Ten Things About Today's Game: Week 8

[gblowfish]

Ten Things About Today’s Game: Week 8

10. I was born a Chiefs fan, and I’ve been going to Chiefs games 49 years. In all those years, no loss was as crushing as January 5th, 2014; when Andy Reid’s Chiefs blew a 28 point second half lead to puke up a playoff game to Andrew Goddamn Luck 45-44. No loss was as painful as January 7, 1996, in ZERO DEGREE WEATHER, when the Kicker Who Will Remain Nameless choked on three field goal attempts to blow home field advantage for Marty, and sent that douchebag Jim Harbaugh to the eventual AFC Championship Game. No loss was as frustrating as the game at Arrowhead on January 11th, 2004 -the “No Punt” game. The Five Head put 38 points on a G-Rob defense that couldn’t stop anything, any way, all freaking day long. And that’s only three of the horrific playoff losses to these sorry sacks of suckage who snuck out of Baltimore in the middle of the night with an armada of hastily loaded moving vans. We could beat these dips another five hundred times in the regular season, and we’d still owe them a lifetime of anguish to get even. The Colts are my most reviled opponent next to the Donks. There’s a lot to talk about on this one, as this was a particularly expensive victory in terms of manpower.

9. The Chiefs are almost halfway through the season now, and have gone 2-2 on the road. Today’s win was impressive for a couple of reasons: One, KC won even after losing three offensive starters to injury; and two, the defense only gave up 14 point to Andrew Luck in Lucas Oil. Luck is about the only thing the Colts have going for them. Gore had some decent runs, but disappeared in the second half. The Chiefs secondary held T.Y. Hilton -who has historically torched us- to one catch for twenty yards. Chiefs generated a consistent pass rush all day long. Dee Ford had 3.5 sacks, team had six total sacks and forced some expensive holding penalties on the Colts offensive line, including one that negated a TD bomb late in the game. Hali seems to play better on artificial turf. His rush was strong all day, and he was held many more times than what was called. Chris Jones continues to grow as a player, pushing the pocket and wreaking havoc on the line. We didn’t cheap shot Luck -because we're not that kind of team- and kept him on his back legit for most of the second half. The pass rush is going to do nothing but improve once Justin Houston returns. That’ll be a thing of beauty. Can't wait.

8. I wanted to give a special shout out to Derrick Johnson. He has played great this season after coming back from his injury. He had ten tackles today, most on the defense and only had one bad play where he missed a tackle on Gore to let him score in the first half. For a player of his age, to be playing with his intensity, and his production, is remarkable. If DJ played in New York, he’d be getting HOF consideration. Never playing in a Super Bowl, sadly he’ll be overlooked unless we can get him there.

7. Alex needs to learn how to duck. He’s not getting down quick enough. Both hits today were borderline dirty, but legal. If those hits are delivered to Brady or Rodgers, they're flagged. Indy was definitely head hunting. Alex looked like Mike Tyson chewed on his ear after the the first one, and on the second one, the tackler put his hand up on Alex’s helmet and drove his head into the turf on purpose. Foles is close enough to Alex in skill level that the offense really didn’t drop off that much. Alex is more mobile in the pocket, but Foles seems to be more comfortable throwing the long ball. Kudos to Foles for not turning the ball over and keeping the offense moving downfield. His first TD drive was 80 yards. Seemed like it took him awhile to get his sea legs back, and he missed a couple passes, including one to West in the fourth quarter that could have been a TD with a better touch. Foles has experience as a starter with this style of offense, so for a number two guy, he was a great addition by Dorsey. Hey, if you can win a road game with your number two guy taking the majority of the snaps, that’s a good day.

6. Losing Ware really hurt. Apparently, Charles is going back to see Dr. Andrews about his knee tomorrow as it’s not healing properly. West can’t take the pounding, so hopefully Ware will be back soon. KC went to more bubble screens and passes that are basically like running plays; but that’s essentially our offense with Smith anyway. It will be interesting to see who makes it back for the Jax game; if they turn DAT into a tailback, or if they pick up somebody off a practice squad somewhere. Ahinger’s knee injury looked like a sprain, hopefully nothing is torn. He’ll probably miss a week or two. Line gave up three sacks today, two of those on Schwartz playing on a gimpy ankle. Chiefs had less than 100 yards rushing, no points scored on defense, and still ended up putting up thirty points on Indy. Impressive job by the offense, for sure.

5. Nice to see Kelce re-appear with seven catches for 101 yards and a sweet TD. The catch he made that got overturned on the boundary was a sweet adjustment; shame he couldn’t have held onto the ball to the ground. Hill was a game changer; catching a wide open pass for a TD on a blown coverage, and turning in another 50 yard punt return to flip the field. Harris continues to be an enigma. He almost fumbles away a ball; luckily his knee hit first; the drops one across the middle wide open; then makes a circus catch at the goal line on a ball four feet over his head, bringing it down like a power forward snatching an offensive rebound. You can see why the Chiefs love this guy, he just needs to focus and as a Fat Chiefs Coach one said “Eliminate Bad Football.”

4. Special Teams were a mixed bag with some very good and very bad all jumbled together. On the TD to Kelce, the D-Back laid a dirty target hit on him, lost his helmet, and KC gets 15 yards added to the ensuing kickoff placement. Instead of having the Midget kick the ball to Kokomo, Toub tries an onside kick, fails miserably, give Luck the ball near the forty, which ended up in the Gore TD Drive. The Midget has been scaring me with his yips on short field goals and extra point misses. But he did hit a big one in the fourth quarter from 44-yards to make the deficit two TD’s and two 2-point conversions. The Chiefs did a better job with downing punts, and Hill’s big punt return was very timely. The inconsistency is worrisome, but didn’t end up killing us today.

3. Nice to see Gaines get a big pick on a nice play. That turn over lead to Maclin’s TD right before the half, and flipped the game momentum. Peters was quiet, but that’s because Indy was avoiding him. Sorenson has been improving and did well in run support. He seems to be growing into the position.

2. I was worried that Andy was going to go full reerun 2nd Half Indy again this time, by throwing throwing throwing. The difference today was, we actually ran West to keep the clock rolling, and many of the throws were basically like running play throws, as the clock was ground down, forcing Indy to burn all their time outs. I think he learned his lesson in 2014. Luck was not given enough time to mount a comeback, and at the end, he was tasting the turf over and over. Both offense and defense did a fine job today, and the coaching staff should get some credit for game planning both sides of the ball.

1. Now the big question is, who’s going to be hurt for how long? Do we get Alex back next week, or does Foles start? If Foles starts, do you activate Bray? What are we going to do for running backs next week? If you watched Jax play against the Titans this week, they suck out loud. Hopefully they’ll mail it in at Arrowhead, and we can put another AFC South team win in the bank. Man, the loss to the Texans really hurts looking back, as they look extremely beatable now. Of course we had a real bad day with lots of turnovers against them, and played them before Watt was out for the year. Since the Raiders were able to pull out another road win in OT, it was good that we got this game to keep them at arm’s length. Now if Phyllis could just give us a little help…. just a little....

Wanted to say Happy Halloween to everyone. Let’s really enjoy this win. Road wins are always good wins. Hey, we still owe this miserable bunch of bastards four painful playoff losses, but for today, at least, helps lessen that lingering sting. See you at the yard next week!

[O.city]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

Jacksonville has all but quit on Gus Bradley, so the Chiefs can be conservative with not playing Alex Smith and/or Spencer Ware if there is any doubt about their health IMO.

I'd imagine the Chiefs would like to have that Knile Davis trade back now though.

I was thinking that earlier about davis.

It'd be nice if Charles was healthy but that's not looking good

[FloridaMan88]

Originally Posted by O.city

I was thinking that earlier about davis.

It'd be nice if Charles was healthy but that's not looking good

Unfortunately Dorsey/Reid's faith in Jamaal Charles returning from his injury has backfired going back to the offseason.

He's a $6 million cap hit on a team that has been up against the salary cap and now just when they thought he was ready to return to a more prominent role, seemingly making Knile Davis expendable, his knee acts up again.

[Easy 6]

Heres your much more interesting, and well earned random observations thread, Direckshun

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

Good to have you back, George. You are one of a kind! I'd like to say that Daniel Sorensen is a guy I wondered a couple of years ago why he was on the roster. I'm realizing now these guys know a lot more than I do about player progression. He is turning into someone I pay attention to every time he's on the field.

Mark my words, once Justin Houston comes back, Dee Ford is going to go bananas. Once teams have to use personnel to keep Houston at bay, Ford is going to go lights out. He's clearly been working very hard at improving his game and it is showing.

I hate Indy. I hate the team, the coaches, the players, the owner, the fans, and most importantly the stadium. That whole city could sink hole itself to the bottom of the Earth and I'm convinced the world would be a better place.

Hopefully Alex can come back sooner rather than later. Nick Foles has the most live arm we've seen in KC in a decade plus, and he's going to create some controversy for this team at the gunslinger position if he's given time to gel with these guys. We don't need another Gannon situation in the playoffs unless we're prepared to actually, ya know, get it right this time.

I created a thread a couple of weeks ago and ended up deleting it and I wish I hadn't. It was titled "Is Jamaal Charles done in KC?" People have given me shit for it, but we're not carrying that salary next year. He's just not the same guy he was before this last injury and he's not healing up the way we all thought he would. It's sad, but I fear his time here is coming to an end. Not in the way he wants or deserves either. I thought he was going to leave after Jovan Belchered himself, but he stayed. I just want him to have the fairy tale ending and it's looking more and more like it's not going to happen. I genuinely hope he gets to have all the Escalades again at some point here, or somewhere else.

Thanks for the write up my man. I enjoy it every week!

I've been telling you guys for the last three years Sorenson is special. I even suggested last year they move him to Linebacker. But noooo, everyone says he's too small. You don't EVER underestimate a white guy like sorenson. He's better than Berry right now.

[BlackHelicopters]

Point # 1 was particularly good. Thanks George.

[GloryDayz]

Great as always. Just awesome...

5. Nice to see Kelce re-appear with seven catches for 101 yards and a sweet TD. The catch he made that got overturned on the boundary was a sweet adjustment; shame he couldn’t have held onto the ball to the ground

I'm still confused about this call. i'm not saying they're sure they didn't get it right, and maybe they did, but when does it not apply? In the extreme, if a WR runs a slant route, catches the ball, runs 18 steps across the field to get out of bounds but drops the ball when he's hit, is that an incomplete pass?

IOW, when does this rule the took away TK's catch not apply?