LaChapelle
08-30-2009, 09:58 AM
Column - Josh Looney
The Morning After
Aug 30, 2009, 12:58:14 AM
www.KCChiefs.com
Insider Forum with Josh Looney - Talk it up!
Saturday night’s 14-10 loss to Seattle is one of those games that make fans thankful that it is only the preseason. Unfortunately, for the Chiefs, several key members were injured in last night’s exhibition game and the Kansas City faithful are hoping that this preseason game doesn’t have an impact on the regular season.
Chiefs QB Matt Cassel went down on the third play of the game, with what team officials are calling a leg injury, after he was sacked by DT Brandon Mebane. Cassel’s early exit was followed by fellow starters CB Brandon Flowers and WR Devard Darling. The trio joined two other late scratches, LB Derrick Johnson and S Jarrad Page, on the growing list of the Chiefs walking wounded.
“All injured guys are being evaluated,” Haley said following the game. “We don’t have any real information on any of those guys. We’ll talk about them at a later date.”
There is no way to sugar coat an evening like last night. Cassel’s early injury was just the beginning of a disappointing night for Chiefs fans and head coach Todd Haley. There were a handful of positives in the game, but they came too few and far between, obviously overshadowed by the Chiefs injury situation.
“It’s disappointing across the board for me tonight,” Haley said. “I feel like after making some progress in week two, I felt like we went backwards tonight.”
Time is not on the Chiefs side as they have just 14 days to heal the wounded before Opening Day in Baltimore two weeks from today. This team also faces a short week ahead as the final preseason game waits on Thursday in St. Louis.
Let’s take a look across the board at the positives and negatives from last night’s game.
Reason For Concern
• Offense as a Whole – After establishing the ground game early and posting 81 rushing yards after the first quarter, the Chiefs could only amount 27 yards rushing over the final three periods. The Chiefs finished with 260 total yards, two interceptions, four sacks and just a 51.0 QB rating overall. The offense never really could get on the same page and the final results showed.
“Offensively, it’s very disappointing in how we played,” Haley said. “It was a real struggle.”
• Third Downs – Kansas City was an abysmal one-of-ten on third down conversions, making victory a near impossibility in today’s NFL. There were obvious breakdowns during critical third-down situations throughout the night on the offensive side of the football, but Haley put the challenge on his quarterback to overcome those obstacles.
“When you’re one-of-ten on third down, you’re not getting it done at quarterback,” Haley said. “There’s just no way. Even if there are break downs in other places, it’s the quarterback’s ability to move the chains. When we’re one-of-ten there isn’t much good happening, that’s for sure.”
“I don’t think I played up to my ability,” QB Tyler Thigpen said. “I feel like I did some good things, but some bad things and those bad things I have to correct.”
• Defensive Breakdowns – After turning in two good performances vs. Houston and at Minnesota defending third down, the Chiefs saw the Seahawks find a soft spot in the zone or take advantage of coverage miscues to convert third downs. A few coverage miscues were the dark spot on an otherwise gritty defensive performance.
“Defensively, I thought some good things, but too many breakdowns that cost us on a couple of those long drives,” Haley said. “But I did think that the defense hung in there and fought a little bit, which is encouraging.”
• Special Teams Misfires – K Ryan Succop finally looked human for the first time this preseason as he pushed a 28-yard FG wide-left and misfired on a kickoff that we’ve come accustomed to seeing him boot into the end zone. A muffed punt return (that the Chiefs retained possession on) and an inexcusable mistake of having just 10 players on the field capped off a disappointing night for the Chiefs special teams units.
“Special teams, I know we had 10 (players) on the field at least once, which you cannot have,” Haley said. “It’s discouraging, disappointing. Ryan has been a positive throughout camp and the preseason, but tonight he hit a line-drive kickoff we don’t want and he missed a field goal that he probably should have made. He did come back and hit (a field goal) and I thought the end of the half it was a good kick. He had a good kickoff after the miss. I’m not going to beat him up too bad.”
“No excuses,” Succop said. “I have to make that (28-yard) kick every time.”
Positives From Arrowhead
It’s sometimes tough to find positives in a game like this, but there were a handful of things that I was impressed with last night.
• Attitude – Anyone that is around this team knows that a culture change has occurred. Is the change complete? Certainly not. But change has definitely begun to take place and comments following this game point to that shift.
“I want to win,” Haley said. “We need to learn how to win and right now we’re three preseason games without showing the ability to win or finish or do the things we had to do to have a chance. That’s where we’re at, but we’ll start to find out who has some staying power.”
“It’s always frustrating,” T Damion McIntosh said. “No one wants to lose and I’m positive that no one on this team wants to lose.”
• Charles’ Night and LJ’s Aggression – RB Jamaal Charles finished as the Chiefs leading rusher with seven carries for 54 yards. He made a handful of nice runs around the corner last night, displaying his speed and agility. Charles also factored into the special teams game, making plays in coverage and knocking out a 35-yard kickoff return. His solid day with the ball paired nicely with RB Larry Johnson’s early rushing success. Johnson ran extremely hard during his time on the field and the two really worked the outside edge of the defense well.
“There was some good spacing, and some good holes and then things opened up for us,” Johnson said. “We just had to keep staying with it, even if some of the reads were wrong, we were still able to make yards.”
“We’re going to have to find ways to win games and running the football is something we are going to have to do,” Haley said. “We must have been blocking them a bit. I thought Charles made a couple of real nice runs. I thought Larry had a couple of aggressive runs, which were positives. I thought we were coming off the ball and I saw some receivers blocking well.”
• Defensive Grit and a pick-six – Chiefs defenders were bringing the wood last night on defense. There were several big hits and, despite some miscues, the “D” made some big stops when they needed to. They escaped danger on multiple occasions, allowing over 400 yards of total offense, but holding Seattle to just 14 points. Flowers’ pick-six got the crowd into the game early and LB Andy Studebaker logged a sack, as did DE Tyson Jackson. The defense has played with a high-motor this preseason, something that seemed to be lacking at times in 2008.
• Monty Beisel Steps Up – LB Derrick Johnson (as was LB Zach Thomas) was a scratch tonight, allowing plenty of action for the Chiefs reserve linebackers to scoop up. Beisel seemed to be all over the field, stuffing runs and making several tackles just before the chains to force Seattle punts. The Kansas State product definitely impressed the crowd tonight.
The Morning After
Aug 30, 2009, 12:58:14 AM
www.KCChiefs.com
Insider Forum with Josh Looney - Talk it up!
Saturday night’s 14-10 loss to Seattle is one of those games that make fans thankful that it is only the preseason. Unfortunately, for the Chiefs, several key members were injured in last night’s exhibition game and the Kansas City faithful are hoping that this preseason game doesn’t have an impact on the regular season.
Chiefs QB Matt Cassel went down on the third play of the game, with what team officials are calling a leg injury, after he was sacked by DT Brandon Mebane. Cassel’s early exit was followed by fellow starters CB Brandon Flowers and WR Devard Darling. The trio joined two other late scratches, LB Derrick Johnson and S Jarrad Page, on the growing list of the Chiefs walking wounded.
“All injured guys are being evaluated,” Haley said following the game. “We don’t have any real information on any of those guys. We’ll talk about them at a later date.”
There is no way to sugar coat an evening like last night. Cassel’s early injury was just the beginning of a disappointing night for Chiefs fans and head coach Todd Haley. There were a handful of positives in the game, but they came too few and far between, obviously overshadowed by the Chiefs injury situation.
“It’s disappointing across the board for me tonight,” Haley said. “I feel like after making some progress in week two, I felt like we went backwards tonight.”
Time is not on the Chiefs side as they have just 14 days to heal the wounded before Opening Day in Baltimore two weeks from today. This team also faces a short week ahead as the final preseason game waits on Thursday in St. Louis.
Let’s take a look across the board at the positives and negatives from last night’s game.
Reason For Concern
• Offense as a Whole – After establishing the ground game early and posting 81 rushing yards after the first quarter, the Chiefs could only amount 27 yards rushing over the final three periods. The Chiefs finished with 260 total yards, two interceptions, four sacks and just a 51.0 QB rating overall. The offense never really could get on the same page and the final results showed.
“Offensively, it’s very disappointing in how we played,” Haley said. “It was a real struggle.”
• Third Downs – Kansas City was an abysmal one-of-ten on third down conversions, making victory a near impossibility in today’s NFL. There were obvious breakdowns during critical third-down situations throughout the night on the offensive side of the football, but Haley put the challenge on his quarterback to overcome those obstacles.
“When you’re one-of-ten on third down, you’re not getting it done at quarterback,” Haley said. “There’s just no way. Even if there are break downs in other places, it’s the quarterback’s ability to move the chains. When we’re one-of-ten there isn’t much good happening, that’s for sure.”
“I don’t think I played up to my ability,” QB Tyler Thigpen said. “I feel like I did some good things, but some bad things and those bad things I have to correct.”
• Defensive Breakdowns – After turning in two good performances vs. Houston and at Minnesota defending third down, the Chiefs saw the Seahawks find a soft spot in the zone or take advantage of coverage miscues to convert third downs. A few coverage miscues were the dark spot on an otherwise gritty defensive performance.
“Defensively, I thought some good things, but too many breakdowns that cost us on a couple of those long drives,” Haley said. “But I did think that the defense hung in there and fought a little bit, which is encouraging.”
• Special Teams Misfires – K Ryan Succop finally looked human for the first time this preseason as he pushed a 28-yard FG wide-left and misfired on a kickoff that we’ve come accustomed to seeing him boot into the end zone. A muffed punt return (that the Chiefs retained possession on) and an inexcusable mistake of having just 10 players on the field capped off a disappointing night for the Chiefs special teams units.
“Special teams, I know we had 10 (players) on the field at least once, which you cannot have,” Haley said. “It’s discouraging, disappointing. Ryan has been a positive throughout camp and the preseason, but tonight he hit a line-drive kickoff we don’t want and he missed a field goal that he probably should have made. He did come back and hit (a field goal) and I thought the end of the half it was a good kick. He had a good kickoff after the miss. I’m not going to beat him up too bad.”
“No excuses,” Succop said. “I have to make that (28-yard) kick every time.”
Positives From Arrowhead
It’s sometimes tough to find positives in a game like this, but there were a handful of things that I was impressed with last night.
• Attitude – Anyone that is around this team knows that a culture change has occurred. Is the change complete? Certainly not. But change has definitely begun to take place and comments following this game point to that shift.
“I want to win,” Haley said. “We need to learn how to win and right now we’re three preseason games without showing the ability to win or finish or do the things we had to do to have a chance. That’s where we’re at, but we’ll start to find out who has some staying power.”
“It’s always frustrating,” T Damion McIntosh said. “No one wants to lose and I’m positive that no one on this team wants to lose.”
• Charles’ Night and LJ’s Aggression – RB Jamaal Charles finished as the Chiefs leading rusher with seven carries for 54 yards. He made a handful of nice runs around the corner last night, displaying his speed and agility. Charles also factored into the special teams game, making plays in coverage and knocking out a 35-yard kickoff return. His solid day with the ball paired nicely with RB Larry Johnson’s early rushing success. Johnson ran extremely hard during his time on the field and the two really worked the outside edge of the defense well.
“There was some good spacing, and some good holes and then things opened up for us,” Johnson said. “We just had to keep staying with it, even if some of the reads were wrong, we were still able to make yards.”
“We’re going to have to find ways to win games and running the football is something we are going to have to do,” Haley said. “We must have been blocking them a bit. I thought Charles made a couple of real nice runs. I thought Larry had a couple of aggressive runs, which were positives. I thought we were coming off the ball and I saw some receivers blocking well.”
• Defensive Grit and a pick-six – Chiefs defenders were bringing the wood last night on defense. There were several big hits and, despite some miscues, the “D” made some big stops when they needed to. They escaped danger on multiple occasions, allowing over 400 yards of total offense, but holding Seattle to just 14 points. Flowers’ pick-six got the crowd into the game early and LB Andy Studebaker logged a sack, as did DE Tyson Jackson. The defense has played with a high-motor this preseason, something that seemed to be lacking at times in 2008.
• Monty Beisel Steps Up – LB Derrick Johnson (as was LB Zach Thomas) was a scratch tonight, allowing plenty of action for the Chiefs reserve linebackers to scoop up. Beisel seemed to be all over the field, stuffing runs and making several tackles just before the chains to force Seattle punts. The Kansas State product definitely impressed the crowd tonight.