Welp, That Wasn't Good

['Hamas' Jenkins]

That looked like a bad football team that wasn’t prepared to play. That’s probably as succinct as I can be, but I do think there was a little more to it than just that.

1) The Baltimore game last year really exposed us. Since we switched to a 3-4 with OLBs who can’t cover, a number of people commented on the fact that the Chiefs would be abused by tight ends and by receiving backs. For a completely bizarre reason, no one really attempted to do it until Baltimore in last year’s WC game. They showed our complete inability to cover the TE, and Buffalo followed that script exactly. I imagine that will be a recurring problem, as none of our LBs, save for Johnson, have the ability to cover in space, and our safeties really aren’t that good at it either.

2) Some of the offensive ineptitude was due to the coordinator change, but I don’t think you can lay it all at the incompetent feet of Muir. That said, I don’t think he has any business coordinating an NFL offense, but Weis looked better than he probably was last year because Cassel’s numbers were so aberrational. His INT rate was so low, and his TD rate was so high (despite the fact that we didn’t move the ball through the air) that it made it appear as though he was far better than he was. If I were to draw an analogy to Cassel’s 2010, I’d say it was a flyball hitter who had a .380 BABIP. When he regresses this year, partially to his luck normalizing and partially due to playing a harder schedule, it will make Weis look smarter than what he was and Haley and co. look worse.

3) I wonder if the lockout actually will have the opposite of the intended effect. Perhaps the cohesive “character” teams will look worse and the “talent” teams will look better because there was so little time to instill and refine a system, so it takes on more of a sandlot aspect. It’s complete conjecture, but it’s just something that popped in my head as I watched some of the early scores trickle in.

4) Haley’s not in danger this year, but he probably should be, as the coaching situation is one entirely of his own making and the guy he fired put clown shoes on him today, while the other guy he ran off looks golden simply from a lack of association. Cassel probably goes before Haley, even though it shouldn’t be an either/or situation.

5) The clamoring for Stanzi worries me just a touch. He had a fine preseason, but he wasn’t an elite player by any means, and I think handing the reigns over to him or keeping them in Cassel’s hands could be an egregious mistake. I guess want I mean to say is this: if and when the season gets away, give him some run, but unless he does something absolutely extraordinary, don’t let his play influence your desire to go out and acquire a quarterback early.

That’s all I really have. At least…Warpaint looked good today??