There is a full slate of (sigh) preseason games on this week.

Thursday

Cleveland at Philadelphia    7:30 pm
Indianapolis at St. Louis    8:00 pm

Friday

Denver at Detroit      7:30 pm
N.Y. Jets at Tampa Bay            7:30 pm
New England at Atlanta            8:00 pm
N.Y. Giants at Baltimore    8:00 pm
Chicago at San Francisco    10:00 pm

Saturday

Pittsburgh at Arizona            4:00 pm
Buffalo at Carolina            7:30 pm
Jacksonville at Miami            7:30 pm
Kansas City at Houston            8:00 pm
New Orleans at Tennessee    8:00 pm
Dallas at Seattle            10:00 pm
Green Bay at San Diego            10:00 pm

Sunday

Washington at Cincinnati    8:00 pm

Monday

Oakland at Minnesota            8:00 pm

Photo from Mack-Brown Texas Football

This Saturday, the Kansas City Chiefs will travel to Reliant Stadium to play the Houston Texans in the first preseason game for both teams (7 pm on CBS in KC).

The Chiefs and Texans have played three times in the regular season, and only once before in the preseason in 2002. The Chiefs lead the regular season series 2-1, with wins in 2003 and 2005. The Texans stole one in 2004, as they marched down the field in the final minutes to set up a game-winning field goal. The Chiefs have scored 108 points in the regular season series to the Texans 55.

The only other preseason game came on August 17th, 2002, which the Chiefs won 19-9.

Last year's meeting between these two teams resulted in a 45-17 Chiefs rout. At Houston on Sunday Night Football in November, Larry Johnson rushed for 211 yards and 2 TDs. Eric Warfield returned an interception 57 yards for the TD seconds before halftime. Trent Green was 19 of 29 for 220 yards and 3 TDs.

Basically, it was a romp. Houston's stats aren't even really worth mentioning- David Carr was 19 of 36 for 182 yards and 1 INT.

What does this game mean? Absolutely nothing. I'm a firm believer in not drawing conclusions from preseason games. We can speculate and wonder but there are so many different factors in a preseason game-out of shape players, 2nd and 3rd string players in the game, the lack of effort many veterans give to the games- that I really do believe that they are meaningless.

Of course there are exceptions to this rule. If Brodie Croyle comes in and throws 4 TDs, then that means something. If Casey Printers doesn't throw a pick, then that means something.

What I will be watching for during these games are how well certain players are simply just holding up. Namely Kyle Turley, Trent Green, Will Shields, Willie Roaf (???) and Tony Gonzalez.

I put the questions marks after Willie Roaf's name because I heard from a shaky source that Roaf was trying to avoid training camp by declaring his intent to retire. The papers aren't through yet so there is a tiny chance Roaf could be back. Call it a hunch but I'm still leaning toward Willie staying retired.

Head on over to Chiefs Coalition, who has first-hand coverage of all the going ons in training camp as well.

Last nights scrimmage at Minnesota State's stadium turned out pretty well says the Kansas City Star.

I'm having a bit of difficulting finding out if anybody was keeping any sort of stats or if there was any formal record keeping going on. If you find something, let me know.

Update [2006-8-5 11:17:5 by Chris]: The official Chiefs site says there is a power outage on the UWRF campus. After that is resolved, the site will post video and other info about the scrimmage.

Well scrimmage really.  Scout has the breakdown on tonight's Chiefs-Vikings scrimmage.  

This scrimmage has caused some problems in recent years, mainly due to the Viking's aggressiveness and their low-self esteem from having to live in Southern Canada.

Now that I think about it, do Michael Bennett and Casey Printers both have dual citizenship?

Michael Bennett, formerly of the Minnesota Vikings and most recently the New Orleans Saints, has been traded to the Chiefs for "future considerations".

Bennett was always at least a decent, fairly reliable back in Minnesota.  Check out some of his less-than-impressive stats. More on Bennett and the Chiefs important backup roles later...

As far as training camp in River Falls goes....

• 
  
• The team sat out yesterday's morning practice due to some intense rain but was able to continue later in the day
• Tackle Will Svitek is competing on both the left and right tackle side.
  
• 33-year old John Browning is day-to-day with a back injury.

 

Don't forget to create an account so you can post comments and write your own diary.  Lets build up AP to become the #1 online Chiefs community.

[editor's note, by Chris] Kansagonian has more on Michael Bennett in the diary section.

I have to throw this quote in from the official Chiefs site:

Tamba Hali, in the great tradition of the Nigerian Nightmare.

On to the news...

• Herm Edwards seems to think that Damon Huard is almost definitely going to be the #2 guy behind Trent Green.  Huard took the majority of the snaps yesterday.
  
• Lenny Walls and Brian Waters are essentially day to day, with hamstring and foot injuries respectively
  
• No update on Priest Holmes' condition
  
• Trent Green seems to be happy with new offensive coordinator Mike Solari's offensive scheme.  Apparently, it is quite similiar to last year's scheme, with few changes.
  
• Third-year tight end Kris Wilson scorched the defense twice for TDs.
  
• Ronnie Cruz popped new Chief Bernard Pollard on a block that left LJ wide open for a touchdown.  Hope to see that more often this year...
  

Not too much drama coming out of camp so far.  Just watching the left-tackle position, the draft picks and some of the veterans.

The University of Wisconsin-River Falls site has some really good shots of training camp, including this morning's AM practice.