Maclin's clearly not the same guy. I don't think he fell of the cliff in terms of physical presence or age but mentally, he's just not home this year.

I hope he recovers mentally before the playoffs but even if it takes him until 2017 to return to form, I think we should all greatly appreciate the effort he put into the offseason with Conley and Wilson.

Conley is leaps and bounds ahead of where he was last year and I don't think that's by accident.

Maclin, however, is run blocking like a mother****ing man right now. Maclin destroys his guy on run plays and screens to his side. I don't think he's ever been a "bad" blocker, but he's upped his game there this year.

Conley is so, so close to being the #2 guy we've needed to go along with our #1 receiving threat. I really wish he would have kept his feet on that wide open play he had down the sideline. I wanted to see his speed kick into gear by outrunning the safety to the endzone.

Another throw from Foles into blown coverage where he didn't really make a great throw. If he puts it out there just a little more, Conley's untouched for a score.

True. I'll give Foles a bit of a pass due to rust on that throw, but that was a gimme he should hit.

Man, that Indy defense is rotten taint.

Here's the thing though: I don't know if anyone can label it "rust" or a pattern.

He was downright awful last year with Rams. Now, the Rams are an awful team with little offensive talent outside of Gurley and Austin and they're extremely vanilla in terms of play calling but Foles was just bad. So bad, he was beat out by Case Keenum, who is beyond awful.

I think Foles signed with KC because he needed to get back to basics, work on his mechanics and decision making. He looked much better yesterday than he did in the preaseason but he still missed on some of his throws.

I expect Smith to miss at least one game but as we've seen with the concussion protocol, he could miss as many as four or five. It's just hard to predict. But if the Chiefs are to beat good teams like Denver and Atlanta and even Carolina, all on the road, Foles will need to hit more of those passes than he misses.

Back to Dee Ford, his turnaround has been really reminiscent of when DJ suddenly became a good player.

I remember how down on him we all were and then almost by magic he turned into something great. I really hope we are witnessing that with Dee Ford.

11 in 14 games? Yeah i believe he's arrived. This team is also 15-2 in the last 17 :eek:

Not really.

DJ was starting, he just wasn't playing well. The defense changed and suddenly he exploded. There's a chance he'd have never developed to this level if we stayed in a 4-3. I doubt it, but it could've happened.

Ford, OTOH, simply wasn't playing because he was behind two all-timers. Houston has HoF talent and Hali's probably still getting to 100 sacks. No shame in sitting behind those guys.

People that quit on DJ quit because he was playing poorly. People that quit on Ford quit because they just couldn't hold their wad. Ford wasn't getting to play at all.

I thought DJ turned it around before our defense changed but I could be misremembering that.

But yeah some players need to get time in. Crazy how that works.

DJ's breakout season was 2010, his sixth year in the league

Yeah, and it was Todd Haley of all people who got in his head and got him going.

He looked in '07 like he might be turning the corner but it was becoming increasingly obvious by '09 that the 4-3 just wasn't going to let him capitalize on his talents.

He really has had a remarkable career in that he's essentially had 2 fairly long, extremely distinct periods. Not many guys stay stuck in neutral until they're in their late 20s only to explode and then maintain that level. Oh sure, some have a freakish hot season (usually a contract year) and then regress back to their old standard of performance.

But how many guys wait that long and then find a new normal that is a legit all-pro caliber player?

DJ and Ford really aren't that similar. DJ's story is actually going to be far FAR less common.

And Romeo Crennel, who he saw as a father figure

That's not what Chiefshrink told me. He said that it was common for young guys like Dadi and Ehinger to bulk up a lot during the season.