What Happened in the Loss to Buccaneers?
How the Defense is Losing Games!
After watching the game where we lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers my first thought was how awful the offense was. Then I wondered if it was more play calling or execution. Then I wondered if my cabin in Washington would sell. Then I refocused and wondered if I was simply feeling the sound bite or the really had the pulse of the issue.
After researching numerous articles and many statistics, I have come to the conclusion that this game wasn’t really what I thought it was. By that I mean, I felt (at different times) that the play-calling was poor, the QB play was poor, the play of the offensive skill-players was poor, the refs were poor, the defense was poor, and/or the defensive skill-player’s performance was poor.
While some, or all, of that may be true to differing degrees, I don’t think any of them made the ultimate difference in the game.
Taking a quick look at the offense, we can see that they delivered a touchdown, two field goals, and a punt (excluding the end of half kneel-down) in the first half. In the second half, we had a touchdown, a punt, and an interception (excluding the last second desperation bogus plays). So, of the 7 real series, there were 3 punts, 2 touchdowns, a field goal, and an INT. While an INT definitely doesn’t help, FGs miss out on points, and punts definitely get nothing but, is this really the problem? They did score on 43% of their series’.
While the offense isn’t overwhelming, it isn’t the worst ever either. Matter of fact, it comes down to team identity. If it is a defensive team, then you are probably looking for more opportunities with lower points per opportunity. If you are a juggernaut, then you can afford fewer opportunities, because you get more points per opportunity.
Now the defense on the other hand, it has been costing the Chiefs. At this point, the cost is a game. While you may say that the D is performing well, and I might agree, they aren’t performing great. They were 11-16 on third downs allowed, while the offense was only 4-8. Everyone is pointing at the offense but consider what the defense allowed.
If you couple the first downs with total plays, then it is even more apparent how that translated into offensive production (74 plays, 35:18 on the clock) vs KC ( 52 plays, 24:42 on the clock). This is almost 50% more plays and time.
How can a team be expected to win, when they are relying on enough series’ being FGs/TDs to be competitive? This is a different philosophy than a pure “outscore the opponent” philosophy. Either the Chiefs need to adapt player selection and play calling or continue to wait for a flawed development plan to emerge.
And there’s The Rub!
