Mellinger: Chiefs are built for an era thats past.....

[Deberg_1990]

Babb and Mellinger, just killin it this week.



http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/19...is-on-the.html




The talk this week is about Scott Pioli’s competence, Clark Hunt’s commitment and Romeo Crennel’s laid-back leadership, and that’s all good and relevant in many ways, but it also misses a very important point that can be summed up something like this:
Even at full strength, the Chiefs are metaphorically not only running a race on a tightrope but doing it directly into the wind.

Matt Cassel’s limitations have been exaggerated and dramatized, a topic as omnipresent around here as potholes, but the argument for him being anything better than a bottom-quarter passer in the NFL is difficult to make.

That’s frustrating enough on its own, but it becomes a game-changer when you put context to the bigger plan on which Pioli is essentially betting his career in Kansas City. The organizational hope — or foundation, because the whole thing crumbles if they’re wrong here — is that Cassel is good enough to facilitate a championship team.

Even a distracted child can realize, just by watching games, that the NFL is a passing league. But when you look at some plain and simple numbers, you will dismiss any notion that the Chiefs are making chicken salad out of something much less appetizing.
Actually, they’re giving their fans the same old meal.
The numbers are clear, and they’re not encouraging.

________________________________________
The forward pass got a late start in American football, banned for the sport’s first few decades, and in a lot of ways has been playing catch-up ever since. Even now, when the NFL’s three most expensive positions are the quarterback, the left tackle who protects the quarterback and the defensive end who sacks the quarterback, our clichés are stuck in the days of black-and-white television.

Do a quick Google search on all the coaches who say they have to establish the run and stop the run.

And then digest some statistics that say they’re all full of hooey.
“Everybody says you gotta stop the run, stop the run,” Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson says. “But you gotta stop the pass, too.”

Last year, the 10 teams that ran the ball most effectively (by yards per carry) went a combined 82-78. The 10 teams that threw the ball most effectively (by passer rating) went a combined 113-47.

The 10 teams that stopped the run most effectively went a combined 83-77. The 10 teams that stopped the pass most effectively went a combined 96-64.
Put another way: The teams that excelled in the running game won as many times as they lost, while the teams that excelled in the passing game won enough to make the playoffs. That’s the whole thing right there: mediocre or successful, fired or given a raise.
This is more than the anecdotal evidence often used about the Giants winning the Super Bowl last year with the league’s worst running game. And it is particularly timely this week, because the Saints and Chiefs rank fifth and sixth in yards per carry, respectively, and have yet to win a game.

Turnovers have been a particular problem for both teams, but again, the biggest chunk of that problem is coming through the air: Matt Cassel has thrown three interceptions and fumbled twice, while Drew Brees has thrown four interceptions and fumbled once.
Nearly 70 percent of the yards gained in the NFL this season have come through the air, which would be the highest rate in league history.

Perhaps the new maxim should be, “We need to establish the pass and stop the pass.”
“Kind of, because you need to make plays in the passing game,” Charles says. “When you throw the ball down the field, more often those are bigger plays than running plays.”
This is all particularly discouraging when studied through the prism of the Chiefs, and not just as it pertains to the health of defensive backs Eric Berry, Brandon Flowers and Kendrick Lewis. Over the offseason, the Chiefs downgraded at cornerback, going from Brandon Carr to Stanford Routt, while improving at running back, by signing Peyton Hillis to pair with Charles. On top of that, so much of the Chiefs’ focus through recent drafts has been on finding defensive linemen to stop the run.

Meanwhile, if you allow for improvement from young players like Jacksonville’s Blaine Gabbert and Cleveland’s Brandon Weeden, it’s not a stretch to say the Chiefs have one of the three worst quarterback situations in football.

The NFL world is zigging right, and the Chiefs are zagging left.
Increasingly, it looks like they’re being left behind.
________________________________________
One of Pioli’s biggest successes in Kansas City has been surrounding Cassel with one of the league’s better groups of skills players. There just aren’t many teams that can match the Chiefs’ crop of receivers, running backs and tight ends.

So it’s not that they’re ignoring the pass. Bowe is making close to $10 million this year, and new tight end Kevin Boss made a remarkable touchdown catch against the Falcons — and then was injured in Buffalo. It’s just that they are increasingly emphasizing the run, which by definition increasingly de-emphasizes the pass.

When Todd Haley was hired as head coach, he went from designing a pass-first offense with Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald to a power running game featuring Charles. Cassel’s success in 2010 is often credited to former offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, but it’s just as likely that Haley benefitted from defenses having to focus so much on the run (as well as string of would-be interceptions dropped by defenders). Crennel is now the head coach, his reputation in large part anchored by coordinating defenses that stopped the run in New England.

There is a bit of a chicken-and-egg aspect to all of this — of course the Chiefs would love to have an elite quarterback; but since they lack one, they are trying to create and emphasize other strengths.

But it’s hard to find a team anywhere else in the NFL that’s stressing the run as hard as the Chiefs. And it’s impossible to find another time in the league’s history where doing so is less important.

[cyborgtable]

Originally Posted by Unsmooth-Moment

It is a passing league, but that doesn't mean you cannot win running the football. The best team in the league is a run first and play tough defense (SF).

The second best team also has a mean running game and good defense in the Houston Texans

[DaWolf]

While we're sitting here hearing about injuries the past two years and how guys aren't stepping up, I think this article about the Giants says it all about how it should be done:

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/2...lmost-anything

This organization is run the right way.

It has a great general manger.

It has a future Hall of Fame coach.

It has a quarterback who no longer has to beg to be considered elite.

And it has the pass rush to knock down the other guys' quarterbacks.

But you can't win without having role players step in and make plays like Barden and Brown did. That takes a great mind in the front office to find them.

Jerry Reese is that and more. Ramses Barden and Andre Brown proved it again Thursday night.

You go down that checklist, and this organization has none of those...

[xztop12]

We're still operating under the assumption that the turnover battle is the most important aspect of winning in an outdoor stadium. Philly is doing just fine so far.

[whoman69]

Originally Posted by xztop12

We're still operating under the assumption that the turnover battle is the most important aspect of winning in an outdoor stadium. Philly is doing just fine so far.

You're fighting history there. They kept a severely outmanned Browns team in the game. Nobody is claiming that if you win the turnover battle you win the game every time, but you can't keep getting lucky.

[FAX]

No offense intended, Mr. xztop12, but the turnover deal will never be a thing of the past.

The turnover deal is, rather, a thing of the past and the present and the future all at once. The turnover deal transcends time and space and manifests itself in each of the elemental forces as well as matter and energy and that includes dark matter and dark energy which is really spooky because dark stuff is like nighttime in a blackout without a flashlight or matches when the midgets come out from behind the shrubberies.

When the enemy has more possessions than you, your chances for success diminish incrementally. It's like trying to fight off 40 midgets in the dark using only your penis as a club. Even if you win, you lose.

FAX

[xztop12]

Originally Posted by FAX

No offense intended, Mr. xztop12, but the turnover deal will never be a thing of the past.

The turnover deal is, rather, a thing of the past and the present and the future all at once. The turnover deal transcends time and space and manifests itself in each of the elemental forces as well as matter and energy and that includes dark matter and dark energy which is really spooky because dark stuff is like nighttime in a blackout without a flashlight or matches when the midgets come out from behind the shrubberies.

When the enemy has more possessions than you, your chances for success diminish incrementally. It's like trying to fight off 40 midgets in the dark using only your penis as a club. Even if you win, you lose.

FAX

Nobody intentionally turns the ball over. It has to do with trying not to lose rather than trying to win. it's an approach of running draws on 3rd down because thats when the majority of turnovers happen.

[Start Croyle]

I've been saying just the same ever since Haley was hired! But people usually make fun of me!

[Titty Meat]

Props to Hamas he said Crennels defense was outdated when the Chiefs hired him.