The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - Ravens Edition

QB Brodie Croyle narrowly escapes a turnover againt the Ravens

What worked, what didn't work, and what made you want to break your TV Sunday.

Nathan Alexander

Chiefs Coaliton Columnist

Hello, sports fans!

The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly has returned for the 2009 season! The format has changed slightly, and we hope you find the changes to be a good thing.

Good

- Tied the game at 24 with just over 5 minutes left in the game.

- DJ not only didn’t drop the INT as he often did in the past, he set up an easy TD with an excellent return.

- Tamba Hali’s early sack of Flacco makes a strong argument that his transition to OLB will be successful.

- As bad as the O-line looked in preseason, they only gave up 1 sack through more than 3 and a half quarters.

- No turnovers committed by the Chiefs.

- Extremely low penalties (3 for 15 yards) committed by the Chiefs.

- It looks like the Chiefs' kicker is a keeper.

Bad

- The Chiefs couldn’t get much pressure. Hali got the Chiefs’ only sack, and Flacco didn’t get hit much.

- When the Chiefs did keep the WRs covered well, the Chiefs never got a coverage sack as Flacco scrambled 5 times for positive yardage.

- Two sacks allowed late in the game inside the Chiefs’ own 20 when down by a TD and needing to score: not good.

- After an excellent pre-season, Corey Mays was almost completely a non-factor.

- Allowed the Ravens to convert on 58% of their third downs.

- Achieved only 20% conversions on third down.

- Allowed 4.8 yards/carry.

- Allowed the Ravens a 100% TD ratio once they reached the Red Zone.

- Not enough turnovers caused by the Chiefs.

Ugly

- The Chiefs’ offense couldn’t sustain drives, and we held the ball for only 20 minutes. It is nearly impossible to win when your opponent is able to hold the ball twice as long and can run 85 plays to your 44.

- 15 carries for 28 yards in the running game. Ugh.

- Allowed the Ravens to amass 32 first downs.

- Achieved only 11 first downs.

- Allowed 3 TDs in the fourth quarter, more points than in the previous 3 quarters combined.

- The good news is the Chiefs didn’t miss many tackles. The bad news is those tackles were all past the line of scrimmage.

Discussion points:

- There is no such thing as a moral victory when you get a mark in the “loss” column, but you certainly feel better about eventually losing after being tied at 24 with 8 minutes left in the game than you are being down by 17 in the first quarter on the way to being blown out or shut-out. Most pundits had the Chiefs losing in a laugher, and the fact that we pushed them that late in the game counts for something.

- I understand that if you don’t want a team to run up the score, you should stop them from doing it. I understand that if the Ravens failed to punch it in from the 1, the Chiefs would have to drive 99 yards to tie/win, as opposed to having to drive only 88 or so yards if the Ravens somehow missed a FG on 4th and 1 from the 1. But I still think it was poor sportsmanship for the Ravens to go for the TD at that point. A FG would have put them up by 10, and a FG from the 1 is much higher percentage than a rush from the same location.

- 21 points allowed in the fourth quarter, 14 allowed with less than 4 minutes to go. Wasn’t the conditioning supposed to prevent this?

- Okay, one TD was off of a blocked punt. A second TD came on a fairly easy score following a long INT return. But no matter how it happened, the Ravens walked off the field with 24 points on their opponent’s scoreboard. Only 3 opponents hung at least 24 on the Ravens last year. Only 4 scored more than 13. Baltimore held fully half of their 2008 opponents to 10 points or less. That the Chiefs were able to score so many points against a traditionally-stout Ravens defense. This reinforces the idea that the preseason doesn’t mean much: the first regular season game was the opposite of the preseason, where the Chiefs looked inept on offense and were able to stop the run and prevent scoring.

- Despite the previous two points, one shouldn’t make trend assumptions off of just one game, because developments within that game don’t carry over. With as much as our defense was on the field, it may be that a less-well-conditioned defense would have collapsed long before the final 3 minutes. With our starting QB in, we might have been able to convert a few more third downs. With our best CB Brandon Flowers not out with an injury, we might have prevented some third down conversions through the air. Or we might not have done any of that. The point is, at this point we don’t know. We’ll know more after next week.