Chiefs Vs. Rams: The Complete Breakdown

 

 

I think QB Matt Cassel played about as well as you can expect him to, considering his limitations.

 

Tipped passes are always going to happen with him, especially when he eyeballs 5’7″ WR Dexter McCluster as often as he does. Criticizing him for that at this point is like criticizing a tree for being too slow.The first turnover (an accurate to slant to WR Jonathan Baldwin which was fumbled) was obviously not his fault, that’s on Baldwin.But Cassel put together three quality drives, out of four attempts (one was disrupted by penalties), after the Baldwin fumble. The first drive started inside his own twenty yard line, and it stalled at midfield after C Rodney Hudson couldn’t get to the 2nd level to block the guy who got to RB Shaun Draughn behind the line of scrimmage.The second drive was the quality, ball-control, smart passing, strong running offense this team will exemplify this year. It ended, perfectly, in a touchdown. The third drive was the one-minute-drill. Cassel drove the team down the field, and gave the team the best endzone chance it had — Baldwin to the post against a single corner. When that didn’t work out, field goal.

The running backs were all solid, although I think Draughn is a bit overrated. But it is so great to see All Pro RB Jamaal Charles back at it again — such a slippery guy. He juked Rams LB James Laurinitis out of his pants at one point, and Laurinitis is a very mobile linebacker.

We tried out Shane Bannon at starting FB this week, and it was a disaster. Not only can he not block, but he can’t block. There’s no blocking in his blocks, and his blocks don’t look like blocks. HE CAN’T BLOCK. Add to the fact that he’s slow and has no use in the passing game, and you might as well trot FB/RB Nate Eachus back in there like they did in the Arizona Cardinals opener. At least Eachus can block. I wanted Bannon to succeed, but it was clear last year that he sucked, and this year it’s even more clear.

Baldwin does not look like a feature receiver just yet. He’s definitely got the tools, but we need to gradually work him in as a component at this point. The slant pass to open the game was a good start, maybe get him on a few dragging routes across the middle. Get him moving somewhere before you make him work the outside. Get his confidence way up.

McCluster played solid for a second straight week. I thought he made a really impressive catch from a rolling Cassel with a defender draped all over him. Contrary to popular opinion, I actually think McCluster is underrated. He runs sharp routes, and has underrated hands. He really is our version of Rams WR Danny Amendola, the only difference is the canyon-wide gap in QB quality, and the Rams actually let Amendola run a variety of routes, rather than just the lowest branches of the route tree like we’ve asked McCluster to run.

The long lost TE Tony Moeaki brought in a couple passes today, good for him. We were clearly forcing the ball to him on the first play of the game (a 0.5 yard out route) and his other catch was called back for holding. But I liked hearing his name again, his hands are as good as ever. And he’s blocking well again. I think he was open a few more times when Cassel settled for one of his eight million checkdowns, too. Cassel is getting used to him, still. It’s easy to forget Mo didn’t actually see the field with Cassel until two weeks ago.

TE Kevin Boss, however, looks like he has better chemistry with Cassel. Probably because Mo has slowly been recovering all offseason. But Cassel looks for Boss in ways that were pretty similar to how he looked for Mo in 2010. He saw him down the seam, he saw him across the middle. Also the coaches trust Boss a lot more as well. He blocked pretty well all game, but they asked him to take on passrushing linebackers (like the gigantic, 273-pound LB Mario Haggin) all game by himself, most of the time winning. But he did lose a couple times. The coaches clearly love him.

The offensive line was pretty good. LT Branden Albert had a couple penalties, but one of them was a phantom call. Otherwise, he continued last week’s domination. Although there was one play we asked Shane Bannon, not our franchise LT, to block the Rams best passrusher. That had to be play design, rather than Albert taking a dump on his responsibility. Right? Because Rams DE Robert Quinn beat Bannon like a red-headed stepchild and Cassel was as good as sacked.

LG Ryan Lilja got overpowered a couple times, as is his MO, but always in the up-the-gut RB Peyton Hillis run plays. Clearly backup OG Jeff Allen has a lot more power to him than Lilja does, so we won’t have to tolerate this problem long. RG Jon Asamoah and RT Eric Winston are money on the right side. Add Boss in there, as the Chiefs often did, and you get a guaranteed three yards of push every play up that right side.

C Rodney Hudson continues to concern me. He did better this week, because he was only wrestling a 2-technique defensive tackle in the 4-3 defense instead of a massive nose tackle from a 3-4 like he did against the Cardinals. But there were at least a couple of plays where Hudson failed to pull effectively and get out in space. The first was the play we all remember, Charles running into WR Steve Breaston’s back and going down. That play was created by Laurinitis, who charged past Albert unmolested to pressure Charles, who promptly juked his jock off. The problem? It took Charles so much to get around him that he charged into Breaston. Hudston was pulling that play, and Laurinitis was his man, whom he was never close enough to even reach (although, once realizing he missed him, he kept going downfield to block another guy — the right thing to do).

The other play was Cassel’s stalled drive at midfield. Draughn was supposed to run the ball behind Albert, who had his guy dominated. The problem was that Hudson was supposed to free himself and get to the second level and take out the first guy darting to Albert’s far side. Hudson was about 20 minutes too late, and the guy takes out Draughn in the backfield. Chiefs punt.

Defense

 

I thought the first string defensive line is getting unfairly rapped from the Chiefs blogosphere over the Rams game. The defensive line’s job in Crennel’s defense is to stuff the other team’s offensive line and to create for the linebackers. Most of the first half, they were doing just that. The problem is that the ‘backers were either too far out of position (more of a problem with Derrick Johnson/Jovan Belcher), or they simply didn’t do their job of plugging the holes (more of a problem with Brandon Siler/Corey Greenwood). There were only one or two plays where DE Tyson Jackson, NT Anthony Toribio, and/or DE Glenn Dorsey were legitimately washed out of the play.Take, for instance, Rams all world RB Steven Jackson’s first nine-yard run up the gut. Toribio had his men (multiple) occupied. Jackson, however, fell down. He had his guy handled but lost his footing, otherwise he’d be there to plug the gap. This stuff happens. What shouldn’t happen is that the ’backer behind him, which I believe was ILB Jovan Belcher in this case, ends up getting stuck behind Dorsey, which is on the complete opposite side of the defensive line. Jackson doesn’t get touched until SS Eric Berry or FS Kendrick Lewis save the day shy of the first down marker.DEs Ropati Pitoitua and Dontari Poe, when they came in, suffered the same fate. More often than not, they held their ground in the first half, Pitoitua in particular (what a bargain this guy was). Jackson’s 13- or 14-yard run off the right tackle came from OLB Justin Houston not manning his responsibility very well, and also Rams RT Barry Richardson getting away with holding him.I like ILB Derrick Johnson and Belcher a lot, and I know a blown responsibility with them is rare. But still, let’s call a spade a spade: Rams running backs went down the teeth of the defense at least twice in the first half because the ‘backers were not doing their jobs.

I think Houston and OLB Tamba Hali played decently well. Rams QB Sam Bradford reminds me a lot of Chargers QB Philip Rivers, in that he’s very rhythm-based and gets the ball out quickly. The most you can hope for is consistent pressure on him. We lacked that in the first drive but ended up getting more as the first half went on. Poe put him on his ass. Hali put him on his ass. When Rams backup QB Kellen Clemens finished the half out, Poe knocked a ball down. Hali got to him as well.

But the Rams gameplanned pretty well for us, and punked our back seven more than a few times. The two biggest punkers were TE Lance Kendricks and Amendola.

Kendricks is a talented tight end, but the Rams consistently attempted to disguise him as a blocker only to release him downfield. This worked once when he lined up inline and Belcher was responsible for him. Belcher eyed him pre-snap, and then nched away from him to the line of scrimmage, suggesting Belcher was sold on Kendricks as a blocker. Kendricks then releases from the line, sprints downfield, and Belcher is a mile behind him the entire play. Later in the half, Berry was following Kendricks’ every pre-snap movement, and Kendricks ends up right next to Bradford in the shotgun. At this point Berry inches up to the A-gap and starts to hit the line of scrimmage when the ball is snapped. Kendricks is released to the flat, and Berry is a mile behind him by the time he figures it out. Berry’s fast enough, just barely, to prevent the first down. But not by much.

Amendola, I think, is just a case of the wrong guy covering him more often than not. We will see a handful of Amendolas throughout the regular season. Fast, squiggly little guys like McCluster and WR Devon Wylie. The idea is to put the right corner on him, not to just assume any secondary player will do. These guys survive in the NFL because they punish folks who can’t cover them properly.

You put CB Brandon Flowers on him. You put CB Javier Arenas on him. Maybe later when he gets on the field, you put CB/S DaQuan Menzie on him. You don’t put CB Jalil Brown on him, who is made to cover lankier possession receivers (and did a decent job of it when put on such a receiver). You don’t put CB Stanford Routt on him, who’s made to cover more physical receivers. And you don’t put any safety not named Eric Berry on him. Kendrick Lewis simply doesn’t have the quickness or straight-line speed to keep up with him.

The one target Amendola received while Arenas was on him was the touchdown pass. Arenas had him blanketed, and Amendola had to make a fantastic catch to reel it in. That’s what you do to neutralize him. I’m willing to bet Amendola can’t make amazing catches all the time. Clamping him down with Arenas would do the trick.

All told, the Rams got up on us early, but in the 2nd quarter it was clear we were the better team. If we continue to come out in the 2nd half of a theoretical regular season game against the Rams with the right assignments with our secondary players, ‘backers in position, and Rodney Hudson blocking a little better, this game is a Chiefs victory.

THE SECOND STRING