Hammock Parties
12-18-2005, 12:44 AM
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/football/nfl/kansas_city_chiefs/13432729.htm
Tread marks on jerseys tell the story
JOE POSNANSKI
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Chiefs defense got run over Saturday. Run. Over. That was not supposed to happen anymore. No, the Chiefs defense has not been great this year, not even good much of the time. Nobody would confuse them with the Steel Curtain or the Iron Curtain or really any sort of metal window dressing.
Still, the Chiefs were supposed to be tougher. At least that. The singular Chiefs quality of the 2000s — the defense’s knack for getting run over like Wile E. Coyote in front of a steamroller — was supposed to be a thing of the past. The Chiefs brought in a tough-guy defensive coordinator. They brought in tough guys to play defense. They started slamming their tough-guy running back behind their tough-guy offensive line.
Toughness was the theme around Arrowhead Stadium.
I’m not going to lie to you. They fooled me. I thought they were tougher.
Saturday, with the season on the line, the Chiefs got run over. Run. Over. No other way to say it. There were tread marks on the Chiefs’ jerseys. There were chalk outlines where tackles should have been made. The New York Giants flattened the Chiefs 27-17 at Giants Stadium. Running back Tiki Barber ran for 220 yards, even though he ran behind two backup tackles.
And there are no illusions left.
I thought this was a team built for December. The Chiefs had played well back-to-back weeks, beating Denver and New England, and it seemed as if a new Chiefs team was coming into focus. This did not look like the high-flying, high-scoring, highfalutin Chiefs that kept scoreboards buzzing, whether on offense or defense.
No. This team seemed to have more substance. More intensity. Larry Johnson was bashing through tacklers. The defense was stuffing the run and coming after the quarterback. There was a new look to the Chiefs, a harder look, and I thought they would be awfully good in December. I really did.
Wow, was I wrong. The new Chiefs are papier-mâché. Last week, they allowed a plodding Dallas Cowboys offense to gain 445 yards. Those Cowboys drove 68 of those yards in the final 3 minutes for the game-winning touchdown. Bad sign.
Saturday, things got much worse. The Giants offense was hardly unpredictable. It was like a “Gilligan’s Island” episode. Their starting tackles were injured. Quarterback Eli Manning tended to look lost in space. Gee, what will they do? All the Giants could hope to do was run and run and run the ball. This seemed a great setup. The Chiefs had not allowed a 100-yard rusher in 20 games, the longest streak in the NFL.
Well, that didn’t mean much. The Giants blew the Chiefs off the ball. The Giants broke out of more holds than Ric Flair. The Giants took the Chiefs’ heart in every way. Offensively, Kansas City’s big, powerful, amazing running back, Larry Johnson, came out on every play even resembling a passing down because he can’t or won’t block. There’s a winning trait for a running back.
Defensively, Sammy Knight set a new single-game record for missed tackles with 93 — 89 of them on one Tiki Barber run.
Of course, it’s not fair to single out Sammy Knight. Everybody missed tackles. Linebacker Kendrell Bell, brought in to be a defensive enforcer, supposedly made three tackles, each of which must have happened while I was looking another way. Patrick Surtain, that Pro Bowl corner, had the same number of solo tackles (one) as crushing, game-changing, stupid personal foul penalties (one).
Linebacker Kawika Mitchell dropped a sure interception that might have changed the whole game. Sure, it would have been a tough catch, and Mitchell has had a very good year. But in the end, the difference between good defenses and bad is simple: The good defenses make plays; the bad defenses do not. Last week, Surtain dropped a sure interception. This week Mitchell dropped one. The Chiefs lost both games.
You can go on and on with this. Tiki Barber set the Giants single-game rushing record, breaking a 55-year-old mark that had been set against the Chicago Cardinals, for crying out loud. So, when it mattered, when it counted, the Chiefs weren’t just bad. They were historically bad, they were Chicago Cardinals bad, they were the kind of bad that led defensive end Jared Allen (who missed his one sack opportunity) to say, “We tackled like a Pop Warner team out there.”
That was the disappointing thing. It wasn’t just the loss. Hey, the Giants are a good team, especially at home. They have their own playoff race. They needed to win, too. But nobody could have expected that the Chiefs would get manhandled, knocked around, pounded into the turf by a Giants team that was missing six starters. They were mashed into pulp by an offensive line flanked by backups.
“We did not have a run defense,” Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil would say after the game. “It was embarrassing.”
Vermeil seemed both befuddled and angry by the Chiefs’ surrender. He talked about how he didn’t even recognize his team out there.
Unfortunately, Chiefs fans did recognize this team: It looked an awful lot like every other Chiefs team of this decade, teams that have had talent and firepower, teams that led the NFL in offensive numbers. But when it mattered, when it counted, those Chiefs got knocked backward. And it happened again Saturday.
So now what? Well, there are still two games left. The Chiefs still have reasonable mathematical chances to make the playoffs. Vermeil was adamant about that. If the Chargers lose and the Steelers lose and all that junk. It has come down to math. The Chiefs got run over on Sunday. Run. Over. And now they have to hope that somebody else is tough enough to do the job for them.
Tread marks on jerseys tell the story
JOE POSNANSKI
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Chiefs defense got run over Saturday. Run. Over. That was not supposed to happen anymore. No, the Chiefs defense has not been great this year, not even good much of the time. Nobody would confuse them with the Steel Curtain or the Iron Curtain or really any sort of metal window dressing.
Still, the Chiefs were supposed to be tougher. At least that. The singular Chiefs quality of the 2000s — the defense’s knack for getting run over like Wile E. Coyote in front of a steamroller — was supposed to be a thing of the past. The Chiefs brought in a tough-guy defensive coordinator. They brought in tough guys to play defense. They started slamming their tough-guy running back behind their tough-guy offensive line.
Toughness was the theme around Arrowhead Stadium.
I’m not going to lie to you. They fooled me. I thought they were tougher.
Saturday, with the season on the line, the Chiefs got run over. Run. Over. No other way to say it. There were tread marks on the Chiefs’ jerseys. There were chalk outlines where tackles should have been made. The New York Giants flattened the Chiefs 27-17 at Giants Stadium. Running back Tiki Barber ran for 220 yards, even though he ran behind two backup tackles.
And there are no illusions left.
I thought this was a team built for December. The Chiefs had played well back-to-back weeks, beating Denver and New England, and it seemed as if a new Chiefs team was coming into focus. This did not look like the high-flying, high-scoring, highfalutin Chiefs that kept scoreboards buzzing, whether on offense or defense.
No. This team seemed to have more substance. More intensity. Larry Johnson was bashing through tacklers. The defense was stuffing the run and coming after the quarterback. There was a new look to the Chiefs, a harder look, and I thought they would be awfully good in December. I really did.
Wow, was I wrong. The new Chiefs are papier-mâché. Last week, they allowed a plodding Dallas Cowboys offense to gain 445 yards. Those Cowboys drove 68 of those yards in the final 3 minutes for the game-winning touchdown. Bad sign.
Saturday, things got much worse. The Giants offense was hardly unpredictable. It was like a “Gilligan’s Island” episode. Their starting tackles were injured. Quarterback Eli Manning tended to look lost in space. Gee, what will they do? All the Giants could hope to do was run and run and run the ball. This seemed a great setup. The Chiefs had not allowed a 100-yard rusher in 20 games, the longest streak in the NFL.
Well, that didn’t mean much. The Giants blew the Chiefs off the ball. The Giants broke out of more holds than Ric Flair. The Giants took the Chiefs’ heart in every way. Offensively, Kansas City’s big, powerful, amazing running back, Larry Johnson, came out on every play even resembling a passing down because he can’t or won’t block. There’s a winning trait for a running back.
Defensively, Sammy Knight set a new single-game record for missed tackles with 93 — 89 of them on one Tiki Barber run.
Of course, it’s not fair to single out Sammy Knight. Everybody missed tackles. Linebacker Kendrell Bell, brought in to be a defensive enforcer, supposedly made three tackles, each of which must have happened while I was looking another way. Patrick Surtain, that Pro Bowl corner, had the same number of solo tackles (one) as crushing, game-changing, stupid personal foul penalties (one).
Linebacker Kawika Mitchell dropped a sure interception that might have changed the whole game. Sure, it would have been a tough catch, and Mitchell has had a very good year. But in the end, the difference between good defenses and bad is simple: The good defenses make plays; the bad defenses do not. Last week, Surtain dropped a sure interception. This week Mitchell dropped one. The Chiefs lost both games.
You can go on and on with this. Tiki Barber set the Giants single-game rushing record, breaking a 55-year-old mark that had been set against the Chicago Cardinals, for crying out loud. So, when it mattered, when it counted, the Chiefs weren’t just bad. They were historically bad, they were Chicago Cardinals bad, they were the kind of bad that led defensive end Jared Allen (who missed his one sack opportunity) to say, “We tackled like a Pop Warner team out there.”
That was the disappointing thing. It wasn’t just the loss. Hey, the Giants are a good team, especially at home. They have their own playoff race. They needed to win, too. But nobody could have expected that the Chiefs would get manhandled, knocked around, pounded into the turf by a Giants team that was missing six starters. They were mashed into pulp by an offensive line flanked by backups.
“We did not have a run defense,” Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil would say after the game. “It was embarrassing.”
Vermeil seemed both befuddled and angry by the Chiefs’ surrender. He talked about how he didn’t even recognize his team out there.
Unfortunately, Chiefs fans did recognize this team: It looked an awful lot like every other Chiefs team of this decade, teams that have had talent and firepower, teams that led the NFL in offensive numbers. But when it mattered, when it counted, those Chiefs got knocked backward. And it happened again Saturday.
So now what? Well, there are still two games left. The Chiefs still have reasonable mathematical chances to make the playoffs. Vermeil was adamant about that. If the Chargers lose and the Steelers lose and all that junk. It has come down to math. The Chiefs got run over on Sunday. Run. Over. And now they have to hope that somebody else is tough enough to do the job for them.