Disaster: Game Notes from Chiefs - Bills

Buffalo - 41                       KC - 7

Nervous excitement for the season soon turned in to bitter disappointment. Actually, disappointment isn't nearly strong enough to describe the butt kicking we received from the 3rd worst team in the NFL last season. And, for the most part, it was the Chiefs own fault.

That sloppy play and bad playcalling we saw in the preseason and tried to explain away with preseason cliches, remember those? Yeah, those didn't go away. McCluster fumbled the opening kickoff, Charles fumbled on the KC 21, Cassel threw a pick on our side of the field (in all fairness, the game was already out of hand by that point). The defense, although not being given good field position most of the game, couldn't cover anybody (tight ends especially included), and couldn't tackle anybody. On only two drives the entire game did the Chiefs look like they had any offensive continuity, and only one of those resulted in points. And on defense, when the Bills starters were still in, the Chiefs only forced one three and out.

All-in-all, the Chiefs got their butt kicked in every phase of the game. As Rich Gannon, who was commentating the game, said: "The Chiefs don't look like they were ready to play."

Like all my game notes, I will include a list of what the Chiefs did right and what the Chiefs could have done better.

What the Chiefs did right

• We scored.
• McCluster and Charles had good yards per carry averages.
• Hali got a sack when the game still mattered.

What the Chiefs could have done better

• Well, I mentioned a few things above from my initial reaction. First I'll start with how the offense couldn't sustain drives. Sustaining drives means having several continuous plays, a couple of first downs, and hopefully some points. Obviously, only scoring one touchdown is not a good example of doing so. We were 3 of 13 of 3rd down. We also turned the ball over twice, with Charles and Cassel making those mistakes. Sustaining drives last season was a result of our ability to run the football. It didn't look like we were all that interested in running the football. Although we were down early because of the opening return fumble, we didn't go to the run like we did all of last season. On the first three drives, Charles was only given the ball three times. Two of those three drives were 3 and outs. By the end of the game, Charles was only given the ball 10 times for 56 yards (5.6 ypc), and the Chiefs ran it a total of 18 times for 108 yards. 
• If you read the above, then you might be wandering about the Chiefs playcalling. If you watched the game, you are disgusted with the Chiefs playcalling. Not only was our playcalling awful, it was repetitive and predictable. We ran the same playaction bootleg to Leonard Pope (by the way, it looked like we were pretending Tony Moeaki wasn't injured and still using the tight ends in our passing game) at least three times. And in shotgun, it seemed like we ran the draw play every other time. If I can figure out what play the Chiefs are about to run, I'm pretty sure it wasn't much of a challenge for the Bills defense. Today's game was the worst display of playcalling I have ever seen; last season it seemed like our offense was systematic and dynamic, today it just looked stupidly simple. Here's looking at you Bill Muir.
• As much blame should be placed all around, Cassel did not look like he did last season. In fact, what Cassel accomplished today is very hard for any quarterback to do. If you look at Cassel's attempts and completions, he had a pretty good game. He was 22 of 36, a 61% completion rate. But those 22 completions only netted 119 yards. How is it even possible to complete 22 passes for 119 yards? It seemed Cassel, when given the opportunity to look at receivers down field (I won't count the bubble screens and wide receiver screens we saw way too much of), he was more than content to quickly check down to the closest receiver available. But don't take my word for it, take his 3.3 passing yard average. 
• What can I say about the defense? We gave up 20 points in the first half and 21 points in the second half. I guess I can say we were consistent. We couldn't cover, we couldn't tackle, we lost Eric Berry in the first quarter, and I lost my mind watching Sabby Piscitelli try to play the safety position. We gave up four passing touchdowns, a late rushing touchdown, allowed Fred Jackson to look like Marshawn Lynch in last seasons playoff game against the Saints (he had 112 yards total but I'd like to see how much yardage he got after getting hit; I'll guess the majority of it), and just looked awful. 
• Our special teams looked bad too while I'm at it. 

Luckily, points don't roll over from game to game. And although we got blown out at home, in the season opener, we're just 0-1. Hopefully we can learn from this game and better prepare for the next game (and stop Bill Muir from calling anymore games). Hopefully we can turn the negatives into positives. 

But in the meantime, we're guaranteed to be in last place in the AFC West at the end of the football weekend.