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The Kansas City Chiefs lost 35-31 to the Houston Texans on Sunday. Much like the Chiefs Week 5 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, I walk away from this with a weird feeling. The Chiefs lost so I should be fuming mad but I'm not. They did a lot of very good thing that will help them more often than not.
There was some some good, some bad and some ugly.
GOOD
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Matt Cassel to Dwayne Bowe: Cassel completed 20-of-29 passes for 201 yards and three TDs. My favorite part about his game is the completion percentage. He was struggling with that and he nailed 69 percent of his passes. Efficient performance from Cassel. For Bowe, not only was he big on third down but he made a huge impact on an unexpected 42-yard touchdown run. He had 108 yards and two TDs. Good timing for him, too, after a couple drops last week.
- Thomas Jones/Jamaal Charles: They combined for 35 carries and 193 yards. As a team, the Chiefs rushed for 228 yards. I'd be willing to bet they have a very, very good record the rest of the way when they run for 228 yards in a game.
BAD
- Big plays: The Chiefs were second in the NFL in allowing big running plays with just one over 20 yards. The Texans had two running plays over 20 yards including a 38-yard touchdown run. As Todd Haley says, the Chiefs can't win when that happens.
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Offensive pass interference: Maybe I'm a sore loser (years of evidence to support that) but, if you're going to throw a flag on that play, I thought it was an Andre Johnson push-off. The actual call on Flowers didn't mean a whole lot because Johnson caught the ball anyway but I thought the penalty should have gone the other way negating Johnson's catch.
UGLY
- 4th quarter defense: 21 points? Where did that come from? I thought Indy's 10 4th quarter points were too much last week. I'm not sure what happened to the Chiefs but the defense was exposed at times.
- The Andre Johnson show: The Chiefs have been pretty good about not letting one guy beat them. Against Indy, they took Dallas Clark out of the game. Against San Francisco, Frank Gore didn't have much of a role and they did the same with Antonio Gates in the second half of the Week 1 opener. On Sunday against Houston they let WR Andre Johnson go crazy ending with 138 yards and a touchdown. Their strength is not letting one guy beat them and that didn't happen on Sunday.