Teicher: Cassel says he’s preparing as if he’ll play against Rams
 

Cassel says he’s preparing as if he’ll play against Rams
By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star

Left at home in Kansas City to watch on TV the Chiefs’ miserable performance in San Diego, Matt Cassel had that sinking feeling he said he never wanted to experience again.

Toward that end, Cassel said he would prepare this week as if he would quarterback the Chiefs in Sunday’s game against the Rams in St. Louis.

“That’s why I’m here,” said Cassel, who was with his teammates at the Chiefs’ practice facility Monday as they reviewed the San Diego game. “I’ll do what I normally do. It will be a normal week of preparation. It will be a better week for me.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean Cassel, who had an appendectomy last Wednesday, will play against the Rams. The Chiefs don’t hold their first practice of the week until Wednesday, and the first public indication of whether Cassel will play would probably come then.

Until then, all Cassel can do is remain hopeful.

“I honestly can’t say,” he said about his recovery process. “They just said day-to-day. It’s all about reviewing it each and every day, seeing my progress and how I feel, everything like that. I don’t think it’s anything set in stone.”

The Chiefs left Cassel behind when they went to San Diego. They didn’t want to subject him to the rigors of travel since he wasn’t going to play.

They suffered one of the most lopsided losses in franchise history in their 31-0 loss to the Chargers. With Brodie Croyle playing quarterback, the Chiefs didn’t convert on any of their 11 third-down tries and neared team-record lows with 67 yards and five first downs.

“That was more of a medical staff/coaching staff/training staff decision,” Cassel said. “I would have loved to go and been on the plane, but they made the decision very clear that they wanted me to stay and rest and be off my feet as much as possible.”

The Chiefs played so poorly, it couldn’t have made much of a difference whether they were quarterbacked by Croyle or Cassel. Between the Chiefs’ worst rushing game of the season, constant pass-rush pressure on Croyle and several dropped passes, nothing worked offensively.

The Chiefs thought they didn’t give Croyle a chance and were disappointed about that.

“We should have come through for Brodie,” running back Jamaal Charles said. “Things just got out of control.

“It wasn’t even about Matt. Some people have to step up, step their game up. It’s football, and guys didn’t step up. I didn’t step up. We didn’t step up as a team on offense.”

Guard Brian Waters said, “We didn’t do what we needed to do as a football team to make his job easier.”

A more urgent issue for the Chiefs now is whether they can do those things for Croyle if he plays in St. Louis. The 8-5 Chiefs are trying to protect their one-game lead over San Diego in the AFC West.

“I have the utmost confidence in our players, in Brodie,” coach Todd Haley said. “He’s disappointed because he’s worked awfully hard.

“Of all the players on our team, the backup quarterback is the one that really hasn’t gotten to play much at all. So he got an opportunity, and I know he wanted it to go better. But make no mistake, it was (the fault of) an 11-man offensive operation and it was not Brodie Croyle. That was not the difference. It didn’t matter who was in there (at quarterback). The result was not going to be good.”

Kansas City’s conservative game plan made it appear the Chiefs lacked confidence in Croyle. Despite the fact the Chiefs fell behind early and never caught the Chargers, Croyle tried just 17 passes before he was pulled from the lineup in favor of Tyler Palko late in the game

Haley defended the game plan and the play-calling.

“When you have a guy that hasn’t played quarterback in an extended amount of time, I don’t think you can just plug him in and expect him to do the job,” he said. “That’s not going to happen very often.

“We were unable to get any kind of rhythm going offensively that would have enabled Brodie to have a chance to succeed.”

Oh no you don't just ask acesn8s and Zilla, it was all Brodie. Haley should give em so they can straighten him out

Especially with handcuffs on.

WTF have they been doing with the back up QB preparation for the last two years?

The starter could go down at any time, WTF?!

Well, putting Brodie on the leash resulted in playcalling that had Herm Edwards needing to buy stock in Kleenex.

Id love to know the thinking behind being worried about your QB performance on passing downs, and then only allowing him to throw on the most blatantly obvious downs after the first 2 downs were runs for minimal gain. Yeah, thats gonna work out awesome.

I guess its a good thing we have all those bubble screen plays for 3rd and forever, right Charlie?


If the Chiefs had not been so effing predictable on offense, they might have broken 100 yards offensively. Hell, they might have even converted at least one third down.

This is the kind of shit that happens when you take on the top ranked defense and everyone in the stadium knows the play before its even called in the huddle. You dont get jack shit. We were +2 or 3 in the turnover battle, I cant remember which and it didnt make a damn bit of difference.

Its just mind boggling to think that we won the turnover battle on the road and could not only not get any points, but couldnt even get a first down.


You know what.... F it. I cant explain it any better than my favorite press conference coach, Jim Mora.

Wallcrawler, you and I must have been watching the same game. Blows me away how some people saw it different.

This contradicts Weis, who said the offense would not change.

why couldn't they have done those screen play's on first or second down a few times to slow down that pass rush!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sanity.

what about the other 52 men? After last week I hope they are preparing as well too....

I know , Its such bull crap. Jacksonville can pull a farmer off a tractor in a weeks time and the guy plays a dam good game. I didn't see them handcuff him.

Well, all the other bullshit aside, I like the fact that the players aren't pointing fingers.

Yeah, if they turn him loose, what is the worst than can happen? Lose the game?
At least it probably wouldn't been a whitewashing shutout like it was.

Agreed, they do sound like a team, one for all, all for one.

Exactly. And another team that comes to mind is the Steelers, who have had considerable success over the years with backups. I blame alot of last weeks offensive mess on the coaching. Haley can defend the coaching all he wants but alot of its on them.

Yeah. In fact most seem more than willing to accept their share of the blame.

Haley didnt sound right at all on the radio last night. Dude answered questions like hed been horse whipped.