A Record Setting Day
From Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati
The 2008 Chiefs etched their name in the NFL Record Book on Sunday.
There’s nothing good about the notation that will go next to their name: the team that had the worst pass rush in pro football history.
The Chiefs up the ’08 season with 10 sacks. They got one from DE Jason Babin against Cincinnati to at least reach double digits.
“Oh man, I don’t want to talk about that,” said Babin after the game. “We really weren’t thinking about it, but we couldn’t help but have it because people were talking about it all the time.”
The Chiefs 10 sacks breaks the former record of 11 sacks, set by the Baltimore Colts in the nine-game 1982 season. The 16-game record was 13 sacks, by Baltimore in 1981.
It easily shatters the franchise record of 15 in the nine-game 1982 season. The fewest sacks the Chiefs have ever had over 16 games is 23, and that was back in 1988.
The organization that brought Derrick Thomas and Neil Smith swooping in on the passer, now can’t even average a sack per game. DE Tamba Hali led the team with three sacks, Babin added two, LB Derrick Johnson had 1.5 sacks, DE-DT Alfonso Boone and DTs Ron Edwards and Glenn Dorsey each had a sack and LB Pat Thomas shared a sack.
Add them all up, and it’s 10.
“It’s hard to believe we couldn’t get more than that,” said Johnson. “We had opportunities to double that, probably triple it, but we didn’t make the plays.”
Against the Bengals, the Chiefs put some good pressure on QB Ryan Fitzpatrick. They flushed him from the pocket several times, but they got their hands on him only once or twice. Babin got one of those. Hali almost had another.
“I’m too emotional to talk about anything right now,” said Hali. “Nobody wanted this.”
So how did it happen? Well start with the trade of Jared Allen to Minnesota. That took 17 sacks away from the Chiefs defense and they were unable to replace them. They didn’t even get close. In 16 games, they were shutout from taking down the passer 10 times. In three other games, they were able to get one sack. The best sack game they had was three against San Diego two weeks ago.
“We worked on it, we worked hard on it everyday,” said DT Tank Tyler, who did not have a sack this season. “Man, we’ve just got to get better.”
A lot better. The Chiefs averaged a sack every 53.2 passing plays. In comparison, they gave up a sack every 15.6 passing plays.
“It’s not good that it came down to this,” said Dorsey. “We expected to do more. Maybe I should say I expected to do more. That we didn’t get it done is something we definitely have to fix.”
That kinda shoots the hell outta herms “your doing a HECK of a job Brownie” spew. Huh?!
Looks like Dorsey, Mcbride, Tyler, Hali, did not work out. Go with the draft…oops.
Keep up the great work Coach Edwards. ALL of KC is behind you and we know that you will lead us back to glory very soon now.
AND NOW, Clark Hunt has RE-RE-affirmed Herm’s The Man!
“We worked on it, we worked hard on it everyday,”Âť said DT Tank Tyler, who did not have a sack this season. “Man, we’ve just got to get better.”Âť
A new coaching staff will help. New players might not be a bad idea either Tank.
DL is the hardest position to come in and play, next to maybe QB. Next year, these guys will be playing on a much higher level…
Look at Tank and Turk from last year to this one, there was a huge improvement. Next year they will take another step…
Herm can now prepare for the draft & free agency as Head Coach of the Chiefs again in 2009!
Just proves in the 1st round whether we trade down or not get Everette Brown in the draft. Bradford is not coming out so i’ve read because he doesn’t want to go to the Lions. And Stafford will be a let down for whoever draft him probably the Lions. Their are no other quarterbacks coming out worthy of being drafted that high take a pass rusher.
How many 3rd and 1′s and 4th and 1′s can we blow before some of you guys are finally going to come to the realization that we NEED to improve the O-Line? There are at least 2 Guys (Smith or Oher) that are sound picks at 2 or 3. I don’t think we pass on the chance to get another Lineman to help solidify the Line for the next 10-12 yrs.
johnNdallas I agree, you can’t run without a decent O-line, hmm come to think of it you can’t pass either. This year will be alot better, Herm needs to get another o-lineman to shore up the line…
Thought Herm deserved another year – until – the miserably inept, minimal effort performance against one of the few teams with as bad a record as ours. Herm tried. He is a good guy with good values, but got here after Vermeil emptied the talent pool. Too bad for him, the Chiefs & the fans. Neither Herm nor his coaches (especially Gun) should be retained. New GM and new coach! Hope Mr. Hunt acts quickly to get his guy(s) – other teams are actively looking also. Don’t wait.
Has it crossed anyones mind that Tony G might be putting on his ultimatum for Thigpen and Herm to return next year because he knows full well theres no way Hunt can bring them back thus forcing him to get ride of an unhappy Tony G. Tony I actually hope you get your wish despite the fact you would greatly help the team. Arrowhead needs a new attitude and new faces if we’re going to turn this around.
Its too bad this wasn’t done before we gave all that money to LJ and let Jared Allen go (Let Carl Peterson ruin this team)
Trade em! Guys like Tony G, DJ, LJ, and Waters!
Get as many picks as we can for this yr and next, draft one of the Big O-Line guys with our 1st pick this yr. Start from there.
John you’re ludacris. We need to keep all those guys on the team. Some veteran leadership is going to be needed we can’t go out there with another year of rookies who can’t close games. We have more than enough draft picks this year to win. We need to sign a couple of more young veterans on the defense.
Today Clark needs to call Herm in his office and thank him for starting the rebuilding process and let him go by buying out the last year of his contract. WE need to start fresh. New GM and head coach. This team played awful yesterday so its obvious losing has become an habit and Herm can’t motivate these guys to play hard anymore.
Ed, Tony, LJ, and Waters while mostly good players and guys are not team LEADERS.
I believe herm and crew removed all veteran team leaders as part of the rebuild. You do not want to mix old with new in the chiefs organization.
I am no fan of herm but do not believe he will leave until the end of his contract. For all the changes clark will not jump to pay for services not rendered. Do not know who the new GM will be but I believe he will be stuck with herm and whoever the other coaches that stay. If I am correct next year may challenge this for the worst in chiefs history OR herm will prove me wrong and actually put a team together.
Just heard Chiefs Head Coach Herm Edwards press conference – sensational! What a refreshing and positive outlook – I’m already stoked for 2009! Man, it’s gonna be GRRRRREAT having Herm return as Chiefs Head Coach for year 2 of the rebuild come next season!
heh heh heh
Mark my words, in free agency, we will sign at least one DE and LB, probably 2 LBs, who are impact veterans. They won’t be the type we’ve gone after before (young, high upside but unproven), they will be guys who have a track record of being able to physically beat the other guy consistently-Big play playmakers That, in and of itself, changes this team DRAMATICALLY. Throw in what should be a great draft, and we will be set up for a Miami/Atlanta style turnaround. I
mdchief, I dont know if thats all it will take, the chiefs have signed young vets who were pretty good players and they never really made a big impact on the chiefs defense, for example Vermiel signed Shawn Barber away from the Eagles, at the time Barber was a good LB, didn’t do much here, also Kendrell Bell came here from a very good steelers D and didn’t do much here. Just cause you see them playing somewhere else and doing everything good doesn’t mean it translates here. It’s still a team sport, the old chiefs Defense with Derrick Thomas and Neil Smith was a good defense and had a great secondary, by the way i believe Herm was coaching the secondary here at that time, i could be wrong about the timing though.
No, you’re right (and Gunther was the D-coordinator), and I agree with your appraisal, except that Bell only had one good year. He was really unproven and a second-tier UFA. Barber got hurt while he was here and was never the same player. There are lots of examples, though, (i.e.Jared Allen, Joey Proter,from this year alone) of guys who have changed teams and made a big impact.