Those Pesky Chiefs; (An Open Thread)

I was in the trenches 30 rows off the Chiefs bench. That place was PUMPED! I've never been to a game in Arrowhead yet, but I hope we can again gain that Arrowhead advantage back very soon because Baltimore has to be one of the toughest places to play now. I got some verbal jabs from some of the constituency, but the fact that we showed up and made it tough on them quieted many of the haters. Lots of Ravens fans respected the way the Chiefs came in and played. Like D mentioned, however, we were dominated the whole game. We couldn't get any pressure on Flacco, and he picked us apart. That all out blitz on that Clayton touchdown was a desperation call. We were just plain overmatched up front on both sides of the ball. Croyle haters: gotta admit, the guy showed some nuts in that game. Played very well considering the circumstances. Plus, he didn't get hurt!

I think I'm with the rest of you. They lost and that's what matters, but I did see some things that made me cheer. I also saw some things that made me want to vomit. Croyle is horrible. If Matt was in the game for the last two minutes, I think we would have had a chance to at least send it to overtime.

Twas I who said Mcgraw would be cut. I am glad I am wrong about it.

What I saw was arguably the best team in the NFL (Ravens) play against what is arguably the worst team in the NFL (Chiefs). The Ravens played worse than I expected them to and the Chiefs played about as well as they could be expected. In spite of the fact that the Chiefs had a couple of big breaks go their way and did not do anything really bad to hurt themselves, they proved they still are a long way from beating a team of the Raven's caliber.

The stats tell the real story. The Ravens had the ball twice as long, ran twice as many plays, and put up more than twice the amount of yards as the Chiefs. Regardless of the opponent, you're not going to win many games with only 29 yards total rushing. In other words, aside from a couple of costly mistakes, the Ravens completely dominated the Chiefs. Bottom line, I pretty much saw the game I expected and came away no less convinced that the Chiefs still have a long, long way to go.

As far the coaching side of the story goes, the Chiefs clearly game planned against the run and as a result got torched both in the passing game and the run game. The Chiefs tried to blitz all day long and got caught with their pants down on multiple occasions. Why no defensive adjustment? Why was Corey Mays allowing Todd Heap so much room? Scheme problem? Also, was anyone other than me left wondering why Haley, armed with time-outs and within striking distance of a Succop field goal (at least), allowed the clock to run out at the end of the first half?

I will say though, the one thing that really got me out of my seat was seeing Jon McGraw block that punt and then recovering it the endzone for 6. That was fun. I do recall a mere few weeks back, more than a few people suggesting McGraw ought to be cut. What say you now?

SMT,

You are right a loss is a loss, however there is a major difference between losing a game in such a way as you might as well not even showed up. Then there is the way the Chiefs lost yesterday in which they were in the game all day until the last two minutes when dipshit Niswanger couldn't seem to snap the ball like he is paid to do! I hate that kid at center. Surely we have someone better suited that can snap the ball without Croyle stomping his foot like he is at a Willie Nelson concert.

In my opinion a loss is a loss any which way you look at it, I don't necessarily belive in moral victories. Having said that I think we did show some flasshes of heading in the right direction. Our D looked quite squishy, surely they are going to switch some things up to improve that next week. I don't know how I would handle it if the Raiders ran all over us like that, im not to worried about their passing game, or even their Defense, more just thier run game. Heres to hoping the momentum we seemed to be picking up carries into next week and beyond!

I was pleased with the overall effort but realize that there are some obvious weaknesses on this team. If Baltimore is a playoff caliber team I would say that the Chiefs will be in most of their games this year. That being said I am sticking with my original expectation of 6 wins in 2009. Hopefully one of those is this Sunday against the Raiders.