Grading The Chiefs: Big Matt’s Midseason Report Card – Defense

Veteran leaders need to do both. You just described what a coach should be accountable to in my opinion. Look at ray lewis as a standard (although I am not a big fan). Still makes big plays like the strip in the buffalo overtime game, and has that coach on the field presence. Vrabel just doesn't have the juice. It's not a knock on him, he's had a HOF type career, it's just where he appears to be unless he has a resurgence in the near future.

This was a retarded post. get your shit straight bitch.

Hey Conor Billy (or is it Jung Guns?), WTF? \_0_/

Wow. You make a very astute and compelling argument. Yeah I didn't get the sarcasm, my bad Thank you for showing class and integrity when you called me out. A lot of people would have been rude and offensive.

Clever

"As the team’s player-leader, isn’t his real role to make sure guys are hustling on/off the field, standing in the correct position at the beginning of each play, and ensuring teammates are offering their hand to help their fellow players off the ground? Why would we want the team leader to play it risky, and not be around for the next play? Who would run the on-field team then? A+ for not getting too-invovled, so he can lead." That whole paragraph was great. I was definitely laughing by the end. The last sentence especially. We should all start calling Vrabel "The Intangible".

Anyone know what pro football focus [is that the right name] says about Vrabel? The criticism here is so intense, yet Haley and the Chiefs apparently think he still is good. There must be an objective way to resovle the issue, or at least come close to resolving it. I got to say Rabid Iguana may be on to something with the idea that Big Matt has too much love of D-Bowe to grade objectively. I appreciate the groundswell of support, but not sure the Oracle would be up to the job. KCO is more of a guy who lays in the weeds and sneaks into comments with little pieces of information, rather than a guy with the content and depth suitable for lead articles.

I see in a new Pixar movie in the offing - "The Intangibles"

Yeah Greens has made that diabetes joke before, although I think you're the first to coin "Type 2" as a nickname. It's really funny. It's not your imagination, Don Wash stinks. If Louie Louie being hurt gets him in the game its a significant step down. Definitely going to be doing the Tenay voice every time Moeaki touches the ball moving forward. Can't imagine that'll go over to well at the ol' Red Star. Maybe I can get a laugh out of Big Wing.

Well thought out comment as always, CalChiefsfan. You're a rational commenter. I respect that. re: Jones Believe it or not I really don't hate the guy. But that YPC is average at best. I'd like to see him getting 10-12 carries per game, no more. Charles doesn't need all the touches, but he should certainly have more than Jones, a guy he is clearly a lot better than. I think their workloads should be inversed, basically. I'm not asking for 30 carries per game from Charles, I want to make that clear. re: Haley Did that come off hate-filled? My essential point is just that every coach and GM does this stuff. They're all trying to protect themselves at all times because of the typically short NFL lifespan. I'm not trying to say Haley's on the hot seat or anything (far from it) but there is definitely a reason he keeps on saying the team isn't that good. He's trying to maximize credit. Again, I think every coach does this, not just Haley. Agreed on the final point. Good, not yet Super Bowl contenders.

I think Charles should get more carries too. He could be the best back in the NFL, I honestly believe that. I'm just glad we picked up Jones and because he is here we'll see plenty of Charles in the playoffs. Your post didn't come off as Haley hate. Poor choice of words on my part. I'm just so glad that he's our coach that I get defensive when I hear a lot of criticism. Maybe too defensive. He's doing a great job, especially for only his second year as a head coach. I think he's more focused on making the Chiefs better than worrying about his job. He strikes me as a guy who feels that if he does his job well he doesn't have to worry about job security. Let's face it, we haven't seen the Chiefs play this well and be this balanced in a long, long time. We're a good team this year, next year watch out.

There's only one quarterback who could pull that off, and we traded him to Miami.

Your comments on here are the stuff of legends. I really need to get you over to my movie review blog. I actually mentioned you in my last post over there. As to the meat and potatoes, I agree the difference is only in expectations. But that matters to me. Quite a bit actually. You might say I'm in the Whitlock school of grading. (half of readers start gnashing teeth) Dorsey does at least look fired up. That right there is more than Sims ever did.

I'll take that as a compliment. Most people say James Spader. I'm actually probably a little worse looking than both. People also used to say I looked like Damon Huard. That was pretty cool.

I meant, see you in January!!! :-)

Get lost you fucking troll. What is it with gloating as Raider fans. Don't you have your own site to read. No wonder we hate you a$$holes so much. And NO, neither team looks playoff caliber. The Raiders make too many dumb mistakes. They will be better with Gradkowski but the Chargers will still figure into the mix. Now F*ck Off!

Uncalled for. He isn't trolling he is stating an opionion and he is entitled to do that here. 90% of the Raiders fans who came over here last week were cool. No need to tell him to f off.

Yup, really took off after your 9 passing yards you guys had in the first half. Or the 8 of 9 drives you had without a first down. Momentum swings are a bitch. Hats off to the Raider's D-line. They held up Jones pretty well, and keeping Charles to 5 yards a carry is a tough task, wish we would have given him more carries. See you in December, and if it's a close game and not a 20pt victory, the Chiefs still win at home. Also, we have only lost to one team with a losing record, and it was a divisional loss to the Raiders. We haven't lost to teams like Arizona and San Francisco. Gotta love the trash talking! Keep it coming!!!

@Nick... Ummm... You knew about those losses? Yep... We can (and often do) make pathetic teams look dominating (AZ, SF). I'm hoping they've turned a corner after 3 wins in a row. @Patrick... Thanks for the defense. Our sites also have their share of uncalled for "internet attitudes". It's easy to be disrespectful when you're anonymous. Much classier to tip the virtual hat when it's due though. Good Luck to your Team this year gents(except if it affects my team).

Yeah I knew about them lol. I have to agree that it does look like your boys have turned the corner, which is good because I don't like to have the AFC West look like a bunch of buffoons. Tight race now for the division. We have had our share of losses the last two years where we make nobodies look like pro-bowlers as well. Like the stones you have to come on a Chiefs site and show class while rooting for a hated rival. Wish everyone had that kind of class...

Mr. Hays, You are no troll, sir. Your comment was fair. My Chiefs definitely didn't look like a playoff team either, I see your point. This game kinda looked like some other Chiefs/Raiders debacles of recent memory. Two bad teams trying to give the game away. It was nasty on both ends. My thing is though, I was downright scared of you guys after those last two wins. I thought we needed to bring our absolute best into your house or we'd get served an embarrassing loss. Clearly that wasn't the case. You guys just didn't look nearly as good as I thought you would.

I laughed pretty good at this. Well done, Nick, well done. It was a sarcastic post, right?

Sarcasm abound sir. Tired of hearing about how good players are in the NFL that constantly don't perform (Tony Romo anyone). Glad it made someone laugh!

Nick, I thought you were serious until the end of that first sentence when I read "Vrabel the intangible". After that I got it, and was free to laugh at the rest. Good stuff. Weird, undeserved credit is a pet-peeve of mine as well, and it is RAMPANT in professional sports. Baseball is even worse than football. The Royals are downright painful, what with there obsession with guys like Jason Kendall and Willie Bloomquist.

19 carries for less than 35 yards is worse than mediocre, IT'S GARBAGE. Did all of you people forget the end of last year? Comparably, we had a much worse team last year and all we had to do was hand the ball to Charles for wins. He is clearly a top 5 running back. Would the Titans start Jones over Chris Johnson? No, because their management isn't trying to prove to everyone that they are briilliant. If anything, it makes more sense to give Charles carries early and work in Jones if we have a lead. P.S- Bernard Pollard is leading the Texans in tackles and forcing fumbles all over the place. Not playing stud running backs and cutting stud safeties, aka the Patriot way, is clearly counterproductive.

you are looking at and reacting to one game. yes that game he had poor stats. his body of work, however, says that he is NOT "garbage" or even mediocre. there have been multiple times this season when the titans chris johnson was able to only rush for about 50 yards on 20 carries yet you still consider him to be a top five back. your response is a knee-jerk reaction to a horrible team performance. it is understandable but invalid. the raiders were able to man-handle our oline yesterday plain and simple. that allowed them to shut down the straight ahead run game for the most part which is jones's strength. i think we can both agree that the playing-calling did not adjust to the flow of the game and therefore did not use jc more which played into the raiders strengths instead of capitalizing on their weaknesses.

rossk, I don't think Thom Jones is bad, but mediocre isn't out of bounds to me given his numbers. To me mediocre means uninspiring and a little below average. I'm not sure on this but I think average YPC in the NFL tends to be around 4.2. Jones is at 4.16 if I'm not mistaken. Also, 500 yards on 5+ teams isn't all that impressive to me. It says four teams were willing to let him go. For 2.5 mil this last time! I get what you're saying though, you don't think I should be piling it on Jones. And you're right, this isn't about Thom Jones. It's about the decision to play him more than Charles. That's my beef, and I think its legitimate. Believe it or not, I loved the Jones signing when it happened. I just didn't think he'd be getting more carries than the best player on our team.

+1!

+1

Offensive grades will be handed out on Wednesday. Sheesh, am I only one actually bothering to read what Big Matt's post is about?

Wrong - forget about who the Chiefs have played, the stats show that the Chiefs are clearly an above average team and that the Raiders on are also the rise. The fact that we kept them scoreless in the first half, on the road no less, was in and of itself a significant statement considering the Raiders were near or at the top of the league in first half points coming in. Playing the Raiders is always going to be a crazy, physical affair because the rivalry is so intense and anything is likely to happen. Special teams mistakes cost us 14 points yesterday - end of story. The fact that the Chiefs played some pretty undisciplined football yesterday didn't help matters much either.

Why are the Chiefs above average? Because of the record? Because we almost be Houston and hung on with Indy? We barely beat the Bills who we should have crushed and we should have crushed the Raiders as well with all the mistakes they made. This team may make the playoffs, but unless the fix the holes; (defensive break downs, Matt Cassell and WRs) we won't win a playoff game. And watch out for SD.

Jesse, Top of the list, we are 5-3 which is, by definition, "above average." Secondly, you should look at our DVOA stats as of Week 8, #1 in Total DVOA, #6 in Team Offense DVOA, #5 in Team Defense DVOA, and #12 in Special Teams DVOA. Now there will probably be some adjustment to those rankings after Week 9 stats come out but I highly doubt there will enough change to warrant us falling below #16 in any category other than Special Teams maybe. That's what I mean by "above average" and I think my characterization is backed up by some pretty solid evidence. Curious to hear what your definition of average is?

My definition of average is pretty loose and not a statistical one (I can see the value of trying to rely upon statistics, particularly at year end - but by then, the only thing that matters is whether you make the playoffs). I think in terms of the top tier teams, then a second group of teams that I see as "average," and then the lower tier teams (such as, most of the ones we have beat - S.F, Cleveland (although they may be moving into the second tier), Jacksonville and Buffalo). I just don't see how we can look at the last two ugly games against mediocre teams and say the Chiefs are good. But as Parcells says, you are either getting better or worse in the NFL. I don't know which way the Chiefs are going, but I'm afraid it might be heading south.