Chiefs Ten Things About Last Night's Game - Page 3

**gblowfish** · 11:50 AM

Ten Things About Last Night's Game

10) I was guarded in my optimism going into last night's game. I haven't been able to make it up to St. Joe this year, but some of my best buds have, and I trust their judgement. They said offense still looked weak, and they're still not sold on Cassel as a legit leader. To me, he still has a slight stench of Grbac about him. I hoped the first string offense in general would play better. On defense, considering we went in tied at 3-3 at the half, I'll take that every time this year. Succop doinked a 53-yarder off the uprights, or we would have had the lead at the half. And the first half is really all that matters in these games, the second half is a battle of "who's third stringers and cuts are better?"

9) Who looked good? Charles looked like Charles. He averaged over 9 yards a carry. McCluster looked great on the sweeps, but I'm afraid he may get killed if they send him across the middle on a pass pattern. I know the guy is tough, but this is the NFL. I love his burst, he seems to have a fifth gear that our other backs, except for Charles, don't seem to have. The new DBs all looked pretty good. Berry made a nice open field tackle, Kendrick Lewis looked good on a safety blitz. Arenas averaged over 28 yards on kickoff returns, and had a TD called back on a hold by Cole (which should get him cut in the first cutdown, btw). All in all positive production by all our top round picks. Studebaker looked better

8) Who not so good? Both starting offensive and defensive lines. Falcon's first string guys pushed our defensive front all over the field with real vanilla straight ahead running plays. That's not good. I can't remember seeing an outstanding play by Dorsey or Jackson. They had four tackles between them, and no sacks. Considering how much we have invested in these guys, they should have a bigger impact. Leonard Pope sucks at TE. If he catches the ball, he falls down immediately. That's if he catches it at all. He has hands of stone. His only positive is he's 6'8". Even at that, Cassel overthrew him. How do you overthrow a target that's almost seven feet tall? Let's hope Brokiaki can get over his Croyle's disease and actually suit up and play. Speaking of Brokie, his interception was ugly. I think we have to look for a better number two guy. He's never won a game in the NFL, and I just don't think he's got the chops to be a winner. Palko? Telegraphs his passes. He's going to get his receivers killed. I'd rather have Shane Falco as my third guy. Ryan O'Callahan was basically a speed bump all night. He got beat over and over and over again in the first half. Barry Richardson looked a little better, then he got a leg injury at the very end of the game. DJ was basically invisible the whole game. Disappointing. He seems to either be all impact, or useless, no in between.

7) Todd Haley's body language on the sideline was interesting. Looked like he was doing a slow burn the whole game. He stood around with his arms crossed glowering at this players, and had some terse exchanges with some of the sideline coaches. Seems like the front office has drilled it into him NOT to make scene on the sideline this year. He's trying to stay calm, but you can see his true angry nature boiling under the surface. I predict he'll have a couple of Lou Pinella type explosions in pre-season. He just can't help it.

6) So far not impressed much with Charlie Weis. I know we run a pretty vanilla offense in pre-season, but we only threw the ball more than ten or fifteen yards twice that I can remember. Both times the receiver -some scrub named Horne- was wide open, but our QBs couldn't come close to hitting him. Lots of little dink and dunk passes. I'm afraid we're going to have a lot of six yard passed on third and ten again this year. And that makes me crazy. Special teams looked decent, our kicking and returning game should be above average this year.

5) When you compare the stats in the game -except for the score, of course- it looks more even than you might think. Chiefs gained more yards, had more first downs, went 50% in third down conversions, and ran the ball for 4.6 yards per carry. The big difference was turnovers and sacks. We had two picks, one fumble lost, and two sacks. Falcons had no turnovers and gave up no sacks.

4) I noticed our skill guys kept falling down on cuts a lot. Falcon skill guys seemed to have better footing. You'd think our equipment staff would get the right shoes for indoor field turf for our guys. Maybe their players are just more used to the Georgia Dome surface than our players, although our new indoor training field should have a fairly similar surface.

3) On the TV broadcast, this years pairing was Trent Green and Mike Kelly. Kelly is the radio play by play guy for Mizzou. He seemed to struggle. He mis-identified running backs several times, and Trent Green had to tactfully correct him. I think Green is very good. He's smart, and I can see him taking over for Len Dawson when he retires. Lenny is starting to get up there, and probably won't do games for too many more years. Green would be a natural replacement. I couldn't listen to Mitch and Lenny, because the lag between the TV broadcast and radio broadcast was about five or six seconds, and that was making me crazy. Radio was ahead of the TV. 101 needs to fix that, or lots of people are going to have to turn the radio off. It's just too distracting.

2) Tony Gonzalez looked great. But we got Arenas for his pick, and I feel like that's a good deal for both teams. Barring injury, we might have the best young secondary since we had Ross, Lewis, Burruss and Cherry. That's saying something.

1) Overall, I think we'll improve maybe by a couple games this year. I think 6-10 is about right. I'm just not sold on Cassel. He's been injury prone, he's not an accurate passer, and Chambers, who is supposed to be a main weapon, had one catch for six yards, so you can't tell much from that. I think teams will stack up to stop Charles on the run, and dare us to pass. When we do, there's no guarantee we'll be able to pass protect well enough to keep Cassel from throwing picks or fumbling, like he did last night. If Cassel goes down, we're really screwed. Croyle just isn't the answer. I'm not really disappointed, last night was about what I expected. It would just be nice to actually win a game now and then, even if they don't count.

stevieray · 08-14-2010, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Tape off three to four inches around the art. Remove. Paint. Re-hang. Just a thought. Would be quick work.

Wall then acts like a frame for the canvas.

great minds

milkman · 08-14-2010, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevieray

great minds

We're still looking for them.

**OnTheWarpath15** · 08-14-2010, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Tape off three to four inches around the art. Remove. Paint. Re-hang. Just a thought. Would be quick work.

Wall then acts like a frame for the canvas.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevieray

no worries, it's not like you blew a knee out or anything...if you want to keep it on the red..go behind the painting about an inch with the black and do maybe three or four inch border around the outside...I'd draw a chalk line around the painting and then tape off from that point.

sorry gman, don't mean to hijack the epic ten things thread.

Me thinks the wife would rather me just move it to the black wall.

And yeah, sorry George. Didn't mean to hijack here.

**gblowfish** · 08-14-2010, 12:25 PM

That's OK. I'm married to an art teacher. And I really like FDE's work. He rocks.

stevieray · 08-14-2010, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkman

We're still looking for them.

we were?

milkman · 08-14-2010, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevieray

we were?

We dosn't necessarily include you.

It's the general "we".

**HemiEd** · 08-14-2010, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkman

There's a lot of things that I disagree with here, George, but as always, it's a great thread, even if some of your observations are off the mark.

Dorsey forced an intentional grounding, just as good as getting credited for a sack. The QB was dead meat if he didn't do it.

tk13 · 08-14-2010, 01:09 PM

I think people forget when Weis was OC for the Pats, they excelled in the short passing game. That was their bread and butter. They didn't have Moss and Welker... they'd put 4 and 5 WR's on the field, spread you out and Brady would cut you up with the short passing game. I kind of expect us to have a similar approach. I think that's exactly why we drafted who we did offensively.

stevieray · 08-14-2010, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkman

We dosn't necessarily include you.

It's the general "we".

how come I don't get to look?

milkman · 08-14-2010, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevieray

how come I don't get to look?

I didn't say you don't get to look.

I just assumed you weren't by the tenor of your question.

SPATCH · 08-14-2010, 01:18 PM

Looks like someone is forgetting about the young defensive backfield of Warfield, Bartee, and Dennis...

T-post Tom · 08-14-2010, 01:20 PM

Falcons' rookies better than Chiefs 20-10
By GEORGE HENRY (AP) – 15 hours ago

ATLANTA — Matt Ryan played two decent series. Matt Cassel played four average ones.

Both quarterbacks lacked solid protection in the preseason opener, but Ryan's Falcons got better play from their rookie reserves in Atlanta's 20-10 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday night.

Dexter McCluster, a second-round pick, made a few dazzling moves as a tailback and a slot receiver for Kansas City. But Dimitri Nance and Shann Schillinger helped put the Falcons ahead to stay early in the third quarter.

Nance, an undrafted rookie free agent from Arizona State, ran for a 3-yard touchdown to make it 10-3. Schillinger, a sixth-round cornerback, set up the score by picking off Brodie Croyle's throw and returning it 29 yards.

Kansas City safety Eric Berry, the No. 5 overall pick, was credited with one tackle.

The Chiefs had a winless preseason in 2009, then no victories in the first five weeks of the regular season. They finished 4-12 under first-year coach Todd Haley.

Atlanta is coming off a 9-7 season that ended a 44-year franchise history of never achieving consecutive winning records.

The first half was a dud despite McCluster's speedy bursts and a few timely defensive plays by the Falcons.

Five of the first eight drives ended with field-goal attempts. Matt Bryant's 30-yarder on Atlanta's first possession made it 3-0, but the next four tries all missed from 50 yards or more.

Falcons running back Michael Turner, a 2008 Pro Bowl selection trying to come back from an ankle injury last year, gained 29 yards on four carries.

Ryan, whose final month of '09 was affected by a turf toe injury, connected on a pair of third-and-long completions to tight end Tony Gonzalez, for 16 and 12 yards. He otherwise went 1 of 4 for 6 yards.

Cassel, who completed 6 of 8 passes for 25 yards, suffered from worse protection.

After a three-and-out, Cassel's second drive ended with Kroy Biermann's sack and John Abraham's fumble recovery.

Nine plays into his third drive, Cassel was sacked by middle linebacker Curtis Lofton for a 6-yard loss.

Lofton, the heart of Atlanta's defense, limped off the field before halftime, but Falcons officials said he only had a leg cramp.

McCluster, a second-round pick from Mississippi, ran five times for 25 yards and caught three passes for 22. He needed only limited space to run past the first level of Atlanta's defense and into the open field.

Chiefs kicker Ryan Succop twice tried field goals from 53, hitting the left upright and missing wide right. His 20-yarder with 2 seconds left before halftime made it 3-3.

Haley started Thomas Jones ahead of Jamaal Charles at running back. Jones played one series, gaining 2 yards, before Charles played the rest of the first quarter and into the second, running five times for 33 yards.

Croyle was 8 of 16 for 65 yards. Third-string Chiefs QB Tyler Palko completed 7 of 10 passes for 62 yards, but Falcons cornerback Chevis Jackson picked him off and ran the ball back 26 yards to set up Steve Hauschka's 37-yard field goal and a 20-3 lead.

Palko ran for a 1-yard TD in the final minute.

**BossChief** · 08-14-2010, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

I'm great with the idea of trading Gonzo. I just hate that we completely wasted the opportunity on the type of player that can be had in round 5.

This was my big argument for that pick.

We could have went a long way towards fixing our run defense with that pick with a premier talent at NT with Terrance Cody. He was very impressive in his first action...so was Arenas IMO but Cody would have helped this team a whole lot more.

I guess we will just have to see how it plays out.

Deberg_1990 · 08-14-2010, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gblowfish

I think 6-10 is about right.

Well thats better than last year. progress.

Chiefspants · 08-14-2010, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loochy

Grbac wasn't bad, he was just an incredible uberdouche.

Lmao, what's hilarious is that People actually intended to have Rich Gannon as their pick for sexist man alive.

I suppose we Chiefs fans weren't the only ones who were left feeling screwed over by Grbac.

08-14-2010, 11:24 AM
gblowfish Be Kind To Your Pets Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Glorious Independence, MO Casino cash: $17596178 VARSITY	Ten Things About Last Night's Game Ten Things About Last Night's Game 10) I was guarded in my optimism going into last night's game. I haven't been able to make it up to St. Joe this year, but some of my best buds have, and I trust their judgement. They said offense still looked weak, and they're still not sold on Cassel as a legit leader. To me, he still has a slight stench of Grbac about him. I hoped the first string offense in general would play better. On defense, considering we went in tied at 3-3 at the half, I'll take that every time this year. Succop doinked a 53-yarder off the uprights, or we would have had the lead at the half. And the first half is really all that matters in these games, the second half is a battle of "who's third stringers and cuts are better?" 9) Who looked good? Charles looked like Charles. He averaged over 9 yards a carry. McCluster looked great on the sweeps, but I'm afraid he may get killed if they send him across the middle on a pass pattern. I know the guy is tough, but this is the NFL. I love his burst, he seems to have a fifth gear that our other backs, except for Charles, don't seem to have. The new DBs all looked pretty good. Berry made a nice open field tackle, Kendrick Lewis looked good on a safety blitz. Arenas averaged over 28 yards on kickoff returns, and had a TD called back on a hold by Cole (which should get him cut in the first cutdown, btw). All in all positive production by all our top round picks. Studebaker looked better 8) Who not so good? Both starting offensive and defensive lines. Falcon's first string guys pushed our defensive front all over the field with real vanilla straight ahead running plays. That's not good. I can't remember seeing an outstanding play by Dorsey or Jackson. They had four tackles between them, and no sacks. Considering how much we have invested in these guys, they should have a bigger impact. Leonard Pope sucks at TE. If he catches the ball, he falls down immediately. That's if he catches it at all. He has hands of stone. His only positive is he's 6'8". Even at that, Cassel overthrew him. How do you overthrow a target that's almost seven feet tall? Let's hope Brokiaki can get over his Croyle's disease and actually suit up and play. Speaking of Brokie, his interception was ugly. I think we have to look for a better number two guy. He's never won a game in the NFL, and I just don't think he's got the chops to be a winner. Palko? Telegraphs his passes. He's going to get his receivers killed. I'd rather have Shane Falco as my third guy. Ryan O'Callahan was basically a speed bump all night. He got beat over and over and over again in the first half. Barry Richardson looked a little better, then he got a leg injury at the very end of the game. DJ was basically invisible the whole game. Disappointing. He seems to either be all impact, or useless, no in between. 7) Todd Haley's body language on the sideline was interesting. Looked like he was doing a slow burn the whole game. He stood around with his arms crossed glowering at this players, and had some terse exchanges with some of the sideline coaches. Seems like the front office has drilled it into him NOT to make scene on the sideline this year. He's trying to stay calm, but you can see his true angry nature boiling under the surface. I predict he'll have a couple of Lou Pinella type explosions in pre-season. He just can't help it. 6) So far not impressed much with Charlie Weis. I know we run a pretty vanilla offense in pre-season, but we only threw the ball more than ten or fifteen yards twice that I can remember. Both times the receiver -some scrub named Horne- was wide open, but our QBs couldn't come close to hitting him. Lots of little dink and dunk passes. I'm afraid we're going to have a lot of six yard passed on third and ten again this year. And that makes me crazy. Special teams looked decent, our kicking and returning game should be above average this year. 5) When you compare the stats in the game -except for the score, of course- it looks more even than you might think. Chiefs gained more yards, had more first downs, went 50% in third down conversions, and ran the ball for 4.6 yards per carry. The big difference was turnovers and sacks. We had two picks, one fumble lost, and two sacks. Falcons had no turnovers and gave up no sacks. 4) I noticed our skill guys kept falling down on cuts a lot. Falcon skill guys seemed to have better footing. You'd think our equipment staff would get the right shoes for indoor field turf for our guys. Maybe their players are just more used to the Georgia Dome surface than our players, although our new indoor training field should have a fairly similar surface. 3) On the TV broadcast, this years pairing was Trent Green and Mike Kelly. Kelly is the radio play by play guy for Mizzou. He seemed to struggle. He mis-identified running backs several times, and Trent Green had to tactfully correct him. I think Green is very good. He's smart, and I can see him taking over for Len Dawson when he retires. Lenny is starting to get up there, and probably won't do games for too many more years. Green would be a natural replacement. I couldn't listen to Mitch and Lenny, because the lag between the TV broadcast and radio broadcast was about five or six seconds, and that was making me crazy. Radio was ahead of the TV. 101 needs to fix that, or lots of people are going to have to turn the radio off. It's just too distracting. 2) Tony Gonzalez looked great. But we got Arenas for his pick, and I feel like that's a good deal for both teams. Barring injury, we might have the best young secondary since we had Ross, Lewis, Burruss and Cherry. That's saying something. 1) Overall, I think we'll improve maybe by a couple games this year. I think 6-10 is about right. I'm just not sold on Cassel. He's been injury prone, he's not an accurate passer, and Chambers, who is supposed to be a main weapon, had one catch for six yards, so you can't tell much from that. I think teams will stack up to stop Charles on the run, and dare us to pass. When we do, there's no guarantee we'll be able to pass protect well enough to keep Cassel from throwing picks or fumbling, like he did last night. If Cassel goes down, we're really screwed. Croyle just isn't the answer. I'm not really disappointed, last night was about what I expected. It would just be nice to actually win a game now and then, even if they don't count. Last edited by gblowfish; 08-14-2010 at 11:50 AM..
Posts: 40,843

08-14-2010, 12:25 PM	#34
gblowfish Be Kind To Your Pets Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Glorious Independence, MO Casino cash: $17596178 VARSITY	That's OK. I'm married to an art teacher. And I really like FDE's work. He rocks.
Posts: 40,843

08-14-2010, 01:09 PM	#38
tk13 ... Join Date: Nov 2001 Casino cash: $1662500	I think people forget when Weis was OC for the Pats, they excelled in the short passing game. That was their bread and butter. They didn't have Moss and Welker... they'd put 4 and 5 WR's on the field, spread you out and Brady would cut you up with the short passing game. I kind of expect us to have a similar approach. I think that's exactly why we drafted who we did offensively.
Posts: 55,012

08-14-2010, 01:18 PM	#41
SPATCH birth of spatch Join Date: May 2008 Casino cash: $10006207	Looks like someone is forgetting about the young defensive backfield of Warfield, Bartee, and Dennis...
Posts: 4,569

08-14-2010, 01:20 PM	#42
T-post Tom Threepeat! Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Milk/Honey/Gazland Casino cash: $4367293	Falcons' rookies better than Chiefs 20-10 By GEORGE HENRY (AP) – 15 hours ago ATLANTA — Matt Ryan played two decent series. Matt Cassel played four average ones. Both quarterbacks lacked solid protection in the preseason opener, but Ryan's Falcons got better play from their rookie reserves in Atlanta's 20-10 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Friday night. Dexter McCluster, a second-round pick, made a few dazzling moves as a tailback and a slot receiver for Kansas City. But Dimitri Nance and Shann Schillinger helped put the Falcons ahead to stay early in the third quarter. Nance, an undrafted rookie free agent from Arizona State, ran for a 3-yard touchdown to make it 10-3. Schillinger, a sixth-round cornerback, set up the score by picking off Brodie Croyle's throw and returning it 29 yards. Kansas City safety Eric Berry, the No. 5 overall pick, was credited with one tackle. The Chiefs had a winless preseason in 2009, then no victories in the first five weeks of the regular season. They finished 4-12 under first-year coach Todd Haley. Atlanta is coming off a 9-7 season that ended a 44-year franchise history of never achieving consecutive winning records. The first half was a dud despite McCluster's speedy bursts and a few timely defensive plays by the Falcons. Five of the first eight drives ended with field-goal attempts. Matt Bryant's 30-yarder on Atlanta's first possession made it 3-0, but the next four tries all missed from 50 yards or more. Falcons running back Michael Turner, a 2008 Pro Bowl selection trying to come back from an ankle injury last year, gained 29 yards on four carries. Ryan, whose final month of '09 was affected by a turf toe injury, connected on a pair of third-and-long completions to tight end Tony Gonzalez, for 16 and 12 yards. He otherwise went 1 of 4 for 6 yards. Cassel, who completed 6 of 8 passes for 25 yards, suffered from worse protection. After a three-and-out, Cassel's second drive ended with Kroy Biermann's sack and John Abraham's fumble recovery. Nine plays into his third drive, Cassel was sacked by middle linebacker Curtis Lofton for a 6-yard loss. Lofton, the heart of Atlanta's defense, limped off the field before halftime, but Falcons officials said he only had a leg cramp. McCluster, a second-round pick from Mississippi, ran five times for 25 yards and caught three passes for 22. He needed only limited space to run past the first level of Atlanta's defense and into the open field. Chiefs kicker Ryan Succop twice tried field goals from 53, hitting the left upright and missing wide right. His 20-yarder with 2 seconds left before halftime made it 3-3. Haley started Thomas Jones ahead of Jamaal Charles at running back. Jones played one series, gaining 2 yards, before Charles played the rest of the first quarter and into the second, running five times for 33 yards. Croyle was 8 of 16 for 65 yards. Third-string Chiefs QB Tyler Palko completed 7 of 10 passes for 62 yards, but Falcons cornerback Chevis Jackson picked him off and ran the ball back 26 yards to set up Steve Hauschka's 37-yard field goal and a 20-3 lead. Palko ran for a 1-yard TD in the final minute. __________________ You seem nice!
Posts: 20,327