WHITLOCK - Times call for desperate measures

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/col...ry/307772.html

Times call for desperate measures

The worst offense in football continued its assault on Kansas City fans — first teasing and then torturing Chiefs supporters inside Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.

The Chiefs opened their game with the Jacksonville Jaguars by mounting an impressive five-play, 65-yard drive that featured quarterback Damon Huard unspooling lasers to Kris Wilson, Tony Gonzalez and Samie Parker and setting up the Chiefs with first and 10 at the Jacksonville 12.

From there, once the Chiefs had stretched Jacksonville’s secondary, Kansas City’s offense curled back into a tight ball and protected a coveted field-goal opportunity. Larry Johnson slammed into the line for 1 yard. Huard flipped a swing pass to Johnson for a loss of 2. And on third and long, KC’s offensive braintrust sent its “heavy” package (an extra offensive lineman) onto the field, split Gonzalez and Dwayne Bowe out wide and tried to throw a fade to Gonzalez.

The third-down play ran into trouble before the ball was ever snapped. The Jaguars sat in Cover 2 (corners up tight on Gonzalez and Bowe and safeties over top) despite KC’s personnel package and position deep inside Jacksonville territory. The play failed, the Chiefs missed their much-coveted field goal, and the mistreatment of KC football fans was just getting under way.

“They had a bye last week, and they did things we’d never seen,” guard Brian Waters said.

Translation: Jack Del Rio’s defensive staff outcoached Kansas City’s offensive staff.

That fact was so obvious midway through the fourth quarter, by the time the Jags had taken a three-possession lead, the locals had had enough, emptying the 80,000-seat stadium and leaving The Punt-uda Triangle (Herm Edwards, Mike Solari and Dick Curl) to finish alone in the rain.

Chiefs fans missed Brodie Croyle’s garbage-time TD pass and probably still don’t know that Sunday’s game wrapped up 17-7 in favor of the Jags.

That’s the good news. The bad news is I doubt anything changes the rest of this season. Oh, the Chiefs should score more points next weekend against defenseless Cincinnati, but they’re not going to field a consistent, winning offense. Not this year.

The Chiefs have terrible offensive chemistry, and there won’t be an opportunity to get new ingredients until the offseason.

Kansas City’s offense is averaging one touchdown a game. The Chiefs, 2-3, have fallen behind by at least two scores in every game this season. The Chiefs can’t run the football (3 yards per carry). Larry Johnson has yet to score a touchdown, and on Sunday he finished with 12 yards in nine carries.

The slow starts are an indication of bad game-planning. The putrid running game, especially on Sunday, is an indication of poor offensive-line play and Johnson’s poor attitude. The overall stench of the offense is an indication that the whole thing needs to be blown up.

It’s bad chemistry.

What I mean by that is that there are no individual villains. Mike Solari might one day be a good offensive coordinator. We know Larry Johnson can be an outstanding running back. In the right scheme, Casey Wiegmann is a good center and Damion McIntosh is a solid left tackle. Give Herm Edwards the next great quarterback/offensive-coordinator combination like Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning/Tom Moore, and Herm just might be the same caliber of coach as Tony Dungy.

But the pieces just don’t fit in Kansas City right now. There’s no chemistry. Wiegmann starred in Dick Vermeil’s system. During the Vermeil era, the Chiefs made a killing pulling Wiegmann and Willie Roaf on a sweep left. Wiegmann is great blocking in space, cutting down linebackers and safeties.

McIntosh can’t pull-block the way Roaf could, so the Chiefs don’t run the play. Wiegmann, who is undersized, is getting overpowered in KC’s inside running game this year. He’s getting pushed into Larry’s lap.

Solari is stuck with Al Saunders’ playbook and probably some of Saunders’ instincts. Solari needs Roaf and Vermeil’s insight and support to make the playbook work the way it used to. Vermeil developed Saunders into a great play-caller. Who’s helping Solari? Dick Curl? Herm Edwards?

Help like that explains why Dwayne Bowe doesn’t get the ball until the second half. It explains why the Chiefs don’t make halftime adjustments. It explains why Del Rio’s coaching staff could unveil new schemes and catch the Chiefs totally unprepared.

It’s a bad offensive coaching staff that is hamstrung by an offensive star who is a drain on the team’s morale and emotional energy. Johnson is a front-runner, a Randy Moss. He’s a tremendous asset when he steps onto a moving train. Johnson isn’t adept at getting behind a car and pushing it out of a ditch. His on-field body language is terrible. I honestly believe the Chiefs should consider hiring LJ’s dad, a longtime Penn State assistant coach, for next season. The Hunts have a lot of money tied up in LJ. Why not give LJ’s father $250,000 to manage KC’s most talented player?

Wow. I’ve gone from campaigning for Jeff George to Ty Law to Larry Johnson’s daddy. I’m as desperate as Carl Peterson.

[Halfcan]

LJ deserves a lot of the credit for the bad offense. The play calling reminds me of pee wee football.

[Deberg_1990]

hahaha....Good column this week. I cant really disagree with any of it. Loved the closing line...

[Zouk]

Why do I need to read his columns? I already know what they're going to say based on the score:

Chiefs win: I'm a big Herm Edwards fan, always have been.

Chiefs lose: Herm Edwards, Mike Solari, and Dick Curl are teh debbils.

I can get that from about 100,000 people on this board.

[wutamess]

I think Whitlock follows my threads exclusively.

http://chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=171808
http://chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=171811

[milkman]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

hahaha....Good column this week. I cant really disagree with any of it. Loved the closing line...

I don't know.

Hiring LJ's dad ain't gonna fix what ails this team.

Fix the O-Line and get a real QB will go along way towards that goal, however.

[tk13]

Let's hire Joe Paterno!

[TRR]

LJ needs to run harder as well. Even when he gets some open space, he seems to duck out of bounds quicker than I ever remember. And when he runs the sweep plays, he doesn't even run hard. Like Whitlock states...You can tell by his body language that he isn't happy running a sweep play.I know the blocking is really bad for LJ. But he needs to make some plays himself....Like all other great RB's do in the league.

[Iowanian]

Isn't this a "courtesy of someone on Chiefsplanet"?

"The Punt-uda Triangle"

[wutamess]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

Isn't this a "courtesy of someone on Chiefsplanet"?

"The Punt-uda Triangle"

No. I think they started repeating it after Whitlock said it because they said it was retarded (I forgot who it was).

[TEX]

Whitlock nailed it. He's 100% correct, anyone who can't see it is as big a fool as Herm Edwards. What the offense has become under his watch is ****ING disgraceful. And his defense isn't really that good. It's a paper tiger when it comes to stopping the run. But, he'll have an answer for it all - not the correct one - but he'll have an answer. I'm just counting the days until that idiot is gone. I figured we'd get here under Herm, we just arrived sooner than I thought. Now, if he could only LEAVE sooner as well...

[KCJohnny]

1. Solari needs to do some quality assurance checks on the OL coach. Solari was promoted from OL coach to OC because of the Chiefs' dominance up front. Rich Baldinger of Metro Sports did film analysis showing several of the Chiefs OLmen missing assignments - simple stuff - reads and responsibilities.

2. Simplify. All the motions and shifts are doing NOTHING. Get the OL and H-backs/TEs to stop thinking so much and start driving defenders down the field. That's what LJ was talking about last week. Too much thinking. Do the fundamentals well and the schemes will take care of themselves. Marty's #1 rule: don't beat yourself. That's what our OL is doing.

3. Use Bowe in the running game. Have him run the reverse or the WR screen. He makes something happen every time he touches the ball.

4. Practice more with pads. Period.

The problem is not fixable, it might be manageable.

KCJ

[AZChief]

LJ is a quitter. Does Jay Z like quitters?

[scott free]

Every so often, Whitlock NAILS it.

[KCChiefsFan88]

Originally Posted by milkman

I don't know.

Hiring LJ's dad ain't gonna fix what ails this team.

Fix the O-Line and get a real QB will go along way towards that goal, however.

Don't forget a competent offensive coordinator and a QB coach who isn't a fluffer for the head coach.