Final score doesn't really mean much in preseason games. Especially true when almost all the points come in the second half.
Halftime score had KC and Atlanta deadlocked at 3.
KC's 1st team defense looks much better. They gave up a long opening drive but seemed to settle down and held Matt Ryan and the Falcons offense to virtually nothing. Plenty of pressure from the front 7, didn't result in any sacks or turnovers, but 3 sack opportunities resulted in an intentional grounding call, a false start (barely early and too bad because Dorsey would've killed Ryan), and a pass stopped in the backfield. Michael Turner was able to grab a couple decent runs on the opening drive, but KC's run defense tightened up and limited any further production. A couple of decent gains by Tony Gonzalez were also key for the Falcons.
Brian Waters (and his backup Darryl Harris) was out for this game and it definitely showed. Thomas Jones was only able to grab 2 yards on 2 carries. However, Jamaal Charles picked up 37 on 4 carries while Dexter McCluster grabbed 25 on 5 carries. There have been questions asked about McCluster's ability to take an NFL hit. He took several today and bounced right back up after each one. He even tucked his head and ran straight at a couple linemen on one play. Kestahn Moore flashed some ability on a couple of plays, but he also had a couple of mental errors that show why he's destined to be #3 on the depth chart. There is a problem at RT as Ryan O'Callahan appeared to be a liability against speed rushers.
The passing game wasn't really shown today. Mostly short to mid range passes and not much stretching the field, which is to be expected with Matt Cassel. Brodie Croyle came in and looked sharp early but seemed to fall apart with his later snaps. Tyler Palko has already been summed up by Charlie Weiss: "You're 0 for August, Palko!"
Dustin Colquitt looked to pick up where he left off from last year as one of the better punters in the league. Ryan Succop went 1-3 but both misses were from 53. The first one hit the upright (about 9/10 of the way up) while the second flared outside at the last second. Both would have had the distance from another 10 yards away easily. Javier Arenas got a chance to show off his skills with a great 42 yard kickoff return, and sold a fake fair catch well enough to catch the defenders queued in on him instead of the ball (rolled into the endzone for a touchback).
The questions after tonight's game are:
1. Will KC's defense play like it did on the opening drive or like it did on the following drives against the 1st and 2nd team offenses?
2. Was tonight's o-line failure because Brian Waters was out, or is there a bigger problem?
3. Will KC be able to stretch the field with Cassel at the helm?
4. Do the Chiefs have enough depth to be competitive with middle of the pack teams?
Learn, discuss and debate what's going on with the teams in the NFL's AFC Western Division minus the hate, immaturity and stupidity found on the ESPN Blog or anywhere else.
i think what you get with cassell will be 20-25 td and 12-15 ints , the running game will be strong for the chiefs and cassell should benefit from that in the passing game ! bowe and , chambers look too be a good one two so the next step is te , slott wr ( mccluster ?) , and improvements on the line . as far as d berry was a great draft pick and coach c will get this d in order , however defence for the chiefs is goint to be one probably two drafts and fa away ! but i beleive this offence is good enough tobwin some games on its own as i said before 7-8 games won for chiefs this year ! great piece brother !!
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