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Five Chiefs We Need to See More of This Weekend

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Amid all of the hullabaloo over Larry Johnson' fiery comments about his role with the Kansas City Chiefs is a very valid point made by the running back - The Chiefs need to use certain players more, mainly because it just makes sense to do so. Larry Johnson had 416 carries two years ago because that's partly his style and part of what made him an effective running back. We shouldn't deny the ability of players in favor of some sort of scheme.

Larry Johnson

This one is pretty obvious in my opinion. I know the Chiefs have had to pass quite a bit in the first two games of the 2008 season but that is no excuse for Larry Johnson to only receive two carries in the second half of last week's game. The Chiefs only rushed the ball four times as a team in the second half on Sunday.

To be fair, Larry split his 22 carries in Week 1 equally over the first and second halves but last week's play calling was atrocious in the second half.

Is LJ being taken out because of insufficient pass blocking? Is he actually being phased out of the offense? The first one rings much more true than the second. I will say I agree with Larry - Get him the ball at least, at least 20 times a game and you can feel good about your play calling. That seems like a no-brainer to me but so have a lot of things this season.

Jamaal Charles

I know it's a bit odd to suggest Larry needs more carries and Charles does as well but I think you know what I'm getting at.

I'm suggesting Jamaal Charles get more carries at the expense of Kolby Smith getting fewer. Now, Kolby only has one carry on the season mind you but Charles has yet to be anointed the official #2 back and I'm going to assume that Kolby Smith still factors heavily into the game plan as far as the #2 RB spot.

I think we've all loved what we've seen so far from Jamaal Charles - the quick cuts, the darts in between the tackles and that feeling of anxiety you get while watching a super fast running back who he can break off a big run at any time.

Any WR not named Dwayne Bowe (And more Bowe too!)

Hopefully rookie WR Will Franklin returns this week and can take some of the heat off of Bowe but I haven't heard anything definite on that quite yet. I went over the lack of receiving options in my recap of last week's game and it has quickly become a growing problem inside my head. We're back where we've pretty much always been Chiefs fans, without a sold receiving corp. That should feel familiar.

Glenn Dorsey

It seems to me that in the four or five games I saw Dorsey play while he was at LSU, he made his mark in the games as a disruptive force behind the line of scrimmage. In the short first two games of Dorsey's career in the NFL, the Chiefs appear content to have him in more of a run-stuffing role on the line of scrimmage. Let Dorsey do his disruption act within the limits of the Cover 2 defense and hopefully we can see our rookie doing his sack dance against the Falcons this weekend.

Dantrell Savage

This is another obvious one, right?

Savage was inactive last weekend in favor of Eddie Drummond B.J. Sams who yet again showed us nothing. Savage may have the same luck with this special teams coverage unit but we can all agree that youth should be served at the kick return position. As long as Savage doesn't fumble the ball, why not let him get 10 yard returns instead of Sams?

By the way, after this post, I'm retiring my small personal campaign for Savage and against Sams. I'm tired of talking about it already.

Who do you think should be a bigger part of the game plan this weekend?

0 recs | Comment 17 comments | Digg!

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Stupid question

When LJ (or whoever) get the ball on a play has he been told “just run straight” or “just run once to the right then down field” and the player does it without thinking. Or are the players told “here’s the ball do something with it”.

Having not played the game. I don’t really know how it works. I guess it’s a question of free will?

Blame my wife!

by sir eccles on Sep 17, 2008 8:28 AM CDT   0 recs

Not exactly.

Plays are designed so that the guys on the offensive line are supposed to open up a lane for the RB to go through. A ‘hole’, so to speak. When Defenses know that you’re going to run it, they put a bunch more guys up on their side of the line than your O-Line can deal with and, effectively, plug the hole.

That’s what we’ve been looking at because, due to our weaknesses at QB, we don’t have the tools in our offense to force the opposing defense to play more men downfield and off the line. On a typical offensive line, you’ve got 5 guys — maybe 7 if you line up the Tight Ends there — so, when a defense stacks ‘eight men in the box’ because they’re not worried about your passing game, you just don’t have enough men there to block for the run.

Now, as to your question about RBs having ‘free will’, some RBs do have some autonomy. It depends largely on the coach and the skill of the RBs. In some systems, if the EB can see the hole just isn’t there, they can break it to the outside.

The problem with the Chiefs trying that is two-fold:
1) Larry Johnson can’t do it. He doesn’t have the footwork. He’s a tough, strong, straight-up-the-gut style runner, so that’s where he runs, and
2) When Larry Johnson tries to do it, it takes two long for the play to develop. If he’s forced outside, it’s because he’s run up and bounced off of the pile in front of him. Then, he’s got to run 10-15 more yards toward a sideline, giving the opposing defense time to react and, usually, he winds up lucky to get back to the line of scrimmage.

Make sense?

by JacinB on Sep 17, 2008 9:18 AM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Well

LJ may not have the footwork.. But niether does Darren McFadden. Yet look at what HE was able to do. And NO ONE has said that the Raider O-Line is the best in the league.

Larry Johnson has vision. But he cant get anything going when the O-Line cant open any holes for him and the Deffense is putting 8-9 guys in the box, because they KNOW we dont have sh*ts worth a passing game, bro. Even the blind can see that. Larry Johnson can be just as good as he was from 2005-2006. He just needs a little help, as ANYONE would.

Look at LT. Youre not gonna tell me that HE has horrible footwork, right? But he hasnt been able to do crap so far. Why? Cause when he’s back there, a D knows to get at him before he gets at them. Darren Sproles is looking like the starter instead of LT.

C’mon now.

by ROC 27 on Sep 17, 2008 2:09 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Passive aggressive LJ theory?

Sir, your question got me to thinking. Yes, plays are designed to go somewhere (thanks, Jacin), but NFL players are supposed to “make plays” as things unfold. So here’s my theory/question…

Is it possible that Larry got scolded for dancing too much in the backfield at times over the past few weeks and months, so he is taking the attitude of, “Okay, I’ll show ‘em what happens when I don’t dance and run where they tell me the hole is supposed to be.” Seems like Larry how-dare-you-mention-diaper Johnson is quite capable of pouting on a big scale. So is it possible that he’s throwing a small tantrum? “See what happens when you make me run downhill? When are you going to let me dance my way to openings again?”

I realize he doesn’t have Jamaal’s speed and he’s not going to consistently make yards by bouncing outside at the first sign of trouble. But really… I’m surprised we haven’t had more Achilles injuries of our lineman the way LJ runs up their backs.

I am glad he’s not dancing as much this year, but isn’t there a happy medium somewhere that allows him to at least try a different place on some of those plays?

by sunny D on Sep 18, 2008 1:24 AM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Why not give Mo Price a shot

I mean if Thigpen has an excuse to come in and play 2/3 of the game at least see if Price can light up our receiving corps with his size and what looked like great hands in the preseason.

by dkugler838 on Sep 17, 2008 8:30 AM CDT   0 recs

I wanna say yes to Price, but I think we need to figure out our QB, RG, & RT situations before we start moving guys around on our WR corps. I mean, we could have Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, and Reggie Wayne out there, but it wouldnt make a difference. Our QBs suck and our O-Line needs work, cause we’re not getting any protection.

by ROC 27 on Sep 17, 2008 2:20 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

players we need to see less of:

tyler thigpen

Naming my son Brodie Damon

by troy145 on Sep 17, 2008 9:05 AM CDT   0 recs

Other Players We Need To See Less Of:

Damion McIntosh
Adrian Jones
Marques Hagan (at least as QB)
Jeff Webb

Supporting the lesser of two evils is still supporting something evil.

by UCrawford on Sep 17, 2008 9:36 AM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Marques Haggans??

I dont wanna see ANY MORE of that kid. EVER!

by ROC 27 on Sep 17, 2008 2:11 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

DJ

only has 11 tackles and 1 sack. Which fittingly ties him for #58 on the list of NFL tackle leaders. If we’re gonna see him in Honalulu anytime soon, he needs to pick his game up. He needs to play like 58, not be ranked 58.

by letral on Sep 17, 2008 1:18 PM CDT   0 recs

Where did all the blitzs go?

All preseason there was talk about the blitzes at practice and training camp and I haven’t seen much of anything so far.

by NJChiefsFan on Sep 17, 2008 1:42 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

All the hoopla

about the kicking game in preseason is proving irrelavant as well. We can’t even get close enough to attempt a field goal. We have 2 sacks as a team……wow.

by letral on Sep 17, 2008 1:51 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Where my Herb at?

CLEARLY we need to close the D-Mac expressway. PLEASE, for the love of god, can we see more HERB ? I need me some Herb in a bad way. Richarson is a big boy, but I’m not sure he’s ready to anchor down the right side on his own just yet. Something has got to give though – this O-line looks as bad as it did last year. If we can’t hold the ball for more than 3 plays at a time, the offense isn’t going to get enough reps to break a sweat, and the defense is going to get abused (see Game 2).

by Keyser Sose on Sep 17, 2008 2:06 PM CDT   0 recs

I wouldnt say that

we’re as bad as we were last year. I think from LT to C, we’re pretty formidable. (Albert his holding it down better than I thought he would for his first 2 games in the NFL. Brian Waters is great as usual. And Niswanger in my opinion is an upgrade from Casey Wiegman.) Its our right side that is killing us. Last year we didnt have a LT, RT, RG, or C. So… Yeah.

But I DO agree. Herb Taylor needs to be played at RT. Adrian Jones should be a backup RG. I like the idea of putting Richardson out there, but it might be a little tough for him right now. I hate McIntosh right now, but he’s such a big body, we can use HIM at RG. That’d be good.

by ROC 27 on Sep 17, 2008 2:18 PM CDT to parent up   0 recs

Only Problem Is

Herm said that he doesn’t want to make changes because he wants “continuity” on the line.

Why you’d want continuity on a line that’s gotten two of your QBs knocked out of the first two games of the season is beyond me, particularly since the right tackle was a horrible player last year too, but then I’m not going to pretend that anything Herm does is rational or smart when coaching this team.

Supporting the lesser of two evils is still supporting something evil.

by UCrawford on Sep 18, 2008 9:21 AM CDT to parent up   0 recs

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