Ending my Silence, End of Season Thoughts

[jap1]

Hey guys. Long time no post. I have resisted posting all season, not because I dont love you guys, but because of superstition. I missed the first couple of weeks because I was living in a tent in the middle of the desert ... and we were 3-0. I continued my forum silence hoping it was helping the Chiefs win.

I have been following the Crowd all season, though. But now it is time for me to give my 2 cents.

So here are some of my thoughts.

1. We need a true FS. Almost everytime Todd Heap caught the ball it was because McGraw was beaten. He also blew some zone coverages. Everytime Berry was playing up on Todd Heap, he either broke up the play or Heap made a great catch. We need another starting quality FS (either draft or a veteran) to play across Berry. This is by far our weakest link in the secondary, and on the defense as a whole.

2. Our defensive front 7 is surprisingly great this year. Our only need is to bring in some youth and or size at NT.

3. Our OL is old, and has a tendency to get beat. We better start/continue to draft some more youth.

4. We need to give Cassel another target other than Bowe and Moeaki. We have had what, something like 5 different people starting across from Bowe? We need some consistency at the other WR spot. It will pull the double teams off Bowe, leaving him, Moeaki open more often, and also keeping the defense off the run game and Jamaal Charles.

5. The OC situation. I think Weis put in a great system and has a great playbook, and he has done a great job with Cassel's improvement, but I didnt like his playcalling for much of the season. Especially the last two games. I think he has completely checked out mentally. I dont like McDaniels as a person. I also think he had no discipline in Denver. They had a ton of off the field problems. However, I dont know who would be a better option.

6. Overall, this was a great season. I am worried that we only beat one or two teams that were better than .500, but we are still early in the rebuilding process. We saw some real development in our LBs (thank you Romeo!), DL (thank you again Romeo!), and OL. I really look forward to this offseason.

7. Most importantly, I won a new jersey off what was initially a drunken bet http://www.chiefscrowd.com/forums/im...khillbilly.gif with my SD Chargers friend. Whoever finished higher in the division gets a jersey from the winner. Now I have to decide whose jersey I want?!?!?!?!

[chief31]

@Three7s
Actually, it's right on. The previous poster, 4everchiefsfan25 (see above), further explains my point. The safeties were out of position from the beginning, which falls on the D Coordinator, not on one single player...i.e. Free Safety.

I know exactly what a Free Safety does, I've coached and played football. I mentioned McGraw because a previous poster used that player as an example.

Ultimately, Crennel didn't make the necessary adjustments. Nice try, though.

Well, That defense really did it's job, on the day.

By the time The Ravens were running clock, our defense had been playing far too long, and had been put in horrible situations.

Heap only had three catches in the second half. One of which was short, and brought up a fourth down.

Heap's effort would have been nothing, had the offense simply held onto the ball, and gotten a few first downs, and put some points up.

[Hayvern]

Quote = "Wrong completely. You obviously don't know what the job of the FS is. They keep an eye on the whole field and provide help in certain coverage packages. Not to mention, McGraw hardly even plays FS anymore, that's Kendrick Lewis' job and he's pretty good at it." --- by Three7s

@Three7s
Actually, it's right on. The previous poster, 4everchiefsfan25 (see above), further explains my point. The safeties were out of position from the beginning, which falls on the D Coordinator, not on one single player...i.e. Free Safety.

I know exactly what a Free Safety does, I've coached and played football. I mentioned McGraw because a previous poster used that player as an example.

Ultimately, Crennel didn't make the necessary adjustments. Nice try, though.

None of these guys on this board want to hear that their favorite player/coach was not playing up to their expectations on this game.

However, there were a lot of people who could have done some key things better. Plenty of room for criticism all around, Berry, McGraw, Crennel, Weiss, Haley, Cassel, offensive line, everyone. We cannot be so blind to the issues. Not that the coaches are reading my posts on here, but we have to see what needs improvement, I am sure the coaches are.

[Daylights]

Well, That defense really did it's job, on the day.

By the time The Ravens were running clock, our defense had been playing far too long, and had been put in horrible situations.

Heap only had three catches in the second half. One of which was short, and brought up a fourth down.

Heap's effort would have been nothing, had the offense simply held onto the ball, and gotten a few first downs, and put some points up.

It did it's job on third and second down, not third down. We had the nice goal line stop early in the game. We shut down their running game. We pressured Flacco consistently early on. However, all that means nothing if we don't stop them on third down. Repeated failed 3rd down defense (and I emphasize the word "repeated") cost us the game. The turnovers were just the nail in the coffin.

[Ryfo18]

It did it's job on third and second down, not third down. We had the nice goal line stop early in the game. We shut down their running game. We pressured Flacco consistently early on. However, all that means nothing if we don't stop them on third down. Repeated failed 3rd down defense (and I emphasize the word "repeated") cost us the game.

I'm going to have nightmares of Todd Heap converting 3rd downs for the rest of my life.

[billb40]

Thanks for you service. Chiefs will prevail. We are on a better track now than with the previous staff. I do not know if it is the best but hope The RED and GOLD will be the best in the future. I wish I was as smart as most of the folks posting I would have a future in the NIFAM

[chief31]

It did it's job on third and second down, not third down. We had the nice goal line stop early in the game. We shut down their running game. We pressured Flacco consistently early on. However, all that means nothing if we don't stop them on third down. Repeated failed 3rd down defense (and I emphasize the word "repeated") cost us the game. The turnovers were just the nail in the coffin.

The turnovers were the game.

Third down wasn't really doing any damage until the game was good and over.

They were allowing some yardage, but yielding few points.

At that point, the defense had already been on the field far more than any defense should be asked to compete.

[Daylights]

At that point, the defense had already been on the field far more than any defense should be asked to compete.

That is exactly my point. The defense was constantly on the field because we were constantly giving up 3rd down conversions.

On the Ravens very first drive, they scored only a field goal but we still gave up a long drive via 3rd down failures and let them chew up the clock. This set the tempo for the rest of the game and they virtually owned the Time of Possession category. Two scoring possessions were over five minutes and one was over 10. The Ravens owned almost two full quarters of possession on only three drives. Hence, our defense stayed on the field.

On the long 10 minute Raven drive in the fourth quarter (which did NOT result from a turnover), we gave up 4 third down conversions, two of those being, you guessed it, short middle passes to Heap and one being a short dumpoff to Ray Rice. The fourth was a short, middle pass to Boldin. 3rd down conversions killed us long into the fourth quarter.

The turnovers didn't fully burn us until the mid to late 3rd quarter when Cassel started throwing the ball up for grabs, but our 3rd down defense pretty much sealed it long before that.

[Ryfo18]

The turnovers were the game.

Third down wasn't really doing any damage until the game was good and over.

They were allowing some yardage, but yielding few points.

At that point, the defense had already been on the field far more than any defense should be asked to compete.

I agree, can't argue the turnovers.

But the conversions on their first drive were ridiculous. And in my opinion one of the killer's was a converted 3rd and 13 with just over 2 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. A stop there gives us the ball in decent field position with a chance to put more points on the board and go up by more than 7-3. Then we would have also got the ball at halftime. Instead, we went into halftime down 10-7.

[chief31]

That is exactly my point. The defense was constantly on the field because we were constantly giving up 3rd down conversions.

On the Ravens very first drive, they scored only a field goal but we still gave up a long drive via 3rd down failures and let them chew up the clock. This set the tempo for the rest of the game and they virtually owned the Time of Possession category. Hence, our defense stayed on the field.

They were on the field so much because our offense refused to be.

Aside from when the game was over, and the defense was spent, The Ravens managed two good drives, resulting in ten points.

They had three possessions that led to punts or a turnover, the rest were short field opportunities, caused by chiefs turnovers including one on downs.

Sure. Third down % wasn't good.

But, overall, they were doing a good job, and would have been in position to win, had it not been for the position that our offense was constantly putting them in.

We had eleven offensive possessions, and managed just 161 yards of offense.

That's sixteen yards per possession.

And, at 18:16 T.O.P., that is less than two minutes per possession, before we sent our defense right back onto the field.

The only break the defense got was Halftime.

Even our TD came on just two plays, and ate less than one minute of clock.

[Daylights]

I agree, can't argue the turnovers.

But the conversions on their first drive were ridiculous. And in my opinion one of the killer's was a converted 3rd and 13 with just over 2 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. A stop there gives us the ball in decent field position with a chance to put more points on the board and go up by more than 7-3. Then we would have also got the ball at halftime. Instead, we went into halftime down 10-7.

And that was really the turning point, in my opinion. Up until then, we were having offensive success, driving the ball...at one point it looked like we were going to go ahead 14-3. But, our drive stalled, we punted the ball close to midfield and let Todd Heap 3rd down us to death until they grabbed a 3 point lead. That potential reversal of fortunes destroyed our momentum and the Ravens made us pay for it in the second half.