Earning Their Arrowheads
The Kansas City Chiefs were flat out handled by the Oakland Raiders Sunday and will enter their playoff week preparations needing to refocus.
As bad as Sunday’s game against the Oakland Raiders might have felt, the Chiefs were actually competitive for 2 ½ quarters. Yes, they had problems on offense and were not moving the ball and yes they were flat and out of synch for most of the day but the reality is that the score was still tied 10-10 in the 3rd quarter before things fell apart.
I will have more on the KC’s struggles later but until then, try to remember that things are not as bad as they might have looked/felt Sunday. The Kansas City Chiefs won 10 of their 16 games this year. That is who they are.
I am going to hand out a few Arrowheads today because there were a couple of decent performances yesterday.
Tamba Hali
Hali proved he got snubbed in the Pro Bowl voting by sacking Jason Campbell 2.5 times to add to his already impressive season total. In fact, the Chiefs defense was doing a nice job of getting pressure but unfortunately, the Raiders didn’t have to pass very much because their running/screen game was working very well, particularly late.
Dwayne Bowe
Bowe may have dropped a critical pass (and a perfectly thrown ball by Cassel) but he was the only receiver that managed to get open all day. Bowe brought in 5 catches for 68 yards and trust me, things would have been really ugly without those numbers.
I was interested to see how Bowe would perform against a good secondary. He has been feasting on weaker teams and has struggled against the stronger cover units. This was a decent showing for Bowe and he probably would have done even better if the Chiefs had any other reliable receiving threat.
Jamaal Charles
Charles may have been able to keep the Chiefs in the game if he had been given 20 or 25 carries. Unfortunately he only had 11 carries before the team’s final drive with their starters. Charles was given 3 carries on that drive and all that happened was he lost his chance to beat Jim Brown’s rushing average record.
Still, Charles once again proved that the more times he touches the ball, the better chance the Chiefs have to win. I am not that upset with his lack of carries against the Raiders because it means he will be fresher for this week’s playoff game.
The only question is, will Haley give him the carries he needs to make a difference vs. the Ravens?
Ryan Succop
Don’t blame Succop. He made his FG.
Dustin Colquitt
Dustin had one bad punt but his also put 3 inside the 20 yardline. If the KC defense had been able to stop the Raiders, those kicks would have been very valuable.
Ok, those are my arrowheads. Did I miss anyone?