Random Thoughts on the Bengals Preseason Game

[Direckshun]

Feel free to ignore. This is just a catchall for my thoughts on the game.

1. Alex Smith has absolutely nobody to throw to. I'm looking at as much of the field as is shown during the snaps, and nobody is getting open. I'm not even sure Avery and Jenkins played, and Bowe's not exactly known as a receiver who gets wide open anyways. This is extremely troubling, and dooms us against CB-heavy teams like the Seahawks, 49ers, and Patriots (as if we weren't doomed against them already).

The good news, however, is that our non-WR receiving corps looks strong. Charles still looks great. Fasano ran routes very well last night, and Kelce has serious promise. DAT looks like he could be sharp on routes, and another year should allow Davis to develop further.

But this is a team that had the fewest receptions and yardage at the WR corps of every other team in the league, and we didn't replenish any talent in the Draft, which only featured the deepest WR class in NFL history. ****. AND we lost what was a fairly critical piece of that package last year in Dexter McCluster. Basically this means that AJ Jenkins needs to explode this year, that DAT learns the ropes in the slot very quickly, and that Travis Kelce and/or Junior Hemingway takes off, somehow.

2. Really thought Fisher looked really good on all of two plays. I watched him like a hawk, and his runblocking looked far stronger than it ever was last year. Carlos Dunlap is a very big passrusher, however (he's around 290, I think?), and gave Fisher fits on two pass plays, which tells me that the achilles heel Fisher had last year (struggling against strong passrushers) is still going to be a problem this year. On the strip-sack Fisher gave up, Trent Green argued that Fisher did a solid job on the play, but Smith held the ball too long -- which gives me some hope that Fisher is coming along.

But Alex Smith does hold the ball too long, and takes sacks rather than throw down field. That's always been Smith's game. If that's the case, than it's going to be yet another atrocious year in the game threads as folks on this forum cry (justifiably or not) about Fisher struggling to come along. As long as he blocks for Alex Smith, he's going to give up coverage sacks. Last year, however, he was just beat like a rug -- I only saw that once yesterday, when Fisher greeted a bullrush too high and got pushed back into Alex Smith's lap.

3. God, we are so fast now. We've started noticing the trend that John Dorsey has an almost Al Davis-like fascination with speed, and that shows on the field now. Charles, DAT, Albert Wilson, Knile Davis, Donnie Avery, and AJ Jenkins. Travis Kelce burned folks on his long play, too. This is as much a track team as we've ever seen, and hopefully that can compensate on offense for our lack of receiving talent.

It's noticeable on defense as well. Dee Ford is so fast around the edge, James-Michael Johnson runs like a receiver, and it sure doesn't look like anybody is going to be outrunning Phillip Gaines.

4. Rookies had a rocky performance last night, but it was great seeing them out there. Dee Ford was disruptive against the 2nd team OL, and can close that gap in a hurry. He'll need a couple years to add to his passrush arsenal, and also to work on his coverage and run-stopping abilities. That's stuff that Justin Houston had to do (albeit to a lesser extent) and hopefully Ford will improve leaps and bounds in that respect by this time next year. Phillip Gaines looked lost in coverage -- he was always going to be a project, which is why I saw him more as a 5th rounder than as the 3rd rounder we made him. On that long pass to the endzone he broke up, he showed that elite recovery speed that makes him such an outstanding athlete and could make him a great corner, but he also gave up two touchdowns from players that embarrassed him in routes. He does truly have shutdown potential, however, he just is going to take a while to get there, if he ever does.

DAT of course looked brilliant, no comments needed there, and we saw next to nothing of Aaron Murray. Fulton looked... alright. First of all, he looks ****ing massive, and not entirely in a good way. He's got a lot of extra love on those love handles, and he's going to get beat by athletic three-techs all year. But he had a decent performance last night against a DL that was missing their most important piece. I do like that he's getting his experience now. (How bad was Rishaw Johnson -- sheesh, maybe Fulton won the job by default.) I didn't notice hardly anything from Duvarney-Tardif, but I'll be rewatching soon. Albert Wilson looks like he could end up being a UDFA gem -- something this team badly needs this year. Wilson looks great in routes (albeit against 2nd and 3rd defenses), has great hands, and excellent speed.

4. As per the DL, Jaye Howard looks awful against the 1st stringers, and frequently looks bade against the 2nd string. I may revise that when I watch the game again, but I doubt it. There were huge holes opening up time after time against him in the run game. He made a couple plays against the 2nd/3rd string OL, but even then he was getting annihilated. I think he's buried on the depth chart behind DeVito and Catapano, so let's just hope we don't see a lot of him this year. That is definitely not working.

On the plus side, how good did Allen Bailey look? He's decently stout in the run game, but he's FINALLY providing the passrush from the DE position that this team desperately needs. I believe this is his contract year, and I've always loved his athletic potential. If he plays stout and throws in about 5-6 sacks this year, something he's very capable of doing, there's no reason he shouldn't be re-signed. But there is still a lot of football to play.

Vance Walker is a waste of a signing. Wow. Walker provided very little in terms of push at the NT position, and his play against the run was not that great either. He's listed as a backup NT now, but if Poe ever goes down, something tells me the team would rather slide DeVito over than get murdered up the gut thanks to Walker, who has never been a celebrated run defender anyway.

5. 3rd string guys I really like: DE Jairus Campbell, WR Frankie Hammond, QB Tyler Bray, TE Demetrius Harris, CB Kevin Rutland, RB Charcandrick West.

6. I said before that our backup OL was probably the best backup OL we've had on the field since I've been a fan, and you could see that in the 2nd quarter and 2nd half. Against a very deep Bengals team, Knile Davis, Cyrus Gray, and Charcandrick West had holes blasted open for them all game. The Chiefs offensive momentum in this game was almost entirely due to the 2nd string OL dominating on the ground.

7. As I've mentioned, I'll be watching the game a 2nd time, so I'll add thoughts to this thread as I do.

[Marcellus]

8. Malcolm Bronson.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

8. Malcolm Bronson.

Played well, I thought. I think he's definitely in the mix as the teams's dime back this year.

#1 CB Marcus Cooper
#2 CB Sean Smith
SS Eric Berry
FS Husain Abdullah
NCB Chris Owens
dime-back -- Bronson vs. Parker

If we suffer a single injury against one of our starters in the secondary this year, we're ****ed.

[Dante84]

5. 3rd string guys I really like: DE Jairus Campbell, WR Frankie Hammond, QB Tyler Bray, TE Demetrius Harris, CB Kevin Rutland, RB Charcandrick West.

I missed him, did he play?

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Dante84

I missed him, did he play?

On the drive that culminated in Cyrus Gray scoring, West carried the ball a couple times.

Looked really nimble, with good change-of-direction.

[Dante84]

Ugh. Speaking of Gray.

I want to keep him on the roster somehow. He looked determined, and faster than I remember.

I don't necessarily like him catching balls, but coming in as a reserve if one of our other RB's goes down would be nice.

[Direckshun]

I've always thought Gray looked really talented. He blocks well in the passing game, too.

The Chiefs should be able to retain him if they really want to. He looks very good running the ball, and the TD he scored was just pure want-to. That's stuff that gets coaches off. Did I also mention he's a plus-talent on special teams, as well?

I was afraid he was going to get cut this year with the addition of DAT and McKnight. But at this point, unless McKnight blows shit up next week, that 3rd RB is Gray's to lose.

[King_Chief_Fan]

pretty good review

One thing to note and this will hack off the gay bray lovers.....Chase is still the backup for the Chiefs. Bray had a couple of decent plays but nothing convincing that would suggest he would replace Smith if Smith went down.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

This is fast becoming whats gonna be a fun team to watch.

Kniles Davis
D AT
Kelce
Wilson

All freaking weapons.

[In58men]

Chief fans be like:


Travis Kelce is going to be in the hall of fame and DeAnthony Thomas is our next Dante Hall/Devin Hester

[The Franchise]

James Michael-Johnson impressed me. Hopefully he can keep improving and take that starting spot next to DJ during the season.

[Prison Bitch]

Tldr but I read the last line. You not only watched it once....you are planning to watch it AGAIN?????? Holy shit.

[KC native]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Feel free to ignore. This is just a catchall for my thoughts on the game.

1. Alex Smith has absolutely nobody to throw to. I'm looking at as much of the field as is shown during the snaps, and nobody is getting open. I'm not even sure Avery and Jenkins played, and Bowe's not exactly known as a receiver who gets wide open anyways. This is extremely troubling, and dooms us against CB-heavy teams like the Seahawks, 49ers, and Patriots (as if we weren't doomed against them already).

The good news, however, is that our non-WR receiving corps looks strong. Charles still looks great. Fasano ran routes very well last night, and Kelce has serious promise. DAT looks like he could be sharp on routes, and another year should allow Davis to develop further.

But this is a team that had the fewest receptions and yardage at the WR corps of every other team in the league, and we didn't replenish any talent in the Draft, which only featured the deepest WR class in NFL history. ****. AND we lost what was a fairly critical piece of that package last year in Dexter McCluster. Basically this means that AJ Jenkins needs to explode this year, that DAT learns the ropes in the slot very quickly, and that Travis Kelce and/or Junior Hemingway takes off, somehow.

2. Really thought Fisher looked really good on all of two plays. I watched him like a hawk, and his runblocking looked far stronger than it ever was last year. Carlos Dunlap is a very big passrusher, however (he's around 290, I think?), and gave Fisher fits on two pass plays, which tells me that the achilles heel Fisher had last year (struggling against strong passrushers) is still going to be a problem this year. On the strip-sack Fisher gave up, Trent Green argued that Fisher did a solid job on the play, but Smith held the ball too long -- which gives me some hope that Fisher is coming along.

But Alex Smith does hold the ball too long, and takes sacks rather than throw down field. That's always been Smith's game. If that's the case, than it's going to be yet another atrocious year in the game threads as folks on this forum cry (justifiably or not) about Fisher struggling to come along. As long as he blocks for Alex Smith, he's going to give up coverage sacks. Last year, however, he was just beat like a rug -- I only saw that once yesterday, when Fisher greeted a bullrush too high and got pushed back into Alex Smith's lap.

3. God, we are so fast now. We've started noticing the trend that John Dorsey has an almost Al Davis-like fascination with speed, and that shows on the field now. Charles, DAT, Albert Wilson, Knile Davis, Donnie Avery, and AJ Jenkins. Travis Kelce burned folks on his long play, too. This is as much a track team as we've ever seen, and hopefully that can compensate on offense for our lack of receiving talent.

It's noticeable on defense as well. Dee Ford is so fast around the edge, James-Michael Johnson runs like a receiver, and it sure doesn't look like anybody is going to be outrunning Phillip Gaines.

4. Rookies had a rocky performance last night, but it was great seeing them out there. Dee Ford was disruptive against the 2nd team OL, and can close that gap in a hurry. He'll need a couple years to add to his passrush arsenal, and also to work on his coverage and run-stopping abilities. That's stuff that Justin Houston had to do (albeit to a lesser extent) and hopefully Ford will improve leaps and bounds in that respect by this time next year. Phillip Gaines looked lost in coverage -- he was always going to be a project, which is why I saw him more as a 5th rounder than as the 3rd rounder we made him. On that long pass to the endzone he broke up, he showed that elite recovery speed that makes him such an outstanding athlete and could make him a great corner, but he also gave up two touchdowns from players that embarrassed him in routes. He does truly have shutdown potential, however, he just is going to take a while to get there, if he ever does.

DAT of course looked brilliant, no comments needed there, and we saw next to nothing of Aaron Murray. Fulton looked... alright. First of all, he looks ****ing massive, and not entirely in a good way. He's got a lot of extra love on those love handles, and he's going to get beat by athletic three-techs all year. But he had a decent performance last night against a DL that was missing their most important piece. I do like that he's getting his experience now. (How bad was Rishaw Johnson -- sheesh, maybe Fulton won the job by default.) I didn't notice hardly anything from Duvarney-Tardif, but I'll be rewatching soon. Albert Wilson looks like he could end up being a UDFA gem -- something this team badly needs this year. Wilson looks great in routes (albeit against 2nd and 3rd defenses), has great hands, and excellent speed.

4. As per the DL, Jaye Howard looks awful against the 1st stringers, and frequently looks bade against the 2nd string. I may revise that when I watch the game again, but I doubt it. There were huge holes opening up time after time against him in the run game. He made a couple plays against the 2nd/3rd string OL, but even then he was getting annihilated. I think he's buried on the depth chart behind DeVito and Catapano, so let's just hope we don't see a lot of him this year. That is definitely not working.

On the plus side, how good did Allen Bailey look? He's decently stout in the run game, but he's FINALLY providing the passrush from the DE position that this team desperately needs. I believe this is his contract year, and I've always loved his athletic potential. If he plays stout and throws in about 5-6 sacks this year, something he's very capable of doing, there's no reason he shouldn't be re-signed. But there is still a lot of football to play.

Vance Walker is a waste of a signing. Wow. Walker provided very little in terms of push at the NT position, and his play against the run was not that great either. He's listed as a backup NT now, but if Poe ever goes down, something tells me the team would rather slide DeVito over than get murdered up the gut thanks to Walker, who has never been a celebrated run defender anyway.

5. 3rd string guys I really like: DE Jairus Campbell, WR Frankie Hammond, QB Tyler Bray, TE Demetrius Harris, CB Kevin Rutland, RB Charcandrick West.

6. I said before that our backup OL was probably the best backup OL we've had on the field since I've been a fan, and you could see that in the 2nd quarter and 2nd half. Against a very deep Bengals team, Knile Davis, Cyrus Gray, and Charcandrick West had holes blasted open for them all game. The Chiefs offensive momentum in this game was almost entirely due to the 2nd string OL dominating on the ground.

7. As I've mentioned, I'll be watching the game a 2nd time, so I'll add thoughts to this thread as I do.

tl;dr + not being able to watch the game=Direckshun's mother is a whore

Oh and I like to quote long OPs.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by King_Chief_Fan

pretty good review

One thing to note and this will hack off the gay bray lovers.....Chase is still the backup for the Chiefs. Bray had a couple of decent plays but nothing convincing that would suggest he would replace Smith if Smith went down.

Chase received what I thought was strong blocking, but has such poor pocket presence (and/or is incapable of seeing over them) that he waltzed himself into at least two of the sacks he took.

Bray's performance was frustratingly neutered -- the Chiefs ran 80% of the time when he was in.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by Pestilence

James Michael-Johnson impressed me. Hopefully he can keep improving and take that starting spot next to DJ during the season.

I thought Mays played well.

That position next to DJ is only on the field 40% of the game anyways.