Daboll gets Chiefs’ offense moving

[KcMizzou]

Posted on Fri, Aug. 10, 2012
Babb | Daboll gets Chiefs’ offense moving
By KENT BABB
The Kansas City Star

There he goes again, perpetual motion, patting Dexter McCluster on the side and then lifting his microphone to say something to Matt Cassel and then starting the second half with some words of encouragement, surely, to a replacement line judge.

Brian Daboll doesn’t sit still for long, and maybe that’s understandable. This is an important season not only for the Chiefs but also for Daboll, their first-year offensive coordinator. Both the man and the team have in recent years been pictures of inconsistency, of perpetual movement; Daboll is the Chiefs’ sixth coordinator in six years, and the Chiefs are Daboll’s third employer since 2010.

Now they’ve found each other, and maybe the motion can stop.

On Friday night the Chiefs played their first preseason game, a 27-17 win against the Arizona Cardinals at Arrowhead Stadium. It was a game that meant almost nothing, but there are hints of optimism and concern even in a game like that. Maybe nobody deserved the hope he earned Friday like Daboll.

His calls weren’t reckless and unexplainable. They weren’t boring and conservative. When the first-team offense participated, the Chiefs made magic — two series of brilliance. By the time you read this, Twitter and message boards and blogs already will be firing posts that ask things like this: Did you see Matt Cassel on Friday night? What about Dexter McCluster and Peyton Hillis?

The Chiefs’ starting offense was two for two against the Cardinals, scoring touchdowns on each of its possessions. Cassel completed five of six passes. McCluster had three catches for 45 yards. Hillis averaged 10.3 yards per carry. The man behind all that, along with a brief but impressive showing of variation and timing, seemed to know how to take advantage of a mediocre defense — something that has, in recent seasons, appeared more complicated than it should’ve been. Remember last year’s preseason opener? The Chiefs scored zero points against a defense that went on to allow the most points in the league.

The tricky part is to withhold excitement or any kind of movement that Daboll and all those players belong in the Hall of Honor after two possessions of the preseason opener. Really, is there an event that offers more fool’s gold in all of professional sports? One-week legends are made in games like this, and expectations are lifted and inflated until they pop, and anyway, is there any other reason why people in Kansas City still know the names of Casey Printers and Bobby Sippio?

But what’s interesting about the early part of Friday’s performance is that the people who will enter the season with the most pressure, answered the bell the first time they heard it. Cassel has been knocked in the mouth, criticized and booed in his home city. McCluster has been mostly given up on, forgotten in advance because he’s a player without a position, a man without a country. Hillis rushed for 1,177 yards in 2010, but otherwise he has mostly played like the seventh-round pick he was in the ’08 draft.

Maybe nobody, though, begins this season facing as much pressure and as many raised eyebrows as Daboll. He wasn’t particularly successful in Cleveland or Miami, and when the Chiefs hired him in February, the overriding sentiment in town was: Really? This is the best Romeo Crennel and the Chiefs can do?

It was difficult then to learn much about Daboll or his offense because he has never sat still long enough to get a fair read. He had a reputation in previous stops as surly and combative; reporters expected dry, thoughtless answers, and players learned two years ago of his short temper when he blasted Browns quarterback Colt McCoy so loudly that teammates could hear Daboll screeching through McCoy’s helmet speaker.

By the time Chiefs’ training camp started in St. Joseph, Daboll had the look of a man who knew something needed to change. The life of a nomad is good for no man, let alone one who coaches football. Success is often attained through consistency, and Daboll simply hasn’t had that luxury the last three seasons — let go when his head coach (Eric Mangini in Cleveland, Tony Sparano in Miami) was fired.

These last two weeks, Daboll ran around the practice field like a teenager on a sugar rush, wearing a bright yellow shirt and a bucket hat with the bill flipped up. He smiled after practices and joked with journalists, behaving like a man who’d like to stay and sit a while.

“I love what I do,” Daboll said after a practice early in camp. Daboll didn’t speak to reporters after the game.

Maybe none of it means anything. Training camp, that meaningless victory Friday night at Arrowhead — who’s to say they’re not mirages? Cassel hasn’t read a defense like that since his Pro Bowl season two years ago. Including practices, McCluster hasn’t seemed this dependable since college. And Hillis hasn’t broken a run like his 28-yarder Friday night since the ninth week of the 2010 season.

“He was getting into a rhythm,” Crennel said of Daboll. “He knew what he wanted to call. He knew what the opponent was giving us, and he knew what he needed to do to take advantage of that.”

Daboll and many of his players have baggage and moments in time they’d like to forget. Friday won’t be remembered in the long term, but for at least this next week, it’ll be discussed and picked apart, before it’s go time again. Nothing will be certain, though, about the Chiefs’ new coordinator, his scheme or the players who’ll make it work until the games start counting.

But Daboll and his offense earned some trust with that abbreviated showing at Arrowhead Stadium. If nothing else, Friday will make the skeptics stop and watch, to pay attention to the man who rarely stops moving, to see what Daboll has in mind next.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/10...se-moving.html

[mcaj22]

if you remember last season to the Dolphins when they beat us down, this is how their offense was in terms of being organized and structured.

Daboll is a competitive guy, I think an upgrade over Haley/Old Man Puppet OC.

[RealSNR]

People had their periods when Daboll was hired because he had a shitty record of coordinating successful offenses in Cleveland and Miami.

I wasn't too excited because it was just another lazy-ass pick by this regime. Another "Nobody wants to work for the Chiefs because we have trust issues. Let's just pick another former Patriot staff member and be safe." But it appears this guy really knows what he's doing. I like what he can do for us.

Consider me officially a fan of Brian Daboll.

[mcaj22]

and he wears a ****ing Gilligan hat. you have to give zero ****s to promote a product like that with the teams logo

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Go ahead, Chief. Start a poll about Dane McCloud. It's never been done in the history of Chiefsplanet, so you'd be the first. I'm sure that all of your Mod friends would give you virtual high fives.

Good job missing the point of it all dumbass. I challenged you to do it because you were the one who claimed such supremecy. I never cared about popularity at all. You can re-read my posts to confirm that. You won't though because you're drunk and ready to give up... while you claim I'm that way.

I'd heard about you and honestly I expected more. You're nothing but another dumbass on CP pretending to be all cool.

[notorious]

Originally Posted by SNR

Consider me officially a fan of Brian Daboll.

Let's not start sucking each others' dicks just yet.




Excited, yes. Give me a few more games before I'm a fan.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by notorious

Let's not start sucking each others' dicks just yet.




Excited, yes. Give me a few more games before I'm a fan.

I'm with you but I also share his enthusiasm. It's been a long, long time since the Chiefs have given us something to be excited about this early in the season.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Dr. Johnny Fever

Good job missing the point of it all dumbass. I challenged you to do it because you were the one who claimed such supremecy. I never cared about popularity at all. You can re-read my posts to confirm that. You won't though because you're drunk and ready to give up... while you claim I'm that way.

I'd heard about you and honestly I expected more. You're nothing but another dumbass on CP pretending to be all cool.

You're boring.

You're not particularly sharp or witty, nor are you engaging or smart. You're dull. You have nothing to add and nothing to say that hasn't been said before. No perspective, no insight, no nothing.

Good luck. You're gonna need it.

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by SNR

People had their periods when Daboll was hired because he had a shitty record of coordinating successful offenses in Cleveland and Miami.

I wasn't too excited because it was just another lazy-ass pick by this regime. Another "Nobody wants to work for the Chiefs because we have trust issues. Let's just pick another former Patriot staff member and be safe." But it appears this guy really knows what he's doing. I like what he can do for us.

Consider me officially a fan of Brian Daboll.

I enjoyed watching the bleeding vaginas when he was hired.

Like you, I wasn't excited about it.

The jury is still out, but I'm optimistic.

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

You're boring.

Is that why you couldn't leave me alone all night?

You are hereby banned from reading anything I ever post again... especially new threads. **** right off you ignorant dumbass.

4th chance to show me where I called you out....................... yeah.... didn't think so.

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

You're boring.

You're not particularly sharp or witty, nor are you engaging or smart. You're dull. You have nothing to add and nothing to say that hasn't been said before. No perspective, no insight, no nothing.

Good luck. You're gonna need it.

Dane McPoopypants describes himself upon edit.

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

I'm stoked for the season. 10 wins is the bottom and I can see 12 if the team stays healthy. I really think they're that good.

Clay's head...

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Dr. Johnny Fever

4th chance to show me where I called you out....................... yeah.... didn't think so.

That Colt 45 must taste good this late at night

[Dr. Johnny Fever]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

That Colt 45 must taste good this late at night

5th chance.... gonna fail again?

Go figure.

Idiot.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Dave

Clay's head...

No offense to you, but who gives a **** what Clay thinks? That kid has been trying to make himself the focal point of this forum since he joined and unfortunately, I think it's finally worked.

I don't dislike him or his contributions here but it seems like his "opinions", which change every time he farts, have far more influence here than in the past. It's bizarre.

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

No offense to you, but who gives a **** what Clay thinks? That kid has been trying to make himself the focal point of this forum since he joined and unfortunately, I think it's finally worked.

I don't dislike him or his contributions here but it seems like his "opinions", which change every time he farts, have far more influence here than in the past. It's bizarre.

None taken...

I know 95% of his post are attention-whoring.

Admittedly, I get caught up in it.

It will be entertaining to watch him flip in about 3 months.