Chiefs Lose Bad Mismatch to Eagles 34-14
Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia
On the day that Michael Vick made his return to the playing field of the NFL, he was but a lounge act.
His young teammates Kevin Kolb, LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson were working the main room on this muggy Sunday and along with a healthy dose of defense, that was enough to beat the Chiefs 34-14, sending Todd Haley’s team to a 0-3 record on the young 2009 season.
Vick barely made a dent in what the Eagles were able to do, running once for seven yards, throwing two incomplete passes and handing off seven times. But when he handed the ball to McCoy, the rookie made Philly forget that Brian Westbrook was out with a bad ankle. McCoy ran for 84 yards on 20 carries with a touchdown.
Second-year man Jackson caught six passes for 149 yards and a touchdown. Third-year man Kolb was subbing for the injured Donovan McNabb and threw for 327 yards and two TDs, along with scoring a TD on a quarterback sneak. It was just his second NFL start.
Add into that offensive equation a defense that held the Chiefs to 215 yards in total offense. QB Matt Cassel threw for just 90 yards. RB Larry Johnson carried 19 times, but gained just 38 yards. WR Mark Bradley and Bobby Wade caught TD passes.
But at no point were the Chiefs competing on the same level as the Eagles.
“I had high hopes coming into this game that we had a good chance to win,” said Chiefs head coach Todd Haley.
“But when you play the way we played and coached the way we coached, you probably don’t have much of a chance. We’ve got to be better than we were today.”
The Eagles didn’t need any help on this Sunday, but the Chiefs gave it to them anyway with a fumble and 10 penalties.
“Penalties are something we coach hard and talk about a lot,” said Haley. “We’ve got to do a better job as coaches. When you have that many penalties two weeks in a row that falls on me.”
All three facets of the Chiefs performed poorly and set up the first score of the game for the Eagles. The offense has a 1st-and-10 at their 34-yard line. By the time Dustin Colquitt punted, the situation was 4th-and-35 at the KC 9-yard line. Colquitt’s kick traveled just 39 yards and returner Jackson made a fair catch at the Chiefs 48-yard line.
Eight plays later, McCoy scored on a five-yard run, where he broke several tackles after taking a direct snap from center. The rookie out of the University of Pittsburgh also had the biggest play of the possession, running for 14 yards where he made a move that faked Chiefs CB Brandon Flowers right out of his shoes.
The PAT kick from K David Akers gave the Eagles an early 7-0 lead.
Once again, the Chiefs offense-special teams-defense combined to provide Philadelphia the opportunity to score touchdown No. 2. The offense went three plays and out, Colquitt got off just a 35-yard punt and the fair catch by Jackson gave the Eagles the ball at their 27-yard line.
The Philly offense put together a six-play, 73-yard drive, the key playing being a pass from Kolb to Jackson for 43 yards. The second-year receiver out of Cal was wide open in the middle of the field where it looked like he ran away from OLB Tamba Hali and CB Brandon Carr. Four plays later, Kolb carried on a 3rd-and-goal play from about six inches out and Akers PAT kick gave the Eagles a 14-0 first quarter lead.
While the Eagles were occasionally using the Wildcat and getting Vick on the field, the Chiefs best offensive success on offense came thanks to a defensive stand and a trick play. Philly had 4th-and-1 at the Chiefs 44-yard line, but OLB Mike Vrabel knocked down a Kolb pass on a bootleg to the right and gave the KC offense the ball in good field position.
Cassel hit TE Brad Cottam for 11 yards down the middle before a 15-yard run by RB Jamaal Charles was wiped out by a holding penalty on LT Brandon Albert. But two plays later, Cassel threw wide left behind the line of scrimmage to WR Mark Bradley, who then looked down field to the right and threw up a rainbow to Charles. Unable to call a fair catch, Charles was able to get his hands under the ball before it hit the turf and the 26-yard gain moved the Chiefs to the Eagles 26-yard line.
Three plays later, Cassel hooked up with Bradley in the corner of the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown pass. Bradley beat CB Joselio Hanson with a nice catch and Cassel threw a very good ball. The PAT by K Ryan Succop cut the Eagles lead to 14-7.
Not for long. Philly kick returner Ellis Hobbs got a nice return of Succop’s kickoff that was one-yard deep into the end zone. The Chiefs tacked on five more yards when Charles was called for being offsides on the kickoff. That set up the Eagles offense at their 36-yard line.
That’s when Jackson exploded. Coming off the left side of the offense, Jackson ran a slant where he beat CB Maurice Leggett to the inside. Kolb delivered the ball right on the money and Jackson ran away from Leggett and juked Jarrad Page enough that the Chiefs safety ended up grabbing dirt rather than the receiver’s legs.
Jackson steamed untouched into the end zone, where he completed the play with a cartwheel and then the splits. The PAT kick gave the Eagles a 21-7 lead.
“When the game is 14-0 and you make it 14-7, there’s no question there’s a little momentum shift,” said Cassel. “The energy on the sidelines changes a little bit in that situation. But when they come out and immediately hit one, it takes the wind out of your sails a little bit. Momentum goes back on their side and we didn’t do anything to re-establish that momentum.”
Just before the half, Philadelphia mounted another drive after the Kansas City offense again went three plays and out. This time the Chiefs defense gave up a lot of plays and yards, but stiffened at the end. Akers kicked a 29-yard FG to cap a 14-play, 64-yard drive. That sent the Eagles to the half-time locker room with a 24-7 lead.
How bad were things for the Chiefs in the first half? They had more penalties in the first half than they did first downs: six penalties, five first downs.
The second half was not a pretty 30 minutes to watch for either team. Akers added a 38-yard FG in the third quarter to push the Philly lead to 20 points. About midway through the fourth quarter, Kolb hooked up with TE Brent Celek for a 35-yard TD pass that capped a five-play, 72-yard drive that made the Eagles lead 34-7.
That was pretty much it for Kolb, who finished 34 of 34 for 327 yards and the two touchdown throws. That’s a passer rating of 120.6, again in just his second start.
“I thought he was pretty good,” said Haley. “He came in and made a lot of good throws and a lot of good decisions. He threw a couple that maybe we had a shot at, but couldn’t make the play. Other than that, I thought the guy played good football.
The Chiefs tacked on a late touchdown, when Cassel hooked up with WR Bobby Wade for a nine-yard score. Succop’s PAT kick set the final score at 34-14.
It was the first step on a march through the NFC East and things don’t get any easier with the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys coming to Arrowhead Stadium for back-to-back home games.
“You have to stay positive, there is light at the end of the tunnel,” said Cassel. “We are doing good things, but we have to eliminate the bad football. We’ve got to keep working hard.”
mutt ca$$el looked horrible AGAIN today – 90 yards passing? Multiple sacks? Now 0- 5 on the season as a starter (and he would have also lost the STL and BALT games too, but his low pain threshold did not allow him to even play.)
196 yards of ‘offense’/ by the guru
? On defense PHIL r***d KC to the tune of 420, nod of the head direction Teddy Pendergrass- er, Clancy Pendergast.
Penalties courtesy the ‘improved coaching’ of ‘check’ and his band of coaching screamers…
Poor tackling, dropped INTs, fumbles, and old clueless
on the sidelines lost in some strange revereie only he can understand.
The scoreboard said 34-14 but reality is chiefs lost this game when they woke up this morning.
Quotes?
“I had high hopes coming into this game that we had a good chance to win,” said Chiefs head coach Todd Haley.”
- Carlin? George? I thought you’d passed… stop thinking and start coaching you in over your head poseur.
“You have to stay positive, there is light at the end of the tunnel,” said Cassel.”
- au contraite mutt… that is a train a comin’ for to run you over 13 more times until it nee chiefs are buried for the final time ’09: 0-20
chiefsfandumb: “OH SHUT-UP!!!”
Now even they that last flimsy fortress his hath abandoned him…CLOWN
First time poster long time reader.
It’s truly embarrassing watching the team weekly. They’re even worse now in 2009 than last season. No improvement.Instead only regression and it is evident in the play of several players.
At least in 2008 guys like Albert and Cottam were playing well and improving. Tyler Thigpen gave me hope weekly we could actually win. Now Thigpen is never played and the first two aren’t the same.
All this weight lost by the players may be the culprit but whatever it is we’re winless and I seriously doubt we can win any games now.
Be serious. We just didn’t have enough talent to beat Philly we still will win about 5 games this year. Browns, Redskins,Broncos, Raiders, and Chargers. With outside chance at Bengals, Bills, and Jags. Either way this is going to be one of those years where the team gets better later in the year and struggle early in the yr.
“we still will win about 5 games this year.”
It was a pathetic performance all around. I don’t think that we are worse than last year though. This is a new system, one that will work when we get some talent and not the gimicky spread offense that Thigpen ran. I agree that several players have regressed. Add Colquitt and Leggett to the list.
Kind of surprised that we didn’t put Flowers on Jackson all day to shut him down. We need DJ back to take the tight ends that Demorrio Williams struggled with. Dorsey took the afternoon off and must have convinced Jackson to spend it with him site seeing and eating cheese steaks.
Without Bowe, there wasn’t much of a down field threat and the Iggles put 8 in the box on 1st and 2nd down again. This line can’t handle 7 able bodied, sober men much less 8. The penalties just add insults for this bunch.
Just not much going right for this bunch. The Iggles backups have more talent and played much harder than the Chiefs today. Not a good sign.
“It was a pathetic performance all around.”
One could kinda tell that the GM and Coach were forfeiting this year when they were essentially inactive in early part of FA and traded Gonzalez. We’re going to lose a LOT of games this season – and it won’t get better before it gets worse. Maybe someday, our team will be in position to win more games than it loses.
It is obvious that we need work on both offensive and defensive lines. Without that base working effectively all other positions suffer.
-”We’re going to lose a LOT of games this season..”
When the schedule came out it looked like if we didn’t beat the Raiders that we would go into the bye week 0-7. Thankfully the Redskins aren’t playing well, although we do have them on the road.
Good news is that after the break we could get rolling with 8 of 9 (Steelers) being winnable. Still looking for 5-6 wins, but these guys have to stay healthy and get some confidence.
We were in position last year 2 win atleast 10 games last year! But I guess the guy who was running that team was not good enough. Man Haley SUCKS all of his calls today were in question….even Cassel’s decision making was suspect. At the end of the day, no matter who u are or what kind of talent u have when u are getting embarrassed u atleast try 2 fight back and show your HC u are a fighter. No1 did that 2day and I believe that maybe a sign that all the running and screaming Haley has done has fallin on deafening ears with the chiefs players.
he, heh heh… you said ‘Haley SUCKS’
You ALWAYS regress when you change systems. We knew that (or should have, if we were intellectually honest about it) when the change was made. We’d be better today if Herm had stayed because everyone would be another year further along in the system and we would have been able to draft a playmaker for now (Aaron Curry) instead of a building block necessity for the 3-4. We’re just a year off from having enough playmakers to be competitve. It is what it is. I forcasted this when we made the change, and I didn’t like Herm. Patience is a virtue.
On a positive note…the Falcons lost (that improves the 2nd rnd pick we got from them).
Who will we take?
I am the world’s greatest blogger!
One change that hasn’t been made but should be: Throw the ball on first down! Most teams have a base package on the field on first down, with guys whose skill-set is to stop the run. The previous regime was terrible about always rushing the ball on first down, and Haley has apparently drank the same koolaid. If we can get the down and distance situation under control, maybe we can even run the ball on third down once in a while.
you are not a blogger