LET'S FACE IT CHIEFS' FANS, THIS IS THE END OF THE ROAD
Forget about the pasting absorbed by our Chiefs in weeks one & two, today was the worst. Face it Chiefs' fans, this is the end of the road. At least for the 2011 season it is. Any arguments? Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Matt Cassel left the locker room after today's 17-10 loss to the Denver Tebows with his throwing hand in a cast. The word is he suffered broken index & middle fingers. Cassel also sustained a bruised right shoulder. How many wins will Tyler Palko lead this disorganized, unmotivated & unfocused team to against five 2011 playoff teams the next five weeks?
I could almost understand last week's loss to 0-7 Miami. The Chiefs were coming off an emotional win the previous Monday night, they had a short week of practice & might have taken the Dolphins too lightly. But last week should have been a wake up call don't you think? Like a freakin' gigantic wake up call? The Broncos were coming off completely embarrassing the Raiders, that should have made an impression on this team. Apparently it didn't, they were even worse today against a truly mediocre team, a team people are making fun of, ridiculing their quarterback & offensive schemes. But a team that came into Arrowhead & flat kicked Kansas City's ass.
Let's start by questioning Scott Pioli's assertion quality offensive linemen can be drafted in the later rounds, something he's said every time someone outside the organization questions the effectiveness of Kansas City's line. Brandon Albert & Barry Richardson were completely overwhelmed by the Denver pass rush. Rookie Von Miller beat on Cassel all day. That's rookie Von Miller. Elvis Dumervil & Ryan McBean spent a lot of time hanging all over Cassel as well. This line, for the second consecutive week, couldn't protect their quarterback. He's been sacked 9 times & been knocked down another 21 times the past two weeks. Not by Pittsburgh & Baltimore, but by 0-7 Miami & Denver. I saw four instances today when Albert or Richardson were blatantly holding & weren't flagged for it. Reserve tackle Jared Gaither took turns replacing both in the second half. Super TE Jake O'Connell played, therefore he was penalized for holding. One is always accompanied by the other. He milled around looking for people to block as blitzers ran right by him on the way to Matt Cassel. Did you notice how many times Cassel was hit by more than one Bronco as K.C. linemen stood by watching?
While his line's stink meter was pegged virtually all day, Cassel wasn't much better. He continues to overthrow receivers. He had Steve Breaston behind the defense & underthrew him for an incompletion. He missed open receivers 9 times by my count. Yes, he was harassed on most passing plays, but he's got to become more accurate if this offense is to improve.
I'd also like to mention that while Matt Cassel was sacked 9 times & knocked down another 21 times, the Chiefs' defense recorded zero sacks & only 2 QB knockdowns. These amazing stats were compiled against Miami & Denver, both in the league's top-10 in sacks allowed. Are you starting to see a pattern? This has nothing to do with the injury losses of Eric Berry, Jamaal Charles & Tony Moeaki. It has everything to do with lesser quality linemen & poor coaching. If you have another answer for these problems, by all means, please inform me, tell me where I'm going wrong.
Todd Haley talked about this being their best week of practice, so give me an explanation of this performance. Clue me in how 2 for 11 on 3rd down & 258-yards of total offense wins NFL games. Tell me how a losing team comes into Arrowhead, loses their top 2 RB's in the 1st quarter, inserts Lance freakin' Ball, a 3-year journeyman with 372-total rushing yards in his career & he runs for 96-yards in 3 quarters of play? Really the answer is quite simple, he was playing against the Chiefs. The Broncos rushed for 244-yards. They did that against a defense that knew all week this is what the game plan would consist of, run, run & then run some more. Maybe Romeo Crennell & his guys didn't get that message, which is a shame, because I'm pretty certain the rest of Kansas City's population knew it was coming. The Broncos completed 2 passes all day, TWO. But the second completion went 56-yards to Eric Decker, who scored the "clear out the stadium touchdown" midway thru the 4th quarter. We got beat by a team that threw for 69-yards.
Honestly the only highlight of Sunday's Arrowhead horror show was the catch made by rookie Jonathan Baldwin. Unfortunately, Steve Breaston was called for covering up the tight end(illegal formation) & the play was called back. Later Baldwin dropped a pass right in his hands, but it was just a drop in the bucket.
Kansas City Star
With road trips to New England, Chicago & NY Jets plus home games against Pittsburgh, Green Bay & Oakland, the season is over, we're all another year older & our football team has taken yet another step backward. The Chiefs look no closer to being a competitive playoff team than they did two years ago when they won 4 games. I predicted Kansas City would win 6, maybe 7 this season, they won't, 5 victories looks like a lot right now, wouldn't you agree?
I could almost understand last week's loss to 0-7 Miami. The Chiefs were coming off an emotional win the previous Monday night, they had a short week of practice & might have taken the Dolphins too lightly. But last week should have been a wake up call don't you think? Like a freakin' gigantic wake up call? The Broncos were coming off completely embarrassing the Raiders, that should have made an impression on this team. Apparently it didn't, they were even worse today against a truly mediocre team, a team people are making fun of, ridiculing their quarterback & offensive schemes. But a team that came into Arrowhead & flat kicked Kansas City's ass.
Let's start by questioning Scott Pioli's assertion quality offensive linemen can be drafted in the later rounds, something he's said every time someone outside the organization questions the effectiveness of Kansas City's line. Brandon Albert & Barry Richardson were completely overwhelmed by the Denver pass rush. Rookie Von Miller beat on Cassel all day. That's rookie Von Miller. Elvis Dumervil & Ryan McBean spent a lot of time hanging all over Cassel as well. This line, for the second consecutive week, couldn't protect their quarterback. He's been sacked 9 times & been knocked down another 21 times the past two weeks. Not by Pittsburgh & Baltimore, but by 0-7 Miami & Denver. I saw four instances today when Albert or Richardson were blatantly holding & weren't flagged for it. Reserve tackle Jared Gaither took turns replacing both in the second half. Super TE Jake O'Connell played, therefore he was penalized for holding. One is always accompanied by the other. He milled around looking for people to block as blitzers ran right by him on the way to Matt Cassel. Did you notice how many times Cassel was hit by more than one Bronco as K.C. linemen stood by watching?
While his line's stink meter was pegged virtually all day, Cassel wasn't much better. He continues to overthrow receivers. He had Steve Breaston behind the defense & underthrew him for an incompletion. He missed open receivers 9 times by my count. Yes, he was harassed on most passing plays, but he's got to become more accurate if this offense is to improve.
I'd also like to mention that while Matt Cassel was sacked 9 times & knocked down another 21 times, the Chiefs' defense recorded zero sacks & only 2 QB knockdowns. These amazing stats were compiled against Miami & Denver, both in the league's top-10 in sacks allowed. Are you starting to see a pattern? This has nothing to do with the injury losses of Eric Berry, Jamaal Charles & Tony Moeaki. It has everything to do with lesser quality linemen & poor coaching. If you have another answer for these problems, by all means, please inform me, tell me where I'm going wrong.
Todd Haley talked about this being their best week of practice, so give me an explanation of this performance. Clue me in how 2 for 11 on 3rd down & 258-yards of total offense wins NFL games. Tell me how a losing team comes into Arrowhead, loses their top 2 RB's in the 1st quarter, inserts Lance freakin' Ball, a 3-year journeyman with 372-total rushing yards in his career & he runs for 96-yards in 3 quarters of play? Really the answer is quite simple, he was playing against the Chiefs. The Broncos rushed for 244-yards. They did that against a defense that knew all week this is what the game plan would consist of, run, run & then run some more. Maybe Romeo Crennell & his guys didn't get that message, which is a shame, because I'm pretty certain the rest of Kansas City's population knew it was coming. The Broncos completed 2 passes all day, TWO. But the second completion went 56-yards to Eric Decker, who scored the "clear out the stadium touchdown" midway thru the 4th quarter. We got beat by a team that threw for 69-yards.
Honestly the only highlight of Sunday's Arrowhead horror show was the catch made by rookie Jonathan Baldwin. Unfortunately, Steve Breaston was called for covering up the tight end(illegal formation) & the play was called back. Later Baldwin dropped a pass right in his hands, but it was just a drop in the bucket.
Kansas City Star
With road trips to New England, Chicago & NY Jets plus home games against Pittsburgh, Green Bay & Oakland, the season is over, we're all another year older & our football team has taken yet another step backward. The Chiefs look no closer to being a competitive playoff team than they did two years ago when they won 4 games. I predicted Kansas City would win 6, maybe 7 this season, they won't, 5 victories looks like a lot right now, wouldn't you agree?
Normally I can't wait to read your articles on the previous day's Chiefs games. But it took me until now, 3:30 to finally have the stomach to see what you had to say.
Yesterday was brutal, your right it was worse than last week and I don't know if we'll win another game this year. I never thought I'd ever say that about this team I've loved since I was a little girl.
Not that you have converted me to the Darkside, but I now watch this team with my eyes fully open, I understand more and what I see makes me sick.
The group I go to games with has started to come around too, no more blind loyalty, how about some quality football for our $100 a game?
I can't believe we may be on the verge of another new coach/coordinators and playbooks. That will necessitate different players and we'll be right back where we started from right?
God this is really depressing, I thought we were heading in the right direction and now I know we are not.
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I'm with you and Krissy, this shit has to change and change for more than one GD year. There's nothing fun about going out to Arrowhead and watching shit like we've seen the last two weeks.
Enough is enough, Hunt, Pioli, Haley, Cassel, Romeo and the rest need to show us a winning team or get out now. We're sick of paying over a hundred bucks a game for seats,parking, gas and a tailgate and then sit thru shit like we saw last week and yesterday.
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