Random Commanders Thoughts

Dear Blognostication,

Phone home.

Our coaching on the defensive side definitely seems on the up and up. Grey & Tomisolu have got that side of the ball playing pretty solid.

It's double edged though. While our D is shooting up the ranks everyone else is noticing too. They're gonna be targeted by other teams as dc's & Manhusky as a possible hc this offseason.

Win4us said:

Our coaching on the defensive side definitely seems on the up and up. Grey & Tomisolu have got that side of the ball playing pretty solid.

It's double edged though. While our D is shooting up the ranks everyone else is noticing too. They're gonna be targeted by other teams as dc's & Manhusky as a possible hc this offseason.

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Not off of one season they won't. Their previous records are pretty shaky overall. I don't see anyone on this staff getting a chance in the next year or two. Callahan might get a call if a team were desperate but I don't see anyone else being at that level, at least not yet.

I don't think Callahan is going anywhere. He turned down a promotion to OC, and said he was happy in his current position.
He's also happy with his current team, because he said he loves working with Jay.

No argument - was addressing who might get interest... and I'd think he'd be the most likely, not any one year wonders on defense

IDK, one of those worse to first stories always gives hope to desperation. Maybe the Bengals, Chargers or Raiders looking for new HC. If Manhusky would get tapped you know he'd take one of the position coaches with too.

I'd love to have the same guys stay on staff a few seasons tho there's always desperate owners out there. Like we used to be

Best acquisition to the coaching staff
Kendall fuller who hinted to Jay that he ought to interview Gray
Look at what Gray has done at VT DBs less than 200 yards passing per game Brandon Flowers, Cam chancellor
Just 2 of the many solid players he has put into the NFL of course Tomsula helps also

Kelley, Reed, Foster, Swearinger all active.

It's frustrating to lose that game. After such a great start, the offense seemed to sleep walk through the rest of the game except for a couple of drives. The last drive by the offense was a great drive. I question that 2nd and 2 call. If you are going to run there, I think you just bring in Perine to grind out the yards. The inside give to Thompson seemed to predictable and he's not the power runner to just put his head down and drive. The throw to Doctson was a great throw and he made a great catch, until he hit the ground and dropped it. That close to a victory.

Kel Varnsen said:

The throw to Doctson was a great throw and he made a great catch, until he hit the ground and dropped it. That close to a victory.

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Sure looked like he was facemasked on that play

With all the injuries we received, the bye week could not come soon enough. However it does seem strange that we received all these second half injuries and the Chiefs were able to get the win! Just saying .....!

This is a young team that shot itself in the foot with costly penalties and mistakes. I appreciate Doctson but he needs to be tougher. At least the team is young and should improve by learning from its mistakes. When is the last time we could say that?

Chris said:

This is a young team that shot itself in the foot with costly penalties and mistakes. I appreciate Doctson but he needs to be tougher. At least the team is young and should improve by learning from its mistakes. When is the last time we could say that?

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Toughness is where the veterans step in. They have to tell the younger players that it's not easy in the NFL, and they have to put in 100%, 100% of the time they are out there.

Well I've now had a couple of hours sleep *yawn* and a morning to reflect on the game.

I have to say I'm pretty happy once I put everything into perspective.

We went into one of the most hostile Stadiums in the League, to play AWAY on a Monday Night against what many are touting as the BEST team in the league this year..... and we came within a whisker of beating them. If Doctson had held onto that ball....

The defense looks really good still. We had them stymied until we started getting hit big time by injuries and had to field a good proportion of our relatively inexperienced players. Had our Defense stayed healthier I think it's a different story.

Our Offense is frustratingly inconsistent still. It looks world class at times and can move the ball FAST... but it is prone to long stretches where it disappears. Last night that led to our D being on the field far too long (After having the upper hand in ToP for the first Qtr, we finished on the wrong side of a 38/22 split), leading to mistakes, injuries and penalties and ultimately to the loss. The Offense could have put the game away in the 2nd and 3rd Quarters but struggled. Kirk played well overall, the line held magnificently, but I felt like some of the other Offensive players vanished a bit this week. Crowder (1 for -7 yds), Reed (3 for 21 yds), Thompson (1 for 4 yds rec and 6 for 23 yds rush)... Where were our big game changers when we needed them?

Still, with all that in mind.... We essentially only lost by 3 (I'm not including the clown show fumble TD at the end) and could have won it.

I still feel we're a bit of a work in progress, but we have huge upside. I'm now convinced that on any given day we have a team that could beat anyone in the league. We just need to get healthy, avoid penalties and our O needs to stop disappearing for stretches at a time.

I'm pretty positive this morning

Moral victories in football:

Do not put one W in the win column and do not get you any closer to the playoffs.

The Redskins on MNF showed a national audience nothing new.

A team that looks good in flashes but as usual, can't get out of it's own way long enough to actually step up to contender status.

Yes, Arrowhead is a tough place to play. MNF has been a continual boondoggle for this franchise.

But in the end, costly penalties at key times and lack of execution in clutch moments keep this franchise a mediocre,.500 team.

And it's very tiresome. Has been for 20+ yrs.

When does that change?

I'm not sure all those costly penalties were actually penalties.

I think we're at Contender status already.

Game 1 is the one I'm disappointed in, I really wish we could have a do over on that one. But I don't think anyone considered that we would win all 16 games this year, and in the last three weeks we beat a Rams team that I think are better than we thought they were back then, dismantled a Raiders team who many were touting for Superbowl contenders and came within a whisker of beating the team every says is the best team in the league at the moment.

Any other year I could honestly see is being 0-4. 2-2 feels like something big to me.

There were games that really scared me on our schedule at the stat of the year, I thought we were going to be 9-7 optimistically, but likely more like 8-8 or worse. I figured that we'd have losses at Raiders, Chiefs, Seahawks, split with the Eagles and Giants and probably lose both against the Boys. All based on last years results and our shonky pre-season.

Now however the only teams that I look at as being scary are the Seahawks and the Bronco's. Everyone else looks really beatable. Hell after our games that last two weeks I'd take us to win versus any of our upcoming slate.
I think we're seeing the coming together of what looks like it'll be (injuries aside) a really good Defence, maybe top 10, and an Offence that's finally starting to show what it's capable of. I don't want to jinx us, but this team doesn't look fundamentally broken like previous years.

Last year we knew that the Offense was elite, but the defense was... well whatever the diametric opposite of elite is. For every yard and point our Offense put up, our D conceded the same more or less. The team was fundamentally broken.

This year I think maybe our Offense is struggling a little, maybe placing us outside the top 10, but I think our D has stepped up considerably. I think (hope) that as the season goes on and the two units settle down more and more we'll start to see real separation. It was really evident yesterday how in the first quarter the two units seemed to feed off each other, alas then the injuries started to pile up and the offense stalled.

Staying positive again (or maybe I'm just sleep deprived at this point!) I think our young players will learn from this and we'll be stronger in depth because of the injuries.

What concerned me most though was the penalties by players who should know better... Smith and Breeland I'm looking at you two! I imagine there were harsh words to those two in the game debrief!

Neophyte said:

I'm not sure all those costly penalties were actually penalties.

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Yeah to be fair a couple were a little dubious. But then that's the nature of penalties, sometimes they go your way, sometimes they don't.

By the by.... looked at the stats this morning.

We're 8th in total offence and 12th in total defence...

bird_1972 said:

KDawg - I respect your football acumen a great deal and so I had a few questions to your points - all in red below within quoted text. Would be curious to get yours (and others) take. I was unable to watch the game myself as I was out of the country for work but have been hearing accolades galore over the Skins performance.

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Just saw this...

1. Cousins has over the last few weeks shown he deserves to get paid somewhere around 17% of the cap. Not much more. Not much less. He's not a world beater, but he's certainly a franchise level QB that can win with the right pieces around him.

2. Not entirely sure. They are holding him back, even after last nights Chief game they seemed to be holding him back a bit, although he's much more involved now.

5. I think Lauvao is an excellent run blocker and severely underrated by our fans in that regard. He's 'meh' in the pass game. I think looking to G/C for depth and competition in the offseason wouldn't be a terrible move.

7. Ioan has been solid. But again, I'm not sure anyone on the DL is really standing out. They are all playing at a pretty high, yet even level. If I had to pick DL that stand out, though, I'd say Ioan and Allen are making the most of their opportunities. Anderson is technically an OLB... So I'm not including them. Kerrigan and Smith have overall been very good this season. Especially Kerrigan. Smith, despite the phantom offsides, really WAS offsides WAY too often last night.

8. Oakland's OL is considered solid. From what I've seen of their games THIS season, they struggle against a strong front. Middle of the road I'd say.

9. 1 year. Needs to be more.

10. Not particularly. I don't know that it's a good or bad thing for the long term. But for the short term he's just letting our guys play and keeping things relatively simple. He'll need to add some complexities as he goes.

12. Not one bit. By the way, the statement I made in point 12 last week is even more true after last night.

13. Decent vision and good runs in garbage time. Not sure that translates at all.

Chiefs thoughts:

1. Thompson needs to be more involved in the game plan. If teams are focusing on taking him away, it opens things up. I'd like to see Kelley (healthy) and Thompson on the field together and using them both in running, blocking and passing roles to keep defenses guessing.

2. Vernon Davis is our best tight end at the moment. No, I'm not taking anything away from Jordan Reed. But Vernon Davis does everything and doesn't make the mistakes that Jordan does. Jordan is a bigger hitter, Davis is more bang for your buck.

3. Josh Norman demonstrated why he is the defensive MVP for the team. With Norman? 0 points for KC. Without? 23. He shuts down the field and makes Manusky's job easy.

4. Ryan Grant, again, has proven to be our most consistent wide receiver. Doctson could start to trend that way, but Grant has been solid.

5. Again, Cousins looked good. Might be worth the money afterall.

6. Zach Brown is fast.

7. Preston Smith's offside penalty, that had the flag thrown AFTER the incompletion, was heart breaking and ultimately what cost the team the game. He was offsides on his own a few times last night, but that phantom call, in that spot, after a big stop... That was a dagger in the heart.

8. Doctson was held by the defender, and then had an illegal hand to the face on the would be touchdown pass at the end of the game.