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Yeah, I've made a hundred comments so far, but I can't help myself. Love this win and the way we won it.
1. Run D. I know Charles ended up with ~5.6 YPC - I don't care. He broke a couple of runs (one when the game was out of reach), but the rest of his runs were ~2 yards per carry. No consistent 6-yard gains. It wasn't quite as good as I was hoping, but overall Charles was contained quite well, especially on runs up the middle.
2. Brad Smith and the wildcat - yards per play in this formation will be awful. That said, this guy knows how to get first downs. I'm amazed that he was able to fight for them despite it being very, very obvious what was happening every time.
3. Pass defense - this still concerns me. While the D looked better overall, our corners aren't great. Florence is hit or miss, Byrd was nearly invisible in pass D, McKelvin is burnable as we all know, and our LB's had some trouble over the middle. Though they did have some good open field plays against the RB's coming out of the backfield.
4. Draws killed us there for a short period (I think it was shortly before the half). That's where Charles got a big chunk of his yards. We were susceptible to some of the "fake" plays the Chiefs ran.
5. They know how to keep a lead. I was telling my wife when we were up 7-0 that last year, when Buffalo took a lead (rare times, I know), they nearly always stalled out after that. They had zero ability to take a lead and build on it. No killer instinct. I loved seeing them go for blood today.
6. Pass rush - seemed decent up the middle, didn't get much from the edge though.
7. OL - much maligned unit, played OK. Not great, but plenty good enough. Jackson made them look better than they are sometimes, but they're still better than people thought, IMO. Adequate in pass protection, got some solid push in the run game.
8. Fred Jackson - looked phenomenal. I'm a big fan of this guy and I think he's a perfect back to work behind what we currently have on the OL. If we got better OL, I think he could put up even better statistics.
9. Fitzpatrick. For all those who harp on him for his bad passes, I rarely hear them say anything about his good ones. Is he perfect? No, but he looked pretty good. Have to wonder if spending the offseason as the starter is helping him out quite a bit. So far, according to NFL stats, Fitz is the only QB with 4 TD passes. No INT's is solid against these CB's, too. One more part I like: 8.3 YPA.
10. Scott Chandler - man, this guy came out of nowhere. He's not a great TE and this may end up being his best game (particularly TD-wise), but we needed him to step up as a receiving threat.
11. David Nelson - after a forgettable preseason, came out and really worked the Chiefs over, especially the safeties.
12. Roscoe Parrish - the fact that we did well with only three legit receiving targets (Chandler, Nelson, Johnson) makes me wonder how we'll do getting him and Easley involved. And yes, I do think Parrish will be very much involved in the future.
13. Spiller - I didn't see him in pass blocking, one person has told me he whiffed once. I think he's the RB who really could benefit from an upgrade on the OL, unfortunately. The guy did well on 2 runs, not well on 3 others. As others have said, though, runs were well telegraphed when he was in.
In general, it seems there's reasons to temper some enthusiasm. But as bad as people may think the Chiefs are, they do have some talent, and considering it was on the road, I'd say a 34-point win is huge right now.
That being said, it was indeed one game. I'm enjoying it, but we definitely need to see more consistency. I hope to see similar performances from our players and coaches (play-calling).
1. Run D. I know Charles ended up with ~5.6 YPC - I don't care. He broke a couple of runs (one when the game was out of reach), but the rest of his runs were ~2 yards per carry. No consistent 6-yard gains. It wasn't quite as good as I was hoping, but overall Charles was contained quite well, especially on runs up the middle.
2. Brad Smith and the wildcat - yards per play in this formation will be awful. That said, this guy knows how to get first downs. I'm amazed that he was able to fight for them despite it being very, very obvious what was happening every time.
3. Pass defense - this still concerns me. While the D looked better overall, our corners aren't great. Florence is hit or miss, Byrd was nearly invisible in pass D, McKelvin is burnable as we all know, and our LB's had some trouble over the middle. Though they did have some good open field plays against the RB's coming out of the backfield.
4. Draws killed us there for a short period (I think it was shortly before the half). That's where Charles got a big chunk of his yards. We were susceptible to some of the "fake" plays the Chiefs ran.
5. They know how to keep a lead. I was telling my wife when we were up 7-0 that last year, when Buffalo took a lead (rare times, I know), they nearly always stalled out after that. They had zero ability to take a lead and build on it. No killer instinct. I loved seeing them go for blood today.
6. Pass rush - seemed decent up the middle, didn't get much from the edge though.
7. OL - much maligned unit, played OK. Not great, but plenty good enough. Jackson made them look better than they are sometimes, but they're still better than people thought, IMO. Adequate in pass protection, got some solid push in the run game.
8. Fred Jackson - looked phenomenal. I'm a big fan of this guy and I think he's a perfect back to work behind what we currently have on the OL. If we got better OL, I think he could put up even better statistics.
9. Fitzpatrick. For all those who harp on him for his bad passes, I rarely hear them say anything about his good ones. Is he perfect? No, but he looked pretty good. Have to wonder if spending the offseason as the starter is helping him out quite a bit. So far, according to NFL stats, Fitz is the only QB with 4 TD passes. No INT's is solid against these CB's, too. One more part I like: 8.3 YPA.
10. Scott Chandler - man, this guy came out of nowhere. He's not a great TE and this may end up being his best game (particularly TD-wise), but we needed him to step up as a receiving threat.
11. David Nelson - after a forgettable preseason, came out and really worked the Chiefs over, especially the safeties.
12. Roscoe Parrish - the fact that we did well with only three legit receiving targets (Chandler, Nelson, Johnson) makes me wonder how we'll do getting him and Easley involved. And yes, I do think Parrish will be very much involved in the future.
13. Spiller - I didn't see him in pass blocking, one person has told me he whiffed once. I think he's the RB who really could benefit from an upgrade on the OL, unfortunately. The guy did well on 2 runs, not well on 3 others. As others have said, though, runs were well telegraphed when he was in.
In general, it seems there's reasons to temper some enthusiasm. But as bad as people may think the Chiefs are, they do have some talent, and considering it was on the road, I'd say a 34-point win is huge right now.
That being said, it was indeed one game. I'm enjoying it, but we definitely need to see more consistency. I hope to see similar performances from our players and coaches (play-calling).
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