CHIEFS DEFENSE SHOWS IMPROVEMENT, PASSING GAME STILL STALLED & VERY BAD NEWS FOR THE RAMS
I won't sugar-coat it or refuse to give them their due. The Chiefs linebackers looked like NFL-type talent tonight. So was it scheme? Yes I believe it was partially. Was it effort? Absolutely, they played with reckless abandon. Another factor was the rotation always seemed to be right, Romeo Crennel called a great game for his linebackers. Demorrio Williams(2 sacks & 5 tackles), Andy Studebaker(2 sacks & 5 tackles), Mike Vrabel(4 tackles, 1 for loss), Jovan Belcher(3 tackles), Corey Mays(3 tackles), Pierre Walters(2 tackles) & Tamba Hali, Cameron Shefield & Derrick Johnson all with 1 tackle. DJ also broke up two passes, he blew up a back in the flat resulting in an incompletion & flushed Eagle QB Kevin Kolb out of the pocket. The Chiefs' had 53 tackles on defense, the linebackers had 25 of them. There was some hitting too, they played with a sense of urgency like I have never seen this crew exhibit. I have griped about this group for more than a year, when they finally show up & play pretty well, I have to give them credit.
Crennel had a blend of blitz packages that actually worked. They sent Williams & DJ thru the "A" gaps(either side of the center) & it was successful. He sent Studebaker off the edge & he got 2 sacks & also flushed Kolb out of the pockets twice. Vrabel played well too, he looked rejuvenated. Three times Vrabel, Belcher & Studebaker set the edge outside & made the tackle. Gap responsibility was better than I've ever seen from this group. It will be very interesting to see if tonight was a mirage or a glimpse of the future.
Eric Berry looked every bit the player he was advertised to be. He closed on a sideline route just in time to knock the ball away. He delivered a couple of shots in the run game. He covered a lot of ground in a very short time. After watching Mike Brown & Jon McGraw last season, Berry & fellow rookie Kendrick Lewis appear as red blurs out there. Lewis got deep down the middle to intercept a pass & then return it 26-yards. McGraw is a terrific special teams player, but not a starting safety. Flowers & Carr played much better tonight altho Flowers got away with an obvious pass interference in the endzone on Jeremy Maclin. The Eagles #1 receiver, DeSean Jackson, was injured on the first play of the game after he caught a short pass & was leveled by Berry, he didn't return, which made the secondary's job easier.
For the second game in a row, one of the Chiefs lay motionless on the field while his teammates knelt in prayer. Rookie linebacker Cameron Sheffield went down after a helmet-to-helmet hit on RB Mike Bell. No word on his condition. Philadelphia's leading sacker & a Pro Bowl performer, Trent Cole, left early on from an ankle injury, X-rays were negative but an MRI will be performed on Saturday. Jamaal Charles suffered what appeared to be an injury to his left elbow after he landed on it following a 20-yard catch & run.
The return game appears to be in very good hands with rookies Javier Arenas & Dexter McCluster. A taunting penalty by 9th string linebacker David Herron, cost McCluster a 38-yard return. Undrafted free agent Jeremy Horne, one of my camp favorites had a great night playing special teams, he's making a case to keep his roster spot. I was puzzled by Haley's lack of confidence in place kicker Ryan Succop in the 4th quarter. Twice, the Chiefs could have attempted 51 & 52-yard field goals while leading by just 1 point. Both times they took a deliberate delay of game penalty & punted. Later he allowed Succop to kick a 43-yard field goal with 2:04 left in the game only to have the Eagles roar down the field & score the winning touchdown with :24 left on the clock.
Now for the not-so-good-news. Brandon Albert got flagged twice, once for holding & Trent Cole wasn't even playing by then. He looks lost at times. Ryan Lilja was called for holding negating a 23-yard completion to McCluster. Barry Richardson got blown up several times at right tackle. Rudy Niswanger got shoved back into Matt Cassel's lap on a 2nd period quarterback sneak & he was replaced by Casey Weigmann for the remainder of the game. Regular right tackle starter Ryan O'Callaghan didn't dress, still hampered by a leg injury.
Charles fumbled on the first play from scrimmage & two plays later the Eagles scored. Cassel fumbled, but it was recovered & he threw a terrible interception into a cluster of players, 2 of ours & 4 of theirs. Cassel completed 14 of 23 for only 85 yards. This passing game is really stalled, the only big gainers are on swing passes to McCluster & Charles. The tight ends were targeted only once in the entire game & that one was intercepted. Dwayne Bowe caught four passes & a touchdown, he looked good. Chris Chambers caught both passes thrown to him. The pass protection isn't the best, but Cassel must learn to get rid of the ball quicker. He has happy feet in the pocket & looks to run way too quickly. His accuracy on short routes is acceptable, but it isn't on balls thrown over 20-25 yards.
The running game produced 168 yards & it was impressive. Charles, McCluster & Jackie Battle all gashed the Eagle defense. Thomas Jones sputtered somewhat but scored once from the 11-yardline. For the second week in a row, Battle ran like the big-back they always envisioned. He has sewn up the third running back slot in my opinion. Charles was a step away from taking it a long way twice. He's a dangerous weapon & so is McCluster, this team will be more entertaining to watch with these two & Arenas. Because of this speed, the Chiefs will be more competitive as they may not grind out a lot of long scoring drives, but there could be a bunch of long scoring plays from this trio.
Philly fans might wish for Donovan McNabb before too long. Maybe it was just me, but Kevin Kolb looked worse than Matt Cassel. His 11 of 25 for 103 yards & a pick was sorry. He has yet to throw a scoring pass this preseason. The 18-yard scoring run by LeSean McCoy capped the first touchdown drive directed by Kolb in 3 games. Truth be told, it really wasn't a touchdown drive, Charles fumbled, they recovered at the Chiefs 21-yardline & the Eagles scored in 2-plays. It hasn't shown me much so far.
For those of you who didn't make it out to the newly renovated Arrowhead Stadium & were forced to watch the local telecast, I have one thing to say, "please pass the Dramamine." Between the cameramen & the director, it was the worst football telecast I've seen in many years. Mike Kelly & Trent Green were fine once again calling the action, but the sideline reporter, Michael Coleman, is also the worst I've seen in many years. When I hear people bitch about women sideline reporters, I will remind them of one Michael Coleman. He is easily the least insightful sideline reporter ever. The telecast would have been unwatchable for me if it hadn't been the Chiefs, it was dreadful.
We watched the Charger-Saint game too & I would be concerned if I was Norv Turner. The Saints marched up & down the field for 562 yards of offense. Much of New Orleans' yardage was because of sloppy San Diego tackling & I mean sloppy. The Chargers dropped several key passes as well. The Saints logged 90 penalty yards, barely slowing them as they won 36-21.
The other two games tonight were so awful I have no desire to watch them when they're replayed on The NFL Network. Miami got beat at home by Atlanta 16-6 & the vaunted New York Jets were also beaten at home by Washington, minus an injured Donovan McNabb, 16-11. Very ugly football.
The St. Louis Rams got the worst possible news about leading receiver Donny Avery. He has a torn ACL & will be lost for the season. This will make rookie QB Sam Bradford's task that much harder this season.
Crennel had a blend of blitz packages that actually worked. They sent Williams & DJ thru the "A" gaps(either side of the center) & it was successful. He sent Studebaker off the edge & he got 2 sacks & also flushed Kolb out of the pockets twice. Vrabel played well too, he looked rejuvenated. Three times Vrabel, Belcher & Studebaker set the edge outside & made the tackle. Gap responsibility was better than I've ever seen from this group. It will be very interesting to see if tonight was a mirage or a glimpse of the future.
Eric Berry looked every bit the player he was advertised to be. He closed on a sideline route just in time to knock the ball away. He delivered a couple of shots in the run game. He covered a lot of ground in a very short time. After watching Mike Brown & Jon McGraw last season, Berry & fellow rookie Kendrick Lewis appear as red blurs out there. Lewis got deep down the middle to intercept a pass & then return it 26-yards. McGraw is a terrific special teams player, but not a starting safety. Flowers & Carr played much better tonight altho Flowers got away with an obvious pass interference in the endzone on Jeremy Maclin. The Eagles #1 receiver, DeSean Jackson, was injured on the first play of the game after he caught a short pass & was leveled by Berry, he didn't return, which made the secondary's job easier.
For the second game in a row, one of the Chiefs lay motionless on the field while his teammates knelt in prayer. Rookie linebacker Cameron Sheffield went down after a helmet-to-helmet hit on RB Mike Bell. No word on his condition. Philadelphia's leading sacker & a Pro Bowl performer, Trent Cole, left early on from an ankle injury, X-rays were negative but an MRI will be performed on Saturday. Jamaal Charles suffered what appeared to be an injury to his left elbow after he landed on it following a 20-yard catch & run.
The return game appears to be in very good hands with rookies Javier Arenas & Dexter McCluster. A taunting penalty by 9th string linebacker David Herron, cost McCluster a 38-yard return. Undrafted free agent Jeremy Horne, one of my camp favorites had a great night playing special teams, he's making a case to keep his roster spot. I was puzzled by Haley's lack of confidence in place kicker Ryan Succop in the 4th quarter. Twice, the Chiefs could have attempted 51 & 52-yard field goals while leading by just 1 point. Both times they took a deliberate delay of game penalty & punted. Later he allowed Succop to kick a 43-yard field goal with 2:04 left in the game only to have the Eagles roar down the field & score the winning touchdown with :24 left on the clock.
Now for the not-so-good-news. Brandon Albert got flagged twice, once for holding & Trent Cole wasn't even playing by then. He looks lost at times. Ryan Lilja was called for holding negating a 23-yard completion to McCluster. Barry Richardson got blown up several times at right tackle. Rudy Niswanger got shoved back into Matt Cassel's lap on a 2nd period quarterback sneak & he was replaced by Casey Weigmann for the remainder of the game. Regular right tackle starter Ryan O'Callaghan didn't dress, still hampered by a leg injury.
Charles fumbled on the first play from scrimmage & two plays later the Eagles scored. Cassel fumbled, but it was recovered & he threw a terrible interception into a cluster of players, 2 of ours & 4 of theirs. Cassel completed 14 of 23 for only 85 yards. This passing game is really stalled, the only big gainers are on swing passes to McCluster & Charles. The tight ends were targeted only once in the entire game & that one was intercepted. Dwayne Bowe caught four passes & a touchdown, he looked good. Chris Chambers caught both passes thrown to him. The pass protection isn't the best, but Cassel must learn to get rid of the ball quicker. He has happy feet in the pocket & looks to run way too quickly. His accuracy on short routes is acceptable, but it isn't on balls thrown over 20-25 yards.
The running game produced 168 yards & it was impressive. Charles, McCluster & Jackie Battle all gashed the Eagle defense. Thomas Jones sputtered somewhat but scored once from the 11-yardline. For the second week in a row, Battle ran like the big-back they always envisioned. He has sewn up the third running back slot in my opinion. Charles was a step away from taking it a long way twice. He's a dangerous weapon & so is McCluster, this team will be more entertaining to watch with these two & Arenas. Because of this speed, the Chiefs will be more competitive as they may not grind out a lot of long scoring drives, but there could be a bunch of long scoring plays from this trio.
Philly fans might wish for Donovan McNabb before too long. Maybe it was just me, but Kevin Kolb looked worse than Matt Cassel. His 11 of 25 for 103 yards & a pick was sorry. He has yet to throw a scoring pass this preseason. The 18-yard scoring run by LeSean McCoy capped the first touchdown drive directed by Kolb in 3 games. Truth be told, it really wasn't a touchdown drive, Charles fumbled, they recovered at the Chiefs 21-yardline & the Eagles scored in 2-plays. It hasn't shown me much so far.
For those of you who didn't make it out to the newly renovated Arrowhead Stadium & were forced to watch the local telecast, I have one thing to say, "please pass the Dramamine." Between the cameramen & the director, it was the worst football telecast I've seen in many years. Mike Kelly & Trent Green were fine once again calling the action, but the sideline reporter, Michael Coleman, is also the worst I've seen in many years. When I hear people bitch about women sideline reporters, I will remind them of one Michael Coleman. He is easily the least insightful sideline reporter ever. The telecast would have been unwatchable for me if it hadn't been the Chiefs, it was dreadful.
We watched the Charger-Saint game too & I would be concerned if I was Norv Turner. The Saints marched up & down the field for 562 yards of offense. Much of New Orleans' yardage was because of sloppy San Diego tackling & I mean sloppy. The Chargers dropped several key passes as well. The Saints logged 90 penalty yards, barely slowing them as they won 36-21.
The other two games tonight were so awful I have no desire to watch them when they're replayed on The NFL Network. Miami got beat at home by Atlanta 16-6 & the vaunted New York Jets were also beaten at home by Washington, minus an injured Donovan McNabb, 16-11. Very ugly football.
The St. Louis Rams got the worst possible news about leading receiver Donny Avery. He has a torn ACL & will be lost for the season. This will make rookie QB Sam Bradford's task that much harder this season.
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