By David Bell
Saturday, the Kansas City Chiefs played the San Francisco 49ers in their first preseason game. Johnnie, we hardly knew ye… er Patrick, was on the field for the first series and we lose sight of him after that. Chad Henne did not really get things done, although he threw one TD pass, but finally, 4th string QB, Shane Buechele, engineered a game-winning drive, scoring a TD with the Chiefs having called his own number.
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I was pleased about the game for one reason that most didn’t catch. Reid used Fullback Mike Burton early in the game. I like that. We may not have the “Sausage” to provide that force anymore, but Burton seems to fit!
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Laddie did a run-down on the game so I will refrain from going back over the same ground. I’ll cover: the OL, DL, and Cornerbacks. Yes, I think there are some kinks to work through. However overall, I came away from the Saturday performance by these three groups as positive as I can be related to a team which just finished playing their first preseason game.
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I originally wanted to see Gay and Bolton, and Hitchens and cover that as group, but Gay was in civvies so I will leave the LB group out… except to note that Darius Harris, Omari Cobb, and Emmanuel Smith all got it their licks during the contest. Omari Cobb stood out. Nick Bolton also had a couple of photo ops, but nothing much otherwise. It was the lesser LBs that caught the attention of the fans and coaches. We’ll see how Reid and Spags roll with the LBs in week two.
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The Offensive Line
I wasn’t greatly impressed by the starters on the OL, nor disappointed. The work they did as the front-end of the offense — the men in the trenches — established views that were designed to inform Andy Heck what needed to be coached as individual players and as a unit. The starters were only in for the first quarter. We only got to look at the Five earmarked starters for 3 series’ and only the first was with Patrick Mahomes. Then it was on to the twos and threes. Not enough was done in week one to put a checkmark on the OL box indicating that I trust the group for a season, or for a reason.
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3 Rookies
If I were to focus only on the rookies — Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith, and Lucas Niang — I would say that they had good moments in their snaps together on the field. They also had their plays where the effect was negative, but there weren’t too, many of those downside moments.
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Brown and Thuney
Looking to the left side both Brown and Thuney showed us that they are old Pros, giving us solid examples of why Brett Veach brought them to the Kingdom. only getting a brief glimpse of them working as a unit. My point about the OL is, I didn’t see glaring errors or miscues. We did see them move the defenders backward in the run game. The group wasn’t in long enough to fail at pass protection either. We also saw plays where the blocking was ineffective. Not bad, just blocking that didn’t unfold as designed. If I took my 3 C’s (Consistency, Cohesiveness, and Continuity) and added a 4th ‘C’ (Communication), then we should judge the unit as having done the basics. We need to see a lot more force as we proceed through the rest of camp and in the remaining two preseason games.
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The Backups
I liked the fact that we got to see Yasir Durant play some football. I am sure that the Chief’s coaching staff saw what they needed for the upcoming week’s work. Later in the game, players swapped roles, with linemen moving to alternate positions. This was an important test — to find Wylie as a Guard and then moved to Tackle, or Allegretti as a guard and also swapping–to Center. I don’t have a grading system for my viewpoint other than stating that this or that play was high positive or terribly negative or somewhere in the middle(Neutral). Andy Reid didn’t really bring focus to the OL in his post-game presser so he apparently felt the same way I did about the overall progress of the developing OL Unit. These men have work to do but the essentials were visible which means, at least for me, that the OL will improve each outing.
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The Defensive Line
Frank Clark did not suit up, so my take on the DL is a bit skewed due to his absence. Still, I thought the DL played some very solid football. The Chiefs recorded 5 sacks and tons of pressures and boy howdy, was that good to see. We didn’t see the starters very long, but the rest of the players had some outstanding contributions.
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Standouts for me? It was really after the ‘ones’ were off the field, but I should observe that Chris Jones recorded a sack (I have already given my mea culpa about Jones moving outside in a past article. He does look like he is the ‘real McCoy’!. The interception by Armani Watts was due to pressure on the QB. This is how it should work. Solid effort from the front four makes the job assignments a lot easier for players to make plays. We saw that with both Mike Hughes and Deandre Baker both coming close to making an interception.
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I don’t think the DL performed well versus the run, giving up 175 yards rushing. This needs to improve significantly. Trying to gauge how poorly the run defense was, is tough to do, but the breaks fell the 49ers way. It could easily have been a game where the opponent was held to about 125 yards which would be far more acceptable. The breakaway runs were due to the LB’s and secondary failing to fill up the box and make tackles behind the big men.
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That the Chiefs held the 49’ers under 17 points is a good frame of reference. That is was my magic number to see if the defense has done their job. Two seasons ago I upped my magic number to 20 due to the league-wide focus on the aerial game. Overall I rated the defense highly and the DL with a high positive, with the caveat: not stopping the run. In fact, anytime the front four brings pressure to a QB as they did in this game, it gets a 5-star evaluation. One player stood out for me in this game, and that was DE Tim Ward.
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Ward was doing his job and made a big play, on a pass play, as the clock wound down to close out Frisco at the end of the game. I would also mention Turk Wharton. In 2020, Wharton was fighting for snaps and Mike Pennel was trying to fend him off. It didn’t work and Wharton moved up in the snap count. Turk is the man in 2021 and it showed up in this game.
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I thought DE Tershawn Wharton also played a very good game. If this level of play continues from the depth players, I expect to see a very strong defensive front this season. Spagnuolo and Daly will be swapping different players in and utilizing their talent, being able to move people inside or outside making the front 4 a tough cookie to decipher. This overall group looks to help make the 2021 Chiefs defense a force to contend with.
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Cornerbacks
This is probably the group that I am most pleased about. Obviously, save the single long TD (80 yards) which was on an error with his feet by UDFA Devon Key. I am not going to rip him up and down on that. It hopefully will be the way he cuts the learning curve and avoids getting trapped again with the need to swap inside to outside and/or vice versa. I really liked Armani Watt’s Interception.
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That was something that boosted my spirits and it certainly caught the team commander of the back of the defenses’ attention — Tyrann Mathieu was a huge cheerleader for Watts as they ran to the bench area. That was great stuff to see.
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Rashad Fenton nearly had a pick in the game and his coverage was very good to see. Sneed didn’t dress so this was not really a starting crew because I Charvarius Ward and L’Jarius Sneed should be the two primary CBs with Fenton added when the defense sets the Nickel.
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What I really like is what I saw from our new former round one draft picks added by Brett Veach this off-season: newcomers with meaning and a crescendo — Mike Hughes and Deandre Baker — added to my mix of the ‘Usual Suspects. Review “A Tale of Two New Cornerbacks” here.
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With Charvarius Ward and L’jarius Sneed being the two primary CBs, if we continue to see the high level of coverage offered by Hughes and Baker, then my worry about having 5 CBs with only 40 starts among them is null and void.
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An added bonus is how Mike Hughes fits the kick return game for Dave Toub!
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Toasting the Chiefs
A low-scoring game is not as exciting as a game where both teams are throwing up 6 points each trip down the field. It is just as nerve-wracking, however. I mention Shane Buechele’s last drive and having the #4 QB engineer the team down the field was great to see. Credo’s to this him. He started for Texas and then transferred to SMU when the Longhorns HC made the decision to start Sam Ehlinger and not Buechele. The coaches choice took place in 2018 and that’s what caused Shane to shift schools even though he’d shown great talent and leadership in Austin. At SMU he again played with leadership, poise, and panache. I think the Chiefs are fortunate to have obtained his services. Now, the question is, can they find a place on their roster for him
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I don’t personally worry about winning preseason games. I thought the coaches got to see what they needed to see. Yes, there are some kinks in the system. I have no doubt they will get ironed out. However, getting a win, was nice, too.
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David Bell — ArrowheadOne
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