m0ef0e
07-31-2007, 07:01 PM
I listen to ESPN radio a lot while I'm at work. I've heard several guys get on there and trash the Chiefs, giving them no chance whatsoever this year, with what I feel are severely skewed viewpoints.
This all started when I heard John Seibel on his afternoon spot, the Sports Bash, talking about how the Dolphins are going to win their division with Trent Green and how the Chiefs are stupid for releasing him.
I also heard the same garbage being spewed by Stephen A. Smith this morning coupled with comments about how no LJ and the holes in our "swiss cheese" defense spell doom for the Chiefs.
First of all, Stephen A. Smith is an NBA guy. His football analysis is uninformed and shoddy at best. To allow him to spew his ignorant opinion on the national sound waves is painful to listen to at times.
Then, not to mention Jason Whitlock's article about Priest Holmes' return. While I can't be sure of all the details and Priest's true motivation for coming back, that is one "pawn" i will always want to have on my chess board.
I want to address these comments from a football standpoint. Especially this utter trash about us being in worse shape without Trent. (I want to be clear that Trent Green had great years for us as a Chief and I personally think he is a great player and a great man.) However, Trent was no longer the right man for the job and to keep him around was only going to put more pressure on a line that needs as little of that as they can get right now. At least until they've had some time to learn the Chiefs' system and to work together as a cohesive unit.
Gannon-Bono, Huard-Green. We've all seen it before. A quarterback gets hurt. The backup wins games and puts up good numbers. The starter comes back and sucks, still gets the nod in the playoffs, and the backup doesn't even get a shot in the second half after a completely stagnant first half from the starter.
With the loss of Roaf, the protection Green needed wasn't there anymore. Now with the loss of Shields as well, the pass-protection will break down more. To have a miserably immobile pocket-passer like Green under center is suicidal for a football team with winning ambitions. The Chiefs need a younger guy with fresher legs who can scramble to buy receivers time to get open. Huard did some of that last year, won enough games to get us a playoff run, and is still having idiots like this John Seibel sling mud at him, calling him crap like "Damon Seward" on the radio.
Our line also comes into play as far as LJ, Priest, and the running game are concerned. Without the great pulling linemen we once had, the outside runs will not be open to us nearly as much. To try to cram LJ up the middle on every play is probably just going to get him hurt and net only about 2 yards every 3 and out. We will need to open up the middle of the field with play-action, screens, quick-outs, and slants. The passing game is going to need to be more prevalent in the Chiefs' offense this year than the previous few seasons. I think the running backs are going to be required to do a lot more than just run the ball well in order for the Chiefs to be successful this year. Priest and Bennet both are better at catching the ball, and picking up the blitz on pass-protection than Johnson. In my opinion, this makes them a better fit at (least on passing downs) for the Chiefs' offensive scheme this season. Assuming the coaches realize that they can't just give their starting back the ball 500 times this year.
And lastly... "SWISS CHEESE" defense!?!?!?!??
All this talk about how Trent is a better fit and these shots taken at our defense by the media makes me think these guys haven't even seen a Chiefs' game since 2003! Our defense is vastly improved from the old "Dickie V" days when we couldn't force the Colts to punt a single time in that particular playoff defeat. Swiss cheese??? The only cheesy hole I see is the 4-year information gap in Stephen A. Smith's analysis.
If these guys are going to get on the radio and talk out their asses like this, they need to at least seem like they have current information. Otherwise they will just continue to make themselves look foolish. Here are the key points I think they missed:
1. Trent Green's numbers have steadily declined over the last few seasons. Unless he found the fountain of youth in the offseason, he will continue to get older and slower. Consequently, Green's stats will continue to decline per year until he retires. Green is an extremely immobile quarterback who needs PERFECT protection -- something the Chiefs can no longer provide him with.
2. As mentioned, Holmes and Bennet are better receivers/blockers than LJ. This will help our offense to be more versatile when versitility may be the only saving grace for our offense and the offensive line.
3. The improvement of the defense. Going from ranked 32nd to 16th is a significant improvement. To not even mention this and simply compare the defense to swiss cheese is ignorant. It makes Stephen A. Smith seem uninformed or biased in his opinion/analysis. I don't know why ESPN has an NBA guy breaking down NFL teams anyway. It seems to me that Smith should be talking about the Donnagey betting scandal well before he should be giving football analysis.
:mad: :firedevil:
I didn't mean to get so long-winded with this but it was getting under my skin and I had to get it off my chest somehow. I don't blame you if you didn't read it all. Well that does it for my rant and the workday both. Time for beer!
:yahoo: :toast2:
This all started when I heard John Seibel on his afternoon spot, the Sports Bash, talking about how the Dolphins are going to win their division with Trent Green and how the Chiefs are stupid for releasing him.
I also heard the same garbage being spewed by Stephen A. Smith this morning coupled with comments about how no LJ and the holes in our "swiss cheese" defense spell doom for the Chiefs.
First of all, Stephen A. Smith is an NBA guy. His football analysis is uninformed and shoddy at best. To allow him to spew his ignorant opinion on the national sound waves is painful to listen to at times.
Then, not to mention Jason Whitlock's article about Priest Holmes' return. While I can't be sure of all the details and Priest's true motivation for coming back, that is one "pawn" i will always want to have on my chess board.
I want to address these comments from a football standpoint. Especially this utter trash about us being in worse shape without Trent. (I want to be clear that Trent Green had great years for us as a Chief and I personally think he is a great player and a great man.) However, Trent was no longer the right man for the job and to keep him around was only going to put more pressure on a line that needs as little of that as they can get right now. At least until they've had some time to learn the Chiefs' system and to work together as a cohesive unit.
Gannon-Bono, Huard-Green. We've all seen it before. A quarterback gets hurt. The backup wins games and puts up good numbers. The starter comes back and sucks, still gets the nod in the playoffs, and the backup doesn't even get a shot in the second half after a completely stagnant first half from the starter.
With the loss of Roaf, the protection Green needed wasn't there anymore. Now with the loss of Shields as well, the pass-protection will break down more. To have a miserably immobile pocket-passer like Green under center is suicidal for a football team with winning ambitions. The Chiefs need a younger guy with fresher legs who can scramble to buy receivers time to get open. Huard did some of that last year, won enough games to get us a playoff run, and is still having idiots like this John Seibel sling mud at him, calling him crap like "Damon Seward" on the radio.
Our line also comes into play as far as LJ, Priest, and the running game are concerned. Without the great pulling linemen we once had, the outside runs will not be open to us nearly as much. To try to cram LJ up the middle on every play is probably just going to get him hurt and net only about 2 yards every 3 and out. We will need to open up the middle of the field with play-action, screens, quick-outs, and slants. The passing game is going to need to be more prevalent in the Chiefs' offense this year than the previous few seasons. I think the running backs are going to be required to do a lot more than just run the ball well in order for the Chiefs to be successful this year. Priest and Bennet both are better at catching the ball, and picking up the blitz on pass-protection than Johnson. In my opinion, this makes them a better fit at (least on passing downs) for the Chiefs' offensive scheme this season. Assuming the coaches realize that they can't just give their starting back the ball 500 times this year.
And lastly... "SWISS CHEESE" defense!?!?!?!??
All this talk about how Trent is a better fit and these shots taken at our defense by the media makes me think these guys haven't even seen a Chiefs' game since 2003! Our defense is vastly improved from the old "Dickie V" days when we couldn't force the Colts to punt a single time in that particular playoff defeat. Swiss cheese??? The only cheesy hole I see is the 4-year information gap in Stephen A. Smith's analysis.
If these guys are going to get on the radio and talk out their asses like this, they need to at least seem like they have current information. Otherwise they will just continue to make themselves look foolish. Here are the key points I think they missed:
1. Trent Green's numbers have steadily declined over the last few seasons. Unless he found the fountain of youth in the offseason, he will continue to get older and slower. Consequently, Green's stats will continue to decline per year until he retires. Green is an extremely immobile quarterback who needs PERFECT protection -- something the Chiefs can no longer provide him with.
2. As mentioned, Holmes and Bennet are better receivers/blockers than LJ. This will help our offense to be more versatile when versitility may be the only saving grace for our offense and the offensive line.
3. The improvement of the defense. Going from ranked 32nd to 16th is a significant improvement. To not even mention this and simply compare the defense to swiss cheese is ignorant. It makes Stephen A. Smith seem uninformed or biased in his opinion/analysis. I don't know why ESPN has an NBA guy breaking down NFL teams anyway. It seems to me that Smith should be talking about the Donnagey betting scandal well before he should be giving football analysis.
:mad: :firedevil:
I didn't mean to get so long-winded with this but it was getting under my skin and I had to get it off my chest somehow. I don't blame you if you didn't read it all. Well that does it for my rant and the workday both. Time for beer!
:yahoo: :toast2: