Take
a Memo
Coaches
should be embarrassed
Posted
12-16-02
by
CK Rairden
Landmark columnist
This game was described as a playoff game and the Chiefs
opened the game just like it was the playoffs. The entire
team and coaches were sleepwalking through the first half.
QB Trent Green missed wide-open receivers. The Chiefs
defense missed easy tackles and allowed big TD runs and
catches. And the Chiefs special teams, once they quit
committing penalties on every return, also missed a FG.
The coaches failed to have the team ready, and should
be embarrassed at their lack of preparation.
The Chiefs first half play looked like the first half
of a pre-season game. The Chiefs were more than fortunate
that they only trailed by 14 points going into the locker
room at the half.
No excuses, no mercy, no quarter.
****
The TURNSTILE defense was never on better display than
when Clinton Portis took a 5-yard swing pass and ran through
the Chiefs secondary for a 66-yard TD in the third quarter.
That gave the Broncos a 28-7 lead.
That should have been the game. That should have been
the end of the Chiefs playoff hopes. That should have
been the season.
But thanks to a gutsy performance by the Chiefs on both
sides of the ball it wouldn’t end until the final
incomplete pass by Trent Green fell harmlessly on the
turf at Mile-High part II.
Admonishments and accolades crowd the memo pad; it’s
worthy to divide it up into the good, the bad and the
ugly—
****
Take a Memo:
THE GOOD:
-The way the Chiefs team would not quit.
-Dante Hall. Whew—Now a budding superstar. He may
be the best player in the NFL at making people miss in
a spread-out open field.
-Priest Holmes. Still the absolute best running back
in the NFL.
-The offensive line. Also— the best in the league.
-Trent Green in the fourth quarter. The guy has no quit
in him.
-Eddie Kennison’s two blocks on Dante Hall’s
75-yard TD catch.
-Defensive take-aways. Despite the fact that the defense
couldn’t stop the Broncos at all, they did get three
crucial turnovers that made Chiefs fans have to keep watching
the whole game.
-Defensive stops in the fourth quarter once Denver went
conservative. Sure Denver blew it by using that offense,
but the defense still made the stops.
-Oh and that Dante Hall guy—did I mention him?
THE BAD:
-All of the injuries. Specifically—
-The awkward way Priest Holmes landed after his 56-yard
run in the third quarter. It looked ugly and took Holmes
out when the team needed him most, during the desperation
4th quarter attempted comeback. He left the locker room
on crutches with a “bruised hip.” If that is
all it is it will be a miracle.
-The injury to Tony Richardson. Separated shoulder, out
for the season. T Rich is too important to Holmes to be
out for the season. A huge loss.
-The injury to K Morten Anderson. It stinks to have a
kicker that can’t hit a 40-yarder because of an injury.
-The coaching staff’s inability to understand that
the clock keeps running when the ball doesn’t go
out of bounds. When the clock is ticking late in the fourth
quarter and you don’t score and your team is trailing
by ten points have a plan, any plan. Don’t look at
Mike White trying to figure it out right there on the
spot. The clock ran for 26 seconds before a decision was
made. Those 26 seconds could have been used on that last
drive. Next time— CALL A DAMN TIMEOUT!!!!
THE UGLY:
-Now that is Greg Robinson’s TURNSTILE defense.
If he worked all week on that defensive design to stop
a team he coached on for years, he needs to donate his
check to charity. Until the Broncos went conservative,
the defense had no answers.
-William THE Burnee has no business being on an NFL football
field let alone being a starting CB.
-It’s painful to watch Greg Wesley get sucked up
too close to the line of scrimmage while opposing RB’s
punch through a crowded line of scrimmage and see nothing
but the goal line 50 yards down the field.
-It is ugly to watch the entire defense give up a 93-yard
drive that takes up nearly 10 minutes and 19 plays with
no answers. Even if the opposition didn’t score a
TD.
-The ugliest: Greg Robinson’s entire defensive scheme.
There is a reason the Broncos fired him two years ago.
It was on display in this Chiefs loss and many others
this season.
****
Wild Card picture:
Fifth straight season without a playoff game for the
Chiefs.
(CK Rairden can be reached by email
at ckden@yahoo.com)
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