Kansas City Chiefs
2011 PFF All-AFC West Team
The fourth stop on our all division tour of the 2011 season (AFC East, AFC North, AFC South) sees us head out West as we tip our hat to the top individual performers from the AFC West. In a season when no team could sustain a high level of play throughout, there were both some tough choices due to excellent play and some tough choices due to a distinct lack of quality.
As with the other All-Division Teams that we’ve presented this week, some discretion was required for defensive personnel to ensure the best players make the team rather than the best players that fit a certain scheme.
Here, then, is PFF’s All-AFC West Team for the 2011 season:
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Re-Focused: Chiefs @ Broncos, Week 17
In a game the Broncos had a win and in situation, their offense didn’t seem to get the message. Neither team was able to do much when they had the ball in their hands, but Kansas City was able to get the ball into the end zone once, which was good enough for the win.
In the fourth quarter, we’ve grown to expect Tim Tebow to come up with some sort of heroics to make the game winning score and clinch the division. In this game there were no signs of Tebow making big plays at any point, so when it came to the fourth quarter Denver didn’t look like they had much of a chance despite only being down by four.
Even though Denver couldn’t score more than three points, they can thank the Chargers for helping them make the playoffs. Only parts of this team look playoff ready, while the rest of the team needs to get better fast if they want a chance against Pittsburgh.
Three to Focus on: Chiefs @ Broncos, Week 17
While the 2010 AFC West division champion Chiefs won’t be repeating the feat this year, they are in a position to help determine who will represent the division in the postseason. The Raiders, who eliminated Kansas City last week, must now rely on the Chiefs doing them a favor by beating Denver. No one will be more motivated to keep the Broncos out of the postseason than Kyle Orton, who never had the full support of the Broncos fan base from the moment he was thrown into the Jay Cutler trade.
The last time these teams met, in Week 10, was the game in which Tim Tebow threw eight passes and completed only two. The Broncos ran the ball 55 times with no pretense of a passing game and still racked up 244 yards, which along with a 56-yard touchdown to Eric Decker (-5.4) was just enough to get a win. Denver has tried to balance the offense more in recent weeks but haven’t had great results, so they might try to get back to what they do best against a team they had no problem running on before. Since the Chiefs have already experienced the Broncos’ read option attack, though, I’d expect Denver to favor a more traditional approach running the ball with some option plays mixed in.
Re-Focused – Raiders @ Chiefs, Week 16
Things often get ugly when these teams get together—okay, in any game in which the Raiders are involved this season—but the Raiders and Chiefs apparently took that trend as a challenge in this game. This season’s most penalized team (Oakland) playing the team with the NFL record for penalties in a season (Kansas City) kept Mike Carey and crew extra alert and perhaps a little less judicious in letting the laundry fly at Arrowhead. The officials had a bit of difficulty spotting the first flag thrown, but it was probably easier when the 26th flag hit the grass.
Mistakes and missed opportunities were the theme of the game, although the quality of play did improve after a first half that included 18 of the 26 penalties. Each team had one particularly painful penalty in the first half. Read the rest of this entry »
Three to Focus on: Raiders @ Chiefs, Week 16
The AFC West suddenly got very interesting on Sunday with the Chargers and Chiefs suddenly right back in the race for the division crowd after big wins. It seems unbelievable that a Kansas City team that lost it’s first two games by a combined score of 89-10 could still have a shot at a playoff spot with two games remaining, but that’s the type of year it has been in the AFC West.
For Oakland, it seems like a long time ago that they were 7-4 and seemingly cruising towards the postseason. However, last week’s late loss to Detroit, coupled with their two humbling defeats at the hands of Miami and Green Bay, have brought them right back into the chasing pack.
As we hit the last two weeks of the season, the race for the AFC West is one of the most intriguing stories in the NFL, with this being the only divisional matchup in the West this week. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the three areas to focus on this Sunday.
Re-Focused: Packers @ Chiefs, Week 15
Green Bay’s quest for an undefeated season skidded right off the rails and buried itself into the scenery at Arrowhead Stadium this week. While everybody else was talking about what point in the game the Packers were going to pull their starters for a well-earned rest, Kyle Orton was out to remind everybody that he can play football pretty well at times.
The Chiefs really dominated this game and should have been well ahead at the half, but for their complete inability to convert on three trips into the red zone. In the end, they survived a brief comeback by the Packers to get their first win without Todd Haley at the controls. Orton also had a nice advantage of this being his second time around against the Packers, having faced them when he led the Broncos back in Week 4.
For the Packers things simply just weren’t firing. Aaron Rodgers seemed strangely off target, and then his O-line started to drop like flies and leak pressure badly, making his job even harder. Let’s find out what else went on in one of the biggest surprise games of Week 15.
Three to Focus on: Packers @ Chiefs, Week 15
As the Green Bay Packers enter their final road game of the season, coaches and players are starting to embrace the pursuit of perfection. With home field advantage all but sewn up, it could prove hard to maintain an edge over these final three games. So suddenly, the push for 16-0 now becomes a motivator–instead of a distraction.
The Chiefs officially ended the Todd Haley experiment and have installed defensive coordinator and former Browns head coach, Romeo Crennel as the interim. Last year, many teams saw a resurgence after mid-season coaching changes. The Chiefs could be next. Now a longshot for the NFC West division title and a playoff berth, Kansas City could certainly be finding their own motivation in the Packers’ current win streak, as in being the team that ends it.
Re-Focused: Chiefs @ Jets, Week 14
Could the New York Jets be peaking at just the right time again? They stormed to a 28-3 half time lead and coasted to a 37-10 win over the injury-hit Kansas City Chiefs for their third win in a row to grasp sole possession of the sixth seed in the AFC with three games remaining. The Jets – notoriously slow starters on offense – didn’t need any late-game heroics this week, as they drove for a touchdown on their opening possession for the second straight week and led throughout.
The win was marred slightly by Jim Leonhard’s season ending knee injury in the second quarter, although the Jets were able to regroup without him and still make some noise in the postseason when he suffered a broken leg at a similar point of last year, so they’ll be hoping history will repeat itself. For the Chiefs, any slim hopes they had of winning the AFC West died with this defeat.
Let’s recap some of the more notable performances:
Three to Focus on: Chiefs @ Jets, Week 14
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Both the Jets and Chiefs were playoff teams last year and now are on the outside looking in with just four weeks to go. The Chiefs have suffered a number of injuries as well while facing a more difficult schedule to get them to their 5-7 mark, but the Jets are simply suffering from poor play on offense.
Now the only two teams that won a Super Bowl while in the AFL square-off with the winner clinging on to their dim playoff hopes. The Jets could be eliminated from the division this week, and are currently sitting at a four way tie for the sixth seed. The Chiefs will likely only get in with a division victory, but they only have a chance if they win out, and they only have teams with winning records on the schedule. Here are the matchups to watch between two desperate teams.
Re-Focused: Chiefs @ Bears, Week 13
Hail Mary, full of grace … one of these was the difference between a Kansas City Chiefs road win and what felt for much of the second half like it would have been an utterly inevitable tie between two teams putting forth some of the worst offensive football you will see this season. Both the Chiefs and the Chicago Bears struggled to establish anything with their backup quarterbacks at the helm. The running games had their moments and the defenses played their part in this game yielding only 13 points, but the over-arching theme of the game was woeful offense.
The poor performance of Chicago signal caller Caleb Hanie has sparked discussions over Donovan McNabb being brought in by Chicago, but how different might those have been had Roy Williams held on to a fine throw at the Kansas City 3-yard-line? Instead, he let it into his body, dropped it and after much bobbling, Jon McGraw came up with the pivotal interception. That single play was as close as the Bears got as the Chiefs did just enough to win courtesy of a trail player catching a ball off of another lucky bounce to pick up the decisive score. It could be said that this game was decided on two bounces of a football, so let’s take a look back at some noteworthy – and some forgettable – performances from this unremarkable game.
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