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.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by DRM08

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.

That and Toney dropping the easy pass on the last drive. We likely would have pushed down for the winning field goal there.

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by jd1020

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.

Thank you captain obvious for that riveting analysis

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by 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.

I'm pretty sure most of the offensive kinks will be ironed out by next week Andy and Pat are going to make sure of that.

[jd1020]

Originally Posted by DenverChief

Thank you captain obvious for that riveting analysis

My bad. I just assumed you missed the obvious after you said the lone "bright spot" was Pacheco last night in the OP. I should have known you weren't a dumbass.

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

That and Toney dropping the easy pass on the last drive. We likely would have pushed down for the winning field goal there.

Yeah that was frustrating to say the least - I'm sure he will be taking extra reps in practice this week

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by jd1020

My bad. I just assumed you missed the obvious after you said the lone "bright spot" was Pacheco last night in the OP. I should have known you weren't a dumbass.

[notorious]

Originally Posted by crayzkirk

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

Detroit has drafted in the top 5 for most of my life. They should have talent everywhere.

[Palangi]

Originally Posted by 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.

Couburn looks so much better clogging the middle than Nnadi does. I hope Farrell plays next week and Nnadi is the healthy scratch.

I also thought Dickerson was more disruptive than Wharton. But I’ve never been a big Wharton fan. Always thought he has been overrated. For whatever his rating is?

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by DenverChief

I'm pretty sure most of the offensive kinks will be ironed out by next week Andy and Pat are going to make sure of that.

Oh. No. Just no.


This isn't some sit-com, where every problem is solved neatly in a half hour weekly episode. this isn't going to get fixed by next week.

As some of us noted last season, this is a problem that's been going on for awhile. And it's obviously still a real problem.

Getting Travis back will hide a lot of these issues, yes. And I won't be surprised if the offense looks competent, even good, when he does get back on the field, because Travis receives so much attention from defenses that some WR/RB just pops wide the **** open on a fairly regular basis.

But again, our WRs spent a ton of snaps just not getting open. Any of them. go back and look at that cutup someone posted. It's not good.



How many times does Pat hit his back foot, his hands separate in anticipation of throwing the ball on time, and then he has to reload and start looking for another receiver? At least a half dozen times in the first half alone. I stopped counting after that. And at least 4 times in just the first half he had to take off and run for the sticks. Considering that Pat only averages 2-3 scrambles like that per game for his career is just another indicator of a problem.

Now, in defense of the WRs, there was at least a couple times that a WR did come open and Pat missed him, or he threw a poor pass, or he was late throwing the ball.




But mostly the WRs as a unit couldn't get open on those snaps. And there were too many of them. I knew it was a problem when Pat took off on his 3rd run of the first half, as I'm sure many others did. Didn't even have to see the look of annoyance on Pat's face to see that.




Look, Skyy is still having trouble deciphering what to do/where to settle in zone. As some young WRs do in the NFL. We've seen guys take a couple full seasons (sometimes more) to figure out zone. We hope that it doesn't take Skyy until the end of this season, but right now that's his level of competence vs. zone.

MVS did in fact get open a couple times downfield and Pat just missed seeing him. But mostly, MVS is just who he is.

James . . . way back when we first picked him up, some analyst called him "decent rotational depth." Well, after watching him struggle last night, that may have been a more accurate assessment of Richie than we knew. Oh, and please take him off return duties.

Justin Watson played a decent game. But the fact that Watson was our 2nd leading WR is not a good sign.

Nothing really to say about Rice/Ross. Effectively they're both rooks, so in that regard, they were fine.

And Toney had a terrible game catching the ball. I think after the 2nd drop it really got into his head and shit just fell off a cliff after that. He did get open fairly regularly, something the rest of the WRs struggled with, but KT also ran some poor routes as well. Regardless, KT had a shitty game. Fortunately, we know he can play much better than he did last night, so probably that was an outlier performance, and he'll bounce back just fine.

But overall, that's a lot of problems in one room. We aren't fixing that in a week.


I said after the draft that it could take a couple months for this group to get squared away. Didn't see anything last night to change my mind about how long it might take for these guys to get their shit figured out.

[Easy 6]

That was a very well thought out rundown, DC

[DenverChief]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

Oh. No. Just no.


This isn't some sit-com, where every problem is solved neatly in a half hour weekly episode. this isn't going to get fixed by next week.

As some of us noted last season, this is a problem that's been going on for awhile. And it's obviously still a real problem.

Getting Travis back will hide a lot of these issues, yes. And I won't be surprised if the offense looks competent, even good, when he does get back on the field, because Travis receives so much attention from defenses that some WR/RB just pops wide the **** open on a fairly regular basis.

But again, our WRs spent a ton of snaps just not getting open. Any of them. go back and look at that cutup someone posted. It's not good.



How many times does Pat hit his back foot, his hands separate in anticipation of throwing the ball on time, and then he has to reload and start looking for another receiver? At least a half dozen times in the first half alone. I stopped counting after that. And at least 4 times in just the first half he had to take off and run for the sticks. Considering that Pat only averages 2-3 scrambles like that per game for his career is just another indicator of a problem.

Now, in defense of the WRs, there was at least a couple times that a WR did come open and Pat missed him, or he threw a poor pass, or he was late throwing the ball.




But mostly the WRs as a unit couldn't get open on those snaps. And there were too many of them. I knew it was a problem when Pat took off on his 3rd run of the first half, as I'm sure many others did. Didn't even have to see the look of annoyance on Pat's face to see that.




Look, Skyy is still having trouble deciphering what to do/where to settle in zone. As some young WRs do in the NFL. We've seen guys take a couple full seasons (sometimes more) to figure out zone. We hope that it doesn't take Skyy until the end of this season, but right now that's his level of competence vs. zone.

MVS did in fact get open a couple times downfield and Pat just missed seeing him. But mostly, MVS is just who he is.

James . . . way back when we first picked him up, some analyst called him "decent rotational depth." Well, after watching him struggle last night, that may have been a more accurate assessment of Richie than we knew. Oh, and please take him off return duties.

Justin Watson played a decent game. But the fact that Watson was our 2nd leading WR is not a good sign.

Nothing really to say about Rice/Ross. Effectively they're both rooks, so in that regard, they were fine.

And Toney had a terrible game catching the ball. I think after the 2nd drop it really got into his head and shit just fell off a cliff after that. He did get open fairly regularly, something the rest of the WRs struggled with, but KT also ran some poor routes as well. Regardless, KT had a shitty game. Fortunately, we know he can play much better than he did last night, so probably that was an outlier performance, and he'll bounce back just fine.

But overall, that's a lot of problems in one room. We aren't fixing that in a week.


I said after the draft that it could take a couple months for this group to get squared away. Didn't see anything last night to change my mind about how long it might take for these guys to get their shit figured out.

Overall I don’t disagree. But problems that can be corrected? Toney not catching passes that changed the game - the pick six that bounced off his hands and a drive killing drop on the last drive of the game. That can be corrected. More reps for Rice to help with the drops. More reps for Pacheco to get back into game shape. Not sure who to blame on the James/Toney crosser but that is something that can be fixed in practice. Arguably those things change the course of the game.

[tredadda]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

Oh. No. Just no.


This isn't some sit-com, where every problem is solved neatly in a half hour weekly episode. this isn't going to get fixed by next week.

As some of us noted last season, this is a problem that's been going on for awhile. And it's obviously still a real problem.

Getting Travis back will hide a lot of these issues, yes. And I won't be surprised if the offense looks competent, even good, when he does get back on the field, because Travis receives so much attention from defenses that some WR/RB just pops wide the **** open on a fairly regular basis.

But again, our WRs spent a ton of snaps just not getting open. Any of them. go back and look at that cutup someone posted. It's not good.



How many times does Pat hit his back foot, his hands separate in anticipation of throwing the ball on time, and then he has to reload and start looking for another receiver? At least a half dozen times in the first half alone. I stopped counting after that. And at least 4 times in just the first half he had to take off and run for the sticks. Considering that Pat only averages 2-3 scrambles like that per game for his career is just another indicator of a problem.

Now, in defense of the WRs, there was at least a couple times that a WR did come open and Pat missed him, or he threw a poor pass, or he was late throwing the ball.




But mostly the WRs as a unit couldn't get open on those snaps. And there were too many of them. I knew it was a problem when Pat took off on his 3rd run of the first half, as I'm sure many others did. Didn't even have to see the look of annoyance on Pat's face to see that.




Look, Skyy is still having trouble deciphering what to do/where to settle in zone. As some young WRs do in the NFL. We've seen guys take a couple full seasons (sometimes more) to figure out zone. We hope that it doesn't take Skyy until the end of this season, but right now that's his level of competence vs. zone.

MVS did in fact get open a couple times downfield and Pat just missed seeing him. But mostly, MVS is just who he is.

James . . . way back when we first picked him up, some analyst called him "decent rotational depth." Well, after watching him struggle last night, that may have been a more accurate assessment of Richie than we knew. Oh, and please take him off return duties.

Justin Watson played a decent game. But the fact that Watson was our 2nd leading WR is not a good sign.

Nothing really to say about Rice/Ross. Effectively they're both rooks, so in that regard, they were fine.

And Toney had a terrible game catching the ball. I think after the 2nd drop it really got into his head and shit just fell off a cliff after that. He did get open fairly regularly, something the rest of the WRs struggled with, but KT also ran some poor routes as well. Regardless, KT had a shitty game. Fortunately, we know he can play much better than he did last night, so probably that was an outlier performance, and he'll bounce back just fine.

But overall, that's a lot of problems in one room. We aren't fixing that in a week.


I said after the draft that it could take a couple months for this group to get squared away. Didn't see anything last night to change my mind about how long it might take for these guys to get their shit figured out.

Last night was not a good showing by these WRs, but let’s wait until week 16-18 to revisit these evaluations before pronouncing them as the worst WRs in the league.

[In58men]

Time to talk about the elephant in the room….Reid belongs on the hot seat.

[MagicHef]

Tommy Townsend tried to put a helmet on, but found he was already wearing one.

https://twitter.com/highlightheaven/...51337914446310

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by MagicHef

Tommy Townsend tried to put a helmet on, but found he was already wearing one.

https://twitter.com/highlightheaven/...51337914446310

Tommy knows the importance of protecting yourself against CTE.