Kansas City Chiefs
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.
Three to Focus on: Chiefs @ Bears, Week 12
In this NFC/AFC showdown, the 4-7 Kansas City Chiefs travel to the Windy City to take on the 7-4 Chicago Bears. Both teams are coming off close losses, with the Chiefs falling short on a comeback drive against the Steelers on Sunday Night Football. The Bears were also unable to get a win against the Oakland Raiders, despite putting a drive together at the end of the game. The overriding theme for both teams in their defeats last week was turnovers.
The Chiefs and Bears are also playing without Matt Cassel and Jay Cutler, who, interestingly enough, have both been sidelined with injuries to their throwing hands. Chicago will try to lighten the load on Caleb Hanie, who has showed some promise but also plenty of inexperience. Mike Martz was reluctant to put him on the field in last year’s NFC Championship game, but has since stated that he compares to a young Matt Schaub. With Tyler Palko proving to be a turnover machine, Kansas City could potentially go with Kyle Orton who has not started a game since Week 5 for Denver, but nothing is certain yet. Read the rest of this entry »
Re-Focused: Steelers @ Chiefs, Week 12
Given how the Tyler Palko and the Kansas City Chiefs offense played, it’s somewhat remarkable that they were driving to win the game with under a minute of the game to go. Other than an impressive opening drive that caught the Pittsburgh Steelers off guard, Palko made some of the worst throws you’re likely to see this season.
But, thanks to an extremely impressive defensive performance, the Chiefs never let the Steelers get out of sight as the Chiefs managed to pressure Ben Roethlisberger when they most needed to, while their defensive backs saved their best moments for crucial downs. With a somewhat decent quarterback this one could have been very different.
Still it wasn’t, with Pittsburgh doing enough to eke out a victory that could prove vital when all is said and done. Let’s look at some of the most notable performances as they did.
Three to Focus on: Steelers @ Chiefs, Week 12
The Pittsburgh Steelers find themselves once again trailing the Baltimore Ravens, albeit just by half a game, in the race for the AFC crown after Baltimore’s Turkey Day win over the 49ers. That puts the pressure on the Steelers to win this one and keep pace but once again it looks to be down to those two in the North after both put Cincinnati to the sword in recent weeks.
Getting the start at quarterback for the team who the Steelers take on this week is Tyler Palko, who played his college football at Heinz Field. Palko is likely just keeping the ball warm for Kyle Orton as the Chiefs who, in spite of some horrendous play and poor coaching decisions, are still just two games off the AFC West lead. That said, they’ll need to improve in a hurry if they are to overcome that two game margin. Read the rest of this entry »
Re-Focused: Chiefs @ Patriots, Week 11
On the road, without their starting QB, the Kansas City Chiefs had a surprisingly positive first half. Their defense stifled Tom Brady for the early part of the game, they only surrendered 10 first half points. They had slightly less success on offense where, despite moving the ball, the Patriots ensured it was bend rather than break as they held Kansas City to just three points.
Normal business was resumed in the second half, as New England’s high powered offense took control and Tyler Palko became the turnover machine many expected him to be – he was making his first ever NFL start after all. With even their special teams contributing (Julian Edelman had a beautiful punt return for a touchdown), the Pats were able to turn this into a rout.
Three to Focus on: Chiefs @ Patriots, Week 11
It’s going to be a big reunion in Foxboro this Monday night when the Kansas City Chiefs take on the New England Patriots. The Chiefs are often referred to as the “New England Patriots of the West,” as they have a number of coaches and executives that came through the ranks with Patriots’ head coach Bill Belichick (including head coach Todd Haley, defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel and general manager Scott Pioli). These ties go one step further, as it was against the Chiefs in 2008 that quarterback Tom Brady was injured for the season. That injury opened the door for quarterback Matt Cassel, who is now the starter in Kansas City, though he is out with a hand injury.
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Re-Focused – Broncos @ Chiefs, Week 10
Another Broncos victory, another week of endless stories about Tim Tebow (+1.6).Thankfully, all players are given equal consideration at PFF, so you won’t have to read solely about Tebow in this Re-focused. Indeed, it was the Denver defense that won this game for the Broncos, with the help of another 200+ yard team rushing effort despite early injuries to Willis McGahee and Knowshon Moreno (+1.3).
Tebow didn’t complete a pass until the 4:35 mark in the third quarter and didn’t even attempt one in the entire first quarter. The Broncos’ one-dimensional offense, however, did enough to outpace the struggling Chiefs’ offense, despite running the ball a whopping 55 times. It seems Denver has openly embraced an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” strategy, and though it’s hard to imagine them having sustained success with this style of play, the results speak for themselves right now. Read the rest of this entry »
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