Rich Baldinger says Romeo Crennel's D looked confused.

[googlegoogle]

He said that mistakes in covering Todd Heap were ours and that Crennel's system wasn't flexible. Derrick Johnson and E.Berry weren't working together and instead just bumping into each other. In one replay they showed Heap not even getting touched because of confusion.

Romeo's reputation tarnished a little?

[WebGem]

Hopefully tarnished enough to keep him away from another HC job so he stays here.

[ForeverChiefs58]

I think anyone/everyone who saw the playcalling and Cassel's decision making was confused as hell.

[alpha_omega]

Pfft, that's it, we weren't outplayed...we were just confused.

[ChiefGator]

Stupid. Wonder why he didn't say, "Chiefs defensive players become confused by Ravens offensive sets, despite first year defensive coordinator's fairly vanilla defensive schemes"

Rubbage piece. Of course we looked confused, they consistently had problems covering the middle of the field. We looked outplayed and out-talented as well.

[KCJohnny]

An offense that is on the field just 18 minutes may be part of the problem... just sayin'.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by KCJohnny

An offense that is on the field just 18 minutes may be part of the problem... just sayin'.

That would be a valid comment if the defense hadn't started the game by allowing two 10-plus play drives by Baltimore. And then closed the half by allowing a third.

Those three first half drives combined to take up 16 minutes in time of possession. The defense couldn't get itself off the field. Flacco had nearly 200 yards passing at halftime.

Sorry, but that's not on the offense.

The turnovers certainly helped turn the game after halftime, but Baltimore's offense had their way from the opening gun.

Total team loss. Bad on offense. Bad on defense.

[KCJohnny]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

That would be a valid comment if the defense hadn't started the game by allowing two 10-plus play drives by Baltimore. And then closed the half by allowing a third.

Those three first half drives combined to take up 16 minutes in time of possession. The defense couldn't get itself off the field. Flacco had nearly 200 yards passing at halftime.

Sorry, but that's not on the offense.

The turnovers certainly helped turn the game after halftime, but Baltimore's offense had their way from the opening gun.

Total team loss. Bad on offense. Bad on defense.

That would be plausible but for the fact that the score was 10-7 at halftime. The Chiefs had the ball just 10 minutes in the first half. Baltimore cannot conduct long drives while KC has the ball.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by KCJohnny

That would be plausible but for the fact that the score was 10-7 at halftime. The Chiefs had the ball just 10 minutes in the first half. Baltimore cannot conduct long drives while KC has the ball.

This is the problem with looking at the game in a vacuum.

This is how the game started. We kickoff. The defense allows a 6 minute drive. The offense goes three and out and then the defense allows a 4 and a half minute drive. Hali makes a great play to end that drive and then Charles scors his TD.

So we're still in the first quarter, Baltimore has held the ball for 10:30 while KC has held it for less than 2:30. But Kansas City has the lead, 7-3.

What you're saying, in essence, is that those two initial drives by Baltimore are the offense's fault, first because they had to punt and then because they scored too fast.

Let's keep going. The third time Baltimore has the ball, they only hold it for 5 plays. But they gain another 40 yards before they punt (oh, I'd forgotten that part of it, by this point Baltimore has 140 yards of offense and 8 first downs, although, fortunately they only have 3 points...). This is barely into the second quarter, mind you. 140 yards of offense and 8 first downs. In just over a quarter.

(But it's all the offense's fault)

At this point KC's offense has begun to move the ball a bit. Believe it or not, Baltimore doesn't have much of a combined edge in ToP for the 2nd and 3rd quarters. About 30 seconds (15:15 to 14:45 for KC). Most of the disparity in time of possession at that point in the game stems from the first quarter, as I mentioned above. They don't score any points, but they do move the football (the only time in the game that they really do so...) and they do take some time off the clock. The defense has some time to breathe.

And they respond, they force a 3-and-out, on Baltimore's fourth drive. This was the punt following Charles' fumble. Their only 3-and-out of the entire game.

The offense holds the ball for another 3 minutes or so, gains 40 yards and punts again. The defense should be in a fairly good position, at that point. Baltimore has the ball on the 20 yards line. So what happens? KC allows an 11-play, 80 yard drive that bleeds another 5:50 off the clock.

This is all before halftime, mind you. That's three extended drives allowed by the defense.

It's a team game. I know it's easier to pick a target and blame it on them, lord knows there's been enough Cassel talk already, but the reality is that it's a team game. And the team did not perform. The defense did not perform at a playoff level. Was the offense even worse? Sure. But that doesn't change the fact that Baltimore just bent the Chiefs defense over for four quarters and had their way, and it started from the opening gun, long, long before anybody could point a finger at offensive woes.

[KCJohnny]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

The defense did not perform at a playoff level. Was the offense even worse? Sure.

Thank you.

[siberian khatru]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

This is the problem with looking at the game in a vacuum.

This is how the game started. We kickoff. The defense allows a 6 minute drive. The offense goes three and out and then the defense allows a 4 and a half minute drive. Hali makes a great play to end that drive and then Charles scors his TD.

So we're still in the first quarter, Baltimore has held the ball for 10:30 while KC has held it for less than 2:30. But Kansas City has the lead, 7-3.

What you're saying, in essence, is that those two initial drives by Baltimore are the offense's fault, first because they had to punt and then because they scored too fast.

Let's keep going. The third time Baltimore has the ball, they only hold it for 5 plays. But they gain another 40 yards before they punt (oh, I'd forgotten that part of it, by this point Baltimore has 140 yards of offense and 8 first downs, although, fortunately they only have 3 points...). This is barely into the second quarter, mind you. 140 yards of offense and 8 first downs. In just over a quarter.

(But it's all the offense's fault)

At this point KC's offense has begun to move the ball a bit. Believe it or not, Baltimore doesn't have much of a combined edge in ToP for the 2nd and 3rd quarters. About 30 seconds (15:15 to 14:45 for KC). Most of the disparity in time of possession at that point in the game stems from the first quarter, as I mentioned above. They don't score any points, but they do move the football (the only time in the game that they really do so...) and they do take some time off the clock. The defense has some time to breathe.

And they respond, they force a 3-and-out, on Baltimore's fourth drive. This was the punt following Charles' fumble. Their only 3-and-out of the entire game.

The offense holds the ball for another 3 minutes or so, gains 40 yards and punts again. The defense should be in a fairly good position, at that point. Baltimore has the ball on the 20 yards line. So what happens? KC allows an 11-play, 80 yard drive that bleeds another 5:50 off the clock.

This is all before halftime, mind you. That's three extended drives allowed by the defense.

It's a team game. I know it's easier to pick a target and blame it on them, lord knows there's been enough Cassel talk already, but the reality is that it's a team game. And the team did not perform. The defense did not perform at a playoff level. Was the offense even worse? Sure. But that doesn't change the fact that Baltimore just bent the Chiefs defense over for four quarters and had their way, and it started from the opening gun, long, long before anybody could point a finger at offensive woes.

And to add to the bolded ... they allowed Balt to convert a 3rd and 12 deep in Ravens territory. It was a HUGE play. That and the 4th and 1 were the two biggest plays, IMO.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

Total team loss. Bad on offense. Bad on defense.

This. All of the back, and forth about whose fault this is, is absurd.

The Whole team got it's ass kicked. There were some individuals who won battles, but the units as wholes got bitch slapped on both sides of the ball.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

That would be a valid comment if the defense hadn't started the game by allowing two 10-plus play drives by Baltimore. And then closed the half by allowing a third.

Those three first half drives combined to take up 16 minutes in time of possession. The defense couldn't get itself off the field. Flacco had nearly 200 yards passing at halftime.

Sorry, but that's not on the offense.

The turnovers certainly helped turn the game after halftime, but Baltimore's offense had their way from the opening gun.

Total team loss. Bad on offense. Bad on defense.

Bingo

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by KCJohnny

An offense that is on the field just 18 minutes may be part of the problem... just sayin'.

The problems with the defense started on the very first drive.

[beach tribe]

After the game Todd Heap was asked what was the key to his success or something to the like, and he said, "We saw that they were playing the same coverage over, and over so we kept attacking it the same way" and i thought, yeah, that's what it looked like to me.