1. D-Bowe Show or D-Bowe D'OH!!!!

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Drops can kill drives, teams, and even games.  Bowe had several today, and no one has ever accused him of being immune from this problem.  Bowe also saved us with his athleticism several times and caught our only TD.  In the T.O. mold, you have to take the good with the bad, but this is something to be concerned about and watch for in his young career.

2.  Fade routes, Seriously?

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So, first and goal at the 5 with 50 seconds left.  Time to run your most effective plays and tie the game, right?  Wait, let's look at the history of playcalling in the Herm Edwards era.  No creativity.  No blocking.  No aggressiveness.  What do these things tell us?  We will run at least once, and I am okay with that, although I would have run a draw w/ Charles instead of a slow developing counter w/ LJ.  Three other plays.  We ran a curl to Gonzalez at the goal line.  This would be the only "good" playcall of the sequence.  However, it didn't work out.  The others?  Fade routes.  The most uncreative and risky play there is.  Fade routes have roughly a 30% chance of succeeding with your guy catching it in bounds, a 10% of being intercepted, and a 60% chance of landing incomplete or being caught out of bounds.  This is risky and seems to stack the decks against success.  That said, Bowe dropped a sure TD on the first fade route.  So we were already playing w/ long odds.  Seriously, run a play that gives the QB more than one option.  No creativity or aggressiveness results in risk and, ultimately, failure.  Shame on this team for lacking that instinct.

3.  Why were the backups in the game?

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Jon F. McGraw entered the game for his first defensive series with the Patriots backed up at their own 1.  They predictably ran twice, struggling to get out of the endzone.  But unlike other coaches (cough...Herm), Bellicheck has some balls and called for a pass out of his own endzone on third and long.  Surely the defense had this ONE possibility to worry about in their minds?  Jon McGraw...did not.  He was late and slow over to cover over the top for Surtain, who obviously thought he had help.  Aside from being beat, my thought was, "Why is this asshole in the game in the first place?  We have three safeties that are better than him."  McGraw, on the same drive, missed a tackle on a long Moroney run.  Ultimately, the patriots completed a 99 yard drive w/ a TD to Moss, exploiting PAT THOMAS in zone coverage.  He might be better than Nap Harris, but there is an issue there.  Later, on another Patriot TD drive, the Patriots marched up the field on the ground.  Noticeably missing on the drive?  Glenn Dorsey and Tank Tyler, our starting interior lineman.  Boone and Edwards are no comparison, and the Patriots exploited that difference as GOOD teams do.  Why are the backups playing though?  Is it an early season conditioning issue?  A Herm preference to get everyone in some kind of rotation?  Whatever it is, it goes against classic football logic of putting your best on the field at all times.  It cost us two TDs and the game.

4.  Youth was very impressive.

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Branden Albert delivered several punishing run blocks at the point of attack and kept the left side of Brodie and Damon protected.  Glenn Dorsey and Tank Tyler did very well on the inside, while Turk McBride looked better than Tamba Hali.  Brandon Flowers and Brandon Carr held their own against some very good receivers, although Moss's stats may show otherwise.  Pollard and Page played well.  But the star?  Jamaal Charles.  He looked better than LJ.  There was a dynamic, fast, and quick presence when he was in the game that was simply lacking when LJ was in there.  Where LJ was content to run into the scrum, Charles picked his spots, broke tackles, and exploded away from trouble.  He is a playmaker, plain and simple.  We should use him more.

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5.  No answer on Brodie Croyle.

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While Brodie was in the game, he looked very good.  He made safe decisions and good throws.  However, he was the victim of drops.  His stat-line was the victim of some D-Bowe D'OHs, most notably the big play potential in the 2nd quarter.  But we were unable to see if Brodie had, in fact, turned a new leaf.  Brodie had been beaten and bruised all day by whomever Damion McIntosh failed to block.  It got to him, and he took a shot when Charles was put in a situation where he had to choose from Rodney Harrison or Adelius Thomas.  He picked Harrison (Trent Green fears?).  Thomas hit Croyle hard to the ground, but it didn't look dirty or even any worse than any other hit NFL players face.  Brodie....couldn't handle it.  A bruised shoulder resulted, and Brodie didn't seem willing to push himself enough to come back.  While we did not find out about Brodie's abilities today or how he is progressing, we did find out he CANNOT play through pain or take hits.  The old knock on his durability is reaffirmed.

On a positive note, the Chiefs made a close game out of a sure laugher.  Is this progress?  I don't know, and it's too early for anyone to assess.  There were good things, and there were bad things.  The problem is that the bad things seem to be habitual problems of the Herm Edwards Chiefs.  Next week will be a better opportunity to win against a very overrated Denver team.  Boy do these Chiefs teams know how to rip your heart out....

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