Laddie Morse
I’m not so sure I should be the one to write this article. I felt pretty down and miserable after the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 21-to-17 on Monday Night Football. However, after awaking the next morning, I feel hopeful, as I usually do. After all, I’ve been writing about the Chiefs on a daily/weekly basis for over ten years now and in that time, I dare say, K.C. has often stunk up the place. There are players who now give the team hope — and not all of those play defense either — so let’s talk about some of those performers.
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Running Back Isiah Pacheco
Isiah Pacheco — Pop — gained 89 yards on MNF vs the Eagles and he was one of the Chiefs top performers. Another aspect of his game that I appreciate is his catches. He was targeted once and he caught that ball. IOW, he was one-for-one. That’s important to note because the Chiefs had 24 catches out of 39 targets, overall.
It’s not just the 89 yards that gives me hope, it’s the way Pop goes about his business. He runs as hard as any player I’ve ever seen … and I’ve seen a lot of Running Backs over the years. If HC Andy Redi and OC Matt Nagy can figure out a way to get the ball in his hands more, they’ll have an unbeatable offense.
To say Pop is “electric” is simply a cop out and his performance should be noted more thoroughly. Here’s Pop on Monday Night Football versus the Eagles (0:23):
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Rookie WR Rashee Rice
Darius Slay was juked by Rashee Rice and he didn’t even move a muscle, he just fell to the ground (0:02):
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B/R Gridiron published this one as a joke about the juke:
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Rashee Rice (420 yards) has already become the Chiefs leading receiver behind only Travis Kelce (641 yards). Last week, before this game on MNF, in a piece written by Ian Van Roy he says:
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“Rashee Rice and Travis Kelce listed as equal starters at two varying positions. However, Kelce has more of a starting role than Rice in the passing game. Kelce has caught 57 catches for 597 yards and four touchdowns this year. Meanwhile, Rice has caught 32 passes for 378 yards and four touchdowns.”
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Of course, Kelce is at 641 receiving yards now and Rice is at 420, but the points is taken: both players are now starters and the point of this article is that Rice is out of time to become a heavy contributor because the name of this piece is: “NFL analyst believes Rashee Rice is out of time – “No more trying to figure it out”“
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Rice should be a wonderful WR is Andy Reid’s system for years to come. His time is now.
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Wide Receiver and Kick Returner, Kadarius Toney
Head Coach Andy Reid has stated that he wants to bring KT along slowly following his knee surgery back in July. However, Toney made a statemtn in this game with his Punt Returns with 6 returns for 58 yards and a long one for 21. Special Teams coach Dave Toub said today (on Tuesday) that Kadarius “Gave us a little bit of a spark.” I should say so. Here KT’s 21 yard punt return (0:14):
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Toney also caught two balls and perhaps more importantly, he had no drops.
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Fixability and the Plus of This Loss
There aren’t any other teams who are thinking now — after the Chiefs blew this game to the Eagles — that they are going to be the one’s to knock off the Chiefs either in the regualr season or the playoffs when they roll around. No one wants to face K.C. now even though the Eagles have beaten them. Why, you ask? Because although K.C. lost, they didn’t show any great signs of weakness. Sure, we all know the wide receivers need to step it up… but no other team’s head coaches are making plans to beat the Chiefs based on this loss. David Ferguson has stated on Twitter:
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David Ferguson talks about “perspective” so here a short Twitter vid to help us keep that agle of the dangle all straightened out:
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The Defense is perhaps the biggest reason to hope. Chris Jones and Drue Tranquill, Nick Bolton and Wilie Gay and all the DBs. Trent McDuffie is now probably the best corner in the NFL. L’Jarius Sneed is not far behind and he was given the duty of following ht e Eagles best Wr the whole game and A.J. Brown came out with 1 catch for 8 yards. That’s incredible. The whole defense played well:
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If you’re looking for a great place to hang your hat on the Chiefs, then it’s probably best to hang it on the defense. There, hope abounds! Plus, here’s a great vid by Dan Orlovsky sorting out exactly how the Chiefs offensive issues can be fixed:
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Here’s more from Dan O. on the fixability of the Chiefs issues(3:05).
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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