shaneo69
11-15-2004, 11:16 AM
GRETZ: Dumb and Dumber
Nov 15, 2004, 5:59:07 AM by Bob Gretz
NEW ORLEANS – It’s a constant with Dick Vermeil: a team must play smart football to win. In Vermeil’s football dictionary, smart means no turnovers and few penalties, and he preached it on a daily basis.
Well, if the opposite of smart is dumb then meet the 2004 Chiefs, the dumbest of Vermeil’s four teams in Kansas City. They showed that again at the Superdome against the Saints, losing 27-20 and driving a stake through any playoffs dreams that were still left.
We’ve railed in this space before about the tendency of fans never to credit the opponent when the Chiefs lose. The other guys get paid as well and even the worst NFL teams have some good players.
But right now, the Chiefs toughest opponent is … themselves. There’s no other way to explain back-to-back losses to Tampa Bay and New Orleans, teams that are a combined 2-0 against the Chiefs and 5-11 against the rest of the NFL.
Smart football does not include:
-Four turnovers, with two fumbles and a pair of interceptions. On the season, the Chiefs are minus-five in the takeaway-giveaway ratio.
-A dozen penalties walked off against them, and three more either declined or wiped out by offsetting penalties. They racked up 94 yards in penalties. On the season, they now have been hit with 73 penalties for 629 yards. How bad is that? In 16 games last season, they had 79 penalties for 698 yards.
The turnovers and penalties were not the limit of dumb plays; not by a long shot. There was the situation at the end of the first half, with no timeouts and the Chiefs trying to get themselves in field goal position, where Johnnie Morton caught a pass and did not get himself out of bounds to stop the clock. Add that to Morton’s first quarter fumble and a third quarter interception where he simply fell down, allowing Saints CB Mike McKenzie to catch the Trent Green pass like he was the intended receiver.
The mistakes that are killing the Chiefs are not being made by young or inexperienced players. Oh, guys like Jared Allen, Kawika Mitchell, William Bartee and Julian Battle are making their share of mistakes.
The Chiefs season has been ruined by mistakes being made by veteran players, guys that should know better. The Chiefs stopped the Saints well short of a first down on a 3rd-and-23 play, but Jerome Woods was flagged for a personal foul. Result: first down, New Orleans. At the end of an offensive play in the first half, Jason Dunn was flagged for a personal foul for a hit that had nothing to do with the play that was unfolding behind him.
So virulent has this penalty thing become that the two smartest players on the roster – based on sheepskins on the wall – Tony Richardson and Scott Fujita, were each flagged for two penalties.
New Orleans WR Joe Horn caught passes for 57, 42 and 40 yards. On the 42-yarder, Horn got deep behind both Woods and Greg Wesley. How does that happen? Get past one safety maybe, but both. He split the field between them and both were so completely out of position that there was little they could do as Horn tumbled into the end zone with the ball.
On the 40-yard completion, both Woods and Eric Warfield could have intercepted the pass, had they known where the ball was; a defensive player who doesn’t know the location of the ball is not doing his job. In this case, neither player was aware of the ball, its flight and relationship with Horn.
These are just a few of the mistakes that compromised the Chiefs chances for victory, wasting a magnificent fill-in performance by Derrick Blaylock. He ran for 186 yards and caught passes for another 38 yards, as Priest Holmes watched from the sidelines. The game also showed the true feelings the coaching staff has for last year’s No. 1 draft choice, Larry Johnson. Despite the fact Blaylock is not a big back, and the fact he was coming off an injury that caused him to miss last week’s game in Tampa, Johnson never stepped on the field. Not a single play. Quite obviously, Dick Vermeil and Al Saunders do not trust this young man.
The loss leaves the Chiefs 3-6 on the season. There are seven games to play. They need to win seven in a row to have a chance and even that may not be good enough. But the idea of a seven-game winning streak is simply laughable given the dumb football they currently produce on the field.
Nov 15, 2004, 5:59:07 AM by Bob Gretz
NEW ORLEANS – It’s a constant with Dick Vermeil: a team must play smart football to win. In Vermeil’s football dictionary, smart means no turnovers and few penalties, and he preached it on a daily basis.
Well, if the opposite of smart is dumb then meet the 2004 Chiefs, the dumbest of Vermeil’s four teams in Kansas City. They showed that again at the Superdome against the Saints, losing 27-20 and driving a stake through any playoffs dreams that were still left.
We’ve railed in this space before about the tendency of fans never to credit the opponent when the Chiefs lose. The other guys get paid as well and even the worst NFL teams have some good players.
But right now, the Chiefs toughest opponent is … themselves. There’s no other way to explain back-to-back losses to Tampa Bay and New Orleans, teams that are a combined 2-0 against the Chiefs and 5-11 against the rest of the NFL.
Smart football does not include:
-Four turnovers, with two fumbles and a pair of interceptions. On the season, the Chiefs are minus-five in the takeaway-giveaway ratio.
-A dozen penalties walked off against them, and three more either declined or wiped out by offsetting penalties. They racked up 94 yards in penalties. On the season, they now have been hit with 73 penalties for 629 yards. How bad is that? In 16 games last season, they had 79 penalties for 698 yards.
The turnovers and penalties were not the limit of dumb plays; not by a long shot. There was the situation at the end of the first half, with no timeouts and the Chiefs trying to get themselves in field goal position, where Johnnie Morton caught a pass and did not get himself out of bounds to stop the clock. Add that to Morton’s first quarter fumble and a third quarter interception where he simply fell down, allowing Saints CB Mike McKenzie to catch the Trent Green pass like he was the intended receiver.
The mistakes that are killing the Chiefs are not being made by young or inexperienced players. Oh, guys like Jared Allen, Kawika Mitchell, William Bartee and Julian Battle are making their share of mistakes.
The Chiefs season has been ruined by mistakes being made by veteran players, guys that should know better. The Chiefs stopped the Saints well short of a first down on a 3rd-and-23 play, but Jerome Woods was flagged for a personal foul. Result: first down, New Orleans. At the end of an offensive play in the first half, Jason Dunn was flagged for a personal foul for a hit that had nothing to do with the play that was unfolding behind him.
So virulent has this penalty thing become that the two smartest players on the roster – based on sheepskins on the wall – Tony Richardson and Scott Fujita, were each flagged for two penalties.
New Orleans WR Joe Horn caught passes for 57, 42 and 40 yards. On the 42-yarder, Horn got deep behind both Woods and Greg Wesley. How does that happen? Get past one safety maybe, but both. He split the field between them and both were so completely out of position that there was little they could do as Horn tumbled into the end zone with the ball.
On the 40-yard completion, both Woods and Eric Warfield could have intercepted the pass, had they known where the ball was; a defensive player who doesn’t know the location of the ball is not doing his job. In this case, neither player was aware of the ball, its flight and relationship with Horn.
These are just a few of the mistakes that compromised the Chiefs chances for victory, wasting a magnificent fill-in performance by Derrick Blaylock. He ran for 186 yards and caught passes for another 38 yards, as Priest Holmes watched from the sidelines. The game also showed the true feelings the coaching staff has for last year’s No. 1 draft choice, Larry Johnson. Despite the fact Blaylock is not a big back, and the fact he was coming off an injury that caused him to miss last week’s game in Tampa, Johnson never stepped on the field. Not a single play. Quite obviously, Dick Vermeil and Al Saunders do not trust this young man.
The loss leaves the Chiefs 3-6 on the season. There are seven games to play. They need to win seven in a row to have a chance and even that may not be good enough. But the idea of a seven-game winning streak is simply laughable given the dumb football they currently produce on the field.