A slightly dumb theory that just popped into my head
 

So we barely played our starters at all and in fact didn't bother to get any of them the ball. No touches for Bowe, Charles, Moeaki....hell we fed the ball to McCluster and Bannon.

Is it possible that the reasoning behind this was:

1. Our team is badly out of practice.

2. Haley will use the remainder of the preseason to play his starters heavily, to get them more practice compared to a normal preseason.

3. He used THIS game to evaluate all the scrubs and backups by playing them heavily and in some cases even starting them.

Basically, game 1 is for all the scrubs. Games 2, 3 and 4 we'll see our starters play into the third quarter and the scrubs won't see much action.

Possible or ludicrous?

No. You're over thinking it. Ludicrous.

I'd call it highly likely. Haley made it pretty clear before the game started that it was nothing more than a practice.

I honestly can't think of a reason not to give Charles a touch in a preseason game other than this.

Yes, but even in practice Charles and Bowe touch the ball, Wiegmann plays, etc.

In games 2 and 3 other teams will be playing their starters more so we'd have our starters playing more against the opponent's starters.

please tell me you are just trying to be sarcastic

I think it was more along the lines of "I want to see how these scrubs do against legit NFL talent to help figure out who should definitely make this team". And also perhaps he wants the starters to get another week of training under their belt before they put their bodies on the line in a game situation.

This also occurred to me.

Tonight was "abuse the third team punching bags and get through this shit without a major injury"

Well of course. They're vets. They want to play preseason games as much as Sneakers O'toole wants to take his sneakers off
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And why risking injury to major players in the first preseason game when you've only had 2 weeks of practice?

I mean you don't even let Cassel throw a pass....not one....pretty clear you don't want him getting hit.

Exactly. We have 3 more games and plenty more camp to get the starters going.

Imagine being a Tampa fan and Freeman goes down after an extended stay in the 1st game of the preseason. Would have been ugly for the franchise. I'm surprised Freeman played as much as he did. Haley played it smart.

i think you're over thinking

I was just happy to see Arrowhead in the Friday night Light spotlight while the team went out and just had some fun

My theory is that they just didn't want anybody hurt.

didn't we go 0-4 in preseason last season? first preseason game, **** it. ZERO CARES

We went 2-2 aksh

given how the lockout messed with regular schedule in terms of camp dates, etc......I would be willing to bet (esp veterans) that none of these players were in football shape by any means and the last thing Haley wanted to do was to get our starters injured. These guys have only been in camp for about a week. If it was a normal offseason players at this point would be eager to hit someone who sports a different logo on their helmet as opposed to constantly hitting eachother in camp. That hasn't been the case, in fact, most practices have been walk throughs and shells.....how many full contact (pads) practices have they had? a couple? No need to get anyone hurt. I bet they're gonna all be sore as shit tomorrow.

I believe the starters jobs tonight was to become Vrabels & mentor. Bowe was anyway. Never found out because the extra ref & who's buying the wine tonight was more important

field position
 

I think Lawrence made a bad decision bringing it out on the opening kickoff, Battle fumbled and we had bad field position the whole first half.



And Haley sat the majority of playmakers on D.

We didn't give Charles many carries last preseason, and I still think we gave him too many. I'm sure he'll get a couple carries in upcoming games, but if they didn't give a touch all preseason I'm not sure I'd be upset with it. The only thing of significance that can happen to him is getting hurt.

Even Charles needs to find some kind of rhythm against full-speed competition. It shouldn't take him more than 4-5 carries total, but it still would be good to get him in

Generally speaking this is how the preseason goes from a FO/Coaching perspective.

Game 1. 1's get MAYBE 2-3 drives maximum, then sit. 2's and 3's split the difference.

Game 2. 1's get 2-3 drives, including the first showing of "superstar" talent and "rested" players from game 1. 2's and 3's get the remainder of the game to shake down the rest of the roster in terms of depth.

Game 3. 1's and 2's play ~2 quarters worth of football, usually with the 1's taking the first quarter and a half to themselves, sometimes a full 2 quarters.

Game 4, majority of the 1's sit or play 1-2 drives. "solid" 2's play 3-4 drives and sit. 3's and bubble 2's play the rest of the game.


It had crossed my mind tonight after the 2nd or 3rd drive that perhaps Haley was setting up this game to be "rough" for the young guys while protecting his legitimate 1st teamers and not really playing anyone who has a solid role or needs time to grow, or to get up to speed.

But, we looked pretty atrocious all around. Hard to tell with how bad the line played tonight.

1-3 wasn't it? Including a loss to Tampa Bay I believe.

I hope Charles doesn't get more than 5 carries the entire pre-season.

Then why play him at all?

Do what the Patriots did with Brady in their first preseason game and bench him with some BS injury.

Rhythm, confidence, repetition.

He's not Tom Brady :P

The true story of last night and my biggest fear is the abortion of a OL we are throwing out there.

I am just fine with everything. No reason that Charles needs a carry in any preseason game other than maybe the third game. He's not going to forget how to run.

There was nothing about this "game" that was going to be fun or interesting (unless you were dying to see Jackie Battle and Dexter McCluster carry the ball). Haley went in with the mindset that he wasn't going to allow any starter to get injured. Even in practice, there isn't game-type hitting going on. So, Cassel didn't attempt a pass, Charles didn't touch the ball, Bowe and Co. blocked for McCluster.

I bet that next week will be more like a preseason game. I can't imagine that Haley even wanted to play this game at all. With other teams playing their starters, there is much more risk of getting injured.

The only thing that I saw (and I only watched the first three series) was how our o-line and d-line were getting pwned. I paid such little attention to the game that I don't even know if we threw our starting lines out there, but whoever was out there looked atrocious. It was an interesting contrast...Freeman was running play action fakes while we were handing the ball off to our 4th string running back.

Last night was sizing up the bottom of our roster and getting our guys conditioned, nothing more. I wouldn't be surprised if the next game was more of the same. It's ugly, but I think it ultimately is best for the team.

Nobody likes to see your team get its ass totally kicked like that even in preseason. But, it was understandable, given that we played beyond vanilla and didn't have any starters (for the most part) in the game at all. It's not like Haley can say "Yeah, we're really not going to bother trying at all, we're just getting through this stupid game". They still want people to come out, even in pre-season. Once I saw the first series and no playmakers at all...I knew I was in for what may be the worst preseason game ever.

My only thing is, how can you possibly evaluate the rookies if they are just getting abused by first stringers? It's like the whole thing was a big waste of everyone's time...

Yup. From what I saw, I don't think I've ever anything this bad...outside of a practice. But, I just kept telling myself that it basically was a practice.

It does concern me somewhat that because of how slowly Haley is breaking everyone in, that in 4 weeks this team will not be ready.

We got 90 people on our roster.

Yesterday's game was for players 20 through 90.

It's that simple.

You're wrong about Game 3. Starters and key 2's will play the entire first half, and the beginning of the third qtr. Game 3 is the conditioning game. See how players warm up after cooling down at halftime...how does the body respond. Game 3 is also the game planning game for coaches...including adjustments at the half.

All I needed to know about the game was Quinten Lawrence was key in the game plan. I saw him everywhere, and they kept calling his name on the broadcast. Any game that features Quinten Lawrence, is meaningless, except to Quinten Lawrence and his mother.

There's really no reason for this thread because Haley said himself that he was treating this game like a practice. What's to discuss but how the second and third string did Friday night?

Heh. I was amazed at how many names I completely didn't even recognize. I found myself chuckling a bit at how the announcers were sucking off the Bucs like they were world beaters against our water boys.

Yup(but why not have a thread)
The only reason the starters saw any "action" at all was because of fan appreciation night.

The announcers, at the end of the game seemed to reach the conclusion that the Bucks are an up and coming team that no one will want to play, and that the Chiefs were lucky last year, and will come back to earth this year. But, they are the NFC crew.

I heard Howie Long give a lil props to the Chiefs and just about fell outa my chair.

Exactly. Haley's deception plan is working perfectly....

Muahahahaha!!

Didn't I just say that? Quarter and a half to 2 quarters for the 1's?

Predominantly you play between 2-2 1/2 quarters with your 1's in the 3rd game, but with the new CBA and shortened off season I don't think we'll see our 1's in past the half.

This game was not practice for the Bucs-they came in like it was the Super Bowl,

20 point lead and they still had their starting QB in there and were Blitzing Every down. They spanked us.