Are You Kidding Me? Chiefs - Chargers Game

SD - 20                          KC - 17

The comeback was on in San Diego. After being shutout in the first half, the Chiefs offense had collectively rallied and fed off a strong offensive showing. The Chiefs defense stopped the Chargers on 4th and inches, giving the ball back to a offense that had gained momentum in the second half. Cassel completed a deep pass to Leonard Pope that had us near field goal range. With around a minute left, and with all the football gods seemingly giving us their blessing, the Chiefs looked like they could tie this game up if not win it. And then . . .

Cassel softly landed the ball into the hands of Chargers safety Eric Weddle . . . on a screen pass.

Call it poetic justice or poetic injustice; call it irony or bad luck; call it ******* Cassel is the worst ******** quarterback in the NFL. Call it what you want, because it happened and even as I write this, I can't quite comprehend what happened.

However, there is a silver lining to this loss (or maybe I'm just a madman). So here I breakdown the game:

Things the Chiefs Did Well

• The Chiefs defense looked like it did last season. For the most part it controlled the line of scrimmage (first decent games out of Tyson Jackson and Glenn Dorsey this year), it created turnovers (2 interceptions, and one near fumble recovery), and it only gave up 20 points to a high powered Chargers offense. The defense kept the Chiefs in the game, and if not for a couple of bad plays (mostly by the same player), they could have held the Chargers to fewer points. Wallace Gilberry and Tamba Hali would both record sacks as well.
• The offense awakened for the first time all season in the second half, scoring more points in two quarters than they had in their first two games. Cassel was 17/24 for 176 yards and 2 touchdowns. Bowe had one of those touchdown receptions, and also had 67 yards on four receptions. When Bowe went down with injury, Cassel started getting a connection with new Chief Steve Breaston (maybe Cassel should continue looking at Breaston after this game), having 3 receptions for 55 yards. 
• Although our running game never really got up and going, Dexter McCluster looked decent, going for 45 yards on 9 carries, and adding another 17 yards catching. And although most of McCluster's carries and catches came on draw plays or screen passes, it looked at times that McCluster was getting carries that Jamaal Charles would have been getting if not injured. 
• All-in-all, we improved in every facet. 

Things the Chiefs Could Have Done Better

• First half play-calling. Once again, Bill Muir was calling plays, and once again, we couldn't score. Not only could we not score, but we didn't get one first down the entire first half, going 3 and out on all of our possessions except the one on which we missed the field goal (which was only 3 plays anyway). But something changed at halftime. Play-calling started becoming more dynamic compared to the stupid simplicity of the first half. This change in procedure, plus a short shot of Haley looking at a play sheet and talking in his headset (which could mean anything), leads me to believe that Haley started calling the majority of the plays in the second half. If this turns out to be true, given the second half success the offense had, then it would be inexcusable for Haley not to continue calling plays in the future. 
• Piscitelli is awful. He misjudged a pass that should have been an interception; he missed tackles; he blew coverages; he was awful. If we had the Eric Berry and Kendrick Lewis combo compared to the Piscitelli-McGraw combo we were forced to live with, this game could have been different on defense. 
• Once again, Matt Cassel could have been better (how many times am I going to say that?). Cassel didn't have a single turnover on the game, which was much better than the first two games, until the last offensive play of the game. A screen pass aimed at Dexter McCluster fell right into the hands of the Chargers, and the comeback dream was over. What upsets me the most is why Cassel threw it. McCluster had yet to turn around, the pass was about 3 yards off anyway, and there was no reason to try to force a screen pass that had obviously been blown up anyway. It was probably easy for the Chargers to recognize that screen pass since that was the play the Chiefs ran about 10 times that game.  Also, Cassel was once again held under 200 yards passing. Cassel is becoming little more than a game manager, a bad one nonetheless, if he's not one already. 
• Ryan Succop missed a 38 yard field goal. This was his third miss of the year. We ended up losing by 3 points, so you have to believe that field goal was very important. If you miss three field goals in three games as a kicker, you usually don't stick around too long. Succop could be gone very soon if he's not gone this week.