Babb:Charles disappointed so far
 

Charles disappointed so far
By KENT BABB
The Kansas City Star

Jamaal Charles ended the preseason without the signature long runs that have defined his last two seasons, and two fumbles Thursday further soured him on his own performance.

Charles’ longest run was a 10-yarder in a 20-19 loss at Green Bay. His only carry into the end zone during the preseason was nullified by a holding call. He fumbled twice against the Packers, both times inside the red zone.

“I feel like I played disgusting,” Charles said afterward.

This wasn’t the type of play Charles is known for. He is perhaps the Chiefs’ most explosive player, and other than seven fumbles over his two seasons as a starter — he racked up 2,587 yards in the process — he’s not known as a careless player. He has, in that time, fumbled once for every 60 carries; on Thursday, he fumbled once per 4 1/2 carries.

“I thought I was in practice,” he said. “I turned my body, and I thought I was going to get a hand tackle; next thing I know, somebody came up there and ripped it right out there.”

Coach Todd Haley said that seemed to be the problem, not some disconcerting worry about Charles’ ability to protect the ball. Haley said that because players underwent a training camp light with contact during practices, they weren’t prepared for the hits they’ll take in games. Haley said Charles and others — the Chiefs fumbled four times Thursday, losing three of them among their five turnovers — clearly hadn’t done enough work on preventing fumbles.

“It’s what we talk about as a staff,” Haley said, “that we need to catch up on the back end and make sure that we’re doing enough ball security. We obviously haven’t done enough.”

Haley reiterated something he has said often: That the Chiefs aren’t yet to the point where they can turn the ball over and expect to win. That was especially true Thursday, when Kansas City held a second-half lead and backup quarterback Tyler Palko threw an interception that was returned for the go-ahead touchdown.

“We can’t turn the football over, and we did it. We’ve done it too much here. We’ve done it in practice a few times. That’s troubling,” Haley said. “ … Your defense and special teams, you’ve got to create turnovers. You need to end up in the plus (in turnover differential), and we need to end up well in the plus to be a good team this year.”

The Chiefs finished minus-2 in turnover differential during the preseason, after being plus-9 during the 2010 regular season.

Charles said he was pleased that, if nothing else, he finished the preseason with no injuries. Still, Charles said he expects more of himself.

“I tried to break it every time I got in the backfield,” said Charles, whose dazzling runs last year helped him finish with 1,467 rushing yards, second in the NFL.

Charles said he would work particularly hard in practice and refocus on protecting the ball next week before the regular-season opener against Buffalo at Arrowhead Stadium on Sept. 11. Haley indicated that players might have no choice; coaches will hammer the point to the team now that the preseason has finished.

Charles said he’s not worried. In fact, he said that maybe Thursday’s fumbles and the disappointing preseason will be good for him. He said it was a reminder that he’s not perfect and that he’ll have to work at maintaining the lofty pace he set in his first two seasons as a starter.

“Get it out of my system and learn,” he said.

Kind of reassuring in a way. I like Charles attitude.

Good to hear him say that and glad it happened now and not later. He did have a few fumbles at the wrong time, the playoff game especially. That being said, I can list a guys I am looking closer at then Charles right now.

Whaa because he fumbles. Ass lickers. He is it.......

Yeah use him for the feature back.............

Ass kissers, chimp in.

LOL I do not care. Run free then..

He sucks and is weak. IMO There is a reason he is below 4th.

I was gonna weigh in here, but Smed's got this.

Just honest.

Never was a carry issue. Just fumbles, OK Johnson sucks because he play's 24/7 and fumbles less than Charles.

Wow JC is like that gay guy here. Oh Zach.... LOL

Spews but no info.

Need more carries. OMG

I would just as soon get all the turnovers out of the way in preseason. :D

I have no idea what the hell you are saying, but whatever it is, I have to agree, cause you say it with such flair.

Ok...so 'The Plan' was to do more meetings, movie nights and light practices because of the lockout and now 'The Plan' is to play catch up because the team is behind and not ready for contact? WTF? This is Herm Edwards kind of stuff...

Sadly, the truth.

I hope we blow the socks off of the Bills, but I just don't get the feeling that Haley has his team prepared. Not only for this game, but for the season. Actually it kind of seems like he doesn't know what the heck he's doing. It's disorganized.

The plan was to get these guys into football shape in hopes of avoiding injury to key players before the season started.

If that mean't that the Chiefs were late getting rhythm and chemsitry established, that was a problem that Haley was willing to deal with.

This preseason has gone about the way that I've said from the beginning.

People argued when I suggested that Haley's plan would involve playing the starters far more in the final game than we would normally see.

Was it the right plan?

Maybe not.

But when it's all said and done, I don't think it matters.

It all comes down to Cassel.

But it has not looked disorganized in any way.

We'll see.

That is definitely true though. It all does come down to Cassel. I'm not comfortable with that.

I haven't seen Thurs. game, so these questions are based on what I've read only.

But think about this.

Would this plan look "disorganized" if Cassel hits receivers in stride, if Charles doesn't put the ball on the ground twice, if Copper catches a couple of balls, and if Palko doesn't suck balls?

I think maybe the only positive to come out of Haley's plan is that they "probably" won't be rusty next week because they treated game 4 like game 3. So instead of waiting two weeks to play meaningful football it's just a week. That could be good. But preseason doesn't ever reflect how a team is going to look in the regular season. The Lions looked like world beaters in 08 in the preseason. It wasn't that they went 4-0 in the preseason, they looked dang good while doing it. And then bam...they go 0-16 lol. So next Sunday is gonna be like going to bed on Christmas Eve not knowing even one gift you're going to get for Christmas. It's exciting but yet worrisome lol. I'd feel a lot better if we had a better QB.

Does football shape include being ready for contact so that the RB's dont fumble? If so, Haley's admitted they are now behind. They wont be able to catchup during the season, it takes the entire week to prepare for the upcoming opponent.

i've been disappointed in kent babb so far this year.

Holding onto the football is an individula problem, and Charles has had that problem in the past.

Feh...Ive seen bigger problems than the #3 WR and the backup QB. Namely the OL and DL. The OL cannot give Cassel any time and the DL is getting gashed for big runs both inside and out. It all starts there...

yep...clearly a past problem.

Nice to see the Hedgehog back...

For the most part, I thought we looked pretty good against the Packers. Granted, we had starters in there for nearly the entire game, but things looked pretty good all-in-all.

Take out the 5 TO's, and that would have been an ass kicking of major porportion. I know you are not a stats kind of guy, but the stats sort of support that.

I feel much better about next week than I did after the Rams game.

We missed one, ONE ****ing practice because of a movie, and of course they started out light. It was a very long off-season, and Haley is notorious for believing players should be in football shape before going full bore so as to prevent injuries.

There looked to be a problem getting the offensive play calls in on Thursday. It looked a bit unorganized. The frustration was evident with Cassel and obviously the tv audio picked up Haley's frustration.

Nevermind. Looks like MM already stated the obvious.

But that's a problem that you have to be aware of constantly, and continue to focus on.

It's not one that you fix, and simply forget about.



These are the kind of problems that you're going to see when there's little time to incorporate new parts into your defense.

This is an execution problem, not a preparation issue.

We have had an offseason leading up to this game and now we have 10 full days of singular focus to prepare for the worst team in the NFL.

We got this.

The O-line looked significantly better... IMO... when Albert and Gaither were paired together at the Tackle positions Thursday night. Sure, it is a small sample size to look at, but it was a pairing that showed a lot of promise in pass protection. Again, this may only be my opinion.

I'm sorry, Cassel has me pooping my pants. But you're right, they are bad. I just hope Cassel doesn't ruin it. Because like you mentioned, we would've owned them last year if he would've played better.

I think we they will see a movie every year in camp with Haley. I think it will be a Haley trademark tradition.

I do think that was the plan. But at the same time, when they came out in Thursday's game and gave the starters considerably more time, we saw starters begin to drop like flies. Charles limps off(thankfully comes back), Richardson limps off, Moeaki limps off, Cassel limps off, etc.

They're sacrificing rhythm and chemistry, yet when they give the starters considerable time, they're still getting injured. I just question whether injury prevention was worth neglecting the chemistry and momentum of this young team.

IMO - it was not. They have some very "winnable" games the early part of the season. In fact, one could argue that they are "must wins" because of how difficult thier schedule gets later in the season. It appears they are heading for a slow start. I don't think that would be the case ahd the starters had more playing time during the preseason.

From what I'm hearing, the Bills are not playing the pass very well this year.

They have one pass rusher, and he's a brokedick. They are going to be playing a rookie corner a lot.

I think Cassel will be fine.

Good grief Smed, what'd they do to you at the asylum? is there anyone you can turn to for help, an uncle thats a lawyer or something?

Jamaal will be just fine, even if he has a down year it'll be better than most starters good year.