Join Chiefs365 | Insider Forum with Josh Looney - Talk it up! | Looney Bin Archive

Public Transportation Returns to Arrowhead on Gamedays

REGISTER NOW: Dance Studio Performance Day

CHIEFS MUST START FAST
November 5th – 4:48 PM

First downs.

First drives.

First quarters.

All three of these categories have hurt the Chiefs offense this season. Kansas City averages a league-worst, 9.05 yards-to-go on second down, have yet to score any points on the first drive of a game this season and have only posted six first quarter points in seven games this season.

Needless to say, the Chiefs have identified “firsts” as an area that needs to improve.

”We need to start better and eliminate minus plays,” Chiefs head coach Todd Haley said. ”You talk about injuries but I’ll say in the Dallas Cowboys game with the game on the line and down by seven points we’re going to lose the game if we don’t go the length of the field and score a touchdown [and] we score a touchdown against a very good defense. So, to me, if we could do it in that situation we’ve got to do it to start the game. All we can do is talk about it, think about it and try to come up with the right mix of plays early and get off to better starts and part of better starts is eliminating minus yards plays like sacks, runs and penalties.”

”I think we just have to get into a rhythm early,” QB Matt Cassel said. “I think we’ve struggled a little to get into a rhythm early, whether it be getting in third-and-long situations early in the game and not being able to keep the drive alive, and then all of a sudden we’ll get into a little bit of a rhythm but we need to do it earlier. But I can’t pinpoint one thing for you and say we need to run the ball more or we need to hit more short passes, I think we just need to come together as a unit and make a few first downs and get going early.”

SIGN, SIGN, EVERYWHERE A SIGN
November 5th – 4:37 PM

There are a number of new signs hung around the Chiefs practice facility, reminding players of the task at hand. These signs carry a number of different messages that revolve around the central concept of team unity and what it takes to win in the NFL.

“Just words that I think are important, Chiefs head coach Todd Haley said of the signs. “They might have been signs I’ve had in other places or thought we came up with as a staff.“

“Just little reminders to the players to kind of keep them thinking in the direction we think they ought to be thinking,” Haley finished.

The messages on the signs are aimed at bringing the team together, reminding them the of season-long messages while aiming to rally through difficult times on the playing field. Sitting at 1-6, and having been involved with championship teams, Chiefs S Mike Brown thinks that reminding players about key winning attributes is very important.

“I think that what happens when you are involved in a season that we’re involved in, in terms of wins and losses, that’s what happens,” Brown said. “You don’t want to get the locker room divided in any way or the he-say, she-say type of thing going on. You have to worry about your job and what you’re doing and focus on helping this team win. There is no reason to go out there and blame this guy or that guy. You have to look yourself in the mirror because no one in this locker room has played really, really well consistently for the games I’ve been playing in.

“We just have to find a way that everyone plays consistently and for four quarters, and hopefully we’ll turn this thing around,” Brown continued. “Then we’ll get some positives things to happen, some positive vibes in this locker room and get some wins on the board.“

The messages of bonding, accountability and winning traits have been relayed from the coaching staff dating all the way back to the spring and have been on order for quite some time. The new decor is just another way of reminding a very young team about what success in the NFL is build upon.

“We are what, 1-6?,” Dorsey purposely asked. “Anything that can spark us, we’re all for it. We have to start doing some things differently, so maybe that’s a start. If those signs can help us think about what we’re doing and are trying to make us better then lets go with it.“

Coaches are known for posting quotes on the walls at all levels of football. Previous Chiefs coaching regimes have pinned up messages such as “Gotta Go To Work!,” and “The Main Thing Is the Main Thing.“

Haley’s favorite quote, however, hasn’t been posted…yet.

“Sam Rutigliano, who is a favorite coach of mine, sent me a Winston Churchill quote, which I thought was very appropriate of me and I appreciated very much. Winston Churchill said, ‘The way that you endure that what you must endure, is more important than the crisis itself.‘

“Coach Rutigliano is a great motivational speaker, awesome to be around, he was a great coach,” Haley continued. “I’ve always had great fondness towards him and he’s always looked out for me. Right now, that’s my favorite one.“

*Sam Rutigliano was a long-time football coach in the high school, college and NFL ranks. He is most famous for coaching the Cleveland Browns, who were known as the “Kardiac Kids” at the time. Rutigliano led the Browns to a 1980 AFC Central Championship and won NFL Coach of the Year honors that season. He was also instrumental in aiding players who were troubled with substance abuse issues.

CASSEL READY TO SEE WHAT CHAMBERS HAS
November 5th – 2:58 PM

Chiefs WR Chris Chambers hasn’t wasted any time getting into the rotation among Kansas City’s wide receiving core. The final verdict of Chambers playing this weekend or not is still in the air, but it’s inevitable that Chambers receive ample opportunity whether it be this weekend or in the short future.

The Chiefs have lacked a deep threat in the passing game through much of the season. Players like WR Ashley Lelie, once known as the NFL’s fastest receiver, have come and gone for various reasons. Next in line with an opportunity to show what he’s got is Chambers.

”He’s only been here for two days or so, and I know he got in 12 o’clock Tuesday night or whatever it was, but you can already tell that he has great physical skills,” Chiefs QB Matt Cassel said today. “He’s been a professional for a long time now, he knows how to work and he’s already showing that out there on the field. Hopefully he can help us and contribute.“

Chambers has had only nine receptions this season amongst a very crowded wide receiving committee in San Diego. But he’s proven to be a big-time player in the NFL. Chambers put together a Pro Bowl season in 2005 when he registered 82 catches for 1,118 yards with the Miami Dolphins.

Although his time in San Diego was an up-and-down affair, he made some big plays for the Chargers over the years. His last was by far the most critical catch in San Diego’s 24-16 win over the Raiders last weekend. Cassel and company hope that Chambers can carry that momentum over and get off to a hot start with his new team. We’ll find out what Chambers has got in due time, maybe as soon as this Sunday.

THURSDAY PRACTICE REPORT
November 5th – 11:44 AM

The Chiefs once again took to the field without a true free safety. Strong safety DaJuan Morgan once again filled the free safety role with Jon McGraw out with a thigh injury once again today. McGraw hasn’t practiced in nearly two weeks.

CB Mike Richardson, who was ill yesterday, was absent from practice once again this afternoon. CB Maurice Leggett continued working at free safety, while Travis Daniels (who has limited NFL experience at safety) worked at his familiar cornerback position.

JAGS LACKING EXECUTION
November 5th – 10:49 AM

It’s been a rough two-week stretch for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Two weeks ago the Jaguars struggling through a sloppy outing against the then-winless St. Louis to eventually escape with a 23-20 overtime home victory. Last weekend, the Jaguars were routed on the road 30-13 by a then-winless Titans team.

To start, for RB Maurice Jones-Drew and head coach Jack Del Rio, it all comes down to execution…or lack thereof.

”We just don’t execute as well as we should,” Jones-Drew said. “We install a lot of stuff every week, but we just don’t execute like we do in practice. We meet maybe six or seven hours out of the week, and we just need to learn how to execute. At the end of the day if we can execute, we’ll be fine.“

Offensively, part of that execution was not getting the football into Jones-Drew’s hands until nearly 25 minutes into the game. Jones-Drew leads the NFL with 10 rushing TDs and took one for 80 yards on his first touch of the game late in the second quarter.

Defensively, the Jaguars problems have revolved around taking proper angles to the football and not using fundamentally sound tackling techniques. When those things happen, speed kills. That was apparent in Titans RB Chris Johnson’s 228-yard rushing performance last Sunday.

”Obviously it’s got to be an emphasis,” Del Rio said of teaching proper tackling technique. “You’ve got to tackle to play good defense, we understand that. The guys that had a rough time can’t wait to get back out there and get after it. I think it’s not going to be an issue for us; it can’t be. We’ll find a way.

“I think with a swarming defense, with more energy, I think when you get in that type of frenzied, physical, intense mode, I think defenses play their best,” Del Rio continued. ”We’ve got to find a way to get there. I think if you’re looking for individual guys, one-on-one to tackle in space, every now and then you’re going to have a miss. We’ve got to have two, three, four guys arriving and I think that helps neutralize some of those big plays.“

As a result, Jacksonville hit the practice field in full pads yesterday. Although that not an oddity for our team in Kansas City, the Jaguars have rarely held regular season practices in full dress during Del Rio’s tenure as head coach. It looks like poor tackling has struck a nerve with the former NFL linebacker.

The Chiefs are about to hit the practice fields…check back for a practice report within the hour.

EDUCATION ON LJ…PART II
November 5th – 8:41 AM

Yesterday, former NFL general manager Charlie Casserly wrote an excellent article involving the nuances of suspensions, settlements and many of the other complex details that go into account when a situation just as the Larry Johnson arise. He wrote a fair and balanced article for CBS Sports that looked at the big picture from both a team and player/agent side of things.

You can view Casserly’s article below…
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/12467385

Today, there was yet another excellent article on the Larry Johnson matter filed by AOL Fanhouse national writer Nancy Gay. She takes a look at the personal conduct policy, the NFL’s current stance and the situation that teams face when dealing with these types of situations. She gives very detailed insight as to the precedents that Casserly talked about yesterday and the outside situation that Chiefs management faced in the matter.

Have a look here…
http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/11/04/nfl-oddly-quiet-about-larry-johnson-tom-cable-and-personal-cond/

MISSING MCGRAW
November 5th – 6:05 AM

The Chiefs situation in the secondary took a nose dive late last week. S Jarrad Page suffered an injury in practice that, as a result, put him on the injured reserve list Wednesday morning. Simply the loss of Page is bad enough, but the timing of the injury couldn’t come at a worse time for the Chiefs.

That’s because S Jon McGraw, one of the most valuable players on this football team due to his versatility and mental toughness, is also battling a thigh injury. That injury has kept McGraw from practice for well over a week and his prospects of playing on Sunday continue to get gloomier as each day passes.

The team has made multiple moves this week to counteract the blow dealt by the dreaded injury bug. The first is moving strong safety Dajuan Morgan over to the literally empty free safety position. As of right now, it looks like Morgan will be getting a lot of playing time.

The second move was shifting CB Maurice Leggett over to free safety for the week to serve as an emergency backup. Finally, the third move was the acquisition of CB Travis Daniels on Tuesday morning. Both Leggett and Daniels are true cornerbacks, but have also seen playing time sparingly at free safety. Daniels actually started a game at that position in 2007 with Miami.

“It’s an area of concern for us,” Haley admitted yesterday. “We’ve been cross-training some of those corners to be alert in an emergency situation if we were to have something happen. But it’s an area of concern right now and is tenuous to say the least as we go forward this week.”

The biggest blow, by far, is the loss of McGraw. McGraw is the “do-everything” defender that the Chiefs have leaned on over the past three years to fill in at any position if injuries occur. Last season McGraw played free safety, strong safety, cornerback and nickel back in the same game. This season, he’s even lined up at linebacker in a few passing situations.

From the looks of it, Morgan will occupy McGraw’s starting spot if McGraw is unable to play and Leggett is being groomed into the role that McGraw has played. Leggett has NFL experience at playing both cornerback and nickel. The last time he lined up at safety, however, was in college.

“That’s one of the guys who has been getting a lot of work at safety,” Haley said of Leggett. “At show-team he was there way back in training camp. He’s got a bunch of reps and has been trained back there through the play-book, now being out there and actually running reps is a little bit different. I think I feel like at least we’re ahead of the curve with him.”

“I’m just trying to get in where I fit in,” Leggett said. “Just the vision (is different) and the conditioning; you have to be able to run sideline to sideline. I’m just practicing to be ready. I have no idea (how they will use me). I’ll just be ready when my number is called and will take advantage of every opportunity.”

Whoever is at free safety, that player will play a major role in containing Jaguars big-play RB Maurice Jones-Drew. Whether it is McGraw, Morgan, Leggett or Daniels, the Chiefs literally have their hands full. Jones-Drew defines the big play as six of his league-leading 10 TDs have come from 50 or more yards. Just last Sunday, Jones-Drew busted out TD runs of 79 and 80 yards a piece.

“Jones-Drew is a problem for the entire defense,” Haley went on to say. “He breaks more tackles I think than anybody in the league. That’s definitely something we have to do as a team, and that’s get 11 people to him every time he touches it.”

Haley is correct. Jones-Drew nearly seems inhuman when it comes to breaking tackles. Everyone on the Chiefs will need to be on their toes each time the rock gets into the hands of #32. For the free safeties, there is even more pressure. Those guys are the final chance to bring Jones-Drew down before a “sixer” is hung on the board.

The Chiefs face a great challenge defensively this Sunday.