Kansas City Chiefs Improving Despite Loss
by ChiefDJ on Nov 2, 2008 8:55 PM CST
in 2008 Kansas City Chiefs Campaign
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PrintI have to admit that I've never been very high on Tyler Thigpen. I have always seen him as a guy with a different skill set, but not really one that you would want out of your starting QB. It's still too early to tell if I'm wrong about that, but one thing that I have to admit..
This is a completely different team with Tyler Thigpen leading them.
Maybe it's just going into each game knowing who your QB is. Maybe Thigpen has that most important ability of all, the ability to inspire his teammates. Maybe he's just a fluke that just happens to be hot right now but will start playing badly again next week. Who knows? But FINALLY we are getting to see some of the potential of these young players show itself.
WHY WE LOST
This is not a game where you can point to one thing and say "This is why we lost the game", but rather it required a series of events to take the Chiefs from being ahead 24-3 to losing 30-27.
2nd QUARTER
* ~3:00 left in 2nd Quarter - Tony Gonzalez with a rare dropped TD pass. He was well defended and its not really the kind of thing that you say he SHOULD have caught, but Tony has made so many great catches just like that in his career. Instead they had to settle for a Field Goal.
* On the ensuing kickoff, the Bucs returner takes the kickoff all the way for a TD.
* 1:30 left in 2nd quarter - Chiefs are driving and on 3rd down D-Bowe drops a pass that hits him in the hands. Would have been a 1st down. Chiefs punt.
* 0:46 left in 2nd quarter - Chiefs defense stops Buccaneers on 3rd and 15. Turk McBride late hits Garcia allowing Bucs to continue on and eventually get a FG before the half.
This series of events was a major swing in the momentum of the game. Had Tony G made the TD catch, the Chiefs would have been up 28-3 at the half leading by 25. Instead, it was 24-13 only leading by 11.
4th QUARTER
* Jamaal Charles fumbles on the Bucs 3 yd line quickly followed by a Tampa Bay TD. Chiefs 24- Bucs 19.
* 7:42 left in 4th quarter - Chiefs have ball at Bucs 5 yd line, 3rd and 1. They attempt a screen pass to Charles that is busted by the Bucs defense and Thigpen has to throw it away. Chiefs settle for a FG. Chiefs 27-Bucs 19.
* 2:29 left in 4th quarter - Tony Gonzalez makes a fantastic 20 yd reception on 3rd down that would have in essence ended the game. Unfortunately he was called for a horrible Offensive Pass Interference penalty. The Chiefs are forced to punt.
* 0:25 left in 4th quarter - Leggett gets caught watching the QB and blows coverage for pass to TD. Bucs tie game with 2 point conversion.
* Lost coin toss in OT.
* Two of our better defensive players, DJ and Flowers out nearly the entire second half.
It took all of these things to lead to the Chiefs downfall in this game. They played very well overall, but this series of young player mistakes and unfortunate calls aligned to steal their hard earned victory.
THE POSITIVES
* Chiefs forced 4 turnovers and only gave up 1.
* Chiefs are 1st team this year to get a rushing TD against Tampa Bay. They are also the first team to have a 100 yd rusher (Charles) this year. Chiefs had 183 total rushing yds. 5.08 yds/carry
* Chiefs offensive line only allowed 1 sack (which was really only a 1 yd loss as Thigpen nearly made it back to line of scrimmage).
* Chiefs defense only allowed 81 yards rushing. 3.24 yds/carry
* Chiefs had 21 1st downs. 9 Rushing, 9 Passing, 3 Penalties
* Chiefs offense only had ONE 3 and out.
* Having the same QB for two games straight, Gailey was able to open things up.
* Mark Bradley solidifying himself as the #2 WR with 4 catches for 65 yds and the 37 yd TD pass to Thigpen. He looks to be the deep threat we've been looking for with a legitimate long bomb 56 yd reception.
* Jamaal Charles gets 106 yds rushing. 5.8 yds/carry.
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He opened them up
Prior to this week. Did you watch the game last week?
They're different with Tyler?
How is the above compared to the first 7 games that indicates a “Chiefs (as a team)” improvement?
None. It’s just speculation that the team is improving. Individuals are making stats albeit inconsistently.
Chiefs “individuals” arguably might be improving but not as a team ergo “Chiefs” are not improving.
Just keep matriculating the ball down the field boys.
Improving
The Chiefs averaged 12 points a game in their first 6 games.
The last two they are averaging 25.5.
Why you looking to go out of your way to talk bad about the team?
Making the team "look" better and actually being better are two distinct things.
I don’t see a balanced play from all three teams leading to a victory. TB broke a personal team record for points down and coming back to win. But no one is talking about that.
THAT is a record and stat that is embarrassing. I’ll keep criticizing about them until they play and win as a team. Our beloved coach Herm even blamed the rookies for the loss.
That attitude is unacceptable.
Just keep matriculating the ball down the field boys.
TB's record comeback
For them to have a record comeback that means we would have had to have been up by a lot. Which means we did something right in the first half. I agree with you that there are a lot of problems but for one half we played good football so I would call that improvement.
Are you kidding me?!
Truth…youre arguements make absolutely no sense…there is no arguement to even be made….the team is absolutely improving…
The stat that stands out most to me is only ONE three and out…great progress..
ohhh snap...
you bitchslapped me…
Sorry…the most telling* stat that we are progressing is that the offense is able to sustain drives…
I think Thigpen is providing a spark to the offense…and I like it…now the D and special teams need to step up…
Nope...we didn't have to. You just drank the kool-aid for the last 20 years.
Just keep matriculating the ball down the field boys.
Yep +1000
Anyone that DOESN’T see that argument is just in Denial. So I see improvement in the way we’re losing…but it doesn’t really matter.
Just keep matriculating the ball down the field boys.
The above was at Eric.
If I gave a sh!t about any other stat I’d have protractor, wear geek glasses and follow baseball.
Just keep matriculating the ball down the field boys.
Because they are not playing as a team...they are playing individually and I can't stand the attitude of "everyone for their own careers"
Man these kids are so wound up in “where am I going to be next year” 8 games into the season it isn’t even funny. Seriously, we’ve got 32 kids sucking on their thumbs scared sh1tless that their career’s are over and no one is going to acquire ex Chief players.
The NFL is a VERY small community. Here’s what they read and you can’t imagine what they’re talking about amongst themselves. They have NO leadership. None.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20081031/BLOG42/810310278/-1/NEWSSITEMAP
But what the he11 do I know :)
Just keep matriculating the ball down the field boys.
a DB is taught from time immemorial
to stay the hell back on a pass play until the QB crosses the line of scrimmage.
That is not a play of youth. That’s playing brain dead.
Bradley also failed to catch an eminently catchable slant. Yes it was high, but he got both hands on it. That is not a play of youth. That’s failure when it matters.
There was no pass rush by the defense all day.
Yeah the o line may not have given up any sacks but on at least two plays with
Tampa only rushing 3 they got pressure and made Thigpen unload.
Why single out McBride’s penalty? He hasn’t done anything all year.
man nice word
I had to look that one up :)
"But what do I know, I’m like an empty room with a large ECHO"
“a DB is taught from time immemorial to stay the hell back on a pass play until the QB crosses the line of scrimmage. That is not a play of youth. That’s playing brain dead”
Tell it to Ronde Barber.
“Why single out McBride’s penalty? He hasn’t done anything all year.”
TYou really don’t understand what “single out” means, do you? Here’s a hint: when that one bad play is included with EIGHT other points, give or take (I don’t count the coin toss for this pupose), that play hasn’t been “singled out”. HTH.
by Bleedingredandgold on Nov 2, 2008 10:14 PM CST up reply actions
McBride singled out himself
He has a bad habbit of hitting QBs late, he has gotten away with several this season so far. He needs to stop it or he will continue to contribute to us losing games.
db's
shouldn’t know when the qb crosses the line of scrimmage because they should never be looking in the backfield, unless they are playing zone of course. For a DB to look in the backfield during a play in M2M, that is youth. As a former DB coach, I understand that one of the biggest reasons rookie DB’s get beat is because they get suckered into looking in the backfield.
Just keeping you honest.
I doubt seriously they were in man to man
from listening to Herm after the game it sounded like they went to zone almost exclusively
I don’t care about any off this bull that I’ve heard. You’re all opinionated in your own ways, and obviously some aren’t going to be convinced either way. I think the point is they looked less hopeless and confused than earlier. We’re not GOOD yet. At all. But at least it’s not as torturous as it was in the last few weeks.
Whatevs. Stop arguing—we didn’t get creamed!
-cw
"If there’s a god he’s laughing at us and our football team." - Ben Folds
good call you, woodman! :-)
"If there’s a god he’s laughing at us and our football team." - Ben Folds
hey
im just happy that when there was 2 minutes left in the game, i actually cared what was going on, as opposed to numerous whoopings the chiefs have taken
PLEASE keep Improving ... but keep collecting those L's
I have been an avid fan of pro football for 40 yrs. Over those 40 yrs I have seen the rise and fall of many franchises and not one franchise has fielded a consistent playoff caliber team every decade of those 40 yrs. (Think San Francisco, Oakland, Miami, St Louis, etc). They can all point to a few years where they were great but now they are what? Free agency and salary cap has made it even more difficult. There is no question that management decisions and coaching can have a tremendous impact on the outcome. But it is also very clear that eventually teams that consistently win end up with less new blood being introduced via the draft and have to go thru a cycle of losing seasons The Chiefs had some GREAT teams in the late 60’s and early 70’s. But in some ways they have been victims of their own success since then, they have been good enough to never score a great draft but never good enough to win the big games. Perhaps they just need to really be BAD for 2 or 3 years so they can build a talent base that will be GREAT and win in the big games and not just be good enough. Play great, hone your skills but lose!!
the Chiefs WERE that bad, many times in the 70s
and 80s. Didn’t help them all that much either.
The ghosts of Frank Ganz and Paul Wiggin loom large over the history of this team.
I just put together a little spreadsheet of winning % thru the years
I just put together a little spreadsheet of winning % thru since 1960. I used this site for the data
http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/teams/history/KC
Decade KC Dallas New England GB
2000 0.50 0.48 0.71 0.61
1990 0.64 0.63 0.43 0.58
1980 0.44 0.52 0.51 0.44
1970 0.43 0.73 0.46 0.41
1960 0.64 0.52 0.48 0.72
I arbitrarily chose 3 other franchises which most people would say must be pretty good. I also arbitrarily chose to do the analysis by decade starting at 00 of each decade and ending at 09. So what can we see? Green Bay which was spectacular in the 60’s was horrible in the 70’s and 80’s just like KC. . Dallas has about the same winning percentage for the 90’s but hasn’t even been as good as the Chiefs since 2000. And New England was terrible in the 90’s but has really been great since 2000.
Nice work
The biggest difference is SB victories in the last 16 years. These teams have won half of them.
Now We'll REALLY Divide
Hilarious that Bones is the one element introduced to start the turn.
Now we’re going to see everyone divide more evenly into two groups.
You can tell that some people are simply going to say we’re not improving until we win games. Even though winning and improving are not at all linked. They could have played worse than they did last week and won and that would not be improving. This team is getting better. It has a TON of problems. Defense, running game, pass rush.
But we’ve shown the ability to at least compete. That’s all I asked. I’ve been impressed with the (first half) playcalling. If we can just stop stomping the brakes on the game, we might close one or two. We have weapons and some ability.
I’ve been as vicious towards the coaching staff as anyone, but we’ve shown improvement.
Ridiculous Upside: All the "Almost NBA" info you can handle!
by Ridiculous Matt on Nov 3, 2008 11:00 AM CST reply actions
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