Kansas City Chiefs vs Carolina Panthers: Game Notes

Aug 17, 2014; Charlotte, NC, USA; Kansas City Chiefs tightened Travis Kelce (87) runs the ball as he is pursued by Carolina Panthers safety Robert Lester (38) and linebacker Jason Williams (54) during the second half of the game at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports

The Kansas City Chiefs fell to the Carolina Panthers Sunday night by a final score of 28-16. It was an interesting game with both some positives and negatives to take note of. As with any preseason NFL game, everything should always be prefaced with “this is just the preseason”. Every season there are teams that look good in preseason that struggle when the games count and teams that struggle in the preseason that go on to make the playoffs. So the end team results are probably less important than how individual players performed.

With a Sunday evening game and a Monday morning post time, I’m not going to do anything too flashy here. I’ve got some game notes that I took down during the game that I’ll share. I’ve got them organized by quarter. I usually find more when I go back and take a second look, so keep in mind these were my initial observations. Before I get to the specifics, here’s the overall game in a nutshell….

The Chiefs out gained the Panthers 330 yards to 279 yards but Carolina punched four of their drives in for TDs while KC had to settle for three field goals. The other major story was the penalties. Kansas City was flagged 13 times for 131 yards while Carolina was flagged just four times for 32 yards. Some of the penalties were valid calls as KC offensive linemen and defensive backs committed penalties after they were clearly beaten by their opponent. However, there were also a number of questionable calls as the NFL continues its penalty-fest of a preseason. In the end, the redzone efficiency and penalties were the difference in this game.

Oh, and there’s also the fact that arguably their two best players (Jamaal Charles and Eric Berry) didn’t play.

Now onto the specific game notes……