The preseason is meaningless in terms of wins or losses and there’s very little to be gleaned from it in terms of team abilities. The guys the Chiefs are going to rely on the most over the regular season are playing the least and a lot of the guys you’ll see constantly in preseason aren’t going to be on the roster come September.

it could affect how we play against NE and OAK…in Herm’s first two years, we used all 4 preseason games to evaluate the 2nd and 3rd stringers. I can’t remember where I read it (maybe WPI) but from Herm’s comments it sounded like Herm was going to use the last 1 or 2 preseason games to get the starters all on the same page. Maybe that would help us to get off to a better start in the regular season.

personally, I don’t care what our preseason record is…I am interested in the competition, especially MLB, the defensive line (who REALLY wants Boone to be our starting LDE?) and whether Carr or another young guy looks like he has the potential to beat out Surtain by the end of the season.

And I’m happy to say that we’re on opposite sides of this particular debate. But sad to say I won’t have much time for it. So here’s why we need to win at least a couple.

1. Progress can be measured by watching tape, individual battles and just gaining playing time and experience. But after losing nine straight, we need to play to win the preseason games. The team needs a couple wins for its psyche. Really.. think about the mental struggle going into New England convincing ourselves that we could have won all those preseason games “if we really wanted to.” C’mon. We heard about vanilla plays last year. Excuses. Score points. Play defense. Have more points on the board than the other team at the end of the game.

2. We need the experience and time to gel, which is what I take from PV. I appreciate Herm giving the 79th player on the sqaud a chance to earn a spot (and feels it pays dividends for us when recruiting undrafted FA in the hours after the draft), but let’s play the second stringers in ways we will use them during the season.

3. Will we practice things we’ll do, or hide everything so people can’t scout us? Tough call on where to draw the line, obviously. I’d like to see us run more of what we’ll actually do in the season during preseason. Find out what works. One of my favorite lines is that “Creativity makes us infinite.” Eliminate the plays that don’t work then add some more as the season progresses. Assume that we can always create more and better plays, especially as we game plan for particular teams, which should be much better this year with Chan.

Besides play calling, what does it mean not to play for the win? Holding out the better players to avoid injury, right? I’m not saying we give LJ 30 carries. But I believe we have strong backs (although I must still be convinced about Battle) and can win with Smith and Charles. I expect to win using those guys. I expect to win with Carr on one of the corners. I expect to win with Morgan in for Pollard. We definitely hurt our chances when Cottam plays three quarters and Tony G only plays one. But other teams are also playing their new guys.

If we have the ball with a couple minutes to go in the first half, I expect us to go for a score. I don’t want to sit on it to avoid injury. One of the surest ways to get injuries, ironically, is to play like you don’t want to get hurt.

I expect us to go for two at the end of the game if an extra point would tie it. That’s not because I think it’s the best way to win the game, however. I do agree there’s a point at which you don’t want to go into overtime when no one wants to go there. So if we lose because we went against the odds and went for two, I can live with that. But I want us to call a terrific play and give it our all when we go for two.

Losses will unfornately reinforce the notion that our talent level is lower than the other teams. It will shoot holes in the idea that a group of talented, motivated, young athletes can work as a team to overcome experience and capture wins in 2008. We need a couple of wins in the preseason. It’s important. Do what you can to win the games, Herm.

Option 1: Chiefs win preseason games:
” Hey! We won! Lookout world! See? We’re not as bad as you think we are! We’re coming to get you! We’re gonna surprise people, just like we surprised the Rams 3rd string defense! Back off, bitches!”

Two weeks later:
“Holy God, what happened? We looked so good in the preseason! How could this happen? I mean, I haven’t been beaten down like that since I called Tommy Edwards’ (high school bully) girlfriend the leading contestant for ‘Who Wants To Eat A Buick?’ We got curb checked? Oh, God, why did the preseason have to give us hope? Why?!”

Option 2: Chiefs lose preseason games.

“Dear Jesus, we can’t even beat the Rams’ 3rd string. This is a nightmare. This will be the worst season in Chiefs’ history. We’re going to be worse than New Coke. I would take the Bono teams over this debacle. We may lose eleventy billion straight.”

Two weeks later…

“You know? These guys aren’t half bad. I mean, I know we got pounded like we stole something, but we didn’t look that bad doing it. And you can tell that they were actually a little shocked by our fight. This team’s gonna lose games, but man, we’re not that bad.”

That’s where we’re at. There is NO upside to winning preseason games. To those that say it hurts morale, please. These guys don’t give a shit about winning a preseason games. For the veterans, it’s just a pain in the ass they have to go through. There’s no pride here. It’s an exhibition. It’s the football form of a weightlifting contest. You’re not actually competing against anyone, you’re just trying to show that you understand what you’re supposed to do, and that you’re physically capable of doing it. Winning is only going to bring more jokes from the media about us winning, and then more jokes later about “But they looked so good in the preseason!” Ha. Ha. Ha.

What’s more important is for us to show something we didn’t last year, even when we won. The ability to make plays. We need to show that even if we’re going to lose, that our quarterback can throw, our receivers can catch, our D-Line can stop people and attack the quarterback, that our linebackers are aggressive, and that our secondary knows what in the hell is going on. I’d rather lose by 3 in a preseason where we look competitive than win by 10 in one where we look like trash but the other team’s clearly packed it in.

And the win differential is a post ergo propter hoc situation. It’s not because they won the four preseason games that they won the extra regular season games. It’s because those teams are obviously better. We’re obviously not better, I think we can agree on that.

This whole season, like it or not, is not about wins and losses. It’s about progress. The difference between 2 wins, 6 wins, 10 wins is negligible. 2 wins means we’re farther from where want to be than where we are, 10 wins means our competition this year sucked and we’re a bit ahead of the curve (or we got lucky a few times), and 6 wins means we’re right about on schedule. But if we win 7 games and Dorsey and Albert look like busts and our offense is still the putrid excuse that it was last year, is that really progress?

We need competition and progress. Not wins.

I am in the process of writing a similar article to this for my site then I come refresh my AP page and BAM! lol.. dang! Naw, I but I agree that wining is important, but in the preseason you should never sacrifice playing starters longer for wining in the preseason. If someone gets hurt in the preseason it affects games that actually matter.

http://www.kcchiefsfootball.com

KC needs some. Preseason wins can help.

Then its critically important to get a win, even if its a preseason game. That streak has to be broken in the players minds or it wil continue to hang over them.

Preseason is still primarily for player development and I’m not saying you play Tony G and LJ for 4 quarters to make sure you win, but you don’t just view it as an extended practice either. They need to try to win these preseason games to get over that mental hump.

but what does everybody think about changing to an 18 game season and only having 2 preseason games? Also, where did I hear that?