slc chief
11-24-2008, 11:00 PM
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COMMENTARY
Blame Moe, Larry and Curly for this Chiefs mess
By JASON WHITLOCK
The Kansas City Star
There’s no mystery here. Teams lacking an adequate amount of talent eventually collapse under the weight of trying to play perfectly.
Four days before Thanksgiving, inside two-thirds-full Arrowhead Stadium, the Buffalo Bills snapped the back of the Chiefs, thrashing and humiliating the home team 54-31.
There’s no reason to blame Tyler Thigpen, Glenn Dorsey, Tamba Hali or any of the nameless, faceless jerseys masquerading as starting NFL linebackers. It’s not their fault. They didn’t assemble this team.
Carl “Moe” Peterson, Herm “Larry” Edwards and Bill “Curly” Kuharich put together the worst team in Chiefs history, a squad with a two-year, 19-of-20 losing stretch.
For a solid month, the Chiefs feigned competitiveness by avoiding turnovers and penalties. Error-free football allowed the Chiefs to keep games close and fool some of us into believing they were making real progress.
Sunday, against a Buffalo team that had lost four straight, the disgusting truth reared its head like Putin staring down Sarah Palin’s lake house. The Chiefs jumped offside, picked up a personal foul, turned the ball over five times and played like the inexperienced, talent-deficient team they truly are.
The result was a franchise-record, 54-point meltdown that all but ensured Arrowhead will be less than half filled when the Dolphins and Chargers visit later this season.
It also ends the debate about whether the Chiefs are on the right path being blazed by Moe, Larry and Curly.
No way.
You could see in July that they had constructed a roster more capable of finishing 1-15 than 8-8. In fact, when I arrived at training camp, a Chiefs official told me that Herm should be praised if he took this team to a .500 finish.
I laughed out loud and said, “Herm should be coach of the year if this team wins four.”
I’m sure the Chiefs employee thought I was being flip. Allegedly, I’m prone toward bluster. I was dead serious. Without Jared Allen, the defense didn’t have a proven playmaker. On offense, I had no faith in Brodie Croyle, thought the QB depth chart was midmajor, assumed Larry Johnson wouldn’t handle the adversity and figured the offensive line would get exploited.
We have no reason to be surprised. The lone surprise of the season was Kansas City’s 33-19 trouncing of the Denver Broncos. Twenty years from now, football historians will still be trying to determine how these Chiefs won that game convincingly.
This team just isn’t built to win football games. It’s built to be $32 million under the salary cap while Arrowhead Stadium undergoes renovation. The season is a success. We’re getting exactly what Clark Hunt was willing to pay for and what Moe, Larry and Curly could conceive given their operating budget.
That in no way excuses Moe, Larry and Curly. They drafted Glenn Dorsey with the sixth overall pick. He has been completely ineffective. His rookie season has been far worse than Ryan Sims’ rookie season.
We knew the loss of Allen would destroy the Chiefs’ outside pass rush. The theory behind drafting Dorsey was that he would give Kansas City an inside push. He is supposed to disrupt the pocket from the inside. It just hasn’t happened.
Opposing quarterbacks don’t even need to wear a helmet and shoulder pads when playing the Chiefs. Bills coach Dick Jauron so enjoyed playing against KC’s front four that he left his struggling QB, Trent Edwards, in the game well into the fourth quarter just so Edwards could pad his passing stats.
“They kept throwing the football because they wanted to get their quarterback going,” Edwards acknowledged.
Kansas City’s defense is a confidence-builder for opposing quarterbacks. Runners, too. The Bills ran for 171 yards and averaged 4.5 yards per carry.
Dorsey hasn’t helped Kansas City’s run or pass defense.
This is a horrendously bad football team. Lucky for the Chiefs, they play in the equally horrendous AFC West. It’s going to be tough for the Chiefs to win just one more game this season. They get to play the Raiders, Broncos and Chargers again. The Chiefs also have a season-ending date with the Cincinnati Bengals. And the Dolphins are beatable.
Kansas City will win — in my estimation — two games down the stretch. But the inevitable victories will not excuse the game plan that put this roster together.
COMMENTARY
Blame Moe, Larry and Curly for this Chiefs mess
By JASON WHITLOCK
The Kansas City Star
There’s no mystery here. Teams lacking an adequate amount of talent eventually collapse under the weight of trying to play perfectly.
Four days before Thanksgiving, inside two-thirds-full Arrowhead Stadium, the Buffalo Bills snapped the back of the Chiefs, thrashing and humiliating the home team 54-31.
There’s no reason to blame Tyler Thigpen, Glenn Dorsey, Tamba Hali or any of the nameless, faceless jerseys masquerading as starting NFL linebackers. It’s not their fault. They didn’t assemble this team.
Carl “Moe” Peterson, Herm “Larry” Edwards and Bill “Curly” Kuharich put together the worst team in Chiefs history, a squad with a two-year, 19-of-20 losing stretch.
For a solid month, the Chiefs feigned competitiveness by avoiding turnovers and penalties. Error-free football allowed the Chiefs to keep games close and fool some of us into believing they were making real progress.
Sunday, against a Buffalo team that had lost four straight, the disgusting truth reared its head like Putin staring down Sarah Palin’s lake house. The Chiefs jumped offside, picked up a personal foul, turned the ball over five times and played like the inexperienced, talent-deficient team they truly are.
The result was a franchise-record, 54-point meltdown that all but ensured Arrowhead will be less than half filled when the Dolphins and Chargers visit later this season.
It also ends the debate about whether the Chiefs are on the right path being blazed by Moe, Larry and Curly.
No way.
You could see in July that they had constructed a roster more capable of finishing 1-15 than 8-8. In fact, when I arrived at training camp, a Chiefs official told me that Herm should be praised if he took this team to a .500 finish.
I laughed out loud and said, “Herm should be coach of the year if this team wins four.”
I’m sure the Chiefs employee thought I was being flip. Allegedly, I’m prone toward bluster. I was dead serious. Without Jared Allen, the defense didn’t have a proven playmaker. On offense, I had no faith in Brodie Croyle, thought the QB depth chart was midmajor, assumed Larry Johnson wouldn’t handle the adversity and figured the offensive line would get exploited.
We have no reason to be surprised. The lone surprise of the season was Kansas City’s 33-19 trouncing of the Denver Broncos. Twenty years from now, football historians will still be trying to determine how these Chiefs won that game convincingly.
This team just isn’t built to win football games. It’s built to be $32 million under the salary cap while Arrowhead Stadium undergoes renovation. The season is a success. We’re getting exactly what Clark Hunt was willing to pay for and what Moe, Larry and Curly could conceive given their operating budget.
That in no way excuses Moe, Larry and Curly. They drafted Glenn Dorsey with the sixth overall pick. He has been completely ineffective. His rookie season has been far worse than Ryan Sims’ rookie season.
We knew the loss of Allen would destroy the Chiefs’ outside pass rush. The theory behind drafting Dorsey was that he would give Kansas City an inside push. He is supposed to disrupt the pocket from the inside. It just hasn’t happened.
Opposing quarterbacks don’t even need to wear a helmet and shoulder pads when playing the Chiefs. Bills coach Dick Jauron so enjoyed playing against KC’s front four that he left his struggling QB, Trent Edwards, in the game well into the fourth quarter just so Edwards could pad his passing stats.
“They kept throwing the football because they wanted to get their quarterback going,” Edwards acknowledged.
Kansas City’s defense is a confidence-builder for opposing quarterbacks. Runners, too. The Bills ran for 171 yards and averaged 4.5 yards per carry.
Dorsey hasn’t helped Kansas City’s run or pass defense.
This is a horrendously bad football team. Lucky for the Chiefs, they play in the equally horrendous AFC West. It’s going to be tough for the Chiefs to win just one more game this season. They get to play the Raiders, Broncos and Chargers again. The Chiefs also have a season-ending date with the Cincinnati Bengals. And the Dolphins are beatable.
Kansas City will win — in my estimation — two games down the stretch. But the inevitable victories will not excuse the game plan that put this roster together.