Pennington Wins; Thigpen Struggles In Second Half
From Arrowhead Stadium
Oh, if only the Chiefs could turn back the clock to the early days of August and remake history.
The 20-20 vision that hindsight provides tells us that when Chad Pennington became available, the Chiefs should have found a way to get him to Kansas City. Successful NFL starting quarterbacks don’t often become available while they still have tread on their tires. When that occasion comes, a team without an established starter should be knocking down doors to get him.
But the Chiefs wanted so badly to develop their own quarterback, to have a guy with a pure pedigree. That’s why they put all their eggs in Brodie Croyle’s basket, and when the Jets were moving Pennington out so they could acquire Brett Favre, they weren’t able to offer the quarterback wanted he wanted most: a starting job.
Miami had some young quarterbacks as well, draft choices like Chad Hennie and John Beck, but they went after Pennington and got him.
And now they are a victory away from winning the AFC East and making the NFL playoffs. They are already one of the greatest one-year turnaround project in NFL history, going from 1-15 to now 10-5.
So much of that is because of what Pennington has brought to south Florida. He showed that again against the Chiefs and those few hearty fans who braved the frigid conditions and came to Arrowhead got to see why the Dolphins have gotten so much better.
Pennington isn’t going to wow anybody. He doesn’t have the arm of a Philip Rivers, the panache of a Jay Cutler, or the aura of a Favre. He just gets things done. Against the Chiefs on Sunday, Pennington completed no pass for more than 19 yards. He only had six passes for more than 13 yards.
But he hit 26 of his 34 throws for 235 yards, three touchdowns, an interception and a passer rating of 111.8. And, he wasn’t sacked, although several times the Chiefs came close. Every time, he danced out of the grasp of Kansas City sackers and made something happen.
“I thought the guy was a tremendous, tremendous competitor out there today,” said Dolphins coach Tony Sparano. “He did a tremendous job moving this football team. He made some critical throws there in the course of the football game and he did it in this weather.
“I said during the week I felt like we had a quarterback that could handle these elements and he proved that today. There wasn’t one time he wavered out there. He was in complete control.”
Edwards has seen that before, having coached Pennington for five years in New York. When Pennington was healthy, the Jets made the playoffs three times. When he had two seasons where he was dealing with injuries, they missed the tournament.
“We brought pressure but we didn’t get to him,” Edwards said. “That’s what we can do. He’s not going to hit you with a bunch of big passes. He’s going to nickel and dine you and keep the chains moving, take the five yards.”
Pennington did that on the drive that produced the winning TD. The possession was 13 plays and he was seven-of-seven, hitting passes for nine, seven, five, 11, 12, seven and 14 yards. Nothing big, nothing earth shattering, just productive and efficient.
“Right now, it’s a blur, I’m so cold, my brain’s not working so well,” Pennington said. “I can just remember, time-after -time, somebody making a play, breaking a tackle, making a big catch, making a big block, making play after play to keep drives going.
“It’s testament to the guys in the locker room, how gritty they are, how gutsy they are.”
Over in the Chiefs post-game locker room, somebody asked Tyler Thigpen about his day, when he established a new career high with 320 passing yards, the first 300-yard game of his career.
“Bottom line is we didn’t win,” Thigpen said. “You can take that career passing and use whatever you want, but we didn’t win. That’s what it comes down to.”
Again, Thigpen and the Chiefs were done in by a poor second half. After scoring four touchdowns in the first two quarters, they were not able to score any in the third and fourth periods. Thigpen’s numbers in the first and second halves reflects the problems:
First Half – 12 of 23 (52.2 percent) for 226 yards (9.8 yards per attempt), two touchdowns and one interception.
Second Half – eight of 18 (44.4 percent) for 104 yards (5.8 yards per attempt), no touchdowns and two interceptions.
The Chiefs had five second half possessions and they ended with a field goal, interception, punt, lost on downs and interception.
“Those are the things that coach has talked about that we’ve got to overcome,” said Thigpen. “We can’t use that to learn on. It can’t be the same old story each and every week, which it has been.”
Thigpen has made a lot of progress in this first year as a starter. But he now sports a record as a starter of 1-9.
Ridiculous. A rebuilding Team like the Chiefs was not the right place for Chadwick. The only highlight we have this year is the the promise and progress of Tyler Thigpen, no thanks to the Head Coach who only played him when forced to. I’d rather have this year of developement under our extremely promising QB’s belt, than the potential 2 or 3 more wins that Chadwick MAY have given us. I don’t know why Bob has taken recently to taking Tyler to task. Actually I do know. Since he refuses to take Herm to task, he has to blame someone for the losses the Head Coach is responsible for, so why not the QB.
have to agree with mark on this one bob. you mention thigpen 1 and whatever record weekly but never put any blame on herm’s 2 and 23 record. I realize the chiefs pay your salary, but let get real. the chiefs have gotten steadly worse.
A great coaching effort by Herm Edwards with his out-manned Chiefs staying right with Miami – now with 1 game to go in 2008 Herm can soon turn his attention to the 2009 draft and free agency when as Chiefs Head Coach he will add another layer to the foundation now in place…good luck with the Chiefs in 2009 Coach!
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!
Wade Smith had a hell of a game, we may have found us a starting R Guard, He’s played pretty well every since Jones went down, nice to have two guys competing for a position.
I also think Williams had a decent game today. D. Johnson hasn’t seemed to excel at the Mike, I’m not sure what you do with a guy like him, except maybe try to trade him, if he goes somewhere else and ex cells, so be it, cuz he ain’t cuttin it here!
If the Chiefs deal Derrick Johnson, he’s sure to excel, it’s just the Chief’s luck. But if he stays, he’s bound to underperform. He should bulk up in the offseason and try to play DE. We need a speedy pass rusher…
Thigpen hasn’t look very sharp in the last 4-5 games, he needs to step it up, but in his defense we really can’t see (watching on tv) if guys are getting open, but I can see that he’s not reading the field, just like Len keeps pointing out he’s locking on to one guy, I also noticed that Thigpen has been under throwing the ball quite a bit, and he’s been very fortunate several times with passes that should have been interceptions.
All in All I’d say we need to look at a qb, if we can get Bradford, I’d say GO FOR IT!!
Let him, Thigpen and Croyal (if he’s healed up by then)and Gray all COMPETE, May the Best QB Win!!
That would be a mistake. Today is the first time since his first 2 appearances where Tyler’s passes were all over the place a little. The conditions hd something to do with it. Tyler has shown all the potential one could ask for in a young QB, and with better QB Coaching and a better Head Coach, he’ll be more than fine. Expecting him to be a finished product now is crazy. What we wanted to see is potential, and we’ve seen it. Wasting a 1st round #2 or #3 pick on another young QB when we already have a good one is silly, with the defensive studs we need and could take in that draft position.
Take the best player available in the draft. If you can trade down, do it. If stuck at #2 and QB is clearly the best value pick, do it. While i like Thigpen a lot, he’s far from a slam dunk for the future. Besides, depth there wouldn’t hurt! People used to think Cleveland had too many QBs… who is starting for them now? Dorsey?
You don’t pick the 2nd or 3rd player in the draft for depth. You pick them to start immediately and be a foundation player, hopefully a multi time all-pro, for years. Since we already have a good young QB, and ample back ups at that position assuming we keep Brodie, drafting for depth at QB is just wrong. We badly need a pass rusher, MLB, and OLB, not a QB.
Thigpen would be the backup in that case and we’d have our QB of the future. But in the end, I hope we can get LB or DL first.
Croyle won’t be back next year, he’ll either start on PUP, IR, or be released. So we need a QB somewhere in the draft of free agency. Thigpen, Gray, and who?
In the draft, i’d probably like to see something like:
DE
LB
OG
QB
LB
WR
DT
Herm’s gonna have a great draft and free agent signing success when he picks the Chiefs next group of talent in 2009!
Where do you get your information on Croyle? I’ve heard very little about him, other than he’s rehabbing and anticipating returning for next season. I haven’t heard anyone say he wouldn’t be able to play next year. Starting out on the PUP list might happen, but how would he start out on IR? If you go on IR, you’re automatically out for the year. Released? How could anyone possibly know that at this point.
He doesn’t know…he’s tlking out of his ***
See, that’s why it sounded muffled…he couldn’t even say ‘talking’
Hey John N Dallas – Your soo right about Thigpen underperforming..It was a shame he threw TWO touchdowns and ran for one and three for over 300 hundred yars today…You know he really did underperform..It’s just too damn bad he doesn’t play defense either..
For god sakes people get a grip..He is 24 years old, hasn’t even played a full season, leads our offense to score 31 points and people are still griping about him underperforming..This offense is one of the better offenses in the league with him under center..If you’re unhappy with the production go get huard or brodie so we can go barely managing first downs….
Get real pal
Oh and another thing…Croyle has no business being on our team anymore..Wow am I glad your not our gm because we’d be screwed..We have given croyle every opportunity and every time he has proven he cannot stay healthy..Their is nothing else to evaluate here with Croyle, we need to move on from him..
Croyle will make an excellent #2 QB for the Chiefs at minimum, and will compete for the starting spot too in 2009!
Herm said something to the effect that Croyle will be ready for training camp.
He is still on his rookie contract, and I have no problem giving him the oppurtunity to compete. He can always be cut before the season if we have better options.
Easy up on Tyler Bob. For one he hasn’t had all of training camp to prepare to play and the guy was 3rd on the depth chart with a made up offense on the fly. We need to go back to a conventional offense in the offseason and prep Tyler to be the starter next year. All that time and effort put into devloping Brodie has been a waste. We need to get Tyler a improved o-line and reestablish the running game in the offseason and he’ll be fine next year. Use the spread as a tool in the offense but please don’t make it the base of our offense.
Sorry guys, I forgot to put “probably” in my comment. However, it has been speculated by non PR related Chiefs members that Croyle would start out on PUP. The possibility of IR is a natural possibility if his knee doesn’t do what they think it will do. Being released is a VERY real possibility if we get a new coaching staff that isn’t tied to the would-be wasted draft pick.
That said, i hope Croyle can get over his injuries and be a productive #2 in this league. And if so, with us.
(The) Little Big Man (from Coastal Carolina) will benefit from an off season of QB tutoring from an
former same. Whether a Dawson or DeBerg type etc, he’ll be even better in ‘09 whence he once again leads Head Coach Herm Edwards Kansas City Chiefs to greater glories even than in 2008!
And another thing Bob in defense for Tyler. Chan Gailey has done a poor job making second half adjustments to what the teams do in the second half on defense. I hate to kick a dead horse but late in the game again on a crucial 4th and 1 instead of giving the ball to our workhorse Larry Johnson we chose to pass the football. That being said its like in the second half of games Gailey runs out of creative plays to call and refuses to run the football no matter how many yards Larry racks up. ONce again only 12 carries. When you’re not as good as the other team the only thing you can hope for is control the clock and then score. Keep the other team offense off the field as much as possible. That being said Tyler is not getting alot of help from Chan in making in gaming adjustments to what the defenses are doing in the second half.
Some of the play calling has been suspect, but Thigpen was making some very poor decisions on Sunday as well. He just threw it up on several occasions, and the last possession, I just got the feeling he wanted to go home. He didn’t seem to have any desire to be out there any longer.
They should certainly draft a QB. We should always be looking for an upgrade there and Croyle shouldn’t be in the plans. Don’t know if they can afford to release him (cap hit?), but he should be gone as soon as possible. I remember as plain as day when we drafted him. Kiper said he had talent and an arm, but everyone was concerned about his ability to stay healthy. Guess he called that one.
Having Croyle come back and compete is complete insanity..Honestly you should have your head examined for even considering that..The guy can’t stay healthy, and he never even put up close the results or numbers that thigpen has..Some of you are just never happy..Two months ago – scoring 20 points a game on average would have been ridiculous yet now we’re doing that..And now your talking about getting rid of the spraid (even though Thigpen is effective in the spread and we’re kicking ass using the spread) and possibly having an open competition with croyle..Soo glad we’re going to have a pro come in and manage this team and not some of the fans on this message board.
The only way we bring in another qb is if we draft someone in the first round..That’s it…But we already know we’ve got a heck of a qb who also happens to be incredibly young..hmm..
Just for the record: Michael is not michael. I’ve been accused of being confused before, but I don’t believe I possess a dual personality. I’m not opposed to having Croyle back. He didn’t get a chance to play in the spread, and the OL was getting him killed. If he recovers completely, and the Chiefs have a decent run game and OL, he could be a good #2. As someone else said, no harm in letting him come back to find out.
Awhile back someone said no one could point to anything the offense does different in the second half to explain the problems there. To me, it seems the offense is penalized more or gets more bad calls in the second half. The play calling gets strange; they pass when they should run and run when they should pass, even accounting for breaking their tendancies and purposely mixing it up. I still think the defense plays scared in the second half, too. Too little blitzing and stunting, and lot’s of cover2 and soft zones. That’s also part of Thigpen and the offense problems lately. Seems like they know no matter how many points they get on the board, it won’t be enough and they start pressing too much.
To me, this game was one of Thigpen’s best (see stats) and worst (see INT, which could easily have been more, and Loss of game). Many times he locked on to recievers, and just threw it no matter what the coverage was. Seemed like he was forcing himself to go to others than Gonzo, a geat idea but not into bad spots like that. Sometimes, it seemed he was looking to throw it on recievers’ back shoulder, but the recievers weren’t expecting the ball to be throw that way. Other times, I started thinking maybe Thigpen was hurt, with the way he was underthrowing so much. More than usual also, he was not stepping into his throws, using only his arm and none of his body, which I’ve seen him do quite well before.
Many a time in this game Thigpen just looked cold, tired and unfocused. He can bounce back from it, and do much better. What I like about him is that despite all this, he still got the team 31 points and moved the offense. Maybe in this second half he just gave into freezing his arse off.