A Grizzly Defeat

Of the many things in life a person should avoid doing, one is looking up images of a bear attack online. Talk about gut wrenching. The Chiefs performance on Sunday was almost at that level. The Bears came out and absolutely beat the Chiefs in every facet of the game.

It's not shameful to lose to the defending NFC champions, in their house. It was expected. The thing that made this performance unacceptable is the way the Chiefs lost the game. Herman Edwards and offensive coordinator Mike Solari claim to want to run a ball-control offense. Yet, I counted at least three times that they had the ball on third down with one or two yards to go and they passed the ball. The result? One interception and two incomplete passes.

They can't even be conservative when the situation warrants it! Aren't they paying Larry Johnson $45 million to gain a yard in these situations? Do you know how hard it is to stop a 230 pound, Pro Bowl running back from gaining one yard? Apparently, Edwards and Solari don't. No, they would much rather run a fade route to Samie Parker who was dwarfed by the Bears corners. Mike Solari's play calling reminds me of when you go to Target or Wal Mart and see a five-year-old kid playing the free "Madden NFL 2007" demo. To say it's horrible would be an insult to Jimmie Ray and Paul Hackett. The thing that really sums up how crappy this offense is, is that the only touchdown came off consecutive broken plays. The first was a pass to Tony Gonzalez that went directly between the hands of Hunter Hillenmeyer. The second was when Dwayne Bowe poached a pass meant for Gonzalez for the touchdown. Though, I will say Bowe's catch was one of two exciting parts of the day for the offense. The other was Bowe's would-be second touchdown that was called back because of an illegal shift.

Special teams was just as atrocious. Devin Hester showed up and predictibly made the Chiefs look stupid. If it weren't for an unecessary hold by one of his teammates, he would have returned TWO kicks for touchdowns. So, what about the Chiefs "stud" returner Eddie Drummond? Well at least he didn't fumble this week. Someone get Justin Phinnesee on the phone now.

Dave Rayner was an improvement over Justin Medlock despite kicking a field goal so low it was blocked and kicking a kickoff out of bounds after their only touchdown drive. I'm not kidding, this was actually better than the previous five weeks.

The defense was once again ... ok. Let me start by saying that I hate the Cover-2. The Chiefs corners aren't fast/young enough to run it anymore. There's just something wrong with a defense that encourages an opposing team to take five yards on first down, consistently. If Peyton Manning isn't your quarterback or your defense doesn't have cornerbacks as good as Nathan Vasher and Charles Tillman, you will be ordinary at best. That is the 2007 Chiefs ladies and gentleman. Rex Grossman tried to give that game away yesterday and the defense couldn't hit that next gear to bury the Bears offense. The defensive backs are just too inconsistent to play this zone defense. I guess that is what you get when you sign two great man-to-man corners and ask them to play zone defense.

All of this brings me to my last point. Why are they continuing to start Huard? While I think that Huard has done an admirable job with very little, he isn't the future. For better or worse, Brodie Croyle needs to be evaluated. This team isn't going anywhere. Put Croyle in and see what you have. That way when the draft rolls around and you have a rare high pick, you know whether to go quarterback or not. The Chiefs HAVE to make this move. This year is lost and it's time to go with the full-blown youth movement. If they start Damon Huard for the rest of the year and go 2-14, and then they pass on Brian Brohm, Colt Brennan or "unknown out of nowhere quarterback 2008" by saying that Croyle is the future, I'll probably go crazy. Full blown, Margo Kidder/Britney Spears insane.

Next week the Chiefs play Minnesota at home. I really think this is their best chance at a win all year. They normally play well at home even in down years and Tarvaris Jackson is he quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings (expect him to run the bootleg and futher perplex the Chiefs defense ala Jake Plummer). On second thought, this team is coached by Herman Edwards. My guess: Chiefs 10 - Vikings 28. The Chiefs will give up another turnover for a touchdown and Adrian Peterson will go nuts.