A Level Headed Review Week 1 2023

[DenverChief]

1. WR's - Specifically Kadarius Toney - you can tell missing training camp has hurt him. Timing is off for the WR's and Patrick. Several throws behind receivers and just route confusion (James running in front of Toney causing him to lose the ball). This is the part about not playing starters more in the pre-season that concerns me. Have got to get a rhythm down on offense. Missing in action was Richie James (1 Catch on 2 Targets), Skyy Moore (0 for 3), Toney (1 for 5). MVS was 2 for 2 but disappeared after halftime. Somebody has to step up and be the guy when Kelce can't.

2. Jawaan Taylor and that early jump finally got called. Gotta figure that out - that is going to bite us hard later in the season. The OL did a decent job protecting Patrick but there were a few drives Hutchinson was just terrorizing the OL. Trey Smith looked completely overmatched by Hutchinson a few times.

3. The Defense only gave up 14 points - quite an accomplishment missing Chris Jones. I would argue the bigger missing factor was Kelce. The defense was gassed by the end of the game because the offense couldn't stay on the field. I was impressed by FAU, Bolton and Danna. Less impressive was tackling lots of guys trying to arm tackle instead of wrapping up - gotta get that cleaned up. Some of the open over the middle stuff was because we had to stack the box to stop the run. Without Jones able to clog it up the linebackers have to play closer to the line and that opens the middle window up.

4. Patrick lost his first season opener - was bound to happen sometime - glad it's just the first game of 16 more to be played.

5. The Pick 6 was all on Toney - ball just bricked in his hands. Gotta hit the jugs machine and make those hands soft again.

6. Running Backs - never gave McKinnon the chance to run the ball and CEH was once again 2-3 yards running the ball. Incredibly frustrating. Pacheco was the lone bright spot - don't understand why they don't feed him the ball more when It's working. He was ripping off 4,5,6,7 yard runs. Then there was the trick play on 3rd and 1 late in the game. Just give it to Pacheco - they read the ****ery before we even snapped the ball (and should have snapped it when they jumped offsides).

7. I firmly believe all of this is correctable. There isn't one thing that can't be ironed out with repetition and timing. I am not worried one bit this will be a season long trend. I am just frustrated there isn't more focus on letting the starters gel. I know the 3rd pre-season game is to help the bubble players but what does it hurt to give the starters a full quarter to play and feel things out.

8. I know Noah Grey is a fan favorite but I wonder how Bushman would have fared - he seemed to be really good at finding the holes in the D in the preseason. TE needs to be more productive.

9. Patrick was frustrated - you could see it in his face all night, if it wasn't receivers dropping balls it was being harassed in the pocket - by one guy. I thought for sure he would turn that frustration into focus and get the team on the same page and it seemed like it worked for a while but it fell apart in the 4th quarter. Maybe more conditioning is needed, seemed like a very hot a humid night in KC.

10. Next week at Jacksonville isn't going to get any easier - gotta turn this loss into focus and motivation. IF it goes how I think it will - there will be no mercy on JAX.

[BryanBusby]

Well put together.

[DenverChief]

Oh and I forgot to mention - the timeout before kicking an XP because they couldn't get the personnel right - they need to have a hard practice this week

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by jd1020

I like how CEH can be bad while Pacheco had a good game of ripping off solid gains... while gaining less yards than CEH.

Pacheco was better when you factor in the passing game 4 for 31 yards vs CEH 1 for 7.

[DenverChief]

Also - I don't know what to make of Chris Jones being at the game to watch - I feel like this level of petty is becoming other worldly.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by DenverChief

Pacheco was better when you factor in the passing game 4 for 31 yards vs CEH 1 for 7.

Be a little more level headed and admit they both sucked. 7.8 vs 7 YPC in the passing game isn't a deciding factor in greatness.

There was no "bright spot" in the running game or passing game. The entire offense was a ****ing shit show tonight.

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by jamison69

The lions are a good team and they were going against are crappy defense.

They only scored 14 on offense. Not that great by Detroit. Pretty good performance from the Chiefs defense. The game-deciding play was Toney’s butterfingers tip ball for a Pick 6.

[Womble]

Originally Posted by jd1020

I like how CEH can be bad while Pacheco had a good game of ripping off solid gains... while gaining less yards than CEH.

Clyde's not going to **** you mate.

[crayzkirk]

I thought Pacheco looked slow. Maybe the Lions DL is just a lot better than what the Chiefs were expecting?

[bringbackmarty]

Chiefs forgot how to run a QB sneak or a simple trap, or how to catch the ball. Basic football. It's on the coach, assistants and the OC .

[Dartgod]

Originally Posted by DenverChief

...seemed like a very hot a humid night in KC.

I can't argue with the rest of it, but it was not humid and very comfortable out there tonight.

[BryanBusby]

Originally Posted by crayzkirk

I thought Pacheco looked slow. Maybe the Lions DL is just a lot better than what the Chiefs were expecting?

Another guy that really missed the offseason. I expect it to take time for him to get back to full speed and strength.

I better understand why the Patriots were more suspect in the early season now. All the extra games and events and attention eventually shows on the field.

[Megatron96]

Overall, I agree with the OP.

Basically it was a perfect storm of bad by the offense. None of the WRs could catch the ball consistently. Then Pat missed some open guys entirely, and threw a few inaccurate passes. And at least one that was just poorly timed. Then a few of the play calls were poor decisions.

The defense actually played better than I thought they would. Though, DET was rolling inside the 20 on that drive in the first half when they fumbled. Otherwise they would've probably scored another TD.

And DET could've run the ball a lot more than they did. Nnadi and Tershawn were getting their shit pushed in most of the game when DET ran it. On a couple of early drives, they were running it for 5-6 yards/carry, but then tried to pass several times in a row and ended up having to punt. Pretty sure they could've just run it 3-4 times and gotten those 1st downs. Bottom line, we need Chris Jones back in the middle of that DL.

It sucks KC lost, but it happens. Pat is human, and he can have a bad day. At least he got it out of his system in Week 1. The WRs . . . had a bad day as well. Guys weren't getting open, some ran bad routes, some didn't adjust to the ball very well. and it wasn't just the WRs. you know guys aren't getting open when Pat is our leading rusher at HT.

The OL's performance was spotty. Early they looked pretty good, but as the game went on, they had some odd gaffes, several of which resulted in TFLs.

anyway, no need to dwell; it was always going to take time for this WR room to get comfortable, not having Travis out there just exposed the issue. Better now, than 12 weeks from now.

I also think it's all fixable, just a matter of how long will it take.

[JohnnyHammersticks]

Agree about McKinnon. Figured without Kelce, tonight would at least semi-feature McKinnon. What did he get, one touch? He was one of our biggest threats during the second half of the season last year.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by JohnnyHammersticks

Agree about McKinnon. Figured without Kelce, tonight would at least semi-feature McKinnon. What did he get, one touch? He was one of our biggest threats during the second half of the season last year.

2 tgts, 1 cth.



Here's a fun fact: Isiah Pacheco was our leading receiver with 4 catches on 4 tgts.

[JPH83]

We were terrible, not much more to say than that I think. D had some moments of encouragement but the offense was abysmal against a Lions D I don't think is all that good.