Knile Davis
Is Craig Glazer always wrong?
That’s what some of you guys like to think.
Are these speedy Kansas City Chiefs gonna win one or more games this season? Is my pick to go under a fool’s bet? That’s right, I say go under the 8 1/2 wins. The Chiefs will need 9 wins to cover the bet that I said is impossible. After seeing their win in game one against a decent Bengals team, could I be wrong?
Let’s take a look.
Bright Spots:
The always injured tight end Travis Kelce had a 70 yard touchdown run. Nice. He looked very good out there and we haven’t had a good tight end since Tony G.
De’Anthony Thomas – the new running back from the “Ducks” – was also on fire. And he ran one back to the end zone. Nice.
Running back Knile Davis, the second year back from Arkansas, looked fast and ready to roll with Jamaal Charles in the Chiefs backfield. Nice
Our defense intercepted a couple and cornerback Sean Smith ran one in for a TD. Nice.
And it was a high scoring fun game to watch right?
NOW THE TRUTH:
Our first team offense was beyond bad.
Only 33 yards in three series. They did nothing. And looked lost.
Offensive tackle Eric Fisher the new LT to protect quarterback Alex Smith got jacked by Robert Geathers who left Eric face down on the turf and then sacked Smith causing a fumble. Not good.
Our defense was as bad as ever. Nobody could cover anything all night. Our secondary was as bad as bad can be.
No real pass rush..again.
Hey, it’s just preseason, but I saw enough.
With no offensive line – and we have none – no corners or safety play – again we have none- it’s going to be a long season. A very long season.
This year’s Chiefs will need to win shoot outs. Like 38-35 or 45-44 games.
Because we have no defense, NONE. Zip.
The fast backfield will help and since coach Andy Reid knows he has no receivers, he will have Smith throw to his backs a ton. They’re fast and talented so that gives the Chiefs a chance to score on anyone.
The problem is our defense is so bad that anyone can throw or run on us.
Look for maybe 7 wins – 8 is now possible due to speed – but not likely.
THE UNDER 8 1/2 IS A LOCK.
A legit schedule, no guarantee they’ll remain largely injury-free as 2013 and the march of time will tell the tale, 2014. Injuries always the X factor, Kerouac predicts 4 wins low end, 7 tops, 6 my ‘cart before the horse’ pick current KC/NFL landscape considered.
~
Training camp: the names Haynes, Shay and Printers litter memory, annals training camps past. The names/positions change, the hyperbole does not. PR department as well media shills infer future ‘Hall of Famers’, who then plummet back to earth once the real games begin. Based upon the trumpets lore 2014, Kerouac expected to see busts of TE Harris & LB Ford already crafted; failing said, there’s always this week’s game, as well the next. Still, game 1 vs CIN was entertaining if a bit sloppy, overall.
Special teams, little #1 isn’t straight-line fast as original #1 Noland ‘Supergnat’ Smith was, but like ‘Human Joystick’ Dante Hall, has more quick-cutting ability & should be fun to watch if he doesn’t get broken right away (as opposed to inevitably.)
Speaking of lilliputians, K Santos reminds of another, Garo Yepremian; if he kicks as well, great. Co$t consideration Succop aside, still not sure Santos makes the team, or that replacing an old standby (Tynes) with a new guy (Medlock) is worth the risk. #6 has been adequate, Santos is nothing more than an unknown, this point.
Offense: Wide receivers? We don’t need no stinking wide receivers – already got ’em (pee u). Thus, TE’s/RB’s will receive more targets, o-line & wideouts lack considered. At least Elvis has left the building, otherwise – “Hey, I can’t throw it and catch it too” pronouncements would waft through the aire.
QB & OL: Smith needs time back in the pocket; alas, the offensive line will need time too… just don’t see two new OT’s and an new OG jelling overnight/soon enough. Also, don’t see ‘alex be nimble, alex be quick’ surviving unscathed 2014, enter Bray & pray.
I could see QB Daniels moved & Bray/Murray retained… can’t see KC carrying 4 QB’s (some teams carry but 2). If KC actually believes they have a chance getting anywhere this season, they’ll keep the vet as insurance. Whether they do or don’t may signal how sincere they are their belief Chiefs success, 2014. As well, neither young QB may ever amount to a hill of beans.
RB: An already concussed and often dinged Charles is on borrowed time, and it can all be over in a second (like vs New Orleans a couple years ago.) He (or Smith) goes down, and it’ll be curtains for KC even earlier than usual. Depth RB as QB remains unproven / untested, to any great extent.
Defense: Yes please. Losing starting S Lewis & replacing him with a veteran (who was already on the roster & couldn’t beat out Lewis in 2013) doesn’t seem improvement, moreso desperation. Abdullah’s 5 ints in half a decade doesn’t scream playmaker while Berry remains the biggest ‘over-hype’ in Chiefs franchise history: he still can’t cover a legit NFL TE routinely, unless he resorts to holding/interference & his tackling in the playoff game vs INDY was atrocious. But he’s a pro bowler, yup… hilarious.
CB: Chiefs could probably sign Willie Mitchell & Fred Williamson & do no worse than what they’re going with. Flowers (chuckling) & Rivers (licking his chops) can be heard like a couple of hyenas, all the way from San Diego, awaiting the chance to play vs KC. Cooper or Parker, the football nightmare yesteryear known as Goldie Sellers covering (moreso chasing from behind) Don Maynard/Fred Biletnikoff will be relived, much too often I fear.
DL: There is Poe and then no mo… when you miss Ty ‘Inaction’ Jackson, you know you have some concerns. Devito better play better than Danny & Bailey better than Beetle, less sieve doesn’t present. Yes, they’re bigger and stronger this year, as every year (as is the opposition bigger/stronger, annually). Pass rush? Gesundheit.
LB: Merits/demerits weighed, they look good on paper, Hali , Johnson, Houston, Mays the quartet. Depth, Ford looked as if he’ll have as much impact vs the running game as the old one-trick pony himself, Derrick Thomas did… not so much; he’d better be able to rush the passer. The rest are just some guys, like the rest of the D.
Nod Leonard Pinth-Garnell, “there…that wasn’t so good now, was it?” Or EM Cioran – “as a general rule, men expect disappointment: they know they mustn’t be impatient, that it will come soon or later.” Oh, to be a Chiefs fan… might as well get a headstart.
Don’t bring your fancy facts aMnd accurate past here to confuse us. Allow us to dream a little longer.
The big unknown is how will the new rules and focus on DBs effect the play?
Andy Reid has historically had less than stellar receivers. TO being the exception and later Jackson and Macklin. Pretty good, or lucky, with TEs too.
Eric Fisher being spun like a dreidel from the first play was depressing. Lots of leaks in the dam.
DBs look like toast, maybe that’s just a disguise. Hopes every fan who ever sat in the Huddle Club.
Hopefully the Chiefs listen to John Leonard and have a local tribe construct a ceremonial drum. The Chiefs need to perform their own Ghost Dance, raise the spirits of Budde, Tyler, Buchanan, Bell, Lanier, drive all the Raiders, Broncos and Chargers into the sea.
Divine intervention from above, our mantra when facing the facts.
Fred Nietzsche’s drug was opium, Norm Vincent Peale’s was Pollyanna…cynic as optimist, no more egregious “trashing” a team (as one blogger labeled it/pled me relent) pointing out obvious deficiencies, than it is “overhyping” same, annually.
Kerouac always being true to self & reason, res ipsa loquitur – years of wash, rinse & repeat is to blame, not the messenger; but that it weren’t so. Sticking a feather in one’s cap/calling it macaroni does not make it so, Yankee Doodle Chiefdom.
As for “The big unknown is how will the new rules and focus on DBs effect the play?”
– KC’s could not cover in 2013, 2nd / 3rd string QB’s faced vs walking wounded opposition teams the only respite. In 2014, Steve Martin trying cover his damage$/chase down a cab in “Planes, Trains & Automobiles”. Rabble’s terminology – ‘they ain’t got the horses’, i.e., (apologies to mom/dad), ‘they suck’.
Or as Garnell would continue…
“Perfectly awful!”
“Couldn’t be worse!”
“Unrelentingly bad!”
The End
K well nobody says it better than you my friend. We both agree completely. I do think the two new backs could hold down the fort without Charles. However with him, we still went nowhere really. Alex Smith proved to me in the playoff game he was and is a worthy QB. He did it without Charles. No receivers. I like the guy. But with no O line, gonna be tough. We are on the same page 5-7 wins..I like the six spot myself. 7 wins would surprise me a bit, 8 impress me, 9 no way. The Chiefs are cannon fodder again as they have been since 1997 season. Never had a real contender since. Never.
season over/under win lines not up yet in Vegas.
best online odds have Chiefs u/o at 8 at -140.
i.e. – Chiefs would have to win only 7 games or less for bet to pay.
you can make a $100,000 on this bet..
if you happen to have $140,000 cash in your wallet .. and can wait til January for a payout.
http://sports.bovada.lv/sports-betting/football-team-props.jsp
One they are up. Two, WTF how can the over under be 8 and if you win 7 you win, huh, you need to win 9. Do the math..check out sportsandodds.com for vegas odds and hotels that post them.
Andy Reid has had less than 81/2 wins in just five of the 15 seasons he’s been a head coach. One of the under 81/2 was his first season. One season he had six wins and his starting quarterback for half the season was Mike McMahon (who?). Donovan was hurt.
I’m a hockey guy who doesn’t really even follow the NFL and I know that you do NOT bet Andy Reid under 81/2. Blah, blah, blah with all the other reasons. Fact is that Andy Reid just doesn’t coach teams to less than 81/2 wins.