Offensive Stats to Ponder
Number of drives: 11 (Last game: 10)
Average starting field position: 24 yard line (Last game: 31 yard line)
Average number of plays per drive: 5.6 (Last game: 6.2)
Average net yards gained per drive: 17.2 (Last game: 28.4)
Average drive time: 2:30 (Last game: 3:03 minutes)
Longest drive: 80 yards (Last game: 73 yards)
Time of possession: 27:29 (Last game: 30:11)
Box score is here. Gamebook is here (PDF opens).
Look familiar?
Let's see...third down efficiency was 26%...four total plays in the red zone...offensive line gave up five sacks...the team gained 55 yards rushing against 2007's second worst run defense...
From a stat perspective, last week's game was a total regression to a version of last year's team. The narrative of the star-crossed offense and the good but tragically flawed defense was played out last year.
Wasn't it?
Apparently not. And because of that, I'm repeating the mantra...we're rebuilding...we're rebuilding. Jon at MVN is right and I agree with him in principle but that principle doesn't mean my skepticism hasn't risen quite a bit in the last 24 hours. Sunday's mistakes pointed directly at the coaching staff IMO and it's the same old issues showing up again.
Okay, enough of that rant. On to the stats.
Dwayne Bowe and Devard Daring were the only two Chiefs receivers to make a catch against the Raiders and Bowe made six of those two's combined seven catches. In the confusion surrounding the rest of the team, we seem to have forgotten that the Chiefs really have zero depth at wide receiver. I applaud Bowe for coming back and performing quite brilliantly down the stretch of Sunday's game but he can't be the only legitimate wide receiver on this team. That act will be easy to figure out quite quickly for opposing defenses. I consider this a major area of concern but this team is in triage here, so we'll set this problem aside for now.
You can see the preference for Bowe's right side in the chart below, not that throwing the ball his way is a bad idea or anything. We don't have the talent credibility to warrant taking a defender away from Bowe.
I did a quick look at some other team's deep ball stats and ours aren't horribly out of whack. Most teams haven't tested the deep threat it appears.
Here's an interesting stat to point out - the Chiefs didn't even attempt to run the ball on their one scoring drive. The only score by the Chiefs, a TD in the 4th quarter, came after two Raider penalties and nine pass attempts by Tyler Thigpen. Here's how that drive broke down:
Pass deep right to Bowe (30 yards)
Pass short right to Smith (6 yards)
Pass short right to Bowe (15 yards)
Pass short right to Smith (no gain)
Pass incomplete short right to Smith
Defensive offsides (5 yards)
Pass short middle to Darling (10 yards)
Defensive pass interference (7 yards)
Pass incomplete short middle to Gonzalez
Pass short right to Gonzalez (5 yards)
Pass short left to Gonzalez for the TD (2 yards)
I'm not surprised by the fact that we passed to score, considering 17 of our 24 touchdowns last year came via the pass. It's already looking like that will be the case again this year, as the Chiefs are forced to play catch up each game and move the ball quickly with the pass. If I were Larry Johnson, I wouldn't be expecting anything close to a big season. So, why did I draft him in my fantasy league? Arghh!
Anyone remember what week of the 2007 season the Chiefs scored their first rushing touchdown? Anyone? Week 6, against the Bengals.
We should brace ourselves after looking over these eerily similar stats to last year. LJ is going to get more and more pissed off and rightly so. Time to start researching how much of a cap hit we would take if we traded him.