My humble second game thoughts

[Sully]

During the offseason, Dane made the comment (I'm not sure of the exact wording) that we'd be lucky to be 1-3 after the first four.
I'm here to tell you, sitting at 2-0...he was right.
Our first two wins have been born of pure luck, in many ways. San Diego was a few dropped passes from opening up on us, and today Cleveland got absolutely screwed on a few calls by the refs (non-fumble and Jones' first down).

That said, the teams that win are the ones who take advantage of those things, and so far we have taken advantage...and that's a good thing.

Here are some more of my thoughts.

Offense...

Cassel is awful. But I tire of the discussion, so I won't say more. I'm sad, because the college QB I like is playng himself out of our draft range.
As far as the "Why isn't JC getting more carries" discussion; I have stated I fully agree with him not getting more than 55-70% of the carries, and have listed my reasoning. However, he's far too much of a threat to not get him in earlier. Jones is pretty good to have, but he obviously isn't the homerun threat that JC is. However, two games:two (at least) bonehead moves by JC (this week's wasn't as bad as lasts, as he just made a dumbass cutback instead of hitting the hole). I fully see what Haley is saying when he says he's "starting to get it," because in too many instances, it still seems he doesn't.
It's nice to have a legit TE again. I don't ever want a Tony Gonzalez situation, because we became too reliant on a glorified posession guy. But it's not to have someone reliable at that position.
If O'Callaghan comes back and starts over Richardson, I have no idea what the Chiefs are seeing, because it looks like Richardson is twice the blocker. Late round picks matter.

Defense...
doing great. Smith impressed me today in the oddest of places. He played the nose on those two goalline runs by Cleveland, the second one they scored on. On both plays, he was two yards in the backfieldat the snap. Sadly, he got no support. That's a pretty good center, too.
I haven't seen this team play this much man defense since the days of Hasty and Carter. Add to that how many times they are doing so with no deep help, and it's amazing. I think Crennell may be forced into that a bit, by having to blitz to get pressure, but aside from a few mental errors leading to big plays (mainly by a rookie), it has worked out pretty well.
Flowers is, by far, the best player on the team.
DJ has arrived. I'm ready to call it. He's finally what we "thought he was," so let's crown his ass (and by crown his ass, I mean give him a contract extension).

And my favorite, Coaching...

Adjustments, adjustments, adjustments...
You cannot look at today's game and not see the value of having Crennell and Weis on our sidelines. Two games now have seen the type of football minds they have, the preparation they have put in, and most importantly, the ability to change on the fly and adjust to what they are seeing.
And for all the shit Haley has gotten, his handling of DJ alone deserves tons of kudos. How many people bitched because our best player wasn't on the field last year? The fact is, the patience he showed, and the standard he set must be looked toward in evaluating the growth of DJ as a player. I'm still not sold on Haley, but he's slowly getting some "benefit of the doubt" in the bank with me.

[Sully]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

Crist?

Really?

Yeah.
Taking into account this is his first year starting, I've really been impressed.

[Sully]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

Andrew Luck?

Yeah.
Physically and mentally, I think he's the next Manning.

That said, QB and Safety are my two weakest positions at judging talent, so no AIDS tree if you disagree.

[grandllama]

Originally Posted by FAX

Yeah ... it's been kind of difficult reading about how Haley sucks ... I've believed from the get-go that he has the potential to be a very good HC in this league ... plus, he's young ... somebody who can stay with the team awhile. Historically, consistency in the HC position is one of the keys to building a competitive franchise over the long haul. After uncle Dick and Hermoine, he's a breath of fresh air and came to the organization with the kind of attitude we needed.

Weis and Crennel don't hurt, either. Haley and Pioli should get some props for bringing those guys on board.

FAX

I think everybody forgets that he is learning how to be a head coach too.

I absolutely despised the guy last year... until about the time he flipped off GBlowfish... And that statement has nothing to do with Blowfish... it has to do with the surrounding controversy (that was appropriately, even according to Blowfish, buried) seemingly lighting a bulb in Haley's head...

Now that the face of the organization doesn't come across as a pretentious douchebag, I've been able to see his strengths and the fact that he himself is working hard on his weaknesses. And the players seem to buy in as well.

Now, just explain the entire Charles situation (and hopefully it plays out like benching DJ did last year) and I'll buy into his methods 100%

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by TrickyNicky

How did you guys feel about basically giving them the 30 yd line on kickoffs? In the end, Cribbs only burnt us once and it wasn't on Special Teams.

I was fine with it. Obviously on defense and special teams, we are not going to let their best players beat us. Today we focused on shutting down Cribbs which meant giving the 30. And we focused on shutting down the run, which allowed Senneca Wallace to look good on a few drives. But as long as we don't get killed consistently by their scrubs, this strategy is worth the risk.

[Sully]

Originally Posted by Pestilence

Why are you in love with Crist? I'm a ND fan and I don't want him on this team.

What I've seen of him is that he's made some rookie mistakes, but also made some throws 95% of QBs can't.
I've only watched one full game, though.

What are his blemishes?

[cdcox]

On the defensive side of the ball, I definitely saw some tired legs from the short week. The defense played well, but there was less explosion. Going on the road after a Monday night game is always a recipe for a let down. Getting a W under those circumstances is never a gimme.

[DeezNutz]

Originally Posted by Sully

Yeah.
Physically and mentally, I think he's the next Manning.

That said, QB and Safety are my two weakest positions at judging talent, so no AIDS tree if you disagree.

I haven't reached a conclusion on Luck, yet, but I've seen enough to know that you're significantly overrating his skill set.

And this doesn't mean he might not be a very good QB at the next level.

[The Bad Guy]

Luck in no way is like Peyton.

However, he'll be a great player on this level.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

Andrew Luck?

Good name for a QB.

[ChiefsCountry]

Originally Posted by Sully

Yeah.
Physically and mentally, I think he's the next Manning.

That said, QB and Safety are my two weakest positions at judging talent, so no AIDS tree if you disagree.

Luck is no Manning, he is more Brady. Which isn't a bad thing at all.

[Marcellus]

We haven't been lucky we have made more plays than the other team.

We were behind in both games and came back and made plays and won. Ugly at times on offense, ugly at times on defense.

Made plays when needed. 3rd and long this week, ST last week. Defense both weeks.

[keg in kc]

Neither game was a dominating performance, but neither was lucky, either. They made fewer mistakes than the team on the other side of the ball and did enough to walk away with a win. San Diego didn't. Cleveland didn't.

Take today's game. The Chiefs didn't penalize themselves out of short field goal range and then miss the kick. Cleveland did. Mistake. And the difference in the game. For teams like Cleveland and Kansas City, that razor-thin line is the difference between winning and losing. And in the end, we did a better job than they did. Was it pretty? No. The offense is awful. The quarterback play is awful. They have a lot of work to do. But don't cheapen it. They won that game. No helmet toss or Tait run. Not luck.

[Rain Man]

A few of my comments from the 50-yard line in Cleveland.

1. The crowd in Cleveland surprised me. When their defense was on the field, they wouldn't make noise unless it was third down. On 1st and 2nd down they just sat around and talked about Cleveland stuff or something. Even on third down it wasn't very loud, but that's probably because the stadium wasn't full.

2. Cassel looked horrible early on, but improved over the course of the game to almost adequate. On some of the earlier plays where he held the ball forever, there truly was nobody even remotely open, so he didn't have a choice. Right before that tipped interception, though, I realized that I get scared every time I see him drop back. Not even neutral. Scared.

3. The more I see Jones, the more I like him. I knew he was a good back, but he's really productive and reliable. I still wonder why Charles isn't on the field more, but it's not like Jones is a slug. But why did have Castille carrying the ball on that one key third down play in the second (?) quarter when we have Charles and Jones?

4. Our receivers were not open at all today. Not at all. Moeaki was always wide open, though. I think it was their scheme, because he generally ran free and didn't seem to have man coverage very much. Kudoes to Cassel or Weis or someone for recognizing it.

5. I was generally impressed with our pass blocking today, particularly the blitz pickups. Cassel's early problems were usually either him or (more likely) the receivers not being open at all.

6. Colquitt had an off day on distance, though his placement was fantastic. I never got to see a replay of the punt where they said our coverage guy stepped into the end zone, but it looked like a great one-yard downing live. Colquitt and Succop were both out on the field practicing at halftime while the Browns were opening their Ring of Fame and honoring their hall of famers. Honestly, I thought it was a little disrespectful.

7. It seemed like DJ made all of our tackles during a big stretch of the second half.

8. There was one incompletion to Bowe that I thought was funny. It was in the second half and he had good position on a relatively deep in pattern, but Cassel threw it behind him and over his head. The thing that I thought was funny was that Chambers was out on the field talking and explaining stuff to him away from the huddle before running back to the sideline, and it went on long enough that I thought, "Geez, they're obviously throwing it to Bowe". Guess the Browns didn't notice it.

9. Was the roughing the passer penalty in the fourth on that second guy that fell on Cassel? That sure as heck didn't seem like a roughing penalty. I'll take it, but that seemed like a really bad call. Of course, we had the bad call on (Lewis?) where they called an unprotected hit even though it was just good defense.

10. I noticed Studebaker playing in Vrabel's place in part of the second half. Was there an explanation for that?

11. What happened to our return game today? Is Cleveland's coverage that good or is San Diego's that bad? We were getting drilled constantly.

12. In passing situations, it was interesting that we usually had either Magee and Gilberry as our only two linemen or sometimes only Gilberry. So we had several plays where we had nobody on the field who weighed more than 270. I was a little worried in Cleveland's second-to-last drive that they'd just run the ball, but they didn't and we stopped them fast.

13. I'm liking this defense. They had a lot of pressure on them due to our lack of offense, and they not only played well, but put points on the board themselves. (Man, that was a great play by Flowers.)

14. We kept kicking off high and short, and on the last kickoff they lined Cribbs up in the second tier and only had ten men on the field until the last second, and then they ran Haden out there deep. I was a little worried, but figured for sure that the Chiefs saw it, but they didn't and kicked it right to Cribbs. Glad it didn't burn us.

[RedThat]

Originally Posted by cdcox

On the defensive side of the ball, I definitely saw some tired legs from the short week. The defense played well, but there was less explosion. Going on the road after a Monday night game is always a recipe for a let down. Getting a W under those circumstances is never a gimme.

Could just be a mental thingy.

Playing at home and having the crowd behind you creates more of that adrenaline rush. Players tend to respond to that. Being pumped up at home, being in the spotlight on a Monday Night. yeah, I would say that could be an influential factor in having the defensive players playing harder and faster. Which one could say, translates into explosion.

Not so much the case on the road.

[Reerun_KC]

Good takes Rain man....