Ten Things About Today's Game Week 9: Dallas 28 KC 17

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Ten Things about Today’s Game Week 9: Dallas 28 KC 17

10. Weekends where we fall back off Daylight Savings Time always seems to mess with my total body rhythms. A damp drizzly day, so I decided to just veg out in the La-Z-Boy, crank up the big screen, put a fire in the fireplace and hang out with Mrs. Blowfish and the Blowfish kitties. I napped in and out during the Philly-Donk game, woke up, and the Titans-Ravens game was on, because Denver was getting its ass kicked so bad the network couldn’t stand it any more. As satisfying as that game was, the Chiefs game was, frankly, about what I expected. Last Monday night looking forward I said we’d have to stop Dak, Zeke, Dez and Cool Witten. Well, they got one of those things done. Witten one catch for five yards. But Dallas didn’t need him. Terrence Williams masqueraded as Dez for 141 yards. Beasley caught Dez’s two TDs. Zeke ran for around 80 yards (his lawyer took the other 20) and Prescott out classed Alex, throwing for two TDs, running for one and throwing no picks. If you had looked at the schedule before the year started, you’d probably tab this game for a loss. We haven’t won in Dallas since 1975. Andy had won seven straight against NFC East opposition, but this didn’t look like a good match up going in. Both our offensive and defensive lines were dominated. Our pass defense was inconsistent to downright awful -especially in the last two minutes of the first half- we put no pressure on Dak and we couldn’t stop the run on first down. Besides that….well, our red home uniforms were sure pretty in the bright sunlight.

9. Can we PLEASE quit drawing Tony Romo to work the Chiefs game? Not only was CBS kissing his ass on the broadcast, he’s been the color guy for ALL THREE of our losses! This game started a lot like the Pittsburgh game. Our offensive output wasn’t quite as awful, but we started all our drives with terrible field position. The first quarter was mostly a game of attrition until Williams burned Acker for a big play. That put Dallas in position for the first TD pass to Beasley. Down 7-0 after the first quarter was still manageable. We saw the season debut of Tamba Hali, who made a cameo appearance and then disappeared the rest of the game. We saw Justin Houston hurry a couple passes by Dak; then he disappeared the rest of the game. That’s about $28 million worth of linebacker that had virtually no impact on the contest after the first quarter. Time to earn that game check guys. I think Houston is playing hurt again this year.

8. Acker, Gaines, Murray, they’re all basically the same guy. Peters was no factor this week. Three tackles and another ole’ missed tackle on Dez Bryant. Check out the third quarter right before Alan Bailey hurt his knee. Peters doesn’t lay a hand on Dez, tries to body block him and misses him altogether. And speaking of Murray, the only catch Witten got should have been a pick six for Murray but the ball went right through his hands. I'm sure Gaines approved of that play.

7. Perhaps the most frustrating sequence was right before the half. KC had Dak with a 3rd and 15, and gave up a 21 yard pass right down the middle to Dez. How can you not defense 3rd and 15? Chiefs are the worst in the NFL for giving up 3rd and over 10 for first downs. Then to make matters even worse, next play goes for 56 yards to Williams on a busted coverage. So KC gave up 77 yards on two consecutive plays inside the final two minutes. Then they lose containment on Dak and let him run for an easy TD. This game was not really an 11-point loss. It was worse. The “Screen Mary” to Tyreek was a fluke play. And without that play Hill only has eight yards receiving for the whole game.

6. The Tyreek Hill TD was another example of an Andy Wile E. Coyote gadget play that actually, amazingly, worked this time. Problem is, after clawing into a lead in the third quarter, the entire team wilted. When Frank Zombo has your only sack of the game, that’s pretty lame. Chris Jones had an OK game, he tipped one ball and had a couple pressures. DJ is looking slower and slower each week. Zeke ran right over him on his TD run. The problem with our defense is, they can’t do anything well, and struggle when they don't force turnovers. We knew Zeke was going to run a lot - he got 27 carries. Early on, Dallas started running left over Zombo and it worked. Then in the second quarter they started running right over Bailey and it worked. Then in the second half they started running Zeke between the tackles and it worked. So ultimately, it didn’t seem to matter which direction they ran him. Cowboys were making five six, eight yards a clip on first down. Conversely, Kareem Hunt couldn’t crack a decent run until the third quarter. KC was constantly in second and ten, or second and twelve, or worse. And as good as Schwartz was last week against Von Miller, he was shit today against Lawrence. He had at least two false starts anticipating Lawrence’s rush.

5. After KC got up 17-14, the call that really changed the game's momentum was a BS call for Pass Interference on Nelson. If you go back and watch that play, Nelson had his head turned and was looking for the football. Then, the defense was so discombobulated that they had to burn a timeout with five minutes left in the third quarter. Didn’t matter, because two minutes later Zeke is running in for the go-ahead TD, and that was basically all she wrote.

4. The Chiefs were shut out in the first and the fourth quarter, and were outplayed in just about every meaningful game stat. Dallas had 23 first downs and were 50% on third down conversions. KC had only 17 first down. were about 35% on third down conversions and only ran 43 total offensive plays. Dallas dominated TOP until garbage time at the end. Alex threw his first pick of the year at a double covered Kelce on a fourth down play. It was predictable that he’d look for Kelce. Too easy to defend.

3. The only Chiefs who came to play today were Kelce and Buttkicker. Kelce had 73 yards and a TD -the potato sack race was amusing- and Buttkicker hit his 19th field goal in a row. He could be our Mack Lee Hill Rookie winner this season. It was good to get the Canadian Doc back, but he and the rest of the O-line didn’t play well. Nobody on defense had a particularly good game. What’s more, Bob Sutton seems to be out of ideas on how to “scheme” a decent effort out of these guys. I’m especially baffled at our lack of blitzing and giving QB after QB all freaking day to throw. I’m sure some of you were amused when Andy got trucked by his own player at the very end of the game. But he wasn’t paying particularly close attention to the game since he was down by eleven with no time outs. Good thing he wasn’t hurt, or Bob Sutton would be in charge most likely. Yikes.

2. Well, if you want to be optimistic, we don’t have to watch this crap for another two weeks. And the team is 6-3, which is pretty decent going into November. And we do lead the AFC West by three games, which is better than being behind by a couple games. And we’re the only team in the AFC West with a winning record. Losing to Dallas isn’t as bad as losing to Pittsburgh or Oakland. Here’s the reason to be pessimistic: I think we’re looking at last year all over again. We’ll probably coast our way into the playoffs, and we’ll be the number three seed behind the Steelers and Pats. And if we have to play a team with a strong running game and good defense, like Pittsburgh again or maybe Jacksonville with Fournette, we’ll get trampled because we can’t stop the run. And if we get past that game somehow and Alex comes up against a better QB in a winner take all match, like against Brady or Rapistburger, he’ll play well but lose, as usual. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. Oh well, at least we aren’t Cleveland or the New York Giants.

1. Speaking of the New York Giants, that’s our next opponent. Before we overlook them, let’s remember they beat Denver in Denver without ODB. And we have to go to the Big Apple to play, so let’s hope the week off will help get guys like Albert Wilson, Alan Bailey and Justin Houston up to full steam. We’ll see what these guys are made of here in the second half of the season. We certainly failed the test today to prove we’re a serious contender against a quality opponent. Until they prove otherwise, there’ll be plenty of “Same Old Chiefs” talk buzzing around. Missouri is the Show Me State. So, Alex; Kareem; Justin; DJ, Travis and Andy, time to put up or shut up.