ChiefsPlanet - Chiefs Ten Things About Today's Game

Ten Things About Today's Game

10. I called my good pal Gary this morning. Hadn't talked with him for awhile. We were talking about how the past few days was one of the worst in memory for us as sports fans. First, K-State (our adopted Big 12 team) loses on Thursday. Royals get bitch slapped on Friday. Royals get Yosted on Saturday. Mizzou chokes badly Saturday afternoon. KU actually wins -sorry Beakers, when Mizzou loses and KU wins at football, it's an especially dark and depressing day. So with the dawn of a new day, I thought I'd talk to my good friend because I respect his opinion and he usually cheers me up. Here's how good a friend Gary is. We've been going to games together since the mid 1970s. We stood in the driving rain together all night long in 1985 waiting in line to buy World Series tickets. In 1987 we drove his car to Canton to see Len Dawson go in the Pro Football HOF. He got in a bad car wreck under the "Welcome to Illinois" sign in East St. Louis. We drove all the way to Canton, Ohio and back to KC with the front of his car totally smashed in and one headlight left barely working. We went to Cooperstown in 1999 to see George Brett go into the MLB HOF. We've sat in 100 degree heat, the freezing rain, and bitter cold in Arrowhead for the last 40 years. We've been on Chiefs roadies to San Fran, LA, Dallas, Chicago and other places. In other words, I like to get his opinion on things. "So, whaddya think?" I asked him. He said "They're gonna win." I said "You are completely bat shit crazy." He said "I know, but I have a feeling they're due." I said "They're missing seven starters and they're 2-8 lifetime in Miami." He said "They're gonna win." So, major kudos to my friend Gary. Sometimes the gut feeling is the best feeling, and he had the gut feeling. And what a great day. Royals win. Donks lose, Chiefs win -and in fairly convincing fashion. Lots of good bad and ugly, today, so let's get with it.

9. The Good: Knile Davis. He looked a lot like LJ in his prime -sans the bad attitude and spitting on women. During the game, the announcers said "Mid-80's very humid in Florida, gonna test the endurance of both teams." Games like that is where you POUND THE ROCK. I mean pound it. I mean go Hard Core Marty Ball. Andy Reid has a hard time going full tilt Marty Ball, because he loves to throw the football. He can't help it. He's just as hard headed as Marty was, except about throwing vs. running the ball. Once they committed to the run in the 2nd quarter, Davis started gashing The Fish. People forget how fast he is. Remember his 107 yard kickoff return vs. Denver last year? The guy can burn, and he has great balance and drives for extra yardage. He also tends to lose track of the football -which we'll cover when we get to "bad." But his 132 yards on 32 carries -that's right, 32 damn carries- that was the engine that made it run today.

8. More Good: Travis Kelce gets his first TD. This guy may never be Tony G, but he's off to a good start. He has great YAC skills. He is sneaky fast, and breaks tackles. I could have done without the high hurdles crazy stuff in the fourth quarter, but he's a young player (not technically a "rookie" but real close to that.) Also real good was Joe McKnight. Why would The NY Jets just flat give up on a former USC tailback? Dunno, but he did a great Jamaal Charles impersonation today. Wearing #22 he Out-McClustered Dexter with six catches for 64 yards (our leading receiver) and two big TDs. If you would have been told that McKnight would have more yards receiving and more TDs than Charles going into week 4, would you have believed it? Seeing is believing, and the guy stepped up. Today he was Charles and DAT rolled into one, and was arguably as important to the win today as Knile Davis. Kudos to both backs for a great day.

7. More Good: Tamba Hali got his 75th sack as a Chief (Thanks for the Big Mac tomorrow, btw). He's now third behind Neil Smith and DT. Houston also got one, and Poe got one and a half. Alan Bailey played a very good game, with good pressure on the pocket and an important knocked down pass on fourth down on the Fish's next to last drive. Dude played with a non-stop motor on a hot humid day. Also kudos to Dee Ford for stopping the Fish's final drive on a fourth and one. He sliced in and stopped a runner cold. He also got some heat on Tannehill on several occasions. Pressure on the pocket was decent throughout the game. Colquitt punted well, including hiting a 64 yarder. Even Andy Reid sacked up and went for a 4th and 1 on the first play of the second quarter and made it. That gave the team momentum after a lackluster first quarter. KC was 56% on third down conversions and scored every time they got in the red zone. These are all very good things and may bode well for the weeks to come. All is not gloom and doom.

6. The Bad: Don't want to dwell too much on "Bad" when we win, but some things were bad that have to be fixed. Special teams were bad. Very Bad. The Midget Brazilian Kicker is not booming kickoffs out of the back of the end zone like he did when competing for a job. Hammond is fielding punts inside the five yard line. Hammond was not fair catching when he should, and letting the ball get downed on the three yard line. Fins were running kickoffs back to the 35, 40 or midfield. Penalties on punts. Penalties on kickoffs. Not Dave Toub's best effort. As good as Reid going for it on fourth and one in the second quarter, the third quarter was the opposite. Chiefs get the ball, and instead of building on a 14-3 lead, Smith fumbles, turns the ball over and gives the Fish a short field that leads to a quick TD. That puts them right back in the game at 14-10. Chiefs did manage to re-group and shut out Miami in the fourth, which was the difference. Defense only gave up 15 points on the road, and that's pretty good considering you're missing a pro bowl linebacker and safety.

5. More Bad: Can any of our defensive backs catch a tipped ball? Seriously. Chiefs did not have a single forced turnover, which is a far cry from last year's ball hawking defense of the first nine games. It's a good thing Miami has the most butter fingered receiving corps in the NFL, because Tannehill put the ball right on his guys several times, only to see the ball dropped. Better receiving corps, -oh, like say, New England who is next up, won't do that. But for today, better lucky than good I suppose. And speaking of Butter Fingers, Dwayne Bowe is dogging it. Just flat out dogging it. He's getting pushed around by smaller D-Backs, he's running sloppy routes. He's quitting on plays. He is not giving a winning effort. He dropped at least two catchable balls on third down to stall drives. You'd think first time playing in his home town, he'd want to shine. He stunk it up today. Three catches for 32 yards does not warrant the kind of jack he's being paid. He must step up his game, and prove he's worth the money.

4. The Ugly: Ugly started in the first quarter with the botched double reverse. Don't know what Jenkins was doing, but he totally whiffed the exchange to Hammond. Luckily Hammond was able to get the ball out of bounds there, or it would have been a short field for the Fish. KC's starting field position for a good part of the game was ugly, which led to the number one brutally ugly play, which was Alex getting pulled down for the safety. Pass protection was spotty all day long. On that play the entire front wall, plus a blocking back, just got pushed right into Alex. He didn't have a chance. Fish had five sacks, At that rate, Alex won't live through a sixteen game schedule. And for those of you who detest Alex Smith, how would you feel about 12 games of Chase Daniel? Harris, the emergency tackle, should be ashamed to wear #68 as Will Shields should be waiting for the man when he gets off the plane at KCI to bitch slap him. He was awful. Reid's been putting a tight end over on Fisher's side to help him in pass protection, so Fisher's been looking a little better, but he's still not playing up to the draft position. He's a pretty decent run blocker, and most of the big runs that sprung were from his side. Final Ugly: Andy Reid's shirt. Dude was sweating like he was in a Finnish Steam Room. Andy, dude, change your clothes at halftime. Towel down. Get a little Gold Bond Powder. You're gonna chafe.

3. Some of the Fish Fans were booing when Gray scored the last touchdown. Was that rubbing it in? I can understand why they would think so. But after Davis has been stripped right before the two minute warning, and after blowing a 28-point lead in our last playoff nightmare, I say, jam that rock down their throats and step on their neck till they are completely dead. We've had that done to us more times than I can count. Hey Fins, don't like it? Then stop it. Can't stop it? Then you lose. This was a "who can run the rock better" kind of day. We did, and so we won.

2. I'm glad Charles did not play. I don't think we sustained any serious injuries today. Owens left the field then came back. Shawn Smith looked like he got dinged up with about five minutes left in the game but he stayed in. Luckily playing Gaines didn't hurt us, and Charles got to rest his ankle. With the way Davis and McKnight played, they may choose to rest him against New England as well. How in the world did the Fish beat Brady and Hoodie? Dunno, but you have to think maybe the Pats ain't all that this year, compared to their previous levels of dominance. Hoodie embarrassed us on MNF a few years ago. Be nice to get some prime time payback for that. But I think the Pats will be favored by probably seven or eight points.

1. it was nice to sit in on the CP's game thread today. Obviously, I can't do that when I'm at the stadium, but I really enjoyed it today. I was also pretty amazed at how many times the CPers anticipated, or actually called the exact right play- right before it happened. All in all, a good sports day for KC. And it shows you just how quickly the worm can turn. I'll have to buy Gary a beer and compliment his gut next time I see him.

CBS game video highlights and box score is here:
http://tinyurl.com/p6y5mfg

Game pictures on KC Star's Website are here:
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/nfl...le2193786.html