Kansas City Chiefs Laddie Morse

Chiefs: Sense and Non-sensibility

LadnerMorse October 23, 2018 No Comments

 

 

 

Chiefs: Sense and Non-sensibility

 

by Laddie Morse

 

Trading and the Trade Deadline

Tuesday, October 30, at 3:00 CST, is the NFL Trade Deadline and all possible moves that teams could make must be turned into the league office by that time.

 

One trade that has already taken place, which has an effect on the Chiefs, is the Oakland Raiders trade of WR Amari Cooper to the Dallas Cowboys for a #1 pick in the 2019 draft. Many feel that Cooper is not worth a #1 pick while others are happy the Cowboys finally have a #1 WR for Dak Prescott to throw to.

 

No matter which side of that debate you’re on, you have to admit that the trade of the Raiders best offensive threat will weaken them over the next couple of years, as will the trade which sent the Raiders best defensive player to Chicago. $100M HC Jon Gruden says he’s still trying to win this year:

 

 

 

 

The week after trading away pass rusher Kahlil Mack, Gruden stated that it’s hard to find, “great pass rushers” so fans are wondering the same here:

 

 

 

 

For Chiefs fans, it means the Raiders will be in “re-building” mode for years to come and should not present much problem on the field for the foreseeable future. It’s hard to imagine any of their players buying into the idea that their coach is trying to win this season. You have to question how many of their players are thinking, “Am I next to go?” It’s not an environment conducive to going all out or feeling that your efforts will be appreciated.  

 

Gruden’s popularity rose with his Monday Night Football announcer’s gig but his performance as a coach has never been stellar. He has a 39-31 record in Oakland (1998-2001, 2018) and a 57-55 record in Tampa Bay (2002-2008) which makes him 96-86 overall. That, of course, includes the 12-4 year (2002) he took over the Tony Dungy team that he won the Suer Bowl with. Take away that year and he’d be 84-82 and certainly headed for a sub-.500 record by year’s end.

 

I almost feel sorry for the Raiders… uhh… naw. I don’t

 

The State of the Chiefs Defense

After Sunday’s drubbing of the Cincinnati Bengals and the Chiefs defense holding them to 10 points, they are now ranked 26th in the league in total points allowed. That’s a nice jump up from 32nd in the first 6 weeks of the season.

 

Chiefs fans don’t need a stat sheet to know that the performance of the defense on Sunday against the Bengals was a much improved performance. Some players had standout performances:

 

  • Dee Ford continued to put pressure on the QB and ended up with another sack,
  • Chris Jones is a dominant presence along the DL no matter where they line him up and he had another sack as well,
  • Steven Nelson was rated by PFF (92.7) the best CB in the league & made the “Team of the Week”

 

 

 

  • Dorian O’Daniel- the rookie OLB made several plays on RBs coming out of the backfield, something he excelled at during his time at Clemson and he should get more snaps for it. He got 25 snaps on Sunday.

 

 

 

Yep, He Said That

Usually we don’t her player say some of the things we’re thinking. After the game on Sunday, Ron Parker said, “It was really important for us to bounce back. We were challenged last week and the first L was a tough one. I think, as a whole, offense, defense and special teams, we bounced back good today.

 

On Monday, when asked about the defensive improvement, Andy Reid said, “I thought we took a step in the right direction there.”

 

When asked about the beginning of the game, Patrick Mahomes said, “It starts off with the defense. The defense gets a big stop on that first drive, gets the ball back in our hands. Ran through our script and I thought we made a lot of plays.”

 

During the game cast, announcer Cris Collinsworth said this about playing the Chiefs, “It’s like playing the Globetrotters.”

 

Ron Parker said this after the game, “It’s pretty crazy, my daughter was actually asking me before the game why I don’t ever score touchdowns. That one was for her.” Parker had more to say.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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