Chiefs Ten Things About Today's Game - Page 4

**gblowfish** · 06:01 PM

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.

Xanathol · 09-09-2012, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gblowfish

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.

Damn you're dense - how many times does a 3-4 defense need to be explained for people to understand how stupid that evaluation is?

**Rain Man** · 09-09-2012, 07:40 PM

I'm curious how many snaps Dorsey and Jackson got. It seemed like the Falcons abandoned the run for most of the game, and our linemen were Poe and Pitoitua in the pass rush package a whole lot.

**gblowfish** · 09-09-2012, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xanathol

Damn you're dense - how many times does a 3-4 defense need to be explained for people to understand how stupid that evaluation is?

Right. A defensive end can't be an impact rusher on defense. Like Jared Allen. Or Neil Smith. Or Leslie O'Neil.

Two players, both high first round picks. Five tackles between them. Heckuva job, Brownie....

FloridaMan88 · 09-09-2012, 07:43 PM

Fat Scott's secret police must be looking for candy wrappers.

This franchise is an absolute trainwreck.

Saccopoo · 09-09-2012, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gblowfish

Right. A defensive end can't be an impact rusher on defense. Like Jared Allen. Or Neil Smith. Or Leslie O'Neil.

Two players, both high first round picks. Five tackles between them. Heckuva job, Brownie....

Two different schemes.

A 34 defensive end isn't a pass rusher by the fact of the scheme they play in, especially in Crennel's defense.

Allen, Smith and O'Neil are/were all dedicated pass rushers in a 43.

It's apples and oranges.

O.city · 09-09-2012, 07:46 PM

Today was a bit of a perfect storm.

The Falcons are a really really good offense and we were really banged up on defense.

FloridaMan88 · 09-09-2012, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by O.city

Today was a bit of a perfect storm.

The Falcons are a really really good offense and we were really banged up on defense.

Today was a carbon copy of what happened during the Seattle preseason game on defense.

Other than Flowers all the defensive starters were available and played significant time during that game.

**gblowfish** · 09-09-2012, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

Two different schemes.

A 34 defensive end isn't a pass rusher by the fact of the scheme they play in, especially in Crennel's defense.

Allen, Smith and O'Neil are/were all dedicated pass rushers in a 43.

It's apples and oranges.

They all played in and 3-4 and a 4-3 while here.
So, you think we're getting our value out of these two guys (Jackson and Dorsey) considering where they were picked? (3rd over all in 1st round and 5th overall, 1st round)?

Also, if their "job" isn't to provide a pass rush, or to make tackles, what is it they're supposed to be doing exactly?

O.city · 09-09-2012, 07:51 PM

THe Seahawks ran the ball on us. The Falcons didn't today. We just couldn't get a passrush, which we haven't been able to do in what seems like 20 years.

**the Talking Can** · 09-09-2012, 07:53 PM

days like today make so glad to see the return we've gotten on 3 top eleven DL picks....

**SAUTO** · 09-09-2012, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gblowfish

They all played in and 3-4 and a 4-3 while here.
So, you think we're getting our value out of these two guys (Jackson and Dorsey) considering where they were picked? (3rd over all in 1st round and 5th overall, 1st round)?

Also, if their "job" isn't to provide a pass rush, or to make tackles, what is it they're supposed to be doing exactly?

We never were a 3-4 team with Allen
Posted via Mobile Device

**SAUTO** · 09-09-2012, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the Talking Can

days like today make so glad to see the return we've gotten on 3 top eleven DL picks....

They couldn't run it on us
Posted via Mobile Device

milkman · 09-09-2012, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gblowfish

They all played in and 3-4 and a 4-3 while here.
So, you think we're getting our value out of these two guys (Jackson and Dorsey) considering where they were picked? (3rd over all in 1st round and 5th overall, 1st round)?

Also, if their "job" isn't to provide a pass rush, or to make tackles, what is it they're supposed to be doing exactly?

The primary job of a DE in this scheme is to occupy blockers to allow the LBs to make plays.

It's an outdated and flawed scheme in this era of passing the ball.

O.city · 09-09-2012, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkman

The primary job of a DE in this scheme is to occupy blockers to allow the LBs to make plays.

It's an outdated and flawed scheme in this era of passing the ball.

This.

Plus today, our OLB's who are supposed to rush the passer, were awful.

**gblowfish** · 09-09-2012, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by milkman

The primary job of a DE in this scheme is to occupy blockers to allow the LBs to make plays.

It's an outdated and flawed scheme in this era of passing the ball.

Well, they do a bang up job occupying about one blocker each. I'll give you that!

09-09-2012, 05:36 PM
gblowfish Be Kind To Your Pets Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Glorious Independence, MO Casino cash: $17686178 VARSITY	Ten Things About Today's Game 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. Last edited by gblowfish; 09-09-2012 at 06:01 PM..
Posts: 40,830

09-09-2012, 07:40 PM	#47
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3358491 VARSITY	I'm curious how many snaps Dorsey and Jackson got. It seemed like the Falcons abandoned the run for most of the game, and our linemen were Poe and Pitoitua in the pass rush package a whole lot. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,250

09-09-2012, 07:43 PM	#49
FloridaMan88 Mahomes: We Are All Witnesses Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Miami, FL Casino cash: $3202906	Fat Scott's secret police must be looking for candy wrappers. This franchise is an absolute trainwreck.
Posts: 38,106

09-09-2012, 07:46 PM	#51
O.city In Search of a Life Join Date: Jul 2009 Casino cash: $2784064	Today was a bit of a perfect storm. The Falcons are a really really good offense and we were really banged up on defense.
Posts: 81,202

09-09-2012, 07:51 PM	#54
O.city In Search of a Life Join Date: Jul 2009 Casino cash: $2784064	THe Seahawks ran the ball on us. The Falcons didn't today. We just couldn't get a passrush, which we haven't been able to do in what seems like 20 years.
Posts: 81,202

09-09-2012, 07:53 PM	#55
the Talking Can Supporter Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: street Casino cash: $10022208	days like today make so glad to see the return we've gotten on 3 top eleven DL picks.... __________________ Clark Hunt: "Thank god for the Dominican pool boy"
Posts: 51,585