ATL NOTES: Charles In Charge
From the Georgia Dome
Much was made in the last week of veteran RB Thomas Jones being listed with the first team offense and last year’s running sensation for the Chiefs Jamaal Charles showing up on the second line of the depth chart.
Neither Jones nor Charles has made an issue of who holds the starting job right now. In training camp there are plenty of carries for everybody.
But Friday night against the Falcons, Charles established that he’s not going to just sit back and play second-fiddle to Jones. He didn’t get the start, but Charles did average 9.3 yards on his four carries, breaking one run for 13 yards and it seemed like it could have been longer.
“Yeah, I thought I had that one,” Charles said. “It felt good getting out there and taking the hits and make the moves.”
Jones got very limited opportunities, carrying the ball twice for two yards. Charles also caught two passes but was only able to get two yards out of the plays.
“We’ll just see how it goes,” said Charles when asked about the starting job. “Right now, I’m trying to get better.”
NO HUDDLE, NO PROBLEM
The only time the Chiefs first offense seemed to get anything moving was late in the first quarter when they went to the no huddle. It helped set up their initial first down on the final play of the period, and ultimately moved the ball to a point where they faced a 2nd-and-6 play at the Falcons 29-yard line.
That’s when the no huddle ground to a halt, as Cassel threw incomplete to TE Leonard Pope with pressure in his face from DE Kroy Biermann. On the third down play, Cassel was sacked by LB Curtis Lofton, pushing the field goal attempt by Ryan Succop to 53 yards. Succop missed from there, hitting the left upright.
“There are some positives definitely from the game and I think we got the no huddle going there in the second quarter, that was a positive,” said Cassel.
The question has come up before, because Cassel has always looked very comfortable running a no huddle attack while with the Chiefs. Why not use it more often?
“That’s really a question you are going to have to ask Coach Haley,” said Cassel.
SPECIAL TEAMS UPDATE
With the 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown recalled because of a holding penalty, it was not a very good night for Steve Hoffman and the special teams.
Succop missed a pair of 53-yard kicks, but made a 20-yarder at the end of the first half to get the Chiefs on the board. He kicked off just twice, putting his kicks at the two-yard line and in the end zone for a touchback.
P Dustin Colquitt punted three times for a 43-yard average, and a net average of 40 yards. He also put one punt inside the 20-yard line.
Arenas averaged 28.3 yards on three kick returns, but he didn’t get a chance on punt returns, with a pair of fair catches.
As far as coverage, the Chiefs groups were solid. The opening kickoff was returned for 31 yards, but after that the Chiefs gave up on a nine-yard punt return.
PARTICIPATION
The Chiefs had 77 players dressed on their sideline during Friday night’s game and all of them played against the Falcons.
They left three players back in Kansas City: TE Tony Moeaki (ankle), G Darryl Harris (knee) and TE Jake O’Connell (?). Moeaki missed the entire past week of practices with an injury he suffered in the team’s intra-squad scrimmage on Aug. 7. Harris was injured on Aug. 5 during an afternoon practice. O’Connell participated in the first part of Wednesday afternoon’s practice indoors at Missouri Western, but then finished up the workout in the rehab area, riding the stationary bike.
Veterans OLB Mike Vrabel and FS Jon McGraw played only in the first series against the Atlanta offense. They were replaced by Andy Studebaker and Kendrick Lewis.
LB Brian Waters played into the early second quarter before he was replaced by rookie Jon Asamoah. It was also at that time that WR Jerheme Urban came in for WR Chris Chambers.
Not dressed for the Falcons were a long list of players, including three defensive starters: MLB Mike Peterson (calf), CB Dunta Robinson (hamstring) and DT Peria Jerry (knee). Also out of the action were former Mizzou S William Moore (groin), S Matt Giordano (groin), RB Jerious Norwood (hip), CB Brian Williams (knee) and WR Harry Douglas (knee).
FROM THE ZEBRAS
The referee was Jerome Boger and his crew was busy during the game, walking off a total of 14 penalties for 106 yards.
They nailed the Chiefs for the following penalties: OLB Tamba Hali was called for offsides, the offense was hit for delay of game, there was another defensive offsides and then there was the holding call on the kick return, and a pair of offensive holding calls on RT Colin Brown and RG Jon Asamoah.
FAMILIAR FACES
Pre-season games always attract a lot of scouts from NFL and CFL teams as they prepare for the roster cuts coming in a few weeks. Friday night, there were a lot of familiar faces in the Georgia Dome press box, former members of the Chiefs personnel department. That group included Mike Murphy, who is now working for the Miami Dolphins, Mitch Lapoint who is now with the Dallas Cowboys and Matt Littlefield, who was scouting the game for the Toronto Argonauts. He’s also working as the defensive line coach for the Division III program at the University of Chicago.
EXTRAS
Serving as captains for the Chiefs in this game were LT Branden Albert, ILB Derrick Johnson and K Ryan Succop … among the captains for the Falcons was TE Tony Gonzalez … the Chiefs won the toss with Albert calling heads, but deferred their choice until the second half … Georgia Dome counters had ILB Jovan Belcher leading the Chiefs in tackles with six … there were 20 players available who could catch passes for the Chiefs against the Falcons and 14 caught passes and 16 were targets. The only players who did not get a ball thrown to them were RB Thomas Jones, WR Dwayne Bowe, WR Terrance Copper and WR Lance Long … McCluster and TE Leonard Pope had dropped passes.
Thanks Bob! I sure got tired of Trent Green telling us how great the Chiefs were playing when anyone who had eyes could see that they stunk up the place.
I agree about Trent. The NFL network’s replay of the game has the Atlanta feed. Much more professional. And Mike Kelly almost said Mizzou instead of KC about 5 times.
I wish I could get the Chiefs radio network sound synced up with the video. I tried with both the over the air and DirecTV here in Columbia. It sucks to hear the play before you see it.
Is it just me or does Cassel sound JUST like Trent during interviews.
Ditto Nate. The other bozo called the stadium Arrowhead once. Could someone explain how we could hold the birds on 3rd and goal, they get a penalty for unsportsman like conduct and then they get a new set of downs??? I thought Haley would go Ditka on the zebras. ????
If I have to choose wich television feed to listen to, I’ll take the Chiefs. Actually, I did, because I watched the game live online on NFL.com. Each team’s announcers are extremely biased, pumping up their employer’s team, which is to be expected. If I’m going to listen to slanted coverage, I want it slanted to KC.
The Atlanta feed was anything but professional. They may have known the Atl team, but they consistently called chiefs players by the wrong name and when they got them right they were often mis-pronounced etc…Professional means knowing both teams well enough to call the game. Anyhow, JMO.
@ Don
I agree on that unsportsmanlike call! what a MAJOR screw up! how can that be right?????
The play was blown dead, THEN the unsportsman call came. Dead ball foul. New set of downs. At least that’s the way I saw it at 12 freakin 30, with Bud Lite heavily involved.
Could not agree more about the lack of professional braodcasters. Does anyone do any homework before a broadcast?? Hell, I’ve done color commentary for insignificant high school football for 23 years, and I promise you that with all week to prepare, the resources at their disposal, I could have done a MUCH better job, and cost the network way less. LOL
I work w/ a guy that is a high school referee and asked him about what happened. He said that it should have been 4th and goal and 15 yards back which would have put it around the 21. They marked the penalty off right, but should not have been given a new set of downs. At least thats how it would have been called in high school, don’t know for sure in NFL, but i’m still looking into it. If that was correct, then what would prevent an offense from commiting an unsportsman like in that situation since they could possibly benefit from it?