Ten Things About Today's Game

[gblowfish]

Ten Things About Today's Game

10. After suffering the Todd Haley/Tyler Palko horror show of October through December last year, my general hope for this year was this: The defense that carried the team in the last month last season hopefully would carry momentum into this year. The offense that was crippled by injuries and the subsequent stubborn "Screw Pioli pissing contest" by Haley would get fixed with a new OC. Haley got whacked, and we got those three offense components back this year healthy, and an upgrade in the backfield with Hillis replacing Thomas Jones. A big surprise out of training camp was to carry five running backs on the 53. The plan seems to be play ball control football, pound the ground, mix with possession type passing, chew clock and play defense. We've seen it work before. So I was guardedly optimistic. My wife and brother in law got field passes for pre-game warm ups, and that's cool. The new plastic credit card "tickets" worked well, security had metal detectors, and passed people inside much quicker than years past. We saw the Stealth Bomber fly over for the National Anthem. That's always awesome,and the singer actually knew all the words to the anthem and didn't muck it up. So much for small victories. If you remember last season's home opener, the Chiefs came out and laid an giant red and gold egg against Buffalo. They fumbled the opening kickoff, then Berry got hurt, then Haley went all Daffy Duck with his play calling, then they got behind, then they got blown out. Today was almost as bad an opener as last year. This year, we were in it for a half before getting totally embarrased. There's no home excuse when you have perfect weather, a full house and a great atmosphere. But just like last year, the fans ended up getting a swift kick in the red and gold nads.

9. In the four phases, KC matched up with Atlanta for one half in only one phase: Offense. The offense looked reasonably good the first half with a good mix of run and pass, Cassel spread the ball around, didn't turn the ball over, made good throws on third down, didn't throw short on third down except for one time. That was all good. Hillis and Charles had big runs for good yardage. You can look at the game stats (if you didn't watch the game) and things look somewhat reasonable: Chiefs won time of possession by four minutes, had more first downs, and decent balance in yards passing vs. yards rushing. Charles was 13 yards short of a 100 yard game, and the Chiefs only punted one time. That all sounds pretty good, so what happened? Halftime happened, then turnovers happened. This game became a total mis-match in the third quarter because of the other three phases: Defense, Special Teams and Coaching.

8. This was the worst defensive performance I can remember in terms of lack of pass rush and lack of pass coverage since the Colts playoff game in the Vermeil era. Chiefs defense never forced a punt in that game, and today we only forced one punt, and that was in fourth quarter garbage time. How can our second line defensive backs be so bad? Elam, Reeves and Daniels all looked totally lost out there. Julio Jones just owned the secondary. There was no pass rush up front from our first round pick defensive ends. None. Dorsey and Jackson were both useless. They were credited today for five tackles between them, but I can't for the life of me remember a single impact play that either were involved in. Studebaker for Hali was a no show. Only decent pass rush was on one second quarter play by Houston, and that was his only credited tackle all day long. Berry only had two tackles today. The only defensive player who looked like he came to play was DJ. He led the team with seven tackles, and covered Gonzalez most of the afternoon. This was a pitiful effort in third down defense. Tamba Hali should have to pay every Chiefs fan the cost of a game ticket. He could have made all the difference on third down. Ryan ate this defense alive on third down because he had time, and lots of it. If this trend doesn't improve in a hurry, and I mean more than just Flowers coming back, teams are going to pass for 300 a game on us every week. Frankly, I'm worried.

7. Special teams were poor. The game momentum totally changed when Succop doinked a 41-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter. First of all, Chiefs have a make-able third and three and Cassel throws a ball right into Weatherspoon, who knocks it down. Then, they trot out Succop for a 41-yarder that would have tied the game back up 20-20 with nine minutes left in the third. Colquitt can't figure out where to spot the ball, then when he figures it out, play clock is running down so they hurry the snap, ball slices to the right and doinks off the right upright. Plenty of leg, but the kick was rushed. Everything goes to shit from there. Plus the Chiefs give up a 77-yard kick return in the first half. And the icing on the special teams cake, two rookies, Draughn and Stephenson, start fighting after the play on a fourth quarter kickoff with the team down 40-17. Great poise. Scoreboard, clowns, scoreboard.

6. Matt Cassel: I bet a friend of mine that the Duke of Dink would throw short on third down at least three times during the game. I think I may have nailed it. Actually, Cassel played very well in the first half and I'll give him credit for that. It was perhaps one of his best halves of football in the last two years. Seven different guys caught balls. His pass to Boss for a TD was well done. Nice throw and catch on that one. The problem with Cassel is, once he gets behind, he will never, ever EVER bring you back. He is a Mr. Ball Control, protect a lead kind of guy. He can't put the team on his back and will them to win. He just doesn't have the chops or talent to do it. Worst of all, Cassel is prone to turnovers and sacks when he gets behind because he has happy feet and forces plays. He makes things much worse.

5. Happy feet and forcing plays: Follow along with me for a minute: If you look a the third quarter after the doinked field goal, Ryan (who CAN put a team on his back) marches right down the field and scores the TD himself on a QB draw. That's a ten point swing in about four minutes. So now Cassel is down by ten instead of three. Cassel gets the ball back, and gets into a 3rd and 15. Something happened at the line, because Fat Albert got a real slow jump off the center snap. Abraham beats Fat Albert like a drum, gets to Cassel, and forces a fumble on the KC 8 yard line. One play later, Gonzalez TD, now you're down by 17. Cassel gets the ball back, gets one first down on a pass to McCluster, then gets a third and nine, gets happy feet in the pocket, forces a pass into a tightly covered Moeaki, ball goes off Moeaki's hands to William Moore for the second turnover. Atlanta kicks a field goal. Now you're down by 20 into the fourth quarter and the run is getting stuffed as Atlanta adjusts. Now here's comes the stupidest play of the game:

4. Cassel scrambles and for whatever reason, slides early and slides one yard short of a first down. So it's third and one. Then they call time out to talk about it. Instead of putting your best playmakers on the field: Bowe, Breaston, McCluster or Charles, they run the double tight end set out there with Hillis and Eachus....EACHUS for Chrissakes in the backfield. OK, so pound the ball and get the first down. Instead, they run a fake to Eachus, who then fails to pick up a blitzing William Moore, who gets in Cassel's grill, and forces a pass cross field at a triple covered Moeaki, which is picked off for the third straight turnover. Falcons kick another field goal, and now it's 40-17. and the butt kicking is complete. Cassel looks like a whipped puppy on the sidelines. Sad, really.


3. The final aspect I haven't mentioned is coaching. This was a classic example of one team making halftime adjustments, and one team not having a clue what adjustments to make. Atlanta came out in the third quarter and shut down the run completely. Once they forced the Cassel fumble, they struck with points, and never looked back. They adjusted to what KC has been doing the first half, and KC had no clue how to stop Atlanta all day long. The only forced punt Atlanta had was with about three minutes left. The last KC TD was garbage time. Watch the Atlanta secondary when Droughn scores with five seconds left. They didn't even want to tackle him. Why risk an injury? Romeo looked out classed and clueless. He better figure something out soon or he'll be wondering if his office phone is tapped. And why not play Quinn in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter and get him some real game reps? Why are guys like Charles still out there when the game is out of hand? I don't get it. Why make a bad game day worse by risking injuries in an out of reach game?

2. One sideline thing I noticed is that the Chiefs have added these secret service looking, Matrix-CIA types behind the bench area. They have bad suits with brown shoes, dark sunglasses, earpieces, and stood around giving the fans the stink eye in the fourth quarter when the game had gone south. They also were running Romeo off the field after the game like he was in the witness protection program. I guess they want to make sure NOBODY can get near him once the game is over and whisk him away to the safety of the press conference room. I took a picture of them in the fourth quarter. The guy in the green suit kept eyeballing me.


1. It's a bit of a broken record, and hard to find new things to say. It's hard to be optimistic when so far this looks like same old crap in a brand new box. Except this year the injuries are on defensive side instead of the offense side, and people are going to pass us to death until we can stop it. Meanwhile, this year we're way under the salary cap....again. Hey Scott, hey Clark, thanks for the nifty jersey. I'll tell you what, though. I would have been much happier to have seen the jersey money spent on keeping Brandon Carr. I think we could really use him about now.

[cdcox]

Two great photos that perfectly summarize the Pioli regime.

[Red Dawg]

Well said. Nailed Matt perfectly. He can't bring a team or lift it when the game is on the line. In short, he is not good enough to beat good defenses and we will never never ever win in the playoff with him at QB. Clark either doesn't care or is just following Scott blindly not to see this. There is zero reason not to play Quinn. If Matt has another half like that next week we should see Quinn.

[TrickyNicky]

I'm sure your seats are on the 'list' of known troublemakers after Haley flipped you the bird.

Now pick up that hot dog wrapper before something bad happens.

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by cdcox

Two great photos that perfectly summarize the Pioli regime.

Absolutely. That picture of Cassel speaks VOLUMES.

[petegz28]

Problem with #6. Cassel brought us back from behind 3 times and would have been 4 had Succop made the kick

[stonedstooge]

Clark will spend money on security but not a new quarterback. FML

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by TrickyNicky

I'm sure your seats are on the 'list' of known troublemakers after Haley flipped you the bird.

ALLEGEDLY flipped the bird. He said he "may have waved."
It's all good, he's in Pittsburgh where they understand non-verbal communication.

[T-post Tom]

Great post, as usual.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by petegz28

Problem with #6. Cassel brought us back from behind 3 times and would have been 4 had Succop made the kick

I think that we are tlking about 10-14 point deficits.

3-7 points seem still managable to Cassel, it seems.

More than that and he starts pressing.

[milkman]

Point #5, that pass to Moeaki was a well thrown ball, a pass that some of us have said that Cassel needs to be willing to make.

That pass was exactly where it needed to be, and Moeaki has to make that catch.

[RINGLEADER]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

Absolutely. That picture of Cassel speaks VOLUMES.

Was that taken after he threw the ball at the guy's ankle?

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Ten Things About Today's Game

10. After suffering the Todd Haley/Tyler Palko horror show of October through December last year, my general hope for this year was this: The defense that carried the team in the last month last season hopefully would carry momentum into this year. The offense that was crippled by injuries and the subsequent stubborn "Screw Pioli pissing contest" by Haley would get fixed with a new OC. Haley got whacked, and we got those three offense components back this year healthy, and an upgrade in the backfield with Hillis replacing Thomas Jones. A big surprise out of training camp was to carry five running backs on the 53. The plan seems to be play ball control football, pound the ground, mix with possession type passing, chew clock and play defense. We've seen it work before. So I was guardedly optimistic. My wife and brother in law got field passes for pre-game warm ups, and that's cool. The new plastic credit card "tickets" worked well, security had metal detectors, and passed people inside much quicker than years past. We saw the Stealth Bomber fly over for the National Anthem. That's always awesome,and the singer actually knew all the words to the anthem and didn't muck it up. So much for small victories. If you remember last season's home opener, the Chiefs came out and laid an giant red and gold egg against Buffalo. They fumbled the opening kickoff, then Berry got hurt, then Haley went all Daffy Duck with his play calling, then they got behind, then they got blown out. Today was almost as bad an opener as last year. This year, we were in it for a half before getting totally embarrased. There's no home excuse when you have perfect weather, a full house and a great atmosphere. But just like last year, the fans ended up getting a swift kick in the red and gold nads.

9. In the four phases, KC matched up with Atlanta for one half in only one phase: Offense. The offense looked reasonably good the first half with a good mix of run and pass, Cassel spread the ball around, didn't turn the ball over, made good throws on third down, didn't throw short on third down except for one time. That was all good. Hillis and Charles had big runs for good yardage. You can look at the game stats (if you didn't watch the game) and things look somewhat reasonable: Chiefs won time of possession by four minutes, had more first downs, and decent balance in yards passing vs. yards rushing. Charles was 13 yards short of a 100 yard game, and the Chiefs only punted one time. That all sounds pretty good, so what happened? Halftime happened, then turnovers happened. This game became a total mis-match in the third quarter because of the other three phases: Defense, Special Teams and Coaching.

8. This was the worst defensive performance I can remember in terms of lack of pass rush and lack of pass coverage since the Colts playoff game in the Vermeil era. Chiefs defense never forced a punt in that game, and today we only forced one punt, and that was in fourth quarter garbage time. How can our second line defensive backs be so bad? Elam, Reeves and Daniels all looked totally lost out there. Julio Jones just owned the secondary. There was no pass rush up front from our first round pick defensive ends. None. Dorsey and Jackson were both useless. They were credited today for five tackles between them, but I can't for the life of me remember a single impact play that either were involved in. Studebaker for Hali was a no show. Only decent pass rush was on one second quarter play by Houston, and that was his only credited tackle all day long. Berry only had two tackles today. The only defensive player who looked like he came to play was DJ. He led the team with seven tackles, and covered Gonzalez most of the afternoon. This was a pitiful effort in third down defense. Tamba Hali should have to pay every Chiefs fan the cost of a game ticket. He could have made all the difference on third down. Ryan ate this defense alive on third down because he had time, and lots of it. If this trend doesn't improve in a hurry, and I mean more than just Flowers coming back, teams are going to pass for 300 a game on us every week. Frankly, I'm worried.

7. Special teams were poor. The game momentum totally changed when Succop doinked a 41-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter. First of all, Chiefs have a make-able third and three and Cassel throws a ball right into Weatherspoon, who knocks it down. Then, they trot out Succop for a 41-yarder that would have tied the game back up 20-20 with nine minutes left in the third. Colquitt can't figure out where to spot the ball, then when he figures it out, play clock is running down so they hurry the snap, ball slices to the right and doinks off the right upright. Plenty of leg, but the kick was rushed. Everything goes to shit from there. Plus the Chiefs give up a 77-yard kick return in the first half. And the icing on the special teams cake, two rookies, Draughn and Stephenson, start fighting after the play on a fourth quarter kickoff with the team down 40-17. Great poise. Scoreboard, clowns, scoreboard.

6. Matt Cassel: I bet a friend of mine that the Duke of Dink would throw short on third down at least three times during the game. I think I may have nailed it. Actually, Cassel played very well in the first half and I'll give him credit for that. It was perhaps one of his best halves of football in the last two years. Seven different guys caught balls. His pass to Boss for a TD was well done. Nice throw and catch on that one. The problem with Cassel is, once he gets behind, he will never, ever EVER bring you back. He is a Mr. Ball Control, protect a lead kind of guy. He can't put the team on his back and will them to win. He just doesn't have the chops or talent to do it. Worst of all, Cassel is prone to turnovers and sacks when he gets behind because he has happy feet and forces plays. He makes things much worse.

5. Happy feet and forcing plays: Follow along with me for a minute: If you look a the third quarter after the doinked field goal, Ryan (who CAN put a team on his back) marches right down the field and scores the TD himself on a QB draw. That's a ten point swing in about four minutes. So now Cassel is down by ten instead of three. Cassel gets the ball back, and gets into a 3rd and 15. Something happened at the line, because Fat Albert got a real slow jump off the center snap. Abraham beats Fat Albert like a drum, gets to Cassel, and forces a fumble on the KC 8 yard line. One play later, Gonzalez TD, now you're down by 17. Cassel gets the ball back, gets one first down on a pass to McCluster, then gets a third and nine, gets happy feet in the pocket, forces a pass into a tightly covered Moeaki, ball goes off Moeaki's hands to William Moore for the second turnover. Atlanta kicks a field goal. Now you're down by 20 into the fourth quarter and the run is getting stuffed as Atlanta adjusts. Now here's comes the stupidest play of the game:

4. Cassel scrambles and for whatever reason, slides early and slides one yard short of a first down. So it's third and one. Then they call time out to talk about it. Instead of putting your best playmakers on the field: Bowe, Breaston, McCluster or Charles, they run the double tight end set out there with Hillis and Eachus....EACHUS for Chrissakes in the backfield. OK, so pound the ball and get the first down. Instead, they run a fake to Eachus, who then fails to pick up a blitzing William Moore, who gets in Cassel's grill, and forces a pass cross field at a triple covered Moeaki, which is picked off for the third straight turnover. Falcons kick another field goal, and now it's 40-17. and the butt kicking is complete. Cassel looks like a whipped puppy on the sidelines. Sad, really.


3. The final aspect I haven't mentioned is coaching. This was a classic example of one team making halftime adjustments, and one team not having a clue what adjustments to make. Atlanta came out in the third quarter and shut down the run completely. Once they forced the Cassel fumble, they struck with points, and never looked back. They adjusted to what KC has been doing the first half, and KC had no clue how to stop Atlanta all day long. The only forced punt Atlanta had was with about three minutes left. The last KC TD was garbage time. Watch the Atlanta secondary when Droughn scores with five seconds left. They didn't even want to tackle him. Why risk an injury? Romeo looked out classed and clueless. He better figure something out soon or he'll be wondering if his office phone is tapped. And why not play Quinn in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter and get him some real game reps? Why are guys like Charles still out there when the game is out of hand? I don't get it. Why make a bad game day worse by risking injuries in an out of reach game?

2. One sideline thing I noticed is that the Chiefs have added these secret service looking, Matrix-CIA types behind the bench area. They have bad suits with brown shoes, dark sunglasses, earpieces, and stood around giving the fans the stink eye in the fourth quarter when the game had gone south. They also were running Romeo off the field after the game like he was in the witness protection program. I guess they want to make sure NOBODY can get near him once the game is over and whisk him away to the safety of the press conference room. I took a picture of them in the fourth quarter. The guy in the green suit kept eyeballing me.


1. It's a bit of a broken record, and hard to find new things to say. It's hard to be optimistic when so far this looks like same old crap in a brand new box. Except this year the injuries are on defensive side instead of the offense side, and people are going to pass us to death until we can stop it. Meanwhile, this year we're way under the salary cap....again. Hey Scott, hey Clark, thanks for the nifty jersey. I'll tell you what, though. I would have been much happier to have seen the jersey money spent on keeping Brandon Carr. I think we could really use him about now.

Great evaluation as always.

[RINGLEADER]

Originally Posted by milkman

I think that we are tlking about 10-14 point deficits.

3-7 points seem still managable to Cassel, it seems.

More than that and he starts pressing.

This.

Has Cassel ever won a game on a last minute drive besides playing against the winless Colts last year?

[Deberg_1990]

Hahaha...Piolis secrect service agents are going to be a running joke all season.