Preseason Week 1 Observations

Sure it's only Week 1 of the preseason, but that doesn't mean there aren't observations to be made. Here's a quick breakdown of what I saw from the AFC West this past weekend.

Note: I didn't get to watch much of the Oakland game, but I did catch most of the 1st half which is what I use to gauge performances this early in the season.

Denver: 24-33 L to Cincinnati -- The Good: Kyle Orton put on a passing clinic against a pretty good Bengals secondary. The short and mid range passing game was especially impressive. The Bad: Outside of Champ Bailey, Akin Ayodele, and Mario Hagan, the defense showed some holes. There is a noticeable presence missing at OLB where Robert Ayers simply is not Elvis Dumervil. The Ugly: If you take away all the positive and negative hype over Tebow and simply address his performance, he didn't play poorly. He made some solid passes and moved well. But he also made some mistakes, as all rookies do. The Tebow faithful will point out that he had a couple of nice passes dropped by receivers, one of which was a TD pass. The Tebow haters will point out that he had a couple of bad passes dropped by defenders. Both sides are right. He stood tall in the pocket and showed composure, but he also held on to the ball to long and didn't feel the pressure very well. He ran the ball well and scored his first rushing TD of his career, but he certainly learned that it's not like running over some undersized FIU linebacker. Guys in the NFL can hit.

Kansas City: 20-10 L to Atlanta -- The Good: The backfield was impressive. Jamaal Charles, Dexter McCluster, Kestahn Moore, and Javarris Williams all had good nights both rushing and receiving. The Bad: Kansas City's obvious inability to stretch the field is going to be a sore spot this year. Cassel simply doesn't have the arm strength to be an elite passer, Croyle belongs in a china shop, and Palko is officially on my hit list. The Ugly: The Chief defense was up and down. The opening drive was ugly but only resulted in a FG. The rest of the first half was a shut out as the D seemed to wake up and realize that it was football season. The backups didn't look very impressive which means this team will probably struggle late in the game as they did last year.

Oakland: 17-9 W over Dallas -- The Good: The defense is definitely the strength of this team. That is what will keep the Raiders competitive as the season goes on. The Bad: The o-line can still be confused with a revolving door. They have to buy Campbell some time and open running lanes for the backs if this offense wants to see any success. The Ugly: Campbell showed that he very well could be a leader for this team. He needs to get his receivers on the same page as him, but there is definitely some progress being made.

San Diego: 25-10 W over Chicago -- The Good: Rivers. There really isn't anything else that needs to be said about this team. This is his team and they will succeed or fail with him. If this game was any indication, then the Chargers have moved on from McNeil and Jackson. The Bad: The 1st and 2nd team defenses struggled a little. There looks to be some improvement on defense but there remains a question as to whether or not it's enough to help this team in the playoffs. The Ugly: Ryan Mathews is going to be a necessity for this team to win in the postseason. He looked strong with some decent runs against a (traditionally) tough defense. But he also showed a lot of impatience and nervousness, although that is to be expected from a rookie who is being called upon as a workhorse starting RB.