How to be a Homer and LIKE What the Chiefs Did Against the Giants

by Jon Yoon on Oct 8, 2009 7:00 AM CDT in 2009 Kansas City Chiefs Campaign

Wow, talk about the stretch of the century. Am I really going to talk about positives for the Chiefs in their embarrassing loss to the Chiefs?

Yes, I am going to do just that.

First, let me make it clear that the Chiefs stunk on Sunday. They lost because they deserved to lose, but remember what I said earlier in the season about having realistic expectations about the Chiefs this season. The Chiefs are not talented. They have noticeable gaps at several key positions, and their depth is completely non-existent. What happens when an untalented team squares up against a loaded team that will probably make the NFC Championship game and maybe even the Super Bowl? Well, let me ask you this: what happens when a lowly mouse squares up to fight against a cat? Don't believe what you see on Tom and Jerry. The cat will dominate the mouse every single time.

The Chiefs were supposed to lose to the Giants. They were grossly outmatched. If you're trying to judge the Chiefs' performance by wins/losses, yards gained/lost, points scored/given up, then you're making a very big mistake. As I said before Sunday's game, the Chiefs had a shot at winning if they were perfect and the Giants didn't show up to play.

The Giants showed up to play. And the minute that became apparent, the Chiefs were screwed.

It's like this. If you're Wal-mart trying to measure the company's performance, you have to set a very high standard. If you're Joe's Store 'o' Crap trying to make a local presence in Kansas City, you have to set the bar much lower. Rather than get upset over big losses, we need to focus on small wins. Earlier this week, DThomasReigns wrote a very analytical column on Arrowhead Pride about how the defense isn't improving. I couldn't disagree more.

The Chiefs didn't play great defense against the Giants, but they played much better this Sunday than they have all season. The Chiefs finally started to get some pressure on Eli Manning, which is quite a feat given how impressive the Giants' offensive line is. Eli looked rushed on a lot of his throws and at one point in the game, even looked flustered. That's a small win for a team that hasn't touched a quarterback for almost a year and half. Credit Eli Manning for doing such a great job of dealing with the pressure. He made quite a few impressive throws under duress.

The offensive line also played significantly better on Sunday than they did against the Eagles. Against Philadelphia, the Chiefs weren't just outmatched, they were completely outplayed too. The Chiefs' o-line looked confused and unprepared. It was simply stunning how many defenders plowed into the backfield completely untouched. Against New York, the protection was more consistent. Don't get me wrong, the protection is still awful, but at least they started limiting their mistakes. I don't think fans fully understand how difficult the offensive line is making it for Cassel to succeed--even when the protection looks immaculate, the pocket is still collapsing on him and he still doesn't look settled in the pocket. Who could blame him? Hopefully this game will help Cassel feel more confident in his pass protection. After all, the Giants' defensive line make a lot of offenses look bad.

It's also important to base any post-game evaluation not on a collection of players who are not in the Chiefs' long-term plans; rather, you need to base that evaluation only on players who you expect to be on the roster a few years from now. I thought the corners played exceptionally well and I saw the young defensive line perform much better Sunday than they have all season. Sure, the Giants ran all over the Chiefs, but there was never a feeling during the game that the Giants' run offense was going to take over the game. And on most plays, the Chiefs were a few steps off from making a big play either on Eli or the receiver catching the pass. There's little you can do when the QB and receivers consistently execute plays to perfection, especially when your pass rush doesn't have the talent to give a consistent rush and your safeties don't have the talent to dart to the ball in time.

So yes, Chiefs' fans, I understand that the Chiefs sucked on Sunday against the Giants. But I'm not terribly upset about the outcome. The Chiefs were supposed to get crushed by the Giants. They did just that. What's more important is that the Chiefs got a lot better on a few important areas.

If you judge the Chiefs on wins/losses, yards gained/lost, it's going to be a very long season.

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Very good post.

I’ll give you the things I thought we improved in as well.
-Pressure on the QB
-We keep handing out the big hits. Our defense has been brutal on the hits. Just need to be more consistant.
-O-Line protection
-I thought LJ looked better. You can’t blame him for the stupid draw plays on 3rd and 82. You can’t blame him for him not getting TD’s. They don’t feed him on the goal line.

by Chiefsfan85 on Oct 8, 2009 7:09 AM CDT reply actions

+1 and Rec'd

These are the same thoughts I had, so I’m glad that you were able to put them into a post. I was actually a bit proud of the Chiefs, considering the previous week. We have had a very tough schedule thus far, and I believe that they are just now getting themselves together. They have played excellent teams that can embarrass any team in the league. The true test is coming up on Sunday. The Coughboys are a good, solid team, but they have exploitable weaknesses. If the Chiefs can find a way to win, I believe that they really can turn the season around. 0 – 0 Baby!

by TXChiefan on Oct 8, 2009 7:18 AM CDT reply actions

pretty pointless

eventually the Chiefs will be respectable again but there’s no need to sugarcoat the season. I understand the need to remain optimistic to justify watching them every Sunday and the reality is that every team can see something good if they look hard enough.

KC was really good in the 90’s and very average in the 00’s, so it’s only a matter of time until things balance out.

by xchiefsx on Oct 8, 2009 7:24 AM CDT reply actions

random

this has nothing to do with this post but I just saw a commercial for ESPN Classic touting a Chiefs-Cowboys games\ from 2005. I vaguely remembered the encounter though I guessed KC lost the matchup and it turns out the Chiefs did lose the game 28-31 in a tug-of-war match with Drew Bledsoe.

However, I don’t know why this is considered a classic game (I did watch a 2007 NFL replay of the undefeated Patriots vs. Raven the other day which was fun). I’m guessing because they only play each other 4 years, and in honor of this season’s AFL celebration, this game was the most exciting between the two.

by xchiefsx on Oct 8, 2009 8:16 AM CDT up reply actions

they played it because of the matchup this week

nothing more

by TDubb on Oct 8, 2009 2:54 PM CDT up reply actions

xchiefsx I kind of have to agree with your comment

because it doesn’t matter how sweet we try to make the poop…it’s still just poop with sugar on it.

But let’s back up. Yoon makes a good point without even really making one. At least I don’t know if he realized how much of a valid point he makes about our defense at one point in this post…

“for a team that hasnt’ touched a quarterback in almost a year and a half”..that’s the truth. There are still the same trends as last year here in KC. Losing games in the final minutes and seconds of games. Getting snuffed out on stupid penalties that change the final outcome of the game.

But compared to last years defense on a play by play basis we are getting much better. Our sack stats don’t lie. But in the end, we’re comparing garbage to garbage not garbage to treasure.

The defenses of the Ravens, Giants and God I hate to say this one..but even Denver this year are treasures. We are still garbage. And garbage is garbage no matter what. So yes, I do absolutely see improvement on D from last year, but the end result is still the same. We lose. And we lose because of our defense.

I know some of you want to blame the O line..but we’re scoring enough points that if we had Denvers defense this year..we would be 3-1. Even their defense wouldn’t have done crap against Philly, we just flat sucked there…no bright spots at all in that game…it was straight up garbage in garbage out against Philly.

but 3-1 for a completely new team would be vastly improved and encouraging and suprising. And not to be negative, really not to be negative, but it’s always some OTHER team that turns it around in one year and is 4-0 (Denver this year) and playoff bound after sucking. It’s never us. It gets old. So until I see something real, I guess I’ll have to be okay with sugar coating the season to make the sting not so hard to bear…

Pass the sugar please!

by krayfish on Oct 8, 2009 7:37 AM CDT reply actions

you say no reason to sugar coat poop

i say it’s not sugar coating it just not being as negative about it. it’s like when your dog only craps one the floor 2 times a day instead of 5. sure it’s still poop, but at least you don’t want to choke it as much. being negative gets you nothing but a dead dog, a pissed off wife, and some crying kids.

by Leaf on Oct 8, 2009 1:02 PM CDT up reply actions

Great Post & Rec'd

I’m gonna go with Jon & TXChief on this one. I think the improvements are slowly showing themselves…

The real tests will be this weekend and next against the Cowboys & Redskins. I expect continued improvement against 2 struggling offenses. Of course, I wasn’t expecting a Falcons-like turn-around (we just didn’t have the talent base to start with) from our Chiefs, so its easy for me to be optimistic…

I’m still not convinced that the Donkeys’ Defense is as good as everyone is saying. In their first 4 games, they’ve faced the 29th, 21st, 32nd & 4th (22 average) ranked offenses. Their one win against a legitimate offense (Dallas), could’ve gone either way, 10-17 is hardly a statement.

KC in their first 4 games, on the other hand, has faced the 3rd, 32nd, 7th and 4th (12 average) ranked offenses. BTW, one of those team (Philly) rankings is artificial low at 7, since they had a bye week this past week, which means they have one less week of stats than other teams. Its pretty obvious why their new 3-4 defense has struggled.

"Every day is an evaluation and if you’re not out there how can we depend on you? If you’re out there and you don’t know what to do, how can we depend on you?" Accountability -- Haley-style...

by Chief_Elmo on Oct 8, 2009 8:08 AM CDT reply actions

I agree...

… and suffered through watching a replay of the first half to discover a few points that support your position.

I found 3 key plays that prevented an otherwise extremely competitive effort by the team from resulting in success.

I’m skipping the obvious Charles’ fumble. It was bad, but not unrecoverable.

1) Bobby Engram in the endzone. We’ve just recovered an Eli fumble and driven the ball to the Giant’s 16 yard line. It’s 3rd down and Cassel throws a ball to the right corner of the endzone. Engram’s there and instead of attacking the ball in the air, he waits with his hands in a basket by his waist for the ball to drop to him. The Giant defender closes the gap and the ball hit’s him in the helmet. If Engram goes for the ball, one of two things happens. One a TD or two a pass interference call on the Giants resulting in a 1st down on the 1. End result Incomplete pass and Succop on to kick.

2) The penalty. It was crushing and blatantly wrong and it affected the game in the worst way. The one big mistake that I blame the Chiefs for on this one is that the D coaching staff didn’t recognize that the Giants had found a hole quickly enough. They basically ran the same play immediately after the penalty and it resulted in 6. We hold them to a FG there and we’re still in the game. (Or if Tynes is kicking maybe just down 4)

3) Cassel throws behind Bowe. In the drive immediately following the Giants penalty TD on 2nd down Cassel threw a skinny post to the right that was behind Bowe. If this pass is on target, it’s a HUGE gain. I replayed this play over and over again, aghast at the potential it had. Bowe had his man beaten by a step and the LB was extremely late coming over and would not have made a tackle on Bowe. The safety for some unexplained reason (although I’m guessing it had to do with the TE) had crept up to within 10 yards of the line of scrimage and was cheating to the middle of the field. It was nothing but space for our big receiver… he’s not fast enough to have likely scored in the 70 yard scamper, but it would have gone for at least 40 and had the crowd going crazy.

3 Little things that buried us in a hole too deep to climb out of.

There were good plays and there were opportunities. We did compete.

by Troydrake on Oct 8, 2009 9:55 AM CDT reply actions