State of the Franchise - Kansas City Chiefs

After witnessing the Chiefs do their best Royals impression and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory I had a few thoughts on the state of the most beloved franchise in my sports life, they are as follows:

The Positive:

-Glenn Dorsey - Dorsey played very well all game long.  It looks like he is starting to settle in to his new 3-4 DE position, he still needs a little work, needs to learn that his role in this new defense isn't always to rush the passer.  Nonetheless, he looked good, showed up in the backfield a lot, pressured the quarterback, and blocked a pass at a very crucial time in the game.

-The Defense - While it may have only been against the Raiders the defense still played very well, minus the last drive of the game.  They held the Raiders and their rushing attack to only 177 total yards.  Not to mention they made Jamarcus Russell look he was playing the whole game in epileptic shock as he had no accuracy whatsoever.  This prompted my dad to lean over to me during the game and say "Raiders fans are saying 'if only he could pass.'"  I can only imagine how happy Raiders are knowing they spent the first pick of the draft on him in 2007 passing over players like Calvin Johnson, Adrian Peterson, and Joe Thomas.  Yes, I am sure they are much better off spending that pick and that kind of money on someone who can't even do what they are paid to do.  This is the same as drafting a pitcher who can throw 100 mph just cause he can, even though nobody knows where its going.  It doesn't make sense...look at the monkey, Raiders fans....look at the monkey....

-Bobby Wade - The Chiefs just signed Wade this week and he came in and was able to learn the playbook, get the start, and make a positive impact on the game.  He had 6 catches for 72 yards and appeared to be the target Cassel was most comfortable with.  Hopefully he can continue this all season and take some pressure off of Dwayne Bowe.

-Dwayne Bowe's Touchdown Catch - With 2:38 seconds left to go in the game Matt Cassel made his finest pass so far as a Chief, floating a ball 29 yards downfield right in to the bread basket of a diving Dwayne Bowe to score the games first touchdown and give the Chiefs the lead with precious little time remaining.  This showed Cassel has the ability to drive the team down the field when it matters as well as the ability to be accurate with the long ball.  This also shows D-Bowe flashing more of that ability to make some big time plays.

-The Rushing game - While again, I know, it was only the Raiders, the Chiefs still rushed for 173 yards. No single running back was particularly impressive and the running game was a little inconsistent but there were holes opened up and Larry Johnson showed some flashes of getting back to his 2005-2006 days.

-The Secondary - Brandon Flowers returned to the lineup and made some plays.  The secondary constantly had Russel second guessing himself and making some bad throws.  Maurice Leggit also made up for shoddy play last week by coming up with some big plays in the game.  There were some lapses, but this unit will be good for years to come.

-Matt Cassel's Swagger - Is it just me or does Matt Cassel look like he doesn't belong on this team and he knows it?  And I mean that in a good way.  He has the swagger of a winner and the competitive fire of an individual who has the ability to will his team to win.  With a few more games under his belt this team will rally around him and things could start to change for the better.

The Negative:

-Penalties - The most glaring negative from this game was the penalties.  9 penalties for 70 yards does not get it done in the NFL and is unacceptable.  The Chiefs had penalties that killed their own drives and extended the Raiders'.  There is nothing else to say on this topic.

-Late game collapse - Part of the M-O for the team last year was late game collapses.  Convinced this was due to fatigue Coach Todd Haley came in and focused on conditioning to try to make sure those late game collapses didn't happen again.  Apparently it is still a work in progress as the defense looked tired on the last drive by the Raiders and gave up the touchdown to lose the game.

-Playcalling - I was particularly unimpressed with the playcalling.  Seeing this game made me wonder how much of the Cardinals prolific offense was Haley and not head coach Ken Wisenhunt.  It was as if Todd Haley was trying to remind the KC fans of how bad Herm Edwards playcalling was, there were 5 yard screen passes on 3rd and long, there was only one pass over 15 yards (albeit for a touchdown), and in general there was nothing really that seemed to have much originality.  Haley is supposed to be an offensive wizard, I am yet to see it.  Perhaps he is hamstrung by the talent, or lack thereof, on this team, I don't know, but the playcalling needs work...fact.

-Losing Culture Continues - The main reason for optimism this season was the houscleaning that took place in the offseason.  New GM, new coach, new philosophy, this was all supposed to come and create a new culture.  One Arrowhead Drive has been stinking like Lindsay Lohan's underwear the past couple of years with all the losing the franchise has been doing.  One of the trademarks of the team the last two years has been the ability to lose games that looked like surefire victories with just minutes to play.  Last year, the Tampa Bay game, both Chargers' games, and the Jets game among others all were winnable and the Chiefs couldn't get it done.  That is what this game was, the Chiefs just not getting it done.  New GM Scot Pioli and Coach Haley both promised to change this culture and return the franchise to glory.  I have no doubt this will occur but there is a lot, lot of work ahead of these two.

The I Don't Know If This is Good or Bad:


-Matt Cassel's Holding on to the Ball - This is something we knew we were getting ourselves into with Cassel.  He was just about sacked more than any other quarterback in the league last year and it had to do with his affinity for holding on to the ball.  The reason I am unsure about this is because I don't know if Cassel holds on to the ball because he can't make decisions, or because our receivers are just that bad and cannot get open.  I suppose only time will on that one but hopefully he doesn't get himself hurt by holding on to the ball like this.

-Todd Haley's demeanor after the game - Listening to the press conference after the game it was somewhat refreshing to hear Coach Haley take full responsibility for the clock mismanagement at the end of the first half.  He basically took full responsibility for the loss.  This is refreshing after three years of the Herm Edwards regime in which Edwards never took responsibility and there was always somebody else to blame for what went wrong during the game.  Herm deflected blame like a child trying blame a broken window on the baseball instead of the person throwing it.

Now, while it was refreshing for Haley to take the blame, it was also somewhat disconcerting to hear what he said.  He took responsibility for the bad decisions he made, but is this something that he will correct or a harbinger of things to come?  Haley has been known for his intensity, does he let his emotions cloud his ability to manage a game and possibly affect how he calls plays on offense?  Is his intensity/yelling at players going to mean he will eventually lose this team if they do not start winning?  Again, only time will tell but hopefully Haley is able to learn from these experiences and improve over the season.  After all, it is only his second season and he reminds me of a mini Bill Parcells on the sideline, and I will take a Haley/Mini-Parcells over Herm any day of the week (and twice on Sunday).

-Dwayne Bowe's Mentality - Hearing Dwayne Bowe get interviewed after this loss made me a bit worried.  Talking about the touchdown catch he made he said "I seen the ball in the air and I thought to myself I have to catch this, big time players make big time plays in big time games and I need to catch this ball so I dove and caught it.  When I got up I said thank God I needed to make this play."  This did not feel quite like he was saying he needed to make this play because the team needed it, more like he needed it. It is no secret Haley was not pleased with Bowe through most of the offseason and this quote made me realize this is in his head.  Is it a good thing that Bowe has these thoughts in his head or does it mean it will affect his play?  Only time will tell but I think it could affect his play, hopefully his performance today will get those thoughts out of his head and he will perform better the rest of the season.

Final Thoughts:

The Chiefs are my most beloved sports franchise in all of sports.  That is fact.  However, my fandom has been gut-wrenchingly difficult these past two years.  Seeing the franchise I have so much pride in win 6 of the last 34 games has been extremely difficult.  However, there are many reasons for optimism in Kansas City right now.  There is a decent amount of young talent on this team and I do believe Pioli and Haley together will turn this team into a winner.  When that happens I do not know and the waiting has been painful.  Seeing them lose to the Raiders in the last minute was a soul crushing defeat that left me feeling angry, bewildered, and somewhat hopeless.  When I got into the car after the game "Pary in the USA" by Miley Cyrus was on, even that coulnd't cheer me up.  If the Chiefs can play this well and still lose, what else can be done?  I wanna cry...