CHIEFS - I WASN'T EXPECTING MUCH & THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT WE GOT
Before every Chiefs' fan, including me, starts pointing out all the mistakes in tonight's 25-0 loss to Tampa Bay, let's focus on what each team wanted to accomplish. Tampa's Raheem Morris said he wanted to win the game & build momentum for the season opener. He kept stayed his starters well into the 2nd quarter. The Bucs played pretty well, they won, so mission accomplished.
Todd Haley made it clear he was going to use much of the preseason for evaluation, getting the best 53-man roster for opening day. He had a large number of starters who have only been in St. Joseph for a week & weren't on the field tonight. Matt Cassel took 8 snaps & didn't throw a pass, Jamal Charles didn't play, neither did Tony Moeaki, Casey Wiegmann, Glenn Dorsey, Tamba Hali, Brandon Carr etc. etc. etc. Realistically, Haley wasn't worried about winning with the team he fielded this evening.
O.K. now I'm going to start criticizing, so if you want to look forward to next weeks trip to Baltimore & forget about tonight, stop reading now.
The best stat for the Chiefs tonight was zero penalties.
The negative stats were plentiful. Two fumbles lost, six sacks surrendered, 137 yards of total offense, which is pathetic. Only 6 first downs, numerous dropped passes, Tampa had twice the time of possession as the Chiefs & on 3rd down, Kansas City was 1 for 10. I know Haley was going for "evaluation" but this was pretty lame. This game is why season ticket holders bitch about paying full price to watch what was essentially a scrimmage to the Chiefs.
I have to address the poor tackling, it was a huge disappointment. This was a problem last season & tho several defensive starters did not play, those who did only played a couple of series, but their potential backups looked awful for the most part. There were a few exceptions that I will spotlight.
Cory Greenwood--Led the team in tackles with 8, most were in pursuit, when Tampa ran at him, he got washed out & couldn't get off blocks. Honestly I don't think Greenwood can survive at OLB weighing only 235.
Eric Bakhtiari--ILB recorded six tackles, one for loss & a sack. Good technique, showed the ability to get off blocks & some quickness.
Justin Houston--Was the third LOLB to play & it was good news, bad news. He beat starting RT Jeremy Trueblood with a very quick 1st step, exactly what I wanted to see out of the 3rd round draft pick. But he looked lost playing in space, completely lost.
Jerrell Powe--Rookie nose tackle hauled his 331-pounds 25-yards downfield to make a tackle in pursuit. Held his ground against every one man block, but was pushed around & twice knocked to the ground vs. double teams.
Micah Johnson--The 2nd year ILB shot thru a gap to force the QB to unload a throw before he wanted, recorded a tackle for loss & twice I saw him shed his man & get in on a tackle.
Jalil Brown--The rookie 4th round corner only made 1 tackle but he showed excellent closing speed on the ball & looked like he belonged out there.
Quinten Lawrence--Special props go to the cornerback who two weeks ago was a wide receiver. He made 7 tackles, just about every one of them was on a runner who had broken 3-4 tackles. Made a horrible decision to bring kickoff out of the endzone to open the game.
Those defenders who looked lost, took bad angles to the ball or couldn't get off blocks include OLB Cameron Sheffield, ILB Brandon Siler, Demond Washington(spun completely around on TD pass) & DE Luke Patterson.
Offensively, there was little to get excited about, a bad center exchange between Darryl Harris & Matt Cassel resulted in a fumble that set Tampa up at the Chiefs' 10-yardline. Rookie tackles David Mims & Butch Lewis surrendered two sacks each & both were walked right back into the quarterback. The poor pass blocking totally disrupted Tyler Palko & Ricky Stanzi. Stanzi made two critical errors, scrambled to the sideline & instead of throwing it away, stood there & took a sack. Later he scrambled out of the pocket, had a clear field in front of him to the first down marker & instead tried to squeeze a pass into a very covered receiver. Palko missed a wide-open Jonathan Baldwin on a slant. Both of the candidates to be Matt Cassel's backup went 4 for 8 for 34 yards. They were sacked six times. Is Jackie Battle the softest 238-pound back in the NFL? He never makes the 1st man miss & doesn't break any tackles. Several times if he could've fallen forward after contact, the Chiefs would've had a first down. Didn't happen, plus he puts the ball on the ground. Baldwin dropped a pass, so did Jeremy Horne. Chandler Williams returned two punts, 1 after he let the ball bounce about 15 yards downfield, he picked it up at the 3 & was clobbered. Later he caught another, ran around & lost yardage. See ya.
Remember Thomas Jones' back to back carries early in the 1st quarter? The first one went for 8-yards, should have been 12-15, too much juking around, Jones doesn't have the quicks anymore to make these moves. The second carry went for 17-yards, Jamal Charles would have taken it to the house, too much indecision, not enough burst when the lane opens up. The blocking on both plays totally caved in the left side of Tampa's defense, Jones couldn't close the deal.
I hope Haley plans to play his real starters for at least a full quarter next week, we'll get a better gauge on their progress if we can see the guys that will be in there on opening day. I think we'll see Baltimore's best, they scored just 6 points Thursday night. We need to see progress, I can live with a poor preseason record as long as we see progress every week. They don't count until September 11th, but let's see a little momentum start to build.
Todd Haley made it clear he was going to use much of the preseason for evaluation, getting the best 53-man roster for opening day. He had a large number of starters who have only been in St. Joseph for a week & weren't on the field tonight. Matt Cassel took 8 snaps & didn't throw a pass, Jamal Charles didn't play, neither did Tony Moeaki, Casey Wiegmann, Glenn Dorsey, Tamba Hali, Brandon Carr etc. etc. etc. Realistically, Haley wasn't worried about winning with the team he fielded this evening.
O.K. now I'm going to start criticizing, so if you want to look forward to next weeks trip to Baltimore & forget about tonight, stop reading now.
The best stat for the Chiefs tonight was zero penalties.
The negative stats were plentiful. Two fumbles lost, six sacks surrendered, 137 yards of total offense, which is pathetic. Only 6 first downs, numerous dropped passes, Tampa had twice the time of possession as the Chiefs & on 3rd down, Kansas City was 1 for 10. I know Haley was going for "evaluation" but this was pretty lame. This game is why season ticket holders bitch about paying full price to watch what was essentially a scrimmage to the Chiefs.
I have to address the poor tackling, it was a huge disappointment. This was a problem last season & tho several defensive starters did not play, those who did only played a couple of series, but their potential backups looked awful for the most part. There were a few exceptions that I will spotlight.
Cory Greenwood--Led the team in tackles with 8, most were in pursuit, when Tampa ran at him, he got washed out & couldn't get off blocks. Honestly I don't think Greenwood can survive at OLB weighing only 235.
Eric Bakhtiari--ILB recorded six tackles, one for loss & a sack. Good technique, showed the ability to get off blocks & some quickness.
Justin Houston--Was the third LOLB to play & it was good news, bad news. He beat starting RT Jeremy Trueblood with a very quick 1st step, exactly what I wanted to see out of the 3rd round draft pick. But he looked lost playing in space, completely lost.
Jerrell Powe--Rookie nose tackle hauled his 331-pounds 25-yards downfield to make a tackle in pursuit. Held his ground against every one man block, but was pushed around & twice knocked to the ground vs. double teams.
Micah Johnson--The 2nd year ILB shot thru a gap to force the QB to unload a throw before he wanted, recorded a tackle for loss & twice I saw him shed his man & get in on a tackle.
Jalil Brown--The rookie 4th round corner only made 1 tackle but he showed excellent closing speed on the ball & looked like he belonged out there.
Quinten Lawrence--Special props go to the cornerback who two weeks ago was a wide receiver. He made 7 tackles, just about every one of them was on a runner who had broken 3-4 tackles. Made a horrible decision to bring kickoff out of the endzone to open the game.
Those defenders who looked lost, took bad angles to the ball or couldn't get off blocks include OLB Cameron Sheffield, ILB Brandon Siler, Demond Washington(spun completely around on TD pass) & DE Luke Patterson.
Offensively, there was little to get excited about, a bad center exchange between Darryl Harris & Matt Cassel resulted in a fumble that set Tampa up at the Chiefs' 10-yardline. Rookie tackles David Mims & Butch Lewis surrendered two sacks each & both were walked right back into the quarterback. The poor pass blocking totally disrupted Tyler Palko & Ricky Stanzi. Stanzi made two critical errors, scrambled to the sideline & instead of throwing it away, stood there & took a sack. Later he scrambled out of the pocket, had a clear field in front of him to the first down marker & instead tried to squeeze a pass into a very covered receiver. Palko missed a wide-open Jonathan Baldwin on a slant. Both of the candidates to be Matt Cassel's backup went 4 for 8 for 34 yards. They were sacked six times. Is Jackie Battle the softest 238-pound back in the NFL? He never makes the 1st man miss & doesn't break any tackles. Several times if he could've fallen forward after contact, the Chiefs would've had a first down. Didn't happen, plus he puts the ball on the ground. Baldwin dropped a pass, so did Jeremy Horne. Chandler Williams returned two punts, 1 after he let the ball bounce about 15 yards downfield, he picked it up at the 3 & was clobbered. Later he caught another, ran around & lost yardage. See ya.
Remember Thomas Jones' back to back carries early in the 1st quarter? The first one went for 8-yards, should have been 12-15, too much juking around, Jones doesn't have the quicks anymore to make these moves. The second carry went for 17-yards, Jamal Charles would have taken it to the house, too much indecision, not enough burst when the lane opens up. The blocking on both plays totally caved in the left side of Tampa's defense, Jones couldn't close the deal.
I hope Haley plans to play his real starters for at least a full quarter next week, we'll get a better gauge on their progress if we can see the guys that will be in there on opening day. I think we'll see Baltimore's best, they scored just 6 points Thursday night. We need to see progress, I can live with a poor preseason record as long as we see progress every week. They don't count until September 11th, but let's see a little momentum start to build.
God almighty you are so critical, you give Haley and his team no credit. He took over a trainwreck and it's going to take time to rebuild the train. Take it easy there big guy, your going to bust.
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The reason I'm so critical is I've been waiting for another Super Bowl trip for 41 years. FORTY-ONE YEARS! This team hasn't won a playoff game in 18 years. My patience was exhausted long ago.
Haley is the 10th coach who inherited a "trainwreck" how many guys are going to be given "time to rebuild?" By the third year any team, I said any, should be competitive & progressing toward the playoffs. When teams reach this stage, they're often 2-3 players away. Tyson Jackson & mistakes like him slow that progress. If you blow an entire draft like Pioli's 2009 version is looking like, it can set a team back another 2-years. Yes, I'm critical & will remian so until this team starts winning in the post season, that's what this is all about.
Thanks for reading.
Rich
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