Final Pre-Season Game

Haley was as vocal as he’s been this camp Monday morning and Matt
Cassel, along with the Chiefs first-team offense, ran loads of snaps
against the first-team defense; far more reps at this time of camp than
in Haley’s first two seasons as head coach.

“It’s been different this preseason,” NT Kelly Gregg said. “We started
late with that rule that certain guys couldn’t practice and they held us
out of that first game. We’ll do whatever we’re asked to do.”

This year, the schedule has flipped. Haley treated the first preseason
game the way teams have traditionally approached the fourth. A total of
15 players rested in the exhibition opener, many of them projected as
starters.

It’s similar to the way Green Bay approached last year’s preseason
finale in Kansas City, resting numerous regulars including QB Aaron
Rodgers, CB Charles Woodson and LB Clay Matthews.

“This week is very big for me,” said FB Le’Ron McClain, who was held
out of the Chiefs preseason opener. “I’m approaching this game like it’s
a regular game week. I’m ready for it.”

As of Monday afternoon, Haley hadn’t told starters how long he expects
them to play Thursday night. Based off the first three preseason
performances, most front-line players are preparing to see more
extensive action than in previous years.

This is bound to be the worst preseason showing this year. There's no way coaches show a damn thing considering we play them during the regular season.

FatThucker wrote:

This is bound to be the worst preseason showing this year. There's no way coaches show a damn thing considering we play them during the regular season.

To the contrary, they came out with motion and some shifting, couple of trick plays, they really looked good that first half. Charles fumbled twice, one of which was in the redzone. He never fumbles, i dont know where that has come from. Cassell looked really sharp, he completed 15 of 17 for 130 and a TD. He has supposed to play more than he did but got the shit knocked out of him when Hudson got beat. I was really impressed with Gaither last night at RT. He looked by far better that B-Rich and I hope he takes that spot here soon. B-Rich got beat bad on 1 of cassells sacks. It was good to see the offense get going and the defense shut down the defending Super Bowl champs.

Good & Bad Leaves Chiefs One-Point Short

That big puff of wind coming from the north woods Thursday night was not a cold front cooling off the hot summer night down in Kansas City.

It was the sigh of relief generated by the Chiefs, from their owner to their general manager, the head coach and even the roster. After three pre-season games of stumbling and bumbling around, Todd Haley’s team came out and put forth their best effort of the year. They still could not win the game, losing 20-19 to Green Bay Packers and finishing the pre-season with a 0-4 record.

This was not the Packers team that won the Super Bowl back in February. There were five defensive starters who did not suit up. There were a host of others that saw limited snaps, including Super Bowl MVP QB Aaron Rodgers (eight plays).

Throughout the days leading up to the game, Haley said he was not overly concerned with the results of his team’s three games and the he had seen progress in practice and there was no reason to overreact to No. 1 offensive and defensive units that had gotten nothing done.

But Thursday night, Haley showed there was very definitely some concern about where this team was some 10 days ahead of the regular-season opener. The starters played longer than they normally do in the final exhibition affair. Late in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs had Dwayne Bowe, Jamaal Charles, Branden Albert, Jon Asamoah and the entire No. 1 defense still on the field.

The coach said that was all part of the master plan.

“We went from the start on this thing pointing towards this game as the one where we would give our regulars more playing time,” Haley said. “For the most part, that all went to plan.”

Starting cornerbacks Brandon Carr and Brandon Flowers, playing in the last defensive stand of the final pre-season game was part of a plan? Flowers expected it to be that way and he had no problem still being on the field when defensive backs of his ability were out of the shoulder pads and wearing baseball caps.

And none of it had anything to do with winning the game? “No, we wanted to win the game,” said Haley. “We played that way.”

He sure did. Haley opened up the playbook and the bag of tricks. They ran a fake punt – it worked and helped lead to a touchdown. They tried an onside kick; that didn’t work. The defense threw a bunch of blitzes at the Packers and their backup QB Matt Flynn. The offense had some motion and shifting, something different than in the past three games.

“I thought we did a lot of things to get better tonight,” Haley said. “We were trying to build to this game, knowing that we have limited time, five practices to get ready for the Buffalo Bills and September 11. There were a lot of good things out there.”

All in all, it looked closer to an effort of a defending division champion and certainly set a much nicer table for what’s start next Sunday with the regular season.

“I think it’s a good way for us to get ready to start the first week of the regular season,” said RB Jamaal Charles. “We were able to get some things done.”

They also had a host of mistakes and several were directly responsible for the loss. They turned the ball over five times and that set up 13 of Green Bay’s 20 points. They had eight penalties and they gave up four sacks. It was not a clean effort.

“I’ve said this a bunch, we just are not to the position yet as a team where we can afford to turn over the ball and penalties at inopportune times, we are not going to win many games like that,” Haley said. “Luckily our defense forced some turnovers as well.”

By the time half-time rolled around, Haley and everyone invested in the Chiefs was feeling a lot better about the team’s ability to get things done. The offense was able to move the ball against the Packers second defense and the No. 1 offense put up its first touchdown of the pre-season. The defense was contributing as well, forcing two turnovers and controlling things after the Packers scored on the first possession of the game.

Super Bowl hero Rodgers was directing the offense in that first Green Bay possession and he was accurate and on the money. The drive started with a 23-yard run by RB Ryan Grant, as he gashed the left side of the Chiefs defense (DE Tyson Jackson and OLB Andy Studebaker). The Packers kept the ball on the ground, as Grant ran four straight times for 30 yards before Rodgers threw an incomplete pass. He then connected on his next three throws, hitting former Chiefs-now Packers TE Tom Crabtree for eight yards and a score. Crabtree beat ILB Jovan Belcher in the coverage. The PAT by K Mason Crosby gave Green Bay the 7-0 early lead.

The Chiefs offense got the ball back and finally started to move down the field, moving into Green Bay territory and then Charles made it inside the scoring zone before he coughed up the ball on a late fumble. The Packers recovered at their own 15-yard line. An offensive holding call cost them 10 yards, but backup QB Matt Flynn connected with WR Tori Gurley for what appeared to be a 25-yard gain over Flowers. Haley threw the red challenge flag and the replay review showed that Gurley did not get both feet inbounds. The play was reversed and it was a long incompletion.

Two plays later, facing 3rd-and-17, Packers C Nick McDonald snapped the ball over the head of Flynn and it rolled into the end zone. Flynn fell on the ball and the Chiefs picked up a safety when DE Allen Bailey touched him down. It was the first points they scored in the opening period in the 2011 pre-season.

The Chiefs took the free kick and held on for nearly seven minutes, as the No. 1 offense put its first touchdown of the year on the scoreboard. The field position was hurt when Studebaker was flagged for holding on the return by CB Javier Arenas; that had the Chiefs starting at their 25-yard line. The offense had troubles and ended up on 4th-and-9, but P Dustin Colquitt threw a pass out of punt formation to WR Terrance Copper for 12 yards and a first down.

The clock ticked over into the second quarter and Cassel connected with WR Dwayne Bowe for a 29-yard pass across the middle on third down. Two plays later, he found RB Dexter McCluster at the goal line, where he took a big hit from Green Bay’s CB Josh Gordy, but held onto the ball and fell into the end zone for the score. The PAT kick by Ryan Succop gave the Chiefs a 9-7 lead with 11 minutes, 25 seconds to play in the half.

Later, the defense provided the offense with more opportunities. Flowers picked off a pass by Flynn and the officials tagged another 15 yards on to the end of the play for a horse collar tackle by Green Bay. On that next possession is when Cassel got hurt, as he was sacked by 340-pound DT Howard Green and landed on his right shoulder. He left the game and did not return and the Chiefs said he had the win knocked out of him.

Possession of the ball went back and forth a few times. Green Bay’s offense was in Chiefs territory when CB Brandon Carr came screaming off the right side of the defense on a delayed blitz and sacked Flynn, causing a fumble. OLB Tamba Hali recovered the ball, setting up the offense again at their 47-yard line.

With Tyler Palko leading the way, he moved them 53 yards down the field on 11 plays and found Bowe open in the end zone for a two-yard TD pass where he got his heels down in the end zone on a nice, nice catch. Succop’s PAT kick gave the Chiefs a 16-7 lead as they went to the half-time locker room.

Green Bay was able to add an early third quarter field goal after a fumble by Charles – his second of the game. This time it was recovered by CB Pat Lee who returned the ball 68 yards before a hustling Bowe was able to run him down from behind. The Packers ended up getting a 43-yard FG from Crosby and it was 16-10.

The Chiefs gave the ball right back, when Palko and McCluster messed up a handoff, and the ball was recovered by the Packers. It was the second time in the game that Palko stumbled out of taking the snap and had trouble with the handoff.

The defense held against a Green Bay defense with Graham Harrell at quarterback and Crosby kicked another FG, this one from 32 yards. The Chiefs still led 16-13.

It was only a kickoff and three plays later before the Packers were back in the lead and they held it for good. LB Vic So’oto picked off an ill-advised pass by Palko and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown. Crosby’s PAT kick after the pick six gave the Packers the lead.

The Chiefs got a 31-yard fourth quarter FG from Succop to make the score 20-19 and then with 2:03 to play in the game, Palko moved the offense down the field with his arm and his legs and got the Chiefs to the Green Bay 38-yard line with three seconds to play.

Succop came in and missed a 56-yard field goal wide left as the game ended, and so did the Chiefs pre-season.

Now, it’s onward to the regular season.

“I think we are ready,” said Flowers. “I think we have another week to get ready and then it’s on for real.”

When he arrived in 2008 on the Chiefs roster as a third-round draft choice, Jamaal Charles had the reputation coming out of the University of Texas of being a fumbler.

But in his time with the Chiefs, fumbles have not really been a major problem for the shifty running back. If you add up all of his touches since ’08 in the pre-season, regular season and last year’s post-season game, he’s had the ball in his hands 678 times. He’s lost 12 fumbles, or one every 56.5 times he touches the ball.

It just so happens that Thursday night against the Green Bay Packers, Charles fumbled the ball away twice, killing a couple of opportunities for a Chiefs offense that has not had many of those in this pre-season.

“I made a couple of mistakes and I wish I had them back,” Charles said. “But in the pre-season, you have to learn from your mistakes and that’s what I have to do. I need to learn from this and get ready for next week.”

Charles could easily use the excuse that his fumble fingers was because he came into the game with so little work; in the first three pre-season games he touched the ball just six times. By the time the game against the Packers was over, he had 11 touches (9 runs, 2 catches) and produced 37 yards.

Plus the fumbles; both came in scoring territory and took at least six points off the board for the Chiefs. In the first quarter, he went around right end and picked up two yards to the Green Bay 19, before the ball came out on a hit by LB Vic So’oto and was recovered by CB Pat Lee. Although that one cost the Chiefs at least a field goal, the K.C. defense was able to get safety out of the Packers next possession.

Then in the third quarter, Charles went off the left side and picked up 7 yards to the Packers 15-yard line when the ball was knocked out by CB Brandian Ross and recovered by Lee, who then returned it 67 yards to the Chiefs 26-yard line. Green Bay had to settle for a field goal.

As it is, Charles finished the pre-season with 17 touches (15 runs, 2 catches) for 53 total yards. His longest play was 12 yards, his longest run was 10.

“I try to break one every time I get in the backfield,” said Charles. “But I’m still trying to get used to the line and it’s still coming together up there. That’s what it’s all about for me. They got a lot of reps tonight and I think they’ll be ready to go next week.”

Here are Charles fumble numbers since joining the Chiefs, with total fumbles and/fumbles lost:

I'm not worried about Charles, he will be fine. But Cassel is going to be running for his life on every single passing play the second he gets the snap. and our secondary is going to have to cover longer than any other in the league once again.

Chiefs09 wrote:

I'm not worried about Charles, he will be fine. But Cassel is going to be running for his life on every single passing play the second he gets the snap. and our secondary is going to have to cover longer than any other in the league once again.

I dont think so, I think Gaither will start at RT here very soon. He looked solid last night. You must not have been watching the same defense as I have, because Hali, Houston, Sheffied, Carr had all kind of pressure last night. As in past games this preseason. What do you know? Jackson has even had some pressure and looks like a different player

Last night the Chiefs lost their final preseason game to the Packers 20-19. In typical Haley fashion, he surprised the Kansas City faithful and played the starters for a good portion of the game. Without further adieu, lets take a look at Matt Cassel's performance.

Cassel stats were as follows:

15 of 17 for 129 yards. 1 TD and 0 INT

Negative: While Cassel had an above average game, he still didn't throw the ball for a lot of yards. He didn't throw the ball down the field which still concerns me. I don't expect him to air it out, but Cassel needs to make the defense respect the deep ball. Hopefully when Baldwin gets back on the field this will change. He's the prototypical jump-ball type that a quarterback who struggles with accuracy would die for. We'll see how much he matters as the season starts.

Positive: As I mentioned before, Cassel struggles with accuracy. I know, I just dropped a bombshell on all of you. Now I realize he didn't make a ton of challenging throws, but 15 of 17 is still excellent. He accrued a good while not spectacular amount of yards before leaving with the wind knocked out of him. Cassel was under consistent pressure throughout the game with Ryan Lilja being out and Richardson being in. Yet he did exactly what Kansas City needs him to do going forward. He completed almost every pass and kept the chains moving. McCluster looks like he will really help the passing game in his new role, which is ironic considering he's now a RB instead of a WR.

Grade: 85

Cassel was the quarterback last night that this team will need most games. He was a game manager that had the team moving and looking effective. Let's not lose perspective though. It was against the second team of the opposition and Cassel didn't exactly light it up yardage wise, which is why he didn't get an A.

I liked seeing the offense get into rhythm in some facets of their attack. That being said, the offensive line has to come together for this team to keep getting better. If Barry Richardson takes one holding penalty against Buffalo, Haley should send him to the other sideline. Heck, it seems like Richardson is getting paid by the other team anyway. None of this is an excuse for Cassel, just a simple fact. He's not Aaron Rodgers, he needs the team to perform at an optimal level in front of him.

The real test starts soon, really soon.

BigRatt wrote:

Chiefs09 wrote:

I'm not worried about Charles, he will be fine. But Cassel is going to be running for his life on every single passing play the second he gets the snap. and our secondary is going to have to cover longer than any other in the league once again.

I dont think so, I think Gaither will start at RT here very soon. He looked solid last night. You must not have been watching the same defense as I have, because Hali, Houston, Sheffied, Carr had all kind of pressure last night. As in past games this preseason. What do you know? Jackson has even had some pressure and looks like a different player

No I didnt watch. I listened to part on radio. Almost shot my wad when I heard Cassel was injured, but found out it was nothing after a phone call. Both of our lines have been terrible when it was 1's vs 1's all preseason. our 1's even struggled somewhat against 2's and 3's of GB from what I got from friends that have watched the game. and they are like most of you guys when it comes to criticizing the Chiefs... Pioli is God and the Chiefs are winning it all this year. So I felt the info they gave me was pretty good.

weird you mention Jackson as improving. wright mentioned how bad he looked in first series last night just a little while ago. and from what little preseason I have actually watched Jackson still looks like the bust he has been so far. Have to admit though I dont watch much preseason because I know Haley doesnt put a lot into it other than evaluation. So the only thing I pay attention to in preseason when I do watch is line play on both sides, and anybody looking at it from a pure football point of view would know it has been pretty poor to this point.

Chiefs09 wrote:

weird you mention Jackson as improving. wright mentioned how bad he looked in first series last night just a little while ago. and from what little preseason I have actually watched Jackson still looks like the bust he has been so far. Have to admit though I dont watch much preseason because I know Haley doesnt put a lot into it other than evaluation. So the only thing I pay attention to in preseason when I do watch is line play on both sides, and anybody looking at it from a pure football point of view would know it has been pretty poor to this point.

As it was last year as well, they wound up winning 10 games. Time will tell here very soon when game planning and preparation come into play. I thought they played well last night myself. I seen everything that i wanted to see for a preseason game. I'm with Haley, the preseason doesn't mean shit!

Write has always been god awful. I'm not too concerned with what he says.

anybody that doesnt share your opinion is god awful. I figure a guy that makes his living on KC sports and pays a little closer attention than all of us is closer to being right than any of us. Plus the fact Jackson has showed absolutely nothing in his career to show he is worth a shit.

Nick Wright is one of my favorite radio personalities in KC. He definitely is not a very good analyzer, though, and eats his words all the time. But the biggest reason he is tolerable on the radio is that he openly admits that much (unlike people like Fescoe who believe that whatever they say must be true because it came out of their golden mouth). That being said, Jackson looks no better than 'improved'. Definitely still a weak spot in the starting lineup.

I'm really not that worried about our defense. Our pressure on the QB looks pretty good. Not sure why the secondary would have to cover as long as anyone in the league.

The offense still looks shaky as fuck! I would probably feel better about it if Palko shatters a hip just to make sure he nevers steps foot on the field again. Unfortunately that would leave Stanzi as our only backup. A Cassel injury would be devastating, yet it seems almost inevitable the way the O-line is pass protecting. Waters is still available and probably should be brought back immediately.

I may be eating my words, Rust, about Houston not starting this year. I still don't think he's a great fit for the OLB opposite of Hali, but Studebaker has not stepped up like I had envisioned. I could easily see him losing the starting job soon.

The offense needs Baldwin to mature in a fucking hurry. He has the talent to be a good 1, but he needs to get his head screwed on right.

Wright is a hell of a lot better than keitzman. my fav radio show ever here in kc was the one that had Maas and grunny on late morning.

FatThucker wrote:

I may be eating my words, Rust, about Houston not starting this year. I still don't think he's a great fit for the OLB opposite of Hali, but Studebaker has not stepped up like I had envisioned. I could easily see him losing the starting job soon.

I know one thing about Houston, your cant keep that guy out of the backfield! He is like Hali in that he is always going to close to the QB

Chiefs09 wrote:

Wright is a hell of a lot better than keitzman. my fav radio show ever here in kc was the one that had Maas and grunny on late morning.

Keitzman sucks a fat one for sure

BigRatt wrote:

FatThucker wrote:

I may be eating my words, Rust, about Houston not starting this year. I still don't think he's a great fit for the OLB opposite of Hali, but Studebaker has not stepped up like I had envisioned. I could easily see him losing the starting job soon.

I know one thing about Houston, your cant keep that guy out of the backfield! He is like Hali in that he is always going to close to the QB

That's the thing...he's so much like Hali it can limit some defensive schemes when they're both on the field.

FatThucker wrote:

BigRatt wrote:

FatThucker wrote:

I may be eating my words, Rust, about Houston not starting this year. I still don't think he's a great fit for the OLB opposite of Hali, but Studebaker has not stepped up like I had envisioned. I could easily see him losing the starting job soon.

I know one thing about Houston, your cant keep that guy out of the backfield! He is like Hali in that he is always going to close to the QB

That's the thing...he's so much like Hali it can limit some defensive schemes when they're both on the field.

Your probally right, i would like to think that Houston possess more athletic ability and will eventually become someone that can cover as well as rush the passer.

He def has the potential to evolve into that kind of player, just gonna take some time.

Houstons gonna fuck shit up throughout his career. Sheffield will too as a very solid rotational player.