Chiefs Ten Things About Today's Game - Page 3

**gblowfish** · 06:01 PM

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.

Garcia Bronco · 09-09-2012, 06:28 PM

Cassel looked like an all-pro for a half of football. I've never seen him look that good as a Chief.

**DeezNutz** · 09-09-2012, 06:31 PM

Hmm...not sure what go you were at, Mr. Blowfish, since CP has assured us that Cassel graded out perfectly.

Defense and coaching were atrocious, though, no doubt.

tredadda · 09-09-2012, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

Cassel looked like an all-pro for a half of football. I've never seen him look that good as a Chief.

Too bad there are two halves in football.

bsp4444 · 09-09-2012, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredadda

Great evaluation as always.

I'm so glad you felt it necessary to quote the entire OP.

boogblaster · 09-09-2012, 06:45 PM

perfect ... could be a long year ... again .....

BillSelfsTrophycase · 09-09-2012, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkman

Only a true dumbass needs to quote the OP to make this post.

Good job, dumbass.

**gblowfish** · 09-09-2012, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tk13

In fact, Blowfish is probably being electroshocked right now for making this post. Pioli will assimilate the masses.

I thought I felt this kind of tingly sensation on my neck and ears tonight, and I got worried.

But its just a little sunburn.

I hope...

Discuss Thrower · 09-09-2012, 07:07 PM

I think is one game will encapsulate this season.. Outmatched by good teams, running ragged on defense, unable to come back from 2+ possessions down...

Planetman · 09-09-2012, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gblowfish

The guy in the green suit kept eyeballing me.

Mr. Anderson. It seems that you've been living two lives. One life, you're Thomas A. Anderson, program writer for a respectable software company. You have a social security number, pay your taxes, and you, ... help your landlady carry out her garbage. The other life is lived on an internet message board, where you go by the alias "gblowfish" and are guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for. One of these lives has a future, and one of them does not.

**MahiMike** · 09-09-2012, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RINGLEADER

Was that taken after he threw the ball at the guy's ankle?

Yeah, that was the play where I said, "time to suck for Luck". Ok, so the play is busted. There's nobody in his face and he has tons of time. Instead of improvising, he acts like a little girl.

O.city · 09-09-2012, 07:15 PM

The throw in the dirt, was a wr screen that was blown up. If he throws it down the field, it's a penalty.

I'm no Cassel fan at all, but we seem to have some sort of Witch hunt over the guy today. He played extremely well in the first half, kept the Falcons off balance, and threw the ball with velocity and accuracy. Came out in the second half, marched us right down the field, ran out of downs and we missed a field goal. After the Falcons marched down the field next, it was pretty much the end.

We were pretty good against the run today, we were bad against he pass without our best pass rusher, corner, free safety, and sub pass rusher. We didn't blitz much at all, trying to protect our banged up secondary.

**Rain Man** · 09-09-2012, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RINGLEADER

Was that taken after he threw the ball at the guy's ankle?

It was just like The Longest Yard if Burt Reynolds was an inaccurate passer.

MMXcalibur · 09-09-2012, 07:26 PM

Let me see this team with all of its defensive cogs in place before I start calling for heads. As for Cassel, all you can hope for is that he plays strong in Buffalo for two halves, rather than one. You're stuck with him, so you may as well try to accentuate the positive.

**Rain Man** · 09-09-2012, 07:27 PM

Do other teams play their third-stringers as much as we do? It's odd to me to see people like Draughn and Copper and such playing in critical situations. It's almost as if Clark knows he'll have to pay bonuses based on snaps, so he tells the coaches to pull the starters.

2bikemike · 09-09-2012, 07:37 PM

Thank Gblowfish I always look forward to your take on the game, since I don't have the opportunity to watch the game myself far too often.

Second half adjustment were mentioned. For the life of me I don't understand this problem. It seem like its year end and year out a problem for the Chiefs no matter who is coaching. It is my perception that every team we play does a better job of making adjustments.

09-09-2012, 05:36 PM
gblowfish Be Kind To Your Pets Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Glorious Independence, MO Casino cash: $17606178 VARSITY	Ten Things About Today's Game 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. Last edited by gblowfish; 09-09-2012 at 06:01 PM..
Posts: 40,843

09-09-2012, 06:28 PM	#31
Garcia Bronco No Keys, No Problem Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Denver Casino cash: $5093136	Cassel looked like an all-pro for a half of football. I've never seen him look that good as a Chief.
Posts: 30,949

09-09-2012, 06:45 PM	#35
boogblaster MVP Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Verdigris Valley Campsite Casino cash: $10004900	perfect ... could be a long year ... again ..... __________________ WR or S please
Posts: 10,305

09-09-2012, 07:07 PM	#38
Discuss Thrower "You like to drink?" Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: "I like to drink." Casino cash: $3036869	I think is one game will encapsulate this season.. Outmatched by good teams, running ragged on defense, unable to come back from 2+ possessions down... __________________ Chiefs 2016 Opponents: Home: JAX, TEN, NO, TB, NYJ. Away: HOU, IND, ATL, CAR, PIT Chiefs 2017 Opponents: Home: BUF, MIA, PHI, WSH, AFC North. Away: NE, NYJ, NYG, DAL, AFC South
Posts: 42,868

09-09-2012, 07:15 PM	#41
O.city In Search of a Life Join Date: Jul 2009 Casino cash: $2544064	The throw in the dirt, was a wr screen that was blown up. If he throws it down the field, it's a penalty. I'm no Cassel fan at all, but we seem to have some sort of Witch hunt over the guy today. He played extremely well in the first half, kept the Falcons off balance, and threw the ball with velocity and accuracy. Came out in the second half, marched us right down the field, ran out of downs and we missed a field goal. After the Falcons marched down the field next, it was pretty much the end. We were pretty good against the run today, we were bad against he pass without our best pass rusher, corner, free safety, and sub pass rusher. We didn't blitz much at all, trying to protect our banged up secondary.
Posts: 81,401

09-09-2012, 07:26 PM	#43
MMXcalibur Pessimistically optimistic. Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Denver, CO Casino cash: $2245086	Let me see this team with all of its defensive cogs in place before I start calling for heads. As for Cassel, all you can hope for is that he plays strong in Buffalo for two halves, rather than one. You're stuck with him, so you may as well try to accentuate the positive.
Posts: 16,430

09-09-2012, 07:27 PM	#44
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3098491 VARSITY	Do other teams play their third-stringers as much as we do? It's odd to me to see people like Draughn and Copper and such playing in critical situations. It's almost as if Clark knows he'll have to pay bonuses based on snaps, so he tells the coaches to pull the starters. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,615

09-09-2012, 07:37 PM	#45
2bikemike Born to Ride Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: NWA Casino cash: $2255377	Thank Gblowfish I always look forward to your take on the game, since I don't have the opportunity to watch the game myself far too often. Second half adjustment were mentioned. For the life of me I don't understand this problem. It seem like its year end and year out a problem for the Chiefs no matter who is coaching. It is my perception that every team we play does a better job of making adjustments.
Posts: 16,304