Missed Field Goals & Other Notes
From Arrowhead Stadium
As far as Connor Barth was concerned, the conditions on the Arrowhead Stadium Field with one second to play were perfect.
All he had to do was hit a 50-yard field goal on a cold, windy day to save his team’s bacon and help secure a victory for the Chiefs.
Even with those perfect conditions, Barth missed that field goal attempt wide left and the Chiefs could not overcome a late Chargers comeback in losing 22-21.
“The conditions were perfect,” Barth said. “The offense got me down there. I had my chance and the wind was at my back. You couldn’t have asked for anything else. Unfortunately I didn’t put it through.”
Barth’s 50-yard FG try was wide left. It had the distance. “It would have been good from 60 yards,” Barth said.
It just hooked left at the end. The same thing happened on an earlier field goal try, when Barth missed from 34 yards in the first half.
That miss – his first since joining the Chiefs for game No. 7Â - was a big one and effected the outcome of the game as well. With that field goal, even if the Chargers score a pair of late TDs and kick the PATs, the game would have been at least tied at the end of regulation.
“The first one I took for granted,” said Barth. “It was 34 yards and it was a chip shot. I did what I shouldn’t have done and that’s no excuse. I put this on my shoulders today.”
Overall, it was not a good day for the special teams. Punter Dustin Colquitt continues to battle through a groin problem but he averaged just 36.4 yards on five punts with a net average of 35.6 yards. Colquitt went for hang time over distance and it worked in that the Chargers returned only one punt and that for just four yards.
On kickoff coverage, the Chiefs had problems keeping Darren Sproles contained. Sproles had four returns for an average of 28.3 yards including a 40-yard return.
The Chiefs got next to nothing in their return game, averaging 15 yards on kickoff returns and producing nothing on two punt returns.
TONY G. ZONE
TE Tony Gonzalez started his 172nd game, moving into second place on the franchise’s all-time list. Only Will Shields has started more games in a Chiefs uniform, at 223.
He also extended his streak of consecutive games with a catch to 129, the second longest such streak in football history for a tight end.
He now has 84 catches on the season for 941 yards and eight touchdowns.
For his career, he has 904 catches for 10,823 yards and 74 touchdowns.
TRIPLE THREAT CHIEFS
With his first quarter TD pass to Gonzalez, Larry Johnson became the sixth player in franchise history to score the triple of a touchdown as a runner/receiver/passer. He joins QB Tyler Thigpen as current Chiefs in that club.
The others are all former running backs: Marcus Allen, Bert Coan, Mike Garrett and Curtis McClinton.
OFFICIALS AND REPLAY
The officiating crew led by Carl Cheffers was busy, but most of their attention fell on the Chargers. The visitors were hit with 10 penalties for 83 yards.
The Chiefs were flagged just four times for a total of 30 yards. DT Tank Tyler was hit with an illegal use of hands flag, DT-DE Alfonso Boone was called for holding on a kickoff return. RG Adrian Jones was called for holding on offense and the Chiefs purposely took a five-yard delay of game penalty with their punting team on the field in hopes of giving Colquitt more room to kick.
The zebras booted San Diego LG Kris Dielman out of the game in the first half for throwing a punch. It came on a play after Philip Rivers fumbled when sacked by Tamba Hali and the Chiefs recovered.
“When we get home, I hope there’s either a TV company or some tape that shows it,” San Diego coach Norv Turner says of the punch supposedly thrown by Dielman. “Our guys looked at replays; they showed three or four and we cannot see it. (Dielman) says he didn’t hit anybody. Obviously, the official says he did.”
Herm Edwards was one of two on replay challenges in the game. When the Johnson to Gonzalez TD pass was originally called incomplete, the Chiefs challenged and the call was overturned and the touchdown awarded. But then in the fourth quarter he challenged a Philip Rivers completion, saying the San Diego quarterback was over the line of scrimmage when he threw the ball.
It proved to be a wasted red flag and cost the Chiefs their final timeout of the game.
SAN DIEGO STAYS ALIVE
The Chargers are only 6-8 on the season, but they remain alive in the race to the playoffs after Denver lost on the road to Carolina. The Broncos are 8-6.
This coming week, the Chargers travel to Tampa Bay, while the Broncos are at home against Buffalo. The two teams face each other in the season finale.
Do the Chargers deserve to go to the playoffs?
“I don’t know that I have to answer that,” said Turner. “We need to go find a way to win next week. Obviously it’s not in our hands. The only thing that’s in our hands is finding a way to play our best next week and then see what happens.”
INJURIES AND SUCH
The Chiefs came through the game without any obvious new injuries.
LT Branden Albert left the game with a right knee injury, but missed only a handful of plays. WR Mark Bradley played, but did not take a full turn in the offense as he comes back from a calf injury.
Inactive for the game because of injury were starting center Rudy Niswanger (knee) and nickel cornerback Maurice Leggett (shoulder). Also not playing because of injury was LB Donnie Edwards (knee).
I dont blame Barth for missing the 50 FG, but I do blame him for missing the short FG.
Colquitt is obviously still hurting too.
Its obvious that our O isnt the same without Bradley.
Dont reward failure and give Clark Hunt anymore of your money.
Contact them before they steal $25 million taxpayer money!
Send them a message online here before it is too late:
http://www.mdfb.org/About%20Us/SendUsAMessage.aspx
Phone: 573/751-8479
E-mail: mdfb@ded.mo.gov
FACT:
The Kansas Jayhawks lost yesterday 61-60 to UMASS because of Bill Self picking up a technical. If Self behaves himself, GAME OVER KU WINS.
FACT:
The KC Chiefs lost 22-21 to San Diego because of Bowe fumbling the onside kick. If Bowe catches the football in his hands, not his chest GAME OVER CHIEFS WIN.
In both cases the game was virtually lost by a single person. In both cases the teams lost by a single point. In both cases the teams struggled offensively at times -In KU’s case, they only shot 29% of their field goals for the ENTIRE GAME- In the Chiefs case, only 277 yards for the whole game and no offensive touchdowns in the third quarter-.
Wins come from EVERY SINGLE PERSON on the staff and team contributes for the greater good.
Wins come from ‘playmakers’ making plays when it really counts.
Wins come from coaches instructing and supporting the team properly.
Wins don’t come from turnovers, they come when you capitalize and score on those turnovers.
I can tell you one thing, KU and the Chiefs had a lot of things in common this past weekend.
I have to disagree on the Chiefs loss. There were many plays that cost us the game. From Conner Barth missing the first field goal. The inability of the offense to even get one good drive going in the third quarter. To LJ not being able to pick up a yard on third and one late in the game. Then Bowe getting hit after he caught the onside kick. The chiefs allowed the Chargers to hang around for too long with good field position to win the game. Hope fully the young players learn a few valuable lessons this year and play with some extra gumption next year and win these close games. We definitely need to work on moving the ball better in the third quarter or we will always be letting these games slip away on us.
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-affirmed Herm’s The Man!
Rin Tin Tin, quit wasting everyone’s time. Bob,first of all, great web site. For a fan who does not get to watch many Chief games due to my residence(DE) and the Chiefs poor play, I appreciate all of the information. What do you think about the future of the coaching staff. Maybe because I don’t get to watch many games,I actually feel as if the Chiefs can pull a turnaround similar to what the Dolphins did this year. With a good draft and the signing of some quality free agents and with a division that wasn’t very good this year, the Chiefs could really turn things around next year. I really like Herm,Gunther and Coach Gailey, but things have not worked well this year. And the Head Coach and General Manager are ultimately responsible. I hope this may be addressed in a future column by Mr. Gretz.
Macgyver
Bowe’s play killed them. Barth being unmasked killed them. Thigpen’s bonehead int to in the endzone killed them (you’re allowed to throw to somebody besides Tony btw). He was better BEFORE the Tony G film sessions. Surtain breaking the defense killed them. Herm and Gunther letting Rivers pick them apart on the next to last drive killed them. Trying to play power football with a line that can’t knock anybody off the line killed them. It was a team effort and remarkable at that. I didn’t even get mad, I get it now. We are the Bengals. It won’t get better.
Hali questions coaches’ offensive strategy in second half
“How we managed the game, I do question that,” said Hali, a third-year defensive end. “Those questions belong to the coaches.”
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/937110.html
I was shocked, did anybody see how empty the stands were for this game?
Most important, did Clark see how empty they were?
Clark HAS to show Carl the door quickly…even if he intends to give Herm one more year. It will send a message that everyone’s “on notice”. If Clark doesn’t get rid of Carl, or waits, all the good quality candidates could be snapped up.
Insainity is, ” doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. We continue to play well in the first half,… however the coaches do not seem to know there are two halves to the game. The 3rd qtr. is always flat and the 4th qtr. is more of the same. How hard would it be to “script” the first 12 plays of the second half? Begin the second half with a little different stategy? Does Herm know how to play chess? Several of the coaches in the nfl seem to be good at doing the unexpected. ( Jeff Fisher) Herm look at it from outside the huddle (box). Where is Jackie Battle? he is a big kid and ole L J seems to run like he doesn’t give a s**t. He had a good chance yesterday to save the day and could not make one yard..for a first down. I bet he has no problem cashing that great big paycheck. Dump L.J. man and give the ball to a kid who wants to run through and over people. That is one nice thing about all of the youth… they are playing for a spot next year, and because they care. I look forward to next year to see how the kids develope.
GO CHIEFS!!
macgyver, quit wasting everyone’s time.
Rin Tin Tin
Herm’s comin’ back in 2009 and so is Peterson.
Keep up the great work boys!
Rin,
Sad to think it, but having zero confidence in Boy Wonder Hunt…I fear you’re right.
No, it wasn’t one player’s fault. It took a team effort. SD really didn’t want to win this one, but KC insisted. You just have to be taught to play that poorly in critical situations. They aren’t rookies either. They have basically played a season in the NFL now. There hasn’t really been any improvement since they made the switch to the spread offense. That was an improvement, but not really any since then. Some individuals have progessed, but the team has not.
The coaching staff is just incompetent. Such consistently poor decisions is incredible. Changing your offensive strategy in the 2nd half? They moved the ball at will in the first half and then went into a shell. Don’t make a mistake.
Unfortunately, we will have to go through this next year as well. When CP’s contract is up, he will move on and then Herm and his staff will go as well. Hopefully, they will screw up and have a decent draft to leave behind.
ALL u Herm-haters need 2 stop, this man n my opinion is doing a helluva job considering we still have holes 2 fill. Chan blew this game yesterday by calling senseless plays n the redzone, I mean “WHY N THE HELL DID WE SIGN LJ 2 A HUGE CONTRACT IF WE ARENT GOING 2 USE HIM?” Alot of our problems are minor. I was always taught u run 2 open up the pass but it seems we pass and forget about the run entirely..lmao! 15 carries for Larry ridiculous…..But we played great yeasterday until the last 2 min. Cant wait till next year when Tyler has a whole year of our offense under his belt….as well as our defense!
Alex I like Thigpen but I am not sure the spread is for the NFL for a full season, he got buried sunday running the option, and we need another QB to back him up. LJ was a mistake but teams do that all the time, we just have to get over it.
Thigpen needs to learn to look off receivers and improve accuracy, maybe he will. If not a new QB will set us back 2 more years. Next year let us see if herm can put together some kind of defensive improvements a major failure on his part this year.
Alex you are on the money. Play-calling cost us this game. Chan all of a sudden have the Mike Martz syndrome. Where he wants to throw the ball in obvious running situations. The fly route to Bradley on a 3 and 1 in the red zone made no sense. The shotgun formation when Tyler threw the pick in the endzone made no sense. Why not line up in a goal-line offense in that situation and run the football. One thing I learned from yesterday is Tyler is a good quarterback but the spread does not need to be our main offense. Maybe a tool we use on offense but it does not provide scoring throughout the game and you can’t consistently for 4 quarters run the ball out of the spread.
Tim says:
“Rin”
- yes Tim?
“Sad to think it, but having zero confidence in Boy Wonder Hunt…I fear you’re right.”
- fear’s a great thing – and a wonderful learning apparatus. Makes the reward that will follow even more satisfying for having endured and persevered.
Chiefs will also not draft a QB in round 1 – and that’s a good thing.
Sam Bradford? The great over-hype will be a huge bust, my opine…the next David Klingler.
Matt Stafford is no better than a late 1st round pick at best.
Tim Tebow? He won’t even be a first ‘day’ pick – rather a second day (not round, mind you) pick – anywhere from rounds 3-7, this according to NFL GM and former scout Charlie Casserly.
Nope…a shopping list of 2 LBs, 3 more offensive lineman, 1-2 DEs will be the focus. Then one more WR, a 3rd round at best QB (or more likely a free agent veteran signed) plus another CB and a S for depth and competition at LS, FB & HB and the 2009 KC Chiefs will be good to go.
By 2010 – Championship!
In fact, if the Chiefs are smart they will hold off on drafting a QB high (1st round) until they are headed into the 2010 season. This, which will coincide with Edwards re-upping for 5 more years and the new stadium renovations will bring a big BANG for the buck PR/Chiefs fan interest wise.
It’s comin’ down just this way…Rin has spoken!
Well…seems there is a Santa Clause or Boy Wonder Hunt grew a pair! Carl is GONE!!! Herm, better get the congrgation in line or your next sermon may be your last!
Keep up the unproductive work Coach Edwards. ALL of KC is sick of you and we know that you will make excuses and lead us back to 2 and 14 very soon now.
AND NOW, Clark Hunt has RE-affirmed Herm’s The Man On The Hot Seat!