Chiefs vs. Bucs

[Saccopoo]

Since I have the day off, I thought I'd watch the game again which was rebroadcast this morning/afternoon. My impressions:

The Good:

Matt Cassel
- Matt was crisp with his throws, put the ball exactly where it needed to be with good velocity and was excellent in recognizing mismatches (the field goal ending drive in the second half was top notch, where Charles was thrown to when he had a mismatch with a linebacker split wide and to Thomas Jones when he drew a defensive end). A very solid outing by Cassel.

Jamal Charles
- Charles looks a lot smoother and fluid this year running the ball, while still maintaining his speed. If he had a decent offensive line to run behind, we’d potentially be looking at some mind boggling statistics from him. He showed patience in letting his holes, albeit small ones, develop and caught the ball well out of the backfield.

Jovan Belcher
- Really looked good out there filling the gaps and getting to the ball. Showed a lot of strength on numerous plays by standing up and pushing back offensive linemen one on one. Very instinctive.

Tampa Bay Buccaneer Cheerleaders
- The young lady at the 8:03 mark in the fourth quarter...oh, mama.


The Bad:

Branden Albert
- Was constantly beat and out quicked. He got stood up several times by substantially smaller linebackers and couldn’t lock onto his man on run plays. Sorry Milkman, but this isn’t an adgenda or slanted bias. Albert simply isn’t very good.

Leonard Pope
- Caught a couple of balls, but ran horrible routes and can’t block. Ninth team TE Cody Slate (#80) looked All-Pro by comparison when he played in the fourth quarter.

Derrick Johnson
- Was non-existent and missed an easy tackle in the first quarter on a side line play allowing an extra five yards. Demarrio Williams looks like he knows that the starting ILB job is completely available as he showed a lot of fire and hustle in the second half.

The Ugly:

Thomas Jones
- Looked good running the ball in the first half, but coughed up the ball giving the Bucs excellent field position.

Brandon Flowers
- Whiff! Really bad decision and timing going for a pick when the ball was already at the defender. Touchdown Tampa.

Tony Moeaki
- I mean, really? He’s going to make Brodie Croyle look like Cal Ripken by comparison.


Random Observations:

The Chiefs were the better team and if it wasn’t a preseason game, they would have won this one going away. The running game looked really good with Jones, Charles and Battle all getting nice chunks of yardage on the ground. Weigmann should be fully entrenched as the starting center, which is a good thing. Nice to have Casey back in town. Tyson Jackson looked a lot better this game versus Atlanta. He pushed his man around a lot more and even had a quarterback pressure. Baby steps. Kendrick Lewis is outplaying Eric Berry so far at the safety spot, though Berry had a nice special teams tackle to start the game. A much better executed offensive game plan/play calling than in week one. Defense was still very vanilla. Brandon Carr looked very good and active. I’d like to see Asamoah getting reps at the LG spot with the second team versus RG as Waters looks like he’s running in lead boots out there. Rookie Lemuel Jean-Pierre looked solid at the center position when he got the chance in the fourth quarter.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Is Flowers still gonna' be on the team, Sac?

[Ming the Merciless]

Originally Posted by milkman

However, if Albert looked the same in this game as he did in Atlanta, then I have no problem with Okung's sac "bashing" Albert.

Take a look, it is pretty sad IMO...Starting from the 1st play.

[Ralphy Boy]

Originally Posted by BossChief

see, this is where stats can blatantly lie to people that just look at them as sole proof.

The guy only completed 16 passes over 20 yards... all year.

Of those 16 passes, I bet at least 6 of them were catches by Chris Chambers had to stop his route and come back to the football because the pass was soo off.

I think he will develop into a good short route thrower and decision maker, but the thing that will keep us from beating good teams is the lack of stretching the field. Its too bad, this running game could explode on a grand scale if we could consistently keep the opposing safeties out of the box.

I'm not concerned that he only completed 16 passes over 20 yards, that's 8 more than he completed the year before and the exact same number that Brady completed in 2009. Hell Matt Ryan only completed 9 and Mark Sanchez 10 last season.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by Ralphy Boy

I'm not concerned that he only completed 16 passes over 20 yards, that's 8 more than he completed the year before and the exact same number that Brady completed in 2009. Hell Matt Ryan only completed 9 and Mark Sanchez 10 last season.

I don't care how many passes he completed over 20 yards, either.

I do care how many of those completions were accurately thrown balls.

Most of those were poorly thrown balls that the receivers had to make major adjustments to.

I think there were two of them that would have been sure touchdowns had they been even close to accurate, on drives that ended up in FGs.

[notorious]

Originally Posted by CoMoChief

Just sayin', speed isn't everything.

Timing is.


People are already forgetting how good Priest was.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by milkman

I ****ing forgot to set the game to record.

However, if Albert looked the same in this game as he did in Atlanta, then I have no problem with Okung's sac "bashing" Albert.

In that Atlanta game, he looked like he didn't do any work in the offseason on his own to improve his technique, and that is inexcusable, IMO.

Albert should've been better in this game, but he was hardly the liability that Sac painted him to be. Not even close.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by notorious

Timing is.


People are already forgetting how good Priest's line was.

FYP, BTW

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

Albert should've been better in this game, but he was hardly the liability that Sac painted him to be. Not even close.

I watched the first half again last night and do not see where Albert played poorly. Not sure if people are wanting pancake blocks every down or what.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

I watched the first half again last night and do not see where Albert played poorly. Not sure of people are wanting pancake blocks every down or what.

It's because people aren't understanding the concept of a "pocket". Some, when examining the line, just want to see the DE stopped dead in his tracks once the ball is snapped. IT doesn't always work like that.

Hell, the play may not even be designed to do that.

Albert didn't have a GREAT game, but he didn't have a bad game either.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

It's because people aren't understanding the concept of a "pocket". Some, when examining the line, just want to see the DE stopped dead in his tracks once the ball is snapped. IT doesn't always work like that.

Hell, the play may not even be designed to do that.

Albert didn't have a GREAT game, but he didn't have a bad game either.

I understand the concept of a pocket. The problem is, Albert is getting beat regularly on simple drop step, inside moves by ends and linebackers. He was on the ground several times in this game after he failed to recover on such moves, overreached and whiffed on the block. He is also having problems locking onto his man on running plays. He's not using his feet to move laterally and is instead trying to push and bull with his arms and torso.

In the first two preseason games, he hasn't shown any improvement whatsoever over last year. And I wasn't singling him out either. Most of the linemen looked improved over the first game, though Atlanta is a substantially better team than Tampa Bay. I thought Weigmann looked very good, other than the play where Tampa blitzed their MLB and he failed to check him, though he was engaged with the NT so it was Charles' responsibility to pick that guy up more than Weigmann - something that he didn't do. Hell, I thought O'Callaghan and Brown looked okay and I'm one to lobby for a right tackle before a left tackle.