Chicago Reality Check
First of all, kudos to Adam and Zach for hosting the chat. I especially liked the pregame chat with all the questions. Generally, if you win or lose a preseason game it doesn’t really amount to much. This was different. When you are coming off such a bad year, establishing a culture of winning is very important. So, this win was a good boost to the team’s morale.
However, this does not mean all is well. Let’s put this Chiefs‘ win into some context. First of all, who are we playing? Chicago has an excellent D and a mediocre O. So, we need to read the results considering the competition.
I was mixed on the O. I liked Brodie’s poise and arm. He showed why I like him. I question his decision making, however, he made good decisions against the Bears. Chan’s play calling was good. I loved how the ball was spread around. People like Franklin, Charles and Cottam got into the act. Now, what I didn’t like was all the rollouts. Why? What’s wrong with that? Well, think about what that tells you. Why do you roll out a QB? You are cutting the field in half, so why do it? The answer is to cover for weak pass protection. The fact that Chan is calling a lot of rollouts makes me nervous. It’s a tacit admission that the line is not good. This was against a good D, but it bears watching.
I had generally poor feelings about the play of our D. DJ played well, but it’s what I didn’t see that bothers me. I didn’t see D-line penetration against a poor Bears line. Plus, the corners played soft. Hopefully Dorsey will make a difference. However, it bears watching and I will be watching, thanks to Matte and the stoogetv link.
- Merlin
we all know that the rollout works, denver kills us with rollouts ALL THE TIME bootleg, rollout, yeah it cuts off half of the field but witch side? does that actually put you at a big disadvantage? hey if it covers our boys on the oline’s asses go for it
August 8th, 2008 at 5:50 pmI know that this is a preseason game and it may not mean much, but our weak starting offense was able to put something together against the Bear’s great defense. As much as people say about Herb Tayolr but he is NOT left tackle material. We need Albert back before we can think about stopping with the rollouts.
As for defensive penetration? I was not even looking at that until Dorsey is behind the like. I would have to agree that our corners left something to be desired though.
August 8th, 2008 at 6:34 pmI think the bootlegs are also a byproduct of Chan catering to our QB’s strengths. Brodie and Thiggy both throw reasonably well on the run. Also, it isn’t just to cover for poor blocking. Denver has been doing these kind of plays forever, often with some of the best offensive lines in the league. You just can’t boot with turtles like Green and Huard. They are very hard to cover, especially if you have a QB who can occasionally move the chains with their feet. We saw last night that we do. He’s no V.Y., but he’s athletic enough.
That being said, Merlin is totally right. Bootlegs are also often used to mask offensive line inadequacies. Also, it helps Thiggy’s short ass see.
Totally agree about the pass rush. I’m afraid Tamba isn’t going to cut it at RDE. I’m not for certain, just worried. Worried about the other side as well.
August 8th, 2008 at 7:53 pmThe bootleg option is about more than the relative skill of the offensive line – it’s about the skillsets of everyone involved… meaning you cannot use them if your QB lacks either of two major skills – he has to have the legs and feet to run, and he has to have a cannon so he can make the backside out pass. Croyle has both of these in spades.
It’s also about the predictibility of your offense on certain passing downs. If the D knows you only pass from a stationary pocket – they can dissect your blocking schemes and tee off on your QB.
I don’t recall Huard running a single bootleg, and the O still was effective against a pretty good D. He still has the arm to make the backside out pass, but his legs are not reliable anymore… though if he WERE to bootleg – it would definately surprize the bejesus outta the D.
I was not happy with the dline either, but they’ll be OK. Same with the secondary. The LB’s are another story. Except for DJ and Hoyte, I didn’t see anyone else actually make a play.
As to the rollouts… get used to it. Herm and Chan both have talked publicly about them being a designed thing, and I dont expect them to stop anytime soon.
August 8th, 2008 at 8:00 pmIt appears Parcells has got his man again. Phinphanatic is reporting the Dolphins have signed Pennington to a two year deal.
August 8th, 2008 at 9:42 pmGood, dont need him.
August 8th, 2008 at 10:04 pmSeems like John Beck is on his way out. Good kid, smart kid, was a second-round pick just a year ago. Seems like Parcells and the staff just don’t like the kid. I’d definitely have interest in him, especially if he were to be released. He’s got all the tools to be a very good player.
Here’s what I said about Beck about a year ago while covering the Dolphins for RF365:
http://www.realfootball365.com/index.php/articles/dolphins/5265
That’s another article where I compare him favorably to Brady Quinn.
I think Beck is a guy we HAVE to look at. If we could get him as a FA or for a late-round draft pick, he could be a steal. I’d feel more comfortable with us keeping Huard if we had another promising young QB project on the roster.
August 8th, 2008 at 10:43 pmFor all of those who don’t know, I used to live in Miami, and had the dubious honor of covering those slimy amphibious mammals when I was down there. I know a thing or two about the Dolphins, and I like Beck for the most part, even considering his struggles in this year’s camp.
August 8th, 2008 at 10:54 pmActually I was hoping Beck would be the odd man out down there – if he is, we should definately snarf him up… and we could even keep Thigpen on the practice roster or whatever they call that damn thing now…
Sorry to hear about your days in purgatory south of the Frost Line. I was stationed in Key West for 5 years, so I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Miami as well – though I prefer the Florida panhandle… Orange Beach… Perdido Key, Gulf Shores… even Pensacola over the southron hinderlands of Miami.
August 9th, 2008 at 2:24 amOur D-line actually got pressure up the middle, that’s what surprised me. Of course, some of it that was against ‘lesser’ players, but guys like Lokey and Murray looked decent. The passing game looked efficient (when our QB’s got the ball out correctly *cough Thigpen cough*) and we effectively used Charles/Cot-wicker-man-tam/even ol’ Coxy. The bootlegs won’t hurt our passing game if we can keep getting guys that open on short-intermediate routes.
One thing I’m abso-fucking-lutely STOKED about was seeing FOUR WIDE RECEIVER SETS WITH ONE MAN LEFT IN THE BACKFIELD! I’ve been begging for this since 2006. LJ had TONS of success when we spread our offense out, and let him run against a spread D. He simply just owns defenders one on one. When we tried doing the ‘power run’, or in our case last year ‘cupcake O’, we got shut down 9/10 times. We saw a LOT of 3-4 receiver sets, and I can’t get enough of that. Imagine D-Bowe, Franklin, Sippio and Tony G out on the edges, LJ in the backfield. Who are you going to cover? If you play it safe against the run, one of these guys will get open. If you double cover Tony, one of these guys will get open. If you protect heavily against the pass, LJ can and will catch a short dump pass and turn it into something nice. There are so many more possibilities that have a favorable outcome when we run these sets. We didn’t see much of it with Solari.
I also liked seeing our offense convert so many 3rd downs. 5 on the opening drive, are you kidding me? I remember games (most notably against the Colts, in our last playoff appearance) when we didn’t have a 3rd down conversion until after half-time. That was pathetic. And we showed promise. For how low the Bears’ D ranked last year, they are still a force to be reckoned with, especially when their guys (most notably Tommie Harris) are healthy. It isn’t etched in stone that we are a good offense yet, but it’s definetly a huge step in the right direction.
August 9th, 2008 at 2:42 amI have to say I’m very stoked about our offense and think the bootleg really adds a new demension to our offense..I really believe in what Chan Gailey is doing and I think we hired the best guy we could get..All of a sudden WR went from one of our weakest positions to one of our strongest positions..I realize this is just one preseason game however we already knew we had bowe and gonzales. Bowe mark my words will be the next top WR in the league, and Gonzales is still the best TE..He’s atleast in the top two..
Franklin looks good and considering he’s a rookie, I think this kid could be great. Letting Franklin, Darling, Webb, Price, and Sippio battle it out for the last 2-3 spots will be interesting. I’m really pulling for Sippio..Say what you will about his speed, the guy will catch everything in his direction..Why can’t we atleast just put him in the first string and see what he does..Regardless I think this offense will surprise people this year and is going to be quite good..We’ve got much better WR corps and with Jamall Charles and Cottam our offense just seems sooo much better than last year its ridiculous..If we had jared allen right now, I would expect the playoffs..
But seriously how much better is our offense than last year..This past draft and addition of undrafted free agents rookies is looking more amazing by the day..We didn’t just kick ass, we stomed on every other teams balls in this years draft
August 9th, 2008 at 3:00 amOne thing I forgot to mention, is that although Barth nailed that 37 yard field goal, it was just that. A 37 yard field goal. Hell, Morten Anderson can still hit 37 yard field goals. I want to see more of our kickers. Judging by their kickoffs, neither of them have tremendous leg strength, which is troublesome. I want consistently on kickoffs, and to see a nice percentage of field goals go in from at least up to 45 yarders or so. I was watching the Seahawks/Vikings game on NFL network tonight, and they were talking about Olindo Mare maybe getting traded/released, because they really liked their rookie kicker. If that’s the case, and our kickers don’t look exceedingly good for the rest of the pre-season, I think if the ‘Hawks are serious about that, we should definetly take a look. The guy is getting up there in age, but kicking is one area we’ve been weak in since.. Basically since Morten himself left us.
August 9th, 2008 at 3:12 amLost in the shuffle is the fact the guys played so well from top to bottom, and on BOTH sides of the ball AND ST’s… and I still can’t believe this… but neither of our top two rooks was even in Chi-town.
How good is this team going to be once Dorsey and Albert get acclimated and the lines start to gel? Talk about STOKED… I feel like a 16 year old kid who just got his first testosterone headrush!
August 9th, 2008 at 4:22 amMy main observation about our first preseason game is the attitude. This goes back to some things Herm said in camp … a winning attitude. I like what I see … I’m glad we’re looked over this year, no media circus, Hard Knocks, etc. Chan Gailey was a good hire also.
August 9th, 2008 at 9:06 amJust back from Chicago, what a great game to see!!! The Bears fans I interacted with were overwhelmingly looking at the Chiefs as a team to beat. It was very refreshing, I was so proud to be a Chiefs fan, but I must say through much of the game there were many fans in Bears shirts that were big Thigpen fans.
August 9th, 2008 at 4:40 pmEveryone was like “you guys are going to be good with Dorsey and Albert, you got the best draft in the league” which was great to hear also.
August 9th, 2008 at 4:51 pmBeck would be nice, but dont you get the feeling at some point you might have TOO many projects?
August 9th, 2008 at 9:26 pm