My thoughts on the game last night
 

There were a few spots that I look back too and think that we did ourselves in. First off, the guys came out nervous as a mother****er and made some silly mistakes. LOTS of dropped passes early on (Avery anyone?) that could've and would've changed the momentum and feel of the game right out of the gate. You come out fired up, and not scared and who knows how the game plays out right from the start?

Why on Earth would we want to put the ball in the hands of the weakest unit of our team to start a game? Win the toss, defer and let your ****ing defense try to create some field position for you to start the game. Use your strengths to your advantage! Get the ****ing crowd out of it a tad with a big 3 and out to open the game, and try to put yourself in a position to have a 60 yard field instead of an 80 yard field with the crowd in full throat. I know the crowd would've been loud anyways, but seriously, who here wouldn't have played D to start off with the choice?

Turning the ball over directly after creating a redzone opportunity for ourselves was the beginning of the end and none of us really knew it at the time. Talk about shooting yourselves in the foot. We've talked all year how unpredictable turnovers are, and we all know this team was 9-0 directly because of their abilities to not only create those opportunities, but the fact that we were very good at protecting the ball. It was a fluke deal, and completely out of the blue, but the timing was pitiful and deflated our entire offense. Between the drops and that untimely fumble, I never saw any fire out of our offense the rest of the night. I mean there wasn't much before, but that completely took the sail out of our winds.

Kicking an 18 yd FG in Denver, against Peyton Manning. Uhh, what? Who the **** does that? Take your ****ing chances and pound that ball up their asses for the 4th straight time! I was livid over that last night. I know in a lot of situations when you have a defense like ours, and more importantly an offense like ours, you have to take points anytime you can get them. Not against a goddamned record setting offense like Peyton's Broncos. You have to score TD's when you're inside the ****ing 5, and you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get them. I would've rather flamed out right there, and at least went after it. We knew we were giving up more than 17 last night. My thoughts the whole week was to hold them under 30 and create some opportunities on offense. That one swing would've made the game 27-21 with 5 minutes left to play.

Demps totally had a read on the pass he jumped, and he should've taken that ball to the house. He flat out missed it, and it cost us. That would've shifted the momentum to us, and fired up our front 7 coming right back on the field. That one play alone, while there were a few that were gamechangers, was the one that I think would have won us the game had we made it. We had a lot of our own shortcomings to overcome, but had he made that play I honestly think we win the game. Not gonna ride the young man too much here, I think he made a good play on the ball and I'm impressed he read it so perfectly, but you have to convert on those rare golden opportunities.

If Jamaal Charles breaks that carry and doesn't stumble, he goes to the house. No one was going to catch him. I will never give him shit for stumbling on a play, because most of the time he will take that ball to the house. It is however a Goddamned shame that the one time he flubs up is in primetime, on the road in Denver in the biggest game of their lives because that was another turning point where we didn't capitalize. Does anyone think he gets caught if he keeps his feet and momentum running down the sidelines?

If any one of us had been told we would hold Denver to under 30 points we would've taken it, and ran with it. What if we were told we could hold them to 20? I blame the last TD they scored on some of the shittiest, most vanilla play calling I've ever seen in a big game like this in the 3rd quarter last night. Our D is holding them to consecutive 3 and outs and we can't get any kind of game going at all. Just a couple of first downs in that stretch and our D probably doesn't let Peyton slice through us like a stick of butter to end the 3rd quarter. And that was the game changer. Yeah, the FG that made it a 3 possession game put the nail in our coffin, but having multiple opportunities to go and tie the game up, or at least pull us within 4 would've been a huge lift to the D and kept them playing inspired defense.

All in all, this game wasn't even close. They handled us in their house on primetime television. But they didn't blow us out. And they didn't beat us nearly as much as we beat ourselves. Things aren't always going to go your way, and you won't get all the bounces like we had in every game leading up to last night. It felt like all of it caught up with us. How these guys respond next week back at home will make a big statement on what our playoff chances look like, and whether or not we can snap the playoff losing streak. That's my biggest deal. I really didn't expect to make the playoffs this year, and if we can just win a damned playoff game I will call the whole season a miracle. That said, if we continued doing what we had done all year, and capitalized on other team's mistakes, and our own opportunities, we all wake up feeling amazing about our 10-0 team.

The rematch in KC is going to be a HUGE game and the entire Nation will be tuned in again. We still control our own destiny, and even though we weren't close last night, I still feel better about this team than I honestly thought I was going too this morning. They have the ability, and talent to make a pretty good run in the playoffs. We all know how they respond this week however is going to dictate how the rest of the season and that run goes though. Watching a team react to it's first loss is always interesting. Having it come this late in the year is the difference between a Super Bowl run, and an epic collapse. We've seen both in the NFL in recent years, I'll be curious how this Chiefs team plays out. We could easily go down in history either way...

Edit: 1 more thing. I'm not jumping Marcus Cooper's shit. Someone on this defense has given up a long play every single week it seems like. Last night he gave up a couple of big plays. Not the end of the world, and he's still overachieving like a mother****er. His entire season, and acquisition feels like a huge gift. Let's not get down on him too much considering who he is, the role he plays, and how he's done as a whole up to this point. He has a big future ahead of him in red and gold.

Good write up. We shouldn't have let the offense in early. And that fumble pooped us.
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I have a bigger problem with the early offensive play calling than i do with choosing to receive.

I just hate how Reid always chooses to receive. Pisses me off.

Worst thing was Manning not getting touched. I mean, c'mon... I don't care what QB is playing... a defense can not allow that to happen.

The 3 failed runs inside the 5, or it would have been 17-14 instead of 17-10. FB fumble.. drops.. lots of stuffed runs IIRC.

Could have been much worse.. could have been much better.

Avery's drop.

Sherman's fumble.

Charles' drop on the screen at approx the 10 yard line that was wide open for a TD.

If people just hold on to the ball, we're probably in position to win the game - to say nothing of all the other drops or shoulda-caughts

Charles' drop doesnt mean anything.

Like 2 plays later Bowe pushed off and scored a TD.

Maybe McCluster was the one I was thinking of?

Nah, you shouldn't be, IMHO. It was a lot to ask of KC to win at Denver. It's disappointing that they had so many offensive miscues... disappointing that Manning never got touched... but the NFL is a marathon.. not a 40 yd dash.

Same as it's been all year long... OL issues are what is holding this offense back the most.

Yep. Thru the first 9 games all those bad breaks went our way. Last night was the exact opposite.
You think maybe teams have figured out the defensive scheme a bit? Maybe it's time to shake things up a little?

I thought the Chiefs played pretty well last night from what I saw...
I think the Chiefs are better than I gave them credit for, Maybe a playoff win but probably the 4th best team in the AFC right now

yep, and Bowe had a couple drops that were criminal bad. The one thing I noticed was how timidly the defense played & tackled compared with the Denver defense. Denver's D was bringing a load just about every time they made contact.

They shut Poe down too. That was a major player in this loss imo.

1. Drops, Drops, and more Drops. Our receivers EXCEPT McGrath can't hold on to the ball. At least 4-5 very catchable balls we dropped

2. Mistakes and Penalties. The blocking in the back by Avery AWAY from the play that cost Charles a big run was a killer. The Sherman fumble was horrific.

3. Bad O Play Calling again. Why oh why didn't we try to throw the ball at least one time on the first and goal at the two??? That was really stupid and made me so pissed.

4. Terrible route running. Our guys looked like they were in quicksand and get NO separation ever. Just pathetic....

5. No pressure or hits on Manning. The guy had a squeaky clean uniform and he even made a potential TD saving tackle on DJ's fumble recovery.

6. Special teams. They sucked balls tonight.

Overall I'm not surprised or mad just very disappointed.

With an offense as weak as ours, I'm not sure we can go much further....

The thing that really concerns me to this point is the passrush.

Like, WTF happened to it?

I know Peyton Manning is tough to sack and gets rid of the ball quickly but we barely touched him. At least hit the guy.

Anyway, my point is its not just this game, but this is a trend thats been going on for 4 or 5 games now where we haven't been getting to the QB and it is a cause for concern.

What do we have 1 sack in 3 games? Thats pathetic. This defense needs to turn it loose or find a way to get to the QB or else our season will go down in a hurry. The strength of this team really is the passrush. Hali and Houston were owned yesterday.

Denver is the best team in the league, and failing to win at their house is not that surprising for any team.

We played somewhat better than I expected. The defense wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but the offense wasn't as bad as I feared. Alex Smith for the most part played pretty well. Without the butterfingers stuff from our receivers happening all throughout the game we might have had a game that went down to the last 2 minutes.

We've got problems on offense, but the best thing to do is stay off the planet during the game and just watch and enjoy it for what it is. We're having a good year and the future looks good too.

Peyton did do his homework here, I agree.

Denver eventually had great success running at Devito's replacement. It was demoralizing and reminded me how much improved this team had become simply replacing Glenn Dorsey with a guy that could actually play the 34RDE position.

100% agree on deferring. The crowd would have been half as loud if the Broncos had a 3 and out.

There's a lot of putting lipstick on a pig in this thread!

Can I ask a question about the Demps play?

What was he expecting? He broke on the ball, but he did so behind Thomas. The ball would have had to go through Thomas for Demps to catch it. Usually when a DB breaks on a pass like that, they do it in front of the receiver, things tend to work out better that way.

I don't normally complain about the refs.....but they were ****ing horrible last night. With that in mind....we beat ourselves.

Manning was getting rid of the ball in 1.75 seconds. No defense can get there like that.

Couple things...Manning was afraid of our pass rush which is why he got rid of the ball so fast. If you noticed, any time we made him hold the ball he threw a bad pass because he knew we were going to hit him otherwise so there is that.

Secondly our offense just choked too may times. We beat the Broncos if we don't turn it over and catch the damn ball.

Can't win them all and this is what a loss looks like, turnovers, dropped passes, penalties, inconsistent QB play

I still think that illegal block in the back call on Avery is what changed the game last night. JC’s nice run, and good field position, was wiped out on that call. Then Smith takes a bad sack, the O does nothing and we punt. Should have walked away with at least 3 points on that drive.

Funny how we never saw a replay on that call. :hmmm:

Sherman's fumble was at least a 10 point swing in a 10 point game. Biggest moment of the game even though it came early.

Honestly five factors caused us to lose last night.

1. Turning the ball over in scoring position right after a big turnover.

2. Receivers couldn't seem to catch.

3. Lack of a pass rush on Manning.

4. Poor play calling inside the five yard line. We settled for a FG instead of a TD.

5. Cooper was a rookie, we knew it, Manning knew it and he was exploited. Not hating on the kid as he has been lights out all season, but games like last night will happen from time to time with any rookie.

Most thought they would get blown out by Denver, but it just didn't happen. This is a credit to the team and the coaches.

On the turnover, we failed to score and Denver drove down the field and scored a TD. That was a 10 point minimum swing (we lost by 10).

Had we been more aggressive with the ball inside the five we probably score a TD instead of a FG and that is an extra four points.

In essence, we left 11 points on the field, we lost by 10. This is also conceding the Denver TD off of our TO. Had they not scored a TD, we hypothetically win 24-20 or 28-20. This game was much closer than we thought.

On the first long play that the Donks made against Cooper, Thomas pushed off big time. I can't fault Cooper for that.

Del Rio was boasting that Manning didn't get touched.

I think only Romeo and a few others can own Manning.

Hard to fault Cooper for last night, but bottom line, plays like that are going to happen. I fault the DC for not shading safety help towards him. Everyone knew Manning would exploit that matchup and he did just that.

Give Donks credit. They went after the ball.

On the other side....Flowers and Smith did a damn good job last night. Cooper will only get better.

We definitely beat ourselves last night. No doubt.

PS- Our Wrs blow

Or give Sherman the blame for not covering up the ball after the first hit when it was clear that he was not going to get many more yards.

:LOL: LMAO :LOL: :)

Play calling, drops, play calling, penalties, play calling.

Penalties
Kansas City 9-53
Denver 13-82

They actually had 4 more and another 30 yards of flags. I don't know where because all I saw were the horrible holds in the first half against Hali-even Collingsworth laughed when Denver's lineman had hali in a choke hold! :banghead:

Pretty much this. But I'll add that Alex Smith can't throw on the run at all, and checking down to the running back behind the line of scrimmage with less than a minute left and down 10 points kinda says it all.

Collinsworth was cracking me up. When Smith checked that ball down he was like "I ... don't have anything else to say." Then the next play "Just throw it!"

I am not worried one bit.

1. Refs called it tight, but very close to fair in my book. At Arrowhead, I guarantee that they are going to let us play our game on defense.

2. We threw down field a lot more, and guys were open. If our WR's catch balls that hit them in the hands we are going to be just fine.

3. THIS IS YEAR ONE!

Putting so much trust in a 7th round corner killed us. I love Cooper but Thomas is a fringe top 5 WR.

Also I loved Flowers just bullying Welker, even if he did probably lose the matchup

This is my favorite part, and it can't be stated enough

things that are clear to me:

Offensive Line:
1. The Chiefs interior OL is average / slightly below average. Routinely give up the battle for LOS on both run and pass plays. They allow pressure with a lot of vanilla DL schemes.
2. Fisher – it’s hit and miss with this guy. I sincerely hope it’s a matter being indoctrinated into the NFL. I’m also concnered that ‘if’ he’s having trouble adapting to the right side with any sort of success, that it will be worse if Albert walks and he moves to the left. I’m concerned with him playing at LT considering he’s good for at least 3-5 speed rushes that go right by him on the right side, all the while facing teams’ non-speed rushers.

WR Corps
1. We do not have talented WR corps. As a unit, we are average / slightly below average
2. We do not have a legitimate receiver that worries any secondary of getting beat deep.
3. Our WRs are not able to get separation with any consistency. Not good for the 4-7 yard timing West Coast Offense / YAC routes. Add in the fact that our QB is does not throw to anything but wide-open WRs makes our passing game weak. We need to be able to hit receivers when they’re open by NFL standards.
4. Our WRs as a unit are inconsistent in catching passes. They’re like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re gonna get
5. The overall speed of our WR corps are mediocre. This isn’at ‘as big’ of a problem as it would seem as a blanket statement. However, the lack of seperation and YAC make it a legitimate concern in this offense.

Secondary
1. Kendrick Lewis – was routinely a step or two late in his assignments. I really want to like the guy, but I don’t think he’s cut out for the position. But, it is what it is this season.
2. Concerned with opposing WRs getting behind our CBs by a step or two on a somewhat routine basis. ‘If you’re even, you’re leavin’” as they would say. Compound this with Lewis’ reaction time and play recognition make me hold my breath when opposing QBs toss the 30+ yd passes.
3. Cooper – first time on the ‘big stage’ for him I believe. He’s a hell of a pickup and I think will continue to improve. He’s tackled the learning curve with surprising results. I think he’ll take a few lessons away from this game. He definitely needs to improve in the home stretch of the season; particularly against San Diego and Denver in the upcoming weeks.

Offensive Play Calling / QB / Etc
1. Overall predictability
2. Not built to come from behind more than probably 13+ points. Mistake free football and excellent defense will let the offense succeed, but their margin for error is very small
3. Seems apparent that our plan for big gains in the passing game is geared around screens in one way or another. This is probably necessary due to the WR issues above.

-Dayze The Couch Potato Scout

I really, really hate that this concept has seemingly een removed from the PB.

http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c191...in%20Route.png

A staple of the E/P but used by most systems, incredibly effective with Bowe (due to his physical abilities) and is absolutely nowhere to be found.

I miss the Razor concept.

:clap: Well said!

Everyone needs to remember point # 3. Just to be on this stage NOW is quite an accomplishment. NOBODY was supposed to even be in a position to challenge Denver this year. We ARE.

They were after the damage had already been done. Personal fouls, holding etc. I've already had a few Manning dick sucker Bronco fans at work point out that they were actually penalized more and they were. However, it's not so much how many penalties as it is when you get them. KC got them in critical situations that took momentum away. It's all part of the game...Regardless, with better play on our end, the game was there for the taking.

No, but Tamba sure did. He was in a choke hold by their Tackles all night...

Nice write up Flopnuts.

Things I took away from last night:
1. The obvious ones, penalties and drops killed them.
2. Zero pass rush. I realize Denver's line is good, but not even a SACK? When they KNEW that that's how you stop Manning?!? The defensive pressure on opposing QB's has been on the decline in the last several weeks, but this was pathetic. Manning's averaging 2.7 seconds from snap to throw, but I can only think of 1 pressure when Houston bullrushed his blocker.
3. Alex Smith played well, he took a bonehead sack to take us out of FG range, but I definitely think had he had some help from his WRs/RBs in the passing game, the game would have been closer. McCluster's circus catch on the sideline was awesome though.
4. IMO WR is the top priority this offseason.

I'm not as upset today as I have been in the past, perhaps it's because I believe in Reid and Dorsey and I think they will bring this team back to glory. I hope Reid and Sutton light a fire under the passrushers collective ass for SD and I hope they come out pissed off and hungry.

I thought there was a blatant missed holding call on Bowe on a key 3rd down.

Hali was held all night long.

You're correct regarding Bowe. It was a killer non call. What's frustrating was it was so obvious and occurred at the worst possible time. Reid was PISSED.

Hali was in a choke hold all night.

I hear you on the pass rush, but it was by design. KC rarely blitzed and routinely sent 4. The plan was to get pressure on Manning by only sending 4 and it didn't work as Denver always had more blockers. Once they knew it wasn't going to work. they should have sent more IMO. I think I heard them say that KC only blitzed 6 times the whole game...

I liked how the refs kept calling defensive holding when it was pass interference and then as the game went on they decided to not call either.

I hate to get on a guy for attempting to get more yards but that one was a head scratcher. I mean, not only was he completely stopped with his legs wrapped up, he also had his back to the line of scrimmage.

At that point you either need to just to down or at the very least both hands need to be on the ball. He was asking to get mollywhopped on that play.

DAMN MAN I was YELLING at the TV saying the same thing! :LOL:
I swear I almost had a stroke on that 3rd down Bowe non-call. Kc was FINALLY moving the ball on a very critical drive. I know missed calls are part of the game, but you don't "miss" that call at that time... :shake:

Yeah but there's a helluva lot of other denver players who I gurantee are feeling it this morning.

Like Welker! ROFL

Flowers made him his Old-Spice Soap Dropping Little Bitch!

This is something I noticed a few times, and in some other Donkey game this year. They seem to have mastered the fact that the refs are not going to call the push off 10 yards down field before the ball has been thrown.

How much real bumping were our corners doing, because even unblocked rushers couldn't get to Manning before the ball was out of his hand.

Hey, those are ten things! Who has time to read ten things????

LMAO

We are the team that beats you up so badly that you will lose the next week.

Seattle is the same way.

The offense was atrocious last night, biggest reason we lost the game by far. We needed Donnie Avery to catch that strike on the opening drive, that would have changed the whole game. Sherman, unforgivable fumble. Our D looked terrible in the first half and really struggled with the run the whole game, we shouldn't allow either of those absolute scrubs break the line of scrimmage against us, and it ultimately failed us when the got to the redzone and still were able to run. 17 points allowed in the first half was bad, and not putting that old man on the ground was even worse, all in all the fact that we played so bad and only lost like 10 almost feels like a victory for me. We still control our destiny.

What about push-offs like the blatant one by Bowe in the endzone for a TD after the laughable "taunting" call?

This team is should draft a wide receiver in the first, third, and fourth round and sign two free agent tight ends.

Both teams got away with pushoffs. The game was very evenly officiated, and anyone complaining about refs on either side is being a bitch.

Yep.


Officiating was even for the most part.

with their first round pick in the 2014 draft, the Kansas City Chiefs select - Jimbo Farts, offensive guard/center/tackle out of the University of Division 2 Blah Blah MAC Conference.

Bowe did push off, and your guy DID taunt. That's why Del Rio pulled his ass off the field immediately.

And the push off kinda evens up Hali being held all night with no calls, so, that's a "push" so to speak...

Peeholi says he has big upside!

And honestly Colquitt's worst game as a pro. He played pathetic lastnight and almost had as many touchbacks lastnight as the entire season. Terrible game Dustin, I'm sure the little guy was on his mind but get your shit together.

Calls are made and missed on both sides in every game. I thought it was called tighter than most games, but it was pretty even.

You'd have to be an idiot to think the referees played a role in the outcome

If I was Hali, I'd be in the refs face every play saying, "I'm getting held every snap, can you please watch for this raping?"...

But Hali never seems to say a word... and never gets the call.

With the state of our offensive line, a bottom third of the 1st round interior line pick would suit me just fine.

There was a play n the second half where it was so obvious that it was ridiculous. The Rent-A-QB overthrew it or it would have been a very long gain, but Thomas strongly and overtly shoved Cooper back as the ball was in the air. No call.

Agreed, however...IMO, the defense played well enough to win.

I'm not concerned about the push-offs. All receivers do that and they rarely get called. It would be nice if they would call the illegal picks that Denver constantly runs on offense. However, the league once changed the rules so that Manning could get a ring, so they aren't going to call those now.

I thought the coaches coached scared. They frequently only rushed three on defense and the dbs played off the receivers quite often instead of jamming them. Also, kicking the FG instead of going for the TD was timid. The thing that killed me was punting from the Denver 40 down by two TDs. I pretty much fast-forwarded the game after that because I knew it was over.

That should have been called a foul on Bowe, did anyone here say anything different? What are you feeling on the two bear hug holding on third and forth down on him that were not called? As for the flag for taunting, I'm guessing he said something pretty bad that the ref deemed well over the line because nobody threw too much of a fit.

I'm feeling that the game was called evenly.

If taunting was called on every play where there was a DB getting in a WR's face or vice versa there would be 100 taunting calls a game.

He shouldn't have called Charles' mom a "**** pig."

Their A game beat our B

I think there was something very specific said in that conversation, it wasn't just that he was talking smack, he probably said something very inappropriate to get that flag.