Chiefs Training Camp: Defense Dominates First Scrimmage

It was good to see the Kansas City Chiefs in uniform but it wasn't much of a scrimmage. There wasn't any real hitting going on and you had variations of the depth chart lining up against each other -- First team offense against second team defense, first team defense against second team offense, etc.

As Chris mentioned, there was a new attendance record set for Spratt Stadium: 10,721. For the Wednesday night scrimmage, there were around 8,000 fans there.

It was once again hot but with a slight breeze that made it bearable.

The Chiefs had some warmup drills as well as the scrimmage. If we were awarding winners, the defense won today.

Injuries

Tony Moeaki left the game and hit the bench. Trainers were tending to his leg.

Punting drill

Dexter McCluster was taking a lot of the returns. He dropped two high, wobbly Dustin Colquitt punts in a row. On one play, Colquitt dropped it inside the five and Quinten Lawrence dove into the end zone to tap it back into play and it was caught inside the two by Maurice Leggett.

Kicking

Ryan Succop is money. He hit a 38-yarder and followed it up with a 53-yarder....easy.

I know it's just practice in good conditions but Succop is money.

Offensive line

Here's your first team: LT Branden Albert, LG Ikechuku Ndukwe, C Rudy Niswanger, RG Ryan Lilja, RT Ryan O'Callaghan.

Ndukwe is in there because Brian Waters and Darryl Harris are not participating with injuries.

Colin Brown saw some time at right tackle. It looks like (still very, very early) that's where he's going to stick.

Jon Asamoah continues on at right guard even though the Chiefs are down to their third guard on the left hand side.

Barry Richardson played both left and right tackle. Looks like he'll be the swing guy if he makes the team.

Scrimmage notes

The first play of the scrimmage Matt Cassel had Chris Chambers near the sidelines. It wasn't a perfectly thrown ball but Javier Arenas was in there on coverage to knock it away.

Derrick Johnson blew up two screens. The first one came on the second play of the game on a screen to Thomas Jones. He whipped right through the blockers to make contact (no tackling) behind the line of scrimmage. The second came when he sniffed out a screen pass to Kestahn Moore.

Cassel hit a covered Dwayne Bowe in the middle of the field for a 17-yard gain.

Brodie Croyle looked at Moeaki on three straight plays. The first came on the right hand side of the field under ten yards. Moeaki made the catch falling down. The second came with Moeaki wide open across the middle of the field. The third came on a screen pass. Tyson Jackson sniffed out the screen early.

The second team offense ran the ball on the defense pretty well. In goal line stuff, a trio of Demorrio Williams, Glenn Dorsey, Ron Edwards and Tyson Jackson created some pressure to stuff a Kestahn Moore run (after he had a 10-yard run on them).

With the ball on the two, the Chiefs gave the ball to Jackie Battle and he got in right up the gut for six points.

Cameron Sheffield is getting noticed. He had several impressive pass rushes at times throughout the day. He was kind of an afterthought for me but he's making me notice.

Tyler Palko had several near sacks while he was at quarterback. It's hard to tell what is and is not a real sack since there was no tackling but Justin Cole definitely had him on one play. The outside linebackers did a good job of creating pressure this afternoon.

Battling for a roster spot, Quinten Lawrence made a nice catch on the sidelines on a Palko pass....but he was out of bounds.

Cassel found Chambers 15 yards down field but the play was disrupted by Kendrick Lewis and the ball fell to the ground.

Bowe had another solid sideline catch. Cassel threw the ball on an out pattern near the sideline and Bowe had to go full stretch, keeping his feet on the edge of the sidelines, to make the play. I've seen several plays like that this camp.

Brandon Carr's name has been in the news recently but I caught a pair of nice plays by him including a pass breakup on a Cassel throw to Chambers.

The biggest cheer of the night came when Eric Berry picked off Croyle. It was just a bad pass, Berry made the pick and ran 15-20 yards down field before going down. This was the biggest cheer from the crowd all day.

I called Jake O'Connnell one of the bigger long shots to make the team....literally a minute later he caught a diving, 18-yard touchdown pass from Croyle.

What to take away from this

The offense didn't have a great day. Last Wednesday they were burning the defensive backs in drills but on Saturday they couldn't get much of anything going. It's like there was no rhythm because...

....The front seven was able to get pressure on the quarterbacks all day. McCluster wasn't much of a factor during the scrimmage, which was a little surprising. I figured he'd be a nice outlet for days like this when the quarterbacks didn't have much time.

The first team offense didn't score a touchdown. The second and third team did.