Chiefscoalition.com: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
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Nathan Alexander on 25/10/2011 13:09:00


+The Good:
- First road shut-out since the early 70s.
- The win puts the Chiefs back to .500; anything can happen from here.
- Haven’t allowed a 100-yd rusher since week 1 against the Bills; looking 
ahead at the schedule, there aren’t any obvious threats to break that  string
anytime within the next several weeks
- Derrick Johnson was an absolute beast: 12 tackles, and often blew up  plays in
the backfield.  He saved a TD on a long Michael Bush run by not  giving up and
chasing him from behind.  He showcased his nose for the  ball best in the
goal-line stand in the first half, when the Chiefs kept  the Raiders out of the
end zone.
- 6 Interceptions, 2 for TDs (Lewis, Flowers), 2 by Flowers.  Okay, they  were
against a washed-up Ravens reject and a guy who was on the couch 5  days ago.  -
- But 6 INTs are nothing to sneeze at, no matter who the  competition is.
- Bowe had another set of highlight reel catches and good numbers.  He very
nearly padded his TD stats, but the knee *was* down.
- Battle continued to move the chains, averaging very close to 5 ypc. +The Bad:
Even with a 2 TD lead, the Chiefs kept passing and handing the ball to  Jones
and McCluster, rather than letting Battle pound the ball. Battle  should have
had another 10 carries.  Jones and McCluster had some good  runs, but got
stuffed entirely too many times. Everyone on the field knew the Raiders needed
to run to win the game.   But the Chiefs still gave up 5.7 ypc in the rushing
game, including a  long of 35 to Bush.  Sure, that’s nit-picky when you win a
game 28-0,  but it’s the principle of the thing. +The Ugly:
In a game that the biggest drama was whether we would shut out the  Raiders or
not, there was no reason for Matt Cassel to take any chances,  but he still
threw 2 picks.  Sure, one was at the end of the first half  and was almost
completely safe, but still… pretty ugly to throw 2 INTs  and 0 TDs in this big
of a blowout. The Chiefs lost their composure in the final quarter when the
Raiders  started cheap-shotting.  It isn’t exactly bad, because you gotta push
 back or get pushed around… but Breaston shouldn’t have needed Albert to 
keep him out of trouble and calm him down. +Worth Noting:
If we win next week, we’ll be tied for Division lead.  According to some 
sources, due to tie-breakers, we’ll actually be in first place.  But  those
sorts of tie-breakers really can’t be applied until the end of the  season, so
I’ll just take it as we would control our own destiny.  But  that’s next
week’s issue.