2014 Chiefs Edition: Shock And Awful

In the days prior to the Chiefs first preseason game head coach Andy Reid often spoke about making sure the players “finish” each play. Reid sited “not finishing plays” as being one of the negative outcomes of the playoff loss in January. Even though Reid said he was having the players actually practice finishing, they appeared to have not carried that lesson over into game action because there are countless examples in this sloppy contest of offensive linemen neglecting to sustain their blocks throughout a given play.

While the Bengals have a solid defense their front seven is nowhere near as good as the front seven this offensive line faces every day on the Chiefs practice field. This is something that must be fixed for the Chiefs to be competitive this season or we’ll see a lot more situations that demand QB Alex Smith runs for his life and Jamaal Charles has to create all on his own.

If you take away the three TDs the Chiefs scored from special teams and defense, the final score would have been 39-20 Bengals. While we can hope that the defense and special team continue to produce numbers on the scoreboard each week, it’s the offense which must perform better and it’s specifically the line that must execute.

The defense had it’s own share of shock and awful moments. Don’t be ready to lay all the blame for this poor performance on the defensive backfield either. The Bengals gained 180 rushing. 180 yards and 5.6 yards per carry. When a team is able to establish their running game with that kind of success, then throwing the ball is going to be a lot easier too. And that’s exactly what happened.

Credit Sean Smith with an INT and pic-6 but he didn’t have the greatest game aside from that moment. In other words, the breakdown in the defensive backfield wasn’t all on Ron Parker. Now, admittedly, Parker was not up to the task and will likely be demoted in favor of Smith in the coming weeks but, he was overmatched time and time again and late by a hair is always still… late.

The Chiefs tight ends this year will be all Dr. Jekyll with a bag of potions. Anthony Fasano is the all round steady TE we’d hoped he be when they brought him in a year ago. Travis Kelce should continue to wow us down the seams of the field with his speed and leaping and tumbling ability… all the way into the end zone. Demetrius Harris pulled in a bullet from Tyler Bray and gave me momentary hallucinations of a possible future QB-TE combo that can thrill.

The kickers had their up and down moments in this game too. I was at first amazed when Ryan Succop was able to boom kicks deep into the end zone on kickoffs. However, it was reported on Kansas City’s Sports talk radio that Andy Reid’s intent was for the kickers to “put the ball in play” so they could evaluate special teams players. With that in mind, Cairo Santos was the winner all the way around. The problem with regards to Ryan Succop’s kicks is that they so often veer off to one side or the other, even when they go through the goal posts. With Santos, his kicks are down the middle a high percentage of the time.

Chiefs RB Knile Davis looked shockingly good. Davis ran the ball twice averaging 14 yards per carry. Whoa, watch out Jamaal Charles.

The NFL Competition Committee looked shockingly bad by creating so many more rules that the game has become all about the referees. There were 16 flags thrown in the Chiefs-Bengals game. By comparison, the Chiefs-Saint 2013 Preseason opener had 13 flags. Not to be outdone, the Super Bowl rematch and preseason opener for the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks had 25 flags. I’ve got an idea, the NFL should rename opening day, “Flag Day.” They could do something where the US troops carry the Referees in on their shoulders.

Too much? Yea… I kinda thought so too.

Based on this preseason opener, it’s evident that the Chiefs have a lot of work to do. Then again, this is not the team that will be the team John Dorsey and Andy Reid take into the future. Peter King pointed out during his telecast interview, and I paraphrase, that “the plan” is to utilize as many of the anticipated picks in next years draft — which could be upwards of ten picks — and use these players to build the future of the organization around.

I’m guessing that a good deal of the players taken, will be offensive linemen and defensive backs.

What do you say Addict fans? Are you as thrilled by… and scared by… this team as I am?