Against my better judgment I watched the Favre-a-geddon last night as the Minnesota Vikings (led by former Chief DE Jared Allen) defeated the Green Bay Packers (led by former Favre understudy Aaron Rodgers).
I will say, it was quite fun to watch two very talented, well coached football teams play a very good game. In the end, the Vikings won because they just had a better team, something the Chiefs are familiar with. However, what caught my attention about the game was how well Green Bay was able to play with a suspect offensive line against one of the best defenses, and probably the best D-line, in the game.
Aaron Rodgers was able to pass for 384 yds and 2 touchdowns despite a myriad of pressure from the Vikes and succumbing to 8 sacks. That makes 20 sacks the Packers have given up in only four games this season. The Chiefs and our tepid offensive line have "only" given up 13 sacks on the year so far, and that is with a QB who has receivers that can't get open and holds on to the ball too long.
Why is this relevant? Well this would lead one to believe that the Packers have an offensive line as futile as the Chiefs and they are still able to remain competetive and put up some relevant offensive numbers. What is the difference between the Chiefs and Packers then? Well, after watching the game last night I realized Matt Cassel will defintely never be Aaron Rodgers. Call me crazy, but besides Peyton Manning I don't know if there is any other quarterback I would rather have in the league right now than Aaron Rodgers. He is young, calm, cool, collected, and has a swagger and confidence the likes of Joe Montana. He is just scary, looking at him makes me think he is gonna rip the defense apart and there is absolutely nothing anybody can do about it.
But I digress, even if Cassel is not Rodgers, he is an extremely capable quarterback with the arm strength and accuracy to put up some good numbers, even if they are not Rodgers like. So where does the problem lie with the Chiefs? From my estimation it lies in coaching, and for that matter, that goes with every faze of the game, not just the O-line.
Watching both the Packers and the Vikings last night made me realize they are light years ahead of the Chiefs, not so much in talent as they are with coaching. It seems as though Haley is still trying to find his voice in coaching, but in the meantime he is trying to emulate all the people he respects that have played a part in where he is today (Parcells, Belicheck, et al).
Now, I do not attend practice and do not purport to be able to tell what goes on there, however, looking at our team and seeing how other good, well coached teams play I have a few observations and a few suppositions about how practices at ourganization work. I would imagine that with a well coached team this is how a scenario would go. Player X commits egregious error by (jumping off sides, throwing interception, fumbling, etc.) in practice catching the coaches ire. The coach walks over and asks Player X what he did, chastises him for making said mistake THEN goes on to tell him what he should do next time and MAKES SURE he understands so he can replicate this correct action next time and in the game when it matters.
For teams that are not well coached, this process ends with the player being chastised, and usually punished. This puts the team in a state of fear and nervousness. Instead of concentrating on what is right and doing that, the player reverts to the fear stage of development and tries to just not do what is wrong, invariably leading to another mistake or just repeating the very one they are trying not to do. I alluded to this in my earlier post, you have to TEACH as a coach, not just PREACH. In my completely un-expert estimation that is the problem with the Chiefs.
Haley is so intent on creating this "disciplined" team he talks about it more than he coaches it. Part of it, I imagine, is him having too much on his plate as HC, OC and QB coach. However, this is where delegation should take place, and there should be an emphasis on teaching technique and proper football IQ rather than just telling a player they screwed up. Do you think Bill Belicheck goes over to Tom Brady after an interception and says "don't give away my football" and then walks away? He probably says that, but then tells him what to do next time or what to look for. If he doesn't he at least makes sure his OC does it.
So why do I think this is how the Chiefs operate? It becomes evident when the same players make the same mistakes over and over again. That is a sign of fear, moreso than less talent. How many false start or holding penalties has Branden Albert had this year? Albert is a very talented invidual and should not be making this many mistakes in his second year in the league. This shows the player is not being well coached and does not feel comfortable in this scheme.
Final Thoughts:
The offense is in disarray and this falls squarely on the shoulders of Haley. He needs to make sure he has a solid direction the team is headed in and that he coaches his players to get there. I think the Chiefs are mostly devoid of talent to the point where they are usually overmatched, but that does mean they are inept. The Chiefs should be capable of performing at a higher level than they are at the moment and Haley will have to bring them there.
Is it possible to get to respectibility on offense? Absolutely. Miami did it last year with less talent, Detroit is doing it this year with less talent, it will take an inventive coach (which Haley was supposed to be) with a good scheme to get them to operate at an NFL level.
Some would define insanity as trying the same thing over and over again expecting different results, now, I am not saying Haley is anywhere close to being insane, but that is what our offense feels like. The playcalling is similar to last year. No ingnuity, predictive, repetitive, unproductive play calling that doesn't seem to make sense, especially when our team has nothing to lose. I feel as though Haley is losing himself too much in the details and needs to step back and realize what he needs to be as a coach and start to develop his own style. As a wise drunk Chiefs fan once said "the fish stinks from the head down" so this team needs to develop an identity and it will start with Haley developing one for himself as a head coach.
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