Doug Tucker: Chiefs see slow, painful progress being made
 

Chiefs see slow, painful progress being made

By DOUG TUCKER

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)—A team that’s lost 28 of 30 games takes encouragement from every little nook, cranny and crawlspace where anything positive might be found.

The Kansas City Chiefs, once the sting went away, saw a few things to like about their 26-20 overtime loss to Dallas the previous day.

They made plays in the kicking game, recovering a muffed punt and kicking two field goals. They recovered a fumble. They made some defensive stands, although not enough.

And most of all, an offense with a wounded line and a history of futility found a way to drive 74 yards in 10 plays and get the game tied in the final seconds on Matt Cassel’s(notes) 16-yard pass to Dwayne Bowe(notes) on fourth down.

In fact, that final drive that tied it 20-all may turn out to be a watershed event as Todd Haley and his coaching staff work to forge a personality and an identify for the 0-5 Chiefs.

It was easily the snappiest drive of the entire miserable year for the Chiefs, even more remarkable because left tackle Brandon Albert had gone to the sideline with an apparent ankle injury.

Early in the drive the Cowboys sacked Cassel for a 4-yard loss. But working quickly out of the shotgun, he found Bobby Wade(notes) for 25 yards on third-and-14, connected with Bowe for 17 yards on first down, then got the TD and let Ryan Succop(notes) kick the extra point to send it into overtime.

“They pulled together, overcame adversity and overcame some injuries in key spots to give us a chance to play a little longer and win the game,” Haley said Monday. “That’s something we definitely as a team have to build on. I think it’s critical that we recognize some of those positives. There were a lot of guys playing real hard for the whole game.”

The Chiefs may use more of the no-huddle, hurry-up approach when they travel to Washington this week hoping to avoid being the first team in franchise history to start a season 0-6.

“Like I said, we’ve got to build on that situation in a lot of different ways,” Haley said. “That was a tough deal, a tough situation to be put in.”

In a a locker room that was not entirely downbeat on Monday, players knew a few good things had happened.

“I think in all three phases there were some positive things to take away from it,” safety Jon McGraw(notes) said. “You don’t always have the luxury of looking at that when you lose. You always have to focus on the negative. But at the end of the day guys realized there was some good football played out there.”

Dallas fans looking for reasons to fire coach Wade Phillips may be pointing to a rash of mistakes the Cowboys made, seemingly trying to hand the game to the Chiefs with a fumble, a muffed punt, a whopping 13 penalties for 90 yards, a missed field goal and several receivers who dropped throws or watched them sail over their outstretched hands.

Haley was criticized for not trying to win in the second half of a blowout loss to Philadelphia on Sept. 27. But no one was questioning the heart of the coach or the motivation of the players in what turned out to be their eighth straight loss at home.

“Some things that we’ve been struggling with, it seemed like we were able to get them done,” said McGraw.

Haley said Albert had his ankle taped and was sore on Monday and his status for this week was not known.

i think the chiefs played hard,but if were so that far under the salary cap then why didnt they bring in some offensive linemen. or did they think the ones they have were good enough,if so they made a big mistake.

Eh, i dont see to much postive. THere are a few ok things that happened in the game, but there were a few ok things that happened last year in games as well. I dont really see any difference. I really dont.

IF someone see's something different. Please let me know. lol WE are ****ing painful to watch on offense and defense. VERY VERY PAINFUL.

Offensively, Cassel needs to throw the ball more quickly. Our O-line has been exploited as the weakness that it is and if he doesn't get rid of it faster, he will get killed in the backfield. His dropbacks to hits ratio was staggering. And seriously, stop with the draw plays on 2nd and long.

Defensively, it's obvious our secondary is weak at safety. I just about lost my religion with Brown on Sunday. After getting burned several times, I fail to see why Haley didn't put DeJuan Morgan in. (was he hurt? if someone can enlighten me, please do.)

Sunday hurt. Dallas tried to deliver a win at our doorstep and the chiefs refused to open the door.

I think we made progress this week for sure. It just sucks that the progress got me invested in the game. I am used to expecting the Chiefs to blow it and being right. I actually let myself think we'd get a win and I paid the disappointing price. I sure hope we build on this at least enough to beat the awful Redskins.

Yeah. 500 yards given up, and ½ of those yards to one dude is unacceptable.

"It was easily the snappiest drive of the entire miserable year for the Chiefs, even more remarkable because left tackle Brandon Albert had gone to the sideline with an apparent ankle injury."

Because or due to?

0-5, 32nd in total defense, 30th in total offense, near the salary minimum... please explain Clark/Scott.

Clark has learned well from his father. Don't expect him to pony up his bucks.

Wish we had a different owner.

Maybe we need a government takeover.

Jesus, I thought you were exaggerating, until I actually looked up the numbers.

And FWIW, we're actually $7M BELOW the salary floor.

:doh!:

When Clark threw out an additional $75 million for stadium renovations back in December 2008, it was a sign that the Chiefs would not be very active in free agency.

I just didn't realize to what degree.

Im starting to wonder if the players didnt want anything to do with us.

Most of the OL guys we brought in were up there in years, right? Maybe they just decided they would rather be a backup on a contender for 2 years than be a starter on a team that is going nowhere in 2 years.

I only have one question when reading this... who the **** is Doug Tucker?

We're so low on the salary cap number becaaaaauuuuuuseee.......

WE'RE GOING TO SPEND LIKE CRAZY THIS OFFSEASON TO FILL IN EVERY POSITION DEEMED A WEAKNESS ON THIS KANSAS CITY CHIEFS SQUAD. OFFENSIVE LINE? CHA-CHING! WIDE RECEIVERS? SHOW ME SOME GREENBACKS! MORE OFFENSIVE LINE? OH SHIT YEAH, WE GOT SOME MONEY UP IN HERE! WE'RE GONNA BE MAKE JERRY JONES LOOK LIKE A PENNY PINCHER THIS OFFSEASON, BABY! BELIEVE IT! IT'S ALL PART OF THE PLAN!!!!

....to return to 8-8.

He is the AP writer based on KC.

I know everybody is like" the Cowboys barely beat us is overtime" Completely forgetting that the Boys muffed a punt had more penalties than a hungover Raiders squad, and dropped two TD passes. This game could have easily been a blowout.
I'll reserve the rainbows for whern we actually win, and deserve to win.

This.

But, would it not more than make up the difference if we were a decent team, and we actually sold out the games? Or are we still selling a lot of tickets?
It can't be that many. Does a shit load of people really go watch a team that has won 2 of the last 30 games? I'm asking because I don't really know.

I'd love to know what progress Tucker is seeing, specifically on defense.

There are 4 new starters handpicked by Haley/Pioli, and the numbers are almost identical to last year.

2008:

27.5 PPG

393 Yards Allowed

6.0 Yards Allowed Per Play


2009:

27.6 PPG

402 Yards Allowed

6.1 Yards Allowed Per Play

WELL it could be that we have played better teams so far this year

Or, it could just be that Pioli and Haley can't evaluate talent.

Or made a poor choice when hiring a DC.

FWIW, those 2008 numbers are for the entire season, not just the first 5 games, and the 2009 numbers are severely skewed by the Oakland game - allowing only 166 yards in that game.

We allowed Baltimore to gain 120 yards more than their average.

We allowed Philly to gain 50 yards more than their average - with a backup QB and RB.

We allowed the Giants 12 yards more than their average, with Manning sitting a good chunk of the 2nd half.

We allowed the Cowboys 80 yards more than they average, with their WR1 not making the trip.



There's absolutely no defense (no pun intended) for the play of the defense, especially when Pioli/Haley forced their way into a 3-4, and handpicked 4 of the current starters.

If had told me that the Chiefs would lose by 20 to Philly's backup QB and without some of their best players, I'd think you were nuts.

If you had told me the Chiefs would lose by 11 points to the Giants with Eli Manning on the sidelines and with their second string defense on the field for most of the second half, I'd think you were crazy.

If you had told me that Miles Austin would put up 250 yards receiving while Roy Williams sat along with Felix Jones, I'd tell you to get the **** out.

This team is BAD, Jason.

There are no two ways to paint it.

i understand that dane, baltimore, nyg, and philly are SB caliber teams. did you happen to see what kolb did in the other game he started? about the same as against us IIRC. maybe those teams are just deeper than us.

why are the numbers "skewed" by the raiders game? did we not actually play them? i dont get that. our defense held them to 166 yards right? or was that another teams d that played that game? oh and i'm sure philly's avg counts the other game kolb started right?

Baltimore is now 3-2. Philly played without their starting running back and starting quarterback. The Giants sat their franchise QB and most of their defense.

The Chiefs lost to both teams. The Chiefs gave up 500 yards to both teams.

Both teams weren't even close to being at their full potential yet the Chiefs lost big time.

It's a bad football team, Jason.

This team is ****ing horrible. We may not win a game this year. We got nothing on offense and nothing on defense.

You know its bad when the best part of your team is the punter and the kicker. We nailed them draft picks. hah