I'm pissed off; B) I wanted to collect my thoughts so as not to over-react and not just roast everybody; and C) It was a damn Thursday night, and yes, I have an actual day job and pretend to work for a living (they pretend to pay me.) So today I come to you from my office here in bucolic Johnson County to write a brief Ten Things. Brief, because at this point, we've already hashed out most of the minutia about this sewage fest, and brief, because believe it or not, I do have actual work that has to be accomplished today.

9. For you younger guys who don't really understand the Raider hate and only have Donk hatred, remember this game and let it give you indigestion for awhile. Games like last night is why you should never, ever EVER overlook the Raiders. These sorry sacks of shit had lost sixteen straight games before last night. Let that sink in for a minute. Sixteen-Straight-Games…including a big goose egg for ten this year. And yet, they flat out beat us last night. This game was no fluke. The better team in this particular contest won. They wanted it more. They hustled more, and (I can't believe I'm going to say this) they played a smarter game than KC did. KC comes off an extremely physical game vs. the Super Bowl Champs, gets two days preparation, travels halfway across the country, to play a nationally televised night game -where road teams before last night were 3-7, in absolute shit weather, on one of the worst playing surfaces in football, with a chance to take a half game lead in the division on their next opponent, the other team who played in last years Super Bowl. And like the headline on the KC Star's Sports section said this morning, we got "Chokeland." This will probably be the only win this year for the Raiders, unless they beat us in Arrowhead again this year. Don't laugh, Oakland is 7-3 Vs. KC in the last five years. There's plenty of blame to go around. This was truly a team effort. Let's start with some well deserved flaming:

8. The first half was certainly the worst half of football the Chiefs have played since last year's playoff collapse in the second half vs. Andrew Luck. Let's start with the defense. KC gave up 112 yards and TWO rushing TDs in ONE HALF to Oakland's THIRD STRING tailback. This is a team that had previously given up ZERO rushing TDs in their first ten games. The 90 yard TD was inexcusable. Dontari Poe took himself completely out of the play. Apparently now he thinks he's Justin Houston and must spin and swim on a QB sack pass rush on every play. He lost gap contain and opened the hole for the running back. Then Mauga misses the tackle, proving once again why DJ is an All-Pro inside linebacker. Then Murray takes off like he's Tony Dorsett, and sprints 90 yards uncontested for a TD. Oh sure, Eric Berry tried chasing him, but looked like he was running through quick sand. Luckily Coleman was able to knock the day living shit out of Murray in the next series, or the dude probably would have run for 200 yards against us. Justin Houston? Where were you? One sack, four tackles? Not good enough. Tamba Hali? Two tackles, no sacks? Not good enough. Poe? Two tackles. Berry? Four tackles. Not…good…enough. Turnovers forced? ZERO on defense. I mention these guys cause they are all All-Pro players. These are the team leaders on defense, and they didn't get the job done, ESPECIALLY in the fourth quarter after KC got the lead. If you are indeed a championship caliber team, you have to shut down the opposition and take control in that situation. Instead the Chiefs gave up a six minute drive culminating in a go ahead TD (not-Field Goal, TD) leaving the Chiefs less than two minutes down by four. Meanwhile, Oakland's linebackers are stuffing the run, shutting down Charles and making Smith run for his life all night long. Again, Raiders deserved to win, Chiefs defense wilts when most needed. Fail.

7. During that final drive, Abdullah is covering a wide out. Rookie QB Carr over shoots his receiver, ball hits Abdullah square in the hands - I mean SQUARE in the hands- and doinks off him for a harmless incompletion. Adbullah is the free safety. He has to make that play. Catch that ball, win the game. FAIL. JMJ drops back in pass coverage, QB Carr under throws his receiver. JMJ mis-times his jump, only gets one hand of the football, knocks it straight up in the air, can't recover to catch the football, another harmless incompletion. Catch that ball, win the game. FAIL. Big time defenses take charge when the game is in the balance. Fail, Fail, Fail.

6. The Raiders as a collective organization are stupid, but not so stupid to not watch game film from last year. Apparently, Andy Reid thought that a year later, the Raiders would still not be prepared for screen passes. The Raiders defense in the first half was very simple. Run blitz, run blitz, run blitz, spy Charles, and do not allow a screen. Luckily, Reid made some adjustments at half time, enough to get the lead back, but Andy is so damn hard headed that he makes me want to put my head through a wall. The final drive to take the lead: Chiefs have third and three from inside the ten. They don't even need a TD, they just need a first down. Get to the two or three yard line and it's first and goal. On third down, instead of getting Knile Davis in there and pounding for a first down, they roll Smith out to the right, and he throws the ball away. So you kick a Field Goal to go up by three, instead of getting a go ahead TD, and you end up losing by four. Nobody fears our receivers. The Raiders had given up 80 yards to Charles. Davis -who is our power back- only got two freaking carries all night. Maybe they were afraid to hand him a wet football? Who knows? In the fourth quarter, the rain had stopped, so I don't get it. You could have gone on third and fourth down. If Davis can't get you three yards in two carries, you deserve to lose.

5. Eric Fisher, you played like crap. We matched the Raiders in penalties -both teams flagged seven times for sixty yards. When you match the Raiders in penalties -INCLUDING two holding calls by Fisher- you're playing like crap. DAT, what is your problem? First of all, you never field a punt inside the ten yard line. And if you DO field a punt inside the ten yard line, the last thing you do is run BACKWARD to the three yard line. Apparently, Dave Toub had seen enough too, because Hammond was fielding punts the remainder of the game after that little fiasco. Colquitt gets dinged up, thank GOD the Brazilian Midget didn't have to be pressed into punt service. Zombo got the only Raider turnover of the night on a muffed punt in the rain in the second quarter. But of course, the Chiefs proceeded to march straight backwards. The only scoring the team could muster in the first half was a measly field goal. But, when you go 1 for 8 on third down, you're going to have a crappy half. Chiefs ended the game 2-14 in third down conversions, and zip for one on fourth down. That leads to KC punting seven times in one game. SEVEN punts. That's sad. Colquitt only punted twice last week vs. Seattle, and both of those punts came in the fourth quarter.

4. Andy Reid fell on the sword in his post game presser saying the team was not prepared for this game properly. DUH….ya think??? I also thought the play calling was way too conservative in the first half, and adjustments needed to be made after the first quarter, not at half time. Teams know the Chiefs have NO vertical passing game. It's all sweeps to Charles, or screens to Charles, or sweeps to DAT. Nobody is afraid of Bowe. Nobody is afraid of Hemmingway. Bowe did next to nothing in this game. He had one catch for 24 yards, and again no TDs. If we ever could have used a TD from wide out, this was the week. The rain in the first half would have made downfield passing difficult, but with Oakland's penchant for penalties, chances are in the second half we might have gotten a PI on them. You know, kind of like what they did to Parker in the fourth quarter to sustain their drive.

3. The one guy who didn't seem to have a problem getting open was Kelce. He led the team with four catches and 67 yards. If he's the only guy who can get open, and if you insist on throwing the ball, you should target him six, seven, eight times a game. Reid always seems to go away from whatever is working. It's like he has all these tools at his disposal, and he feels obligated to play with all of them, and not just stay with the ones that have proven to be successful. And in the first half, if you're gonna run Charles, then run him. Give him the ball time after time after time. And even if you go three and out, you're wearing down the Oakland defense. Then bring Davis in and pound them. It was amazing to me that even after playing like total dog shit the first half, KC was able to come back and get the lead in the second half. I was sorely disappointed that the defense could not hold the lead. That was, frankly, surprising, against one of the NFL's worst offenses.

2. Oakland's coach Tony Soprano is a guido and a douche. Who wears sunglasses at night during a rainstorm???

1. The thing that makes me the most angry about this choke job is, that's its basically made the Seattle and New England win less meaningful. As much as I loathe saying this, the Five Head has OWNED the Chiefs over his career. And until the Chiefs beat his ass, in Arrowhead, we will continue to be underdogs in our home stadium. Additionally, instead of being a half game up, we're now a half game down of the division lead. Plus our chance to get a first round bye has diminished greatly. Is the season over? No. Are we still in the playoff hunt? Probably, but if we lose next week at home to the Donks we're now 7-5 and headed to Arizona for a road game against one of the best teams in the NFL. I think at best we'll be a wild card team and have to go on the road…. again…. just like last year. So, it is what it is. At least we'll get a few extra days to prepare for the Donks. After this skid mark in the shorts, we'll need all the preparation time we can get.

[jimidollar]

I'm glad I went to sleep when it was 17-3. I was pretty pissed off last night, but I'm feeling much better today. When a team flames out like that it takes all the weight off of your shoulders because you don't have to worry about the rest of the season.

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by Wallcrawler

He's actually got a condition. You never see this guy without sunglasses.

When he was in his teens he worked in a restaurant and hot grease splashed into his eyes and blinded him for several weeks. He regained his sight, obviously but his eyes always water and are apparently super sensitive to light.

His coaching staff says that the lights are always off in his office as well most of the time.

Q. And no one cares

[Bob Dole]

Games like last night are why this franchise is a national joke.

[BlackHelicopters]

Read this whole thing. Sad doesn't begin to describe this game.

[ptlyon]

Originally Posted by Bob Dole

Games like last night are why this franchise is a national joke.

Cmon man, can't we keep the 'at least it isn't the 70s anymore' as our theme?

[JohnnyHammersticks]

Unless Reid/Smith grows some brains and balls and starts throwing the ball down the field before we're absolutely forced to, get used to watching shit shows like last night's abortion. I know our downfield passing game is totally inept, but you have at least attempt to do it to keep the defense honest.

If I was gameplanning against the Chiefs, I'd put all 11 defenders within 7 yards of the LOS until they did something to make me do otherwise. I feel sorry for Charles. He may end up being the greatest Chief of all-time, but it's going to get to the point where--unless we start showing at least a threat of a vertical passing game--he has absolutely no room to operate.

Why we don't throw the ball to Kelce more often is completely beyond me. It's sheer stupidity, and it reeks of someone who is either too hard-headed, or too clueless to see the obvious.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by JohnnyHammersticks

Unless Reid/Smith grows some brains and balls and starts throwing the ball down the field before we're absolutely forced to

If you do that you'll get the Titans game.

My only gripe with the playcalling last night is that it was completely predictable in the 1st half. The Raiders were pretty much keying in on Charles and no one else. Reid said he recycled the gameplan from last week....which explains why Oakland was all over Charles.

[notorious]

We won't throw down field unless the receiver is WIDE open.

I like Alex, but that is his limitation.

[Chiefnj2]

You know it's a rough night when the 2nd best tackle of the night is by your backup WR tackling a corner on a screen pass to prevent a pick 6.

[MahiMike]

I didn't get too upset. I kinda felt like both the Raiders and us were due. It was obvious from the start of the game which team was more amped up.

[TEX]

Originally Posted by MahiMike

I didn't get too upset. I kinda felt like both the Raiders and us were due. It was obvious from the start of the game which team was more amped up.

BUT KC took the lead and HAD the game in spite of all the shit that went down. All Abdullah had to do was catch the ball that was right in his hands. Game over.

[MahiMike]

p.s. I hate Thursday Night games!

[MahiMike]

Originally Posted by TEX

BUT KC took the lead and HAD the game in spite of all the shit that went down. All Abdullah had to do was catch the ball that was right in his hands. Game over.

I know. But it shouldn't have had to come down to that. We only got 3 points when the Raiders gave us a gift fumble inside the 10. That was also the difference in points.

[scho63]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Ten Things About Last Night's Game

9. For you younger guys who don't really understand the Raider hate and only have Donk hatred, remember this game and let it give you indigestion for awhile. Games like last night is why you should never, ever EVER overlook the Raiders.
I somehow kept my anger in check last night and maybe after all these years of having "that awful feeling" about a particular Chiefs game we are "supposed" to win, I've just become numb and used to the beatings, just like Pavlov's Dog

8. The first half was certainly the worst half of football the Chiefs have played since last year's playoff collapse in the second half vs. Andrew Luck. Fail.
The Chiefs look liked they left their heart and souls back in Kansas City. It was brutal to watch. KC looked like the 0-10 team

7. Rookie QB Carr over shoots his receiver, ball hits Abdullah square in the hands. JMJ mis-times his jump, only gets one hand of the football, knocks it straight up in the air, can't recover to catch the football, another harmless incompletion.
You just had a feeling after these two plays that it wasn't going to be our night. Fail was in the air

6. Apparently, Andy Reid thought that a year later, the Raiders would still not be prepared for screen passes. If Davis can't get you three yards in two carries, you deserve to lose.
Just an absolute abortion of play calling, the exact reason Eagles fans wound up hating him so much at the end. We once again passed in places where we should have ran and vice versa.

5. Eric Fisher, you played like crap. DAT, what is your problem? Chiefs ended the game 2-14 in third down conversions, and zip for one on fourth down. That leads to KC punting seven times in one game.
Fisher was goat #2 right behind Mr Parker. Parker was completely beat all over the field like a drum or worse yet, that awful former player Kendick Screwus. DAT just added to the complete team fail last night. It was contagious.

The more amazing stat is not that we completely sucked balls at 2-14 on third down but the Raiders converted 8-16 on third down and 1-1 on 4th down. THAT'S OVER 50% !!!! That is some piss poor defense we played and I can't even count how many times those scumbags converted a 3rd and 7 or 3rd and 9 or 3rd and 12. It was awful!

4. Andy Reid fell on the sword in his post game presser saying the team was not prepared for this game properly. Nobody is afraid of Bowe. Bowe did next to nothing in this game.
Andy can take a lot of blame for this once again, just like so many other games.
Alex Smith screwed up by not throwing a fade to an open Bowe on that third down play. He has space and enough room in the end zone.

3. The one guy who didn't seem to have a problem getting open was Kelce.
The guy is all world in my opinion and aside from Jamaal Charles, our next best offensive weapon.

2. Oakland's coach Tony Soprano is a guido and a douche. Who wears sunglasses at night during a rainstorm???
Didn't you want to punch that jackass right in the face!

1. Additionally, instead of being a half game up, we're now a half game down of the division lead. Plus our chance to get a first round bye has diminished greatly. After this skid mark in the shorts, we'll need all the preparation time we can get.
Once again, the Chiefs had a golden opportunity to control their own destiny and they go and lose to the freaking 0-10 Raiders. We put ourselves in a horrible position and have a real tough road to the playoffs. It will not be easy and the chance of winning the division is almost over-they certainly will be if Manning beats us once more!

I knew writing this was not going to be easy or fun for you GB but you somehow managed to put together one of your best Ten Things of the year as you touched on a lot of issues. Kudos!

We both talked about not feeling over confident in this game and after 45 years of watching numerous ways to fail and screw the pooch, we sadly knew our Chiefs could once again not let us down!

Oakland came in to play this like their Superbowl and they had a lot of advantages by being home and having no pressure to do anything but play. They came loaded for bear and knocked our jocks in all game long. They destroyed our O-line for most of the game and Charles Woodson played great for them along with Khalil Mack and Derek Carr. I was impressed with Carr and think he could be a pretty good QB as this was the first time I've seen him play.

I was not mad as much as I felt like I was back in grade school and the bigger, older class bully walked up to me and punched me in the stomach in front of all my friends and the cute girls. Had to hold back the tears and suck it up!

In a way, it makes me want to beat the Broncos more than ever! I hope we can find a way to kick their ass!

Thanks GB and have a good stiff drink or two tonight!

[Chiefs4TheWin]

Great as usual sir! I still really haven't found the words to describe this one. It's beyond me how you can possibly drop a game like this regardless of the circumstances.If ever "Because we are the Chiefs" is to be used, this fits the bill quite eloquently.