Ten Things About Today's Game

[gblowfish]

Ten Things About Today's Game

10. After suffering the Todd Haley/Tyler Palko horror show of October through December last year, my general hope for this year was this: The defense that carried the team in the last month last season hopefully would carry momentum into this year. The offense that was crippled by injuries and the subsequent stubborn "Screw Pioli pissing contest" by Haley would get fixed with a new OC. Haley got whacked, and we got those three offense components back this year healthy, and an upgrade in the backfield with Hillis replacing Thomas Jones. A big surprise out of training camp was to carry five running backs on the 53. The plan seems to be play ball control football, pound the ground, mix with possession type passing, chew clock and play defense. We've seen it work before. So I was guardedly optimistic. My wife and brother in law got field passes for pre-game warm ups, and that's cool. The new plastic credit card "tickets" worked well, security had metal detectors, and passed people inside much quicker than years past. We saw the Stealth Bomber fly over for the National Anthem. That's always awesome,and the singer actually knew all the words to the anthem and didn't muck it up. So much for small victories. If you remember last season's home opener, the Chiefs came out and laid an giant red and gold egg against Buffalo. They fumbled the opening kickoff, then Berry got hurt, then Haley went all Daffy Duck with his play calling, then they got behind, then they got blown out. Today was almost as bad an opener as last year. This year, we were in it for a half before getting totally embarrased. There's no home excuse when you have perfect weather, a full house and a great atmosphere. But just like last year, the fans ended up getting a swift kick in the red and gold nads.

9. In the four phases, KC matched up with Atlanta for one half in only one phase: Offense. The offense looked reasonably good the first half with a good mix of run and pass, Cassel spread the ball around, didn't turn the ball over, made good throws on third down, didn't throw short on third down except for one time. That was all good. Hillis and Charles had big runs for good yardage. You can look at the game stats (if you didn't watch the game) and things look somewhat reasonable: Chiefs won time of possession by four minutes, had more first downs, and decent balance in yards passing vs. yards rushing. Charles was 13 yards short of a 100 yard game, and the Chiefs only punted one time. That all sounds pretty good, so what happened? Halftime happened, then turnovers happened. This game became a total mis-match in the third quarter because of the other three phases: Defense, Special Teams and Coaching.

8. This was the worst defensive performance I can remember in terms of lack of pass rush and lack of pass coverage since the Colts playoff game in the Vermeil era. Chiefs defense never forced a punt in that game, and today we only forced one punt, and that was in fourth quarter garbage time. How can our second line defensive backs be so bad? Elam, Reeves and Daniels all looked totally lost out there. Julio Jones just owned the secondary. There was no pass rush up front from our first round pick defensive ends. None. Dorsey and Jackson were both useless. They were credited today for five tackles between them, but I can't for the life of me remember a single impact play that either were involved in. Studebaker for Hali was a no show. Only decent pass rush was on one second quarter play by Houston, and that was his only credited tackle all day long. Berry only had two tackles today. The only defensive player who looked like he came to play was DJ. He led the team with seven tackles, and covered Gonzalez most of the afternoon. This was a pitiful effort in third down defense. Tamba Hali should have to pay every Chiefs fan the cost of a game ticket. He could have made all the difference on third down. Ryan ate this defense alive on third down because he had time, and lots of it. If this trend doesn't improve in a hurry, and I mean more than just Flowers coming back, teams are going to pass for 300 a game on us every week. Frankly, I'm worried.

7. Special teams were poor. The game momentum totally changed when Succop doinked a 41-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter. First of all, Chiefs have a make-able third and three and Cassel throws a ball right into Weatherspoon, who knocks it down. Then, they trot out Succop for a 41-yarder that would have tied the game back up 20-20 with nine minutes left in the third. Colquitt can't figure out where to spot the ball, then when he figures it out, play clock is running down so they hurry the snap, ball slices to the right and doinks off the right upright. Plenty of leg, but the kick was rushed. Everything goes to shit from there. Plus the Chiefs give up a 77-yard kick return in the first half. And the icing on the special teams cake, two rookies, Draughn and Stephenson, start fighting after the play on a fourth quarter kickoff with the team down 40-17. Great poise. Scoreboard, clowns, scoreboard.

6. Matt Cassel: I bet a friend of mine that the Duke of Dink would throw short on third down at least three times during the game. I think I may have nailed it. Actually, Cassel played very well in the first half and I'll give him credit for that. It was perhaps one of his best halves of football in the last two years. Seven different guys caught balls. His pass to Boss for a TD was well done. Nice throw and catch on that one. The problem with Cassel is, once he gets behind, he will never, ever EVER bring you back. He is a Mr. Ball Control, protect a lead kind of guy. He can't put the team on his back and will them to win. He just doesn't have the chops or talent to do it. Worst of all, Cassel is prone to turnovers and sacks when he gets behind because he has happy feet and forces plays. He makes things much worse.

5. Happy feet and forcing plays: Follow along with me for a minute: If you look a the third quarter after the doinked field goal, Ryan (who CAN put a team on his back) marches right down the field and scores the TD himself on a QB draw. That's a ten point swing in about four minutes. So now Cassel is down by ten instead of three. Cassel gets the ball back, and gets into a 3rd and 15. Something happened at the line, because Fat Albert got a real slow jump off the center snap. Abraham beats Fat Albert like a drum, gets to Cassel, and forces a fumble on the KC 8 yard line. One play later, Gonzalez TD, now you're down by 17. Cassel gets the ball back, gets one first down on a pass to McCluster, then gets a third and nine, gets happy feet in the pocket, forces a pass into a tightly covered Moeaki, ball goes off Moeaki's hands to William Moore for the second turnover. Atlanta kicks a field goal. Now you're down by 20 into the fourth quarter and the run is getting stuffed as Atlanta adjusts. Now here's comes the stupidest play of the game:

4. Cassel scrambles and for whatever reason, slides early and slides one yard short of a first down. So it's third and one. Then they call time out to talk about it. Instead of putting your best playmakers on the field: Bowe, Breaston, McCluster or Charles, they run the double tight end set out there with Hillis and Eachus....EACHUS for Chrissakes in the backfield. OK, so pound the ball and get the first down. Instead, they run a fake to Eachus, who then fails to pick up a blitzing William Moore, who gets in Cassel's grill, and forces a pass cross field at a triple covered Moeaki, which is picked off for the third straight turnover. Falcons kick another field goal, and now it's 40-17. and the butt kicking is complete. Cassel looks like a whipped puppy on the sidelines. Sad, really.


3. The final aspect I haven't mentioned is coaching. This was a classic example of one team making halftime adjustments, and one team not having a clue what adjustments to make. Atlanta came out in the third quarter and shut down the run completely. Once they forced the Cassel fumble, they struck with points, and never looked back. They adjusted to what KC has been doing the first half, and KC had no clue how to stop Atlanta all day long. The only forced punt Atlanta had was with about three minutes left. The last KC TD was garbage time. Watch the Atlanta secondary when Droughn scores with five seconds left. They didn't even want to tackle him. Why risk an injury? Romeo looked out classed and clueless. He better figure something out soon or he'll be wondering if his office phone is tapped. And why not play Quinn in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter and get him some real game reps? Why are guys like Charles still out there when the game is out of hand? I don't get it. Why make a bad game day worse by risking injuries in an out of reach game?

2. One sideline thing I noticed is that the Chiefs have added these secret service looking, Matrix-CIA types behind the bench area. They have bad suits with brown shoes, dark sunglasses, earpieces, and stood around giving the fans the stink eye in the fourth quarter when the game had gone south. They also were running Romeo off the field after the game like he was in the witness protection program. I guess they want to make sure NOBODY can get near him once the game is over and whisk him away to the safety of the press conference room. I took a picture of them in the fourth quarter. The guy in the green suit kept eyeballing me.


1. It's a bit of a broken record, and hard to find new things to say. It's hard to be optimistic when so far this looks like same old crap in a brand new box. Except this year the injuries are on defensive side instead of the offense side, and people are going to pass us to death until we can stop it. Meanwhile, this year we're way under the salary cap....again. Hey Scott, hey Clark, thanks for the nifty jersey. I'll tell you what, though. I would have been much happier to have seen the jersey money spent on keeping Brandon Carr. I think we could really use him about now.

[munkey]

Carr > Bowe....that is all...major **** up...

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

And by then Denver will probably have a 4 game lead on us in the division.

If that's the case then we'll just have to give up on the season. Wildcard won't even be an option.

Week 2: @ Atlanta
Week 3: Texans
Week 4: Raiders
Week 5: @ Patriots
Week 6: @ Chargers

Then that's followed by the Saints and Bengals. A pretty tough run and if they truly are up on us by that much, then they'll likely deserve it.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by munkey

Carr > Bowe....that is all...major **** up...

I am fine with letting Carr go for the money he wanted but then use that money to increase the depth in the secondary so you can run varied defensive sets that aren't all secondary dropped zones. Gotta be more creative to get pressures on the QB if you don't have corners who can go one-on-one all game like Flowers and Carr did a shit ton last year.

[munkey]

Originally Posted by lewdog

I am fine with letting Carr go for the money he wanted but then use that money to increase the depth in the secondary so you can run varied defensive sets that aren't all secondary dropped zones. Gotta be more creative to get pressures on the QB if you don't have corners who can go one-on-one all game like Flowers and Carr did a shit ton last year.

Carr proved his worth opening with the boys last week....he's worth every penny when it comes to our scheme but apparently the chiefs thought they could run it without him? dumb...

[mcaj22]

if the Chiefs thought they could run with out Carr they should have at least addressed the need in all areas. Starter, depth, competition. Should have signed Routt and drafted a guy in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th. Any CB or Safety. The fact that Fat Scott Pioli feels content at some of these positions is laughable.

Instead they went the cheaper route and signed Jacques ****ing Reeves. And HE MADE THE FINAL 53. Jacques Reeves is the "The Right 53". Get out of here with that Patriot Way preach garbage when you have trash like that on the team

[mcaj22]

and lets not forget the fact that besides Kendrick Lewis we dont have a true FS on this team. They didnt even bother signing a FS. A real one. Not in draft or FA. Instead they thought converting Travis Daniels from CB to FS was the cheaper/more strategic alternative. And well guess what, Travis Daniels looks lost out there and has no idea what the **** hes doing at FS so they should have just kept him at CB. What a logical ****ing idea.

[Frankie]

Question for Mr. gblowfish or any other poster who was at Arrowhead today:

In the game thread today a lot of posters jumped all over Gonzo's ass for celebrating his TD. Did I miss something? Granted I was watching the game on a small stream scope, but I didn't see any over the top celebration, or fan-dissing by Gonzo. Did you?

[munkey]

Originally Posted by mcaj22

and lets not forget the fact that besides Kendrick Lewis we dont have a true FS on this team. They didnt even bother signing a FS. A real one. Not in draft or FA. Instead they thought converting Travis Daniels from CB to FS was the cheaper/more strategic alternative. And well guess what, Travis Daniels looks lost out there and has no idea what the **** hes doing at FS so they should have just kept him at CB. What a logical ****ing idea.

Casshole needed Bowe to succeed...it's that obvious? Scott is just trying to save his ass when it comes to the Hunts money HE invested in Matt...

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by lewdog

I am fine with letting Carr go for the money he wanted

Just so Clark can keep it in his pocket? If it isn't going to be invested else where then we should have kept him.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by munkey

Casshole needed Bowe to succeed...it's that obvious? Scott is just trying to save his ass when it comes to the Hunts money HE invested in Matt...

I don't mind keeping Bowe over Carr because it is obvious we weren't going to keep both....we have the nickname Cheaps for good reason.

And I think people aren't realizing how likely far behind Baldwin must be at this point. He must totally suck to not be seeing the field on this team.

But you can't trot out Brown and Elam and expect to compete either. No depth in the secondary is again going to kill us all year.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by cdcox

Just so Clark can keep it in his pocket? If it isn't going to be invested else where then we should have kept him.

Did you not read the rest of my post? I said if you let him go you invest the money in depth to at least soften the blow of losing Carr. Try to keep up.

[mcaj22]

and what happens if this Carr or Bowe scenario plays out AGAIN this offseason part II style

so it will Bowe, Albert, Dorsey

whats Fat Scott going to do again? He can only tag one of them, and the other 2 can just pull a Brandon Carr and tell him to **** off with his crap and they are going to test the market, and there is nothing he can do, and we as fans just watch more homegrown talent walk out the door for nothing

[munkey]

Originally Posted by lewdog

I don't mind keeping Bowe over Carr because it is obvious we weren't going to keep both....we have the nickname Cheaps for good reason.

And I think people aren't realizing how likely far behind Baldwin must be at this point. He must totally suck to not be seeing the field on this team.

With JM, TM, MC, Hilis and Baldwin I'd let Bowe go in a heartbeat...The receivers aren't the problem...it's the QB...always has been...

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Did you not read the rest of my post? I said if you let him go you invest the money in depth to at least soften the blow of losing Carr. Try to keep up.

Guilty.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by munkey

With JM, TM, MC, Hilis and Baldwin I'd let Bowe go in a heartbeat...The receivers aren't the problem...it's the QB...always has been...

Do you honestly see any QB having great success with outside receiving threats of Baldwin, Breaston and McCluster?

And no this is not me sticking up for Cassel, he is the biggest problem on this team but come on let's not be reeruned.