My evaluation of the Chiefs-49ers game

I was lucky enough to get to watch the Chiefs play today. Here are my thoughts after the first half.

Offense
Pros:
-Smith looks accurate on the medium and short passes. He only threw 2 deep balls, but they were both overthrown.
-Honestly didn't see too many other positives to be honest.
Cons:
-Interior OL seems to be having problems in both the run and pass game against the 49ers.
-Baldwin looked horrible. He only got open once and completed dropped a perfectly thrown pass.
-Too many dropped passes.
-No big holes were made by the OL, but with JC at 100%,he doesn't need a big hole.

Defense
Pros:
- Aggressive in the front 7
-Decent coverage in the secondary, I only saw one guy get open deep.
-Good pressure on the outside.
-OLBs are doing a good job of standing up the OL and keeping the RB from getting the edge. I saw Houston stand up a OT and a TE when all of the starters were still in.

Cons:
-not enough of a push in the middle in the run or pass game
-too many times the QB was able to leak out and run with plenty of room this may be a play calling issue of not wanting to give away real defensive looks in preseason. If Kaepernick was in in those plays, they would have been huge plays.
-OLBs aren't sealing off the cutback (Hali I think was responsible for the first big run).
-I'm not impressed with Knile Davis as our short yardage back.

Special Teams:
Pros:
-Great kick return game. Blockers were making huge holes and both Demps and Wylie have the speed and vision to break it any game.
-good punt coverage as always
-good kick coverage teams too.
-Mccluster's quickness in PR reminds me of Dante Hall.
-Mccluster's, Wylie and Demps are awesome.

Cons:
-The blocked punt has me concerned. Not sure if there were starters or scrubs in on that play, so I don't know what to think of it.
-We almost have too many return men. Honestly, our ST are wayyyy better than last year. Im glad we got Toub. We are going to be dangerous in ST.

Overall, I was not impressed with the offense, except for Smith making good decisions. I was disappointed with the OL, but I am hoping that they have a limited offense right now and as such are not audiblizing the blitz and making adjustments. I hope that's the case.

On defense our blitzes were all or nothing. I like blitzing, but you cannot let the QB get out of the pocket when everyone is in man coverage. I hope to see better coverage schemes, and the guys blitzing getting to the ball faster.

This evaluation is just on the first half. I'll update with my 2nd half eval.

I 109% agree

Pros- no turnovers

cons- 5 yard passes

I just wrote Alex Smith doesn't have a pass over 8 yards, he actually does. He has 1 pass over 10 yards for the entire preseason

Great analysis Jap1. Pretty much hit the nail on the head. OL struggled for sure. For Smith I give him a pass on this one, First time to suit up in Arrowhead and against his old team. Its no excuse but emotions were surely running high. It is hard to judge this one for me overall. SF is arguably the best team in the NFL and I am convinced some of their 2nd stringers are full on starters on less fortunate squads.

WR continues to be my biggest concern. Besides Bowe and McCluster its very underwhelming. Baldwin has simply done nothing to quell his critics. If you can't get off the line, can't break in and out of your routes quickly, you best be able to catch the ball. In camp Reid called him out for walking to the sideline. And for me that says it all. I just don't think this guy is up for the challenge.

I think this game showed how weak we are at wide receiver. I cant fault smith if he has no one to throw tk besides te snd rb. We need to have a 2nd wr who wilk prevent d from rolling everything towards bowe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jason1981

I think this game showed how weak we are at wide receiver. I cant fault smith if he has no one to throw tk besides te snd rb. We need to have a 2nd wr who wilk prevent d from rolling everything towards bowe.

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That was one of the biggest problems that I saw --- receivers not getting open, for the most part. And then when Baldwin does get the ball thrown to him in an open area, he looks like he blatantly alligator arms it and drops it and two other players dropped passes that should have been caught & this was in the time span of barely over one quarter and that's way too many.

Baldwin has been a major disappointment, to me and if he doesn't get it turned around soon, then he won't be wearing a Chiefs uniform in 2014.

Dropped passes what cost us this game. Alot of the drops were 3rd downs that would have been good for 1st down hsd they caught the ball. And unlike last year where cassel sucked at placing the balls smith out the ball right kn them. Sk they have no excuse this year to be dropping perfectly thrown balls.