Chiefs O line fail...
 

http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/te...ing/sort/sacks

Right now our O line is 2nd worst in sacks allowed.

...

yeah, they are horrible at pass protection. but andy has a good scheme going. dink and dunk with alex (llike you could do anything else), run heavy (with kniles and charles who wouldn't), control the clock (easy now, we are talking about reid) and wear down the defense. Hopefully at this point you are leading, otherwise it's pass/pass/pass - sack/sack/int.

Almost every time that we try anything more than a 5 step drop, Alex is already having to avoid pressure in his face because one or both of our Guards ****ed up in pass-pro.

Yeah. All the down the field threats the chiefs have are being nuked by alex the cannon Smith.

PFF has the Chiefs ranked 30th in pass block efficiency.

Tied for 1st in QB hits allowed.
Tied for 2nd in hurries.

Our 2 OTs are ranked 57 and 60.. and that's out of a total 63 players.
Our 2 OGs are ranked 41 and 52 out of 61 players at their position.

... but our one OL playing on his final contract yr (Hudson) is ranked 11th out of 32!!!!

What got me the last game was even our two tight end sets were getting blown up. I gotta watch it again. I know Harris was struggling, when is Stephenson due back?

DS was suspended for 4 games.. so he should be back after the NE game.

I thought TE /Harris blocked well. There was 1 sack where Fasano and RT / Harris were to block the rushing DE, and the DE went wide around both of them... pitiful... but at least Reid is showing that he understands the pass pro needs help.

Should the offense find themselves starting on their own 1 again, not calling for a 7 step drop should help.

I don't trust PFF after they have Davis a -7.2

wow, no shit. Factored in is some ugly pass pro fails.. but his run rating should be so much better. Have to wonder what they are doing on that.

Fumble? Not many broken tackles for a big guy? Idk. Sometimes I understand the rating they give, other times it's just kind of out there and just does not match what happened on the field.

No shit, I was watching that and knew what was gonna happen. Alex never even looked up, it appeared he had two easy throws available from the snap.

Fumbles and break-tackles would be factored in, yeah. Still.. not a good enough or fair rating.

he also dropped the ball on a pass play and didn't record a single reception, he needs to learn how to be a well-rounded back

The Film Don't Lie
 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A weekly look at what the Chiefs must fix:

Despite getting their first victory Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs have a few things to clean up heading into next Monday night’s game against the New England Patriots at Arrowhead Stadium. Foremost is their protection of quarterback Alex Smith.

Smith has been sacked on 10.8 percent of his pass attempts this season, which is the second-worst rate in the NFL. The Chiefs will be missing starting offensive linemen Jeff Allen and Donald Stephenson again, one because of an injury and the other because of an NFL suspension.

So the Chiefs will again be forced to use an offensive line inhabited by journeymen (tackle Ryan Harris and guard Mike McGlynn) and developing players (tackle Eric Fisher and guard Zach Fulton). That means the pass protection will get tested by the Patriots next Monday night.

The solution is to go with a quick passing game, a strategy that best suits Smith’s abilities. The Chiefs had some success with the shorter passing game in Sunday’s win over the Miami Dolphins. Smith was sacked five times by the Dolphins, mostly when he took deep drops and intended to go downfield with the ball.

But when Smith stayed upright, he got rid of the ball quickly. None of his 25 pass attempts in Miami went beyond 8 yards downfield, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Smith completed 19 of 25 passes for 186 yards and three touchdowns in a 34-15 victory.

http://espn.go.com/blog/kansas-city-...espnapi_public

I dunno, would an NFL average back have done any better? I bet we could have had Cyrus Gray running the whole time on Sunday and faired just as well. I wasn't as impressed with Kniles as I was with our line's run blocking. JC could have had >200 yards easy with our line playing that well (obviously ignoring the pass blocking). The hard thing is that Reid would try to be extra fancy when we've seen JC put up crazy numbers with no QB and the defense knowing "he's going to be running the ball."

So long story short, I don't think PFF should grade his day as extraordinary. League average back would get about 4 ypc +/- a few. The fact that they gave him the ball so many times just leads to more yards. The fumble could have easily cost us the game. Imagine that happening against NE. They're trying to get stats that are somewhat independent (similar to baseballs sabremetrics). i.e. a fumble at this spot in general leads to a terrible situation even if it didn't this one time.

Fumbles happen...I think Jamaal fumbles too with that rip move the tackler made on Davis..

I wouldn't say extraordinary either.

There were a few plays that most backs would have gained good yards from. On many others, however, he had to generate on his own through vision and breaking weak tackle attempts. 4 out of our 5 lineman had negative run block grades. Hudson barely broke out in the positive.

I'm not saying Davis was incredible.. or is incredible... just that a -3.2 grade in running seems a bit harsh and inaccurate.

Remember, technically, he fumbled twice. One of them he lost, but there was another that he managed to recover. I'm guessing PFF decided to take that into account.

ah, true that.

And (I don't remember where I read this) but fumble recovery is basically a coin flip in the long run.

It was -7.2 not -3.2

I was specifying his run rating.. not the sum of the other aspects.

I don't need a website to see with my own eyes that Harris is a turd at RT, I don't need a website to show McGlynn getting stuffed 3 yards back on impact on most snaps, or to see that the rookie is struggling at RG. In addition to that, I've been of the line of thinking that Hudson is pretty much a turd at center.

Fisher, struggles, but he is definitely improving, especially in run blocking.

No one needs the website to make their own determinations... but it can be an interesting tool to see if their perspective matches or conflicts with your own.

Hudson is what I thought he was.. decent... solid... the best OL that KC has.. not great still.

The OL has played awful, but at some point you have to understand they can't block an entire defense. When 7-8 guys blitz the QB, the QB has to make that read and get the ball out. Alex has failed to do that several times this season.

Their ineffective pass protection combined with Alex's tendency to take sacks against big blitzes doesn't bode well for the overall sack numbers this season. Expect Alex to hit the turf 40+ times.

It's better as a way to evaluate the hundreds of players you DO NOT see every week. It's not foolproof, but it's hands down the best grading made available to fans.

PFF's OL grades, on the other hand, are highly questionable. The fact that KC went from having the worst run blocking OL grades in 2009 with LJ running and then 'suddenly' became, I think, the 3rd highest with Jamaal, indicates the grades are often more reflective of the RB's success than the quality of blocking.

Look how crunched together the slots are from 3-15.

Stephenson's coming back. And the interior line will improve gradually bit by bit. I only need the Chiefs to be the 27th best team in allowing the least amount of sacks.

Anything can happen, but I still feel just fine.

As bad as our pass protection is, I don't think it's as bad as it was after three games last year. Help is on the way at RT. LG is a disaster, though.

why dont we play Kush at LG? He cant be any worse than Mike McSuck

Isn't this expected? I mean jesus christ we've lost everyone, and we have started with the meat of our schedule right off the bat; Ryan Harris draws Derrick Morgan, Von Miller, and Cameron Wake his first 3 weeks??...good luck to any 3rd string tackle against that. Denver and Miami have 2 of the strongest pass rushes in the entire league and Tennessee's pretty solid; things will get better the sky is not falling.

Agreed with that, or ever LTD at this point Mcglynn is our worst, smallest, and slowest lineman.

It's pretty bizarre. The Chiefs took Guy de la Croissant, an OT who already is facing the confusing aspect of playing a different game with different rules, and made him start playing guard immediately because they supposedly want all their linemen to be versatile.

Meanwhile you have Eric Kush, who apart from some snaps here and there in preseason, has played only the C position for two years. And when we need guard help, he's still sitting there on the bench waiting incase Hudson gets injured.

It's very Yostian player management on the part of Reid and Heck

That's 1 place better than I thought they'd be...

Luke Joeckel and Eric Fisher at the top of yet another list.

I have seen wet paper bags full of can goods.... put up more resistance than this line.

Baby ducks in a hurricane have more power......than the Chiefs O line.

Cambodian hookers on a Saturday night suck less.... than the Chiefs O line.

An old lady jumping in a pool of 1000 crocodiles held together more.....

The Swiss cheese on my breakfast sandwich had less holes.....

That's all I got..

there were some pretty good holes for kniles to slip through. I'm okay with that for now. As long as we can hang in there with the run and chew clock, and our secondary doesn't blow up. Maybe we can win a few more.

There were so many skeptics talking about how bad our o-line was going to be and the leak in the boat our secondary would be......yet just some of us predicted about half way in we are seeing serious growth among both groups; our defense is 2nd in the league against the pass giving up only 209 ypg, and our O has a top 5 running game despite the injuries up front and to Jamaal....we seem to be doing alright with this debacle waiting to happen as many of you predicted, thoughts? Does anyone on this forum ever admit when they're wrong? Do they hate admitting it even if it is a complete positive for the team they say they love....is this more about the people than it is about the Chiefs? You people are pathetic, get over yourselves and enjoy the process of this team growing.

The O-Line is better than I thought they'd be but make no mistake about them being "good" when it comes to pass protection. They're not. But they're also not so incapable at playing that we can't win any of our remaining games. We just have to hope they get better.

The secondary sans-Berry is the real surprise. Being second in pass defense after Brady at home and Peyton, Rivers, Kaepernick on the road is outstanding.

An offensive line is more sum than individual parts. It needs time together as a unit.

Obviously mcglynn is a weakness, but still, it's needs time together

McGlynn's been cock solid in the run game.

THAT'S RIGHT.

COCK SOLID.

Fixed.

Chiefs O line fail...
 

If you haven't re-watched JC's TD run in SD you should. Take a look at Hudson getting to the next level and Fisher's hustle on the late block. Good stuff.

These guys blow in pass pro but it seems they've found an identity in pounding the rock. Still, I'd like to see more holes open up in the ground game.

I'll admit, that as bad as the pass pro has been, it's actually better than I thought it would be. I hope they continue to get better as the season goes along.

Blah blah blah a bunch of statistics that are slanted due to the Chiefs having an early bye week.

Use your eyes. The O-line can't pass protect worth a shit therefore the offense is designed to dump the ball off within the first 5 yards. Your stats are misleading and benefit from a system designed to take pressure off the O-line combined with an early bye week.

Good post, IMO.

I will admit that I expected (hoped) that the OL would be decent enough at first. They were not. So my expectations of playoffs dropped off severely.

Then, when the OL showed the improvement they had, I admit that I was wrong again in overreacting as if they would not improve.

I have no problem admitting such things. Team and integrity >>> forum ego

:thumb:

I think run blocking usually comes together first because it takes less communication.

They have an assignment/player to block and they go.


When pass blocking the Oline has to communicate and adjust to what the defense is doing. Less time working together hurts that.

McGlynn still looks clumsy as **** imo.

I'm not sure he will ever be a great pass blocker.

Fisher had a penalty and a whiff ... but the time between mistakes seems to be getting longer and longer. He'll be fine.

Hudson still gets mauled, but he's good on the move.

Fulton is a power guy, i worry about quickness in pass protection

Seems like Harris is making good strides but i haven't really focused on him every single play recently to see for sure.

I've watched Hudson on a number of pass pays and he's held the nose (Denver as an example) on his own due to either failure by a G or because he was expected to that play.

Hudson might be a pro bowl C with a legitimate (not all star, legitimate) starting pair of G's around him...