The Game Goat Thread: Wk. 4 at the Kansas City Super Chiefs

[SeoulSoxFan]

The goat is... well everyone. Duh. But especially:

• Brady: there's a thread on this somewhere...
• Ryan: love the kid, but the penalty near the end of the half (and the "tackling") got him benched and deservedly so
• Coaching staff: from BB's SB-esque decisions to punt from two 4-2 inside KC territory, from McD's continued awful playcalling, and Patricia's inability to adjust to the same cutback run plays, the entire staff gets a F

As much as this was a disaster, I do not subscribe to the following:

• Brady's done/should be replaced/traded next year
• "Patriots are no longer a good team" -- Trent Dilfer
• AFCE is wide open (Jets, Dolphins, and Bills fans)

What this coaching staff and players bought last year (going 12-4 and making an AFCCG appearance) is a long -- I mean long -- leash from me. 
 
There were rocky times for this team before, from the back-to-back home losses (second of which was to the Giants), NO dome game, and several others. Each time the team bounced back to at least win the division and get to the playoffs. 
 
I have no doubt that'll happen again this year. 
 
Perspective: each of the so-called contenders (except, unfortunately, the Bengals who come in Sunday) have had major issues:

• GB: before Rodgers told everyone to "R-E-L-A-X" 
• NO: 1-3 after being the SB favorite for many pundits
• PITT: losing to TB after Bucs got shellacked the week before
• Colts: despite the stats, same 2-2 record as the Pats
• Bears: injuries devastating the D
• 49ers: had to withstand a last minute defensive stand to avoid going 1-3 at home vs. Eagles

Let's look at the AFC opponents:

• Miami: looking best out of the bunch, but wasn't it just two weeks ago there were talks of firing Philbin?
• Bills: Manuel benched. 
• Jets: looking at a gauntlet of a schedule, possibly going 1-6 after the Pats game on TNF

So it's time to take a deeeeeep breath. I'm viewing each week as giving BB, TB (yes, TB) & company symptoms to fix and address, however dire they may appear to be. 
 
This team has always steered the ship right towards December. I believe they will do so again. 

 

[Stitch01]

This team is climbing out of a much, much deeper hole than those teams you mentioned. The 2011 team clearly had an elite offense and an all time QB at or near peak. The team that lost to NO was 7-3 heading into the game and hasn't gotten blown out all year. Your contender list missing some teams as well.

Yeah, they're still favored to beat the rest of the AFC East trash. So yay.

 

[Old Fart Tree]

Man, they looked HORRIBLE. But as I always say, you're never as bad as you look when you lose and never as good as you look when you win.
 
But holy shit did they look like a bad, bad football team.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

To add, Pats could certainly lose to the Bengals and could be a pick'em game. But it'll be competitive. Some quotes coming out of the locker room:

• Dominique Easley: We gon bounce back 
• Bill Belichick: Patriots 'will do better' 
• Vince Wilfork: Chiefs 'Beat Us Like We Stole Something'
• Devin McCourty: "I'm disappointed as this is the most embarrassing game I've ever been a part of."

Motivation is not needed this week.

 

[Morgan's Magic Snowplow]

When the whole team looks unprepared and clueless, the biggest goat is the coaching. I expected the offense to struggle but the defense was just awful and it's not due to a lack of talent.

I think this team still has potential. What worries me is that they really haven't played well all year.

 

[DeJesus Built My Hotrod]

To add, Pats could certainly lose to the Bengals and could be a pick'em game. But it'll be competitive. Some quotes coming out of the locker room:

• Dominique Easley: We gon bounce back 
• Bill Belichick: Patriots 'will do better' 
• Vince Wilfork: Chiefs 'Beat Us Like We Stole Something'
• Devin McCourty: "I'm disappointed as this is the most embarrassing game I've ever been a part of."

Motivation is not needed this week.

 
 
Brady was definitely a goat tonight.  That said, in keeping with this post, I think the sideline shots from the end of the game tell those of us who have watched him over the course of his career all we need to know.  He appeared to be justifiably disgusted and pissed (at himself).  The question now becomes, is he capable of doing anything about it?

 

[Stitch01]

To be fair, the offensive game plan sucked donkey balls too. Punting on those fourth and shorts when the game was close summed up the compete level for the night too. Very poorly coached team tonight.

 

[Tony C]

I give McD a pass on the game plan. When you can neither pass nor run, all the play calls will look bad (though, yes, I would have run more...and run with Ridley, not Vereen).
 
Game ball to: Matthew Slater. Thought Connolly looked pretty good, too. Anyone else -- maybe DMC?
Goat to: Brady; Solder; punting on 4th down.
 
I do agree with some of SSF's post, that said I also agree that Cincy has been the club that looks the best in the league, they're coming off of a bye, and the Pats are on a short week. That sounds like a perfect storm. Weird things happen, but I'm assuming they'll be 2-3 and have to dig back from there.. Totally do-able.

 

[ShaneTrot]

How about Vereen as a goat? He had several chances to get first downs but ran very passively. Is he afraid to get hurt?

 

[Stitch01]

I give McD a pass on the game plan. When you can neither pass nor run, all the play calls will look bad (though, yes, I would have run more...and run with Ridley, not Vereen).
 
Game ball to: Matthew Slater. Thought Connolly looked pretty good, too. Anyone else -- maybe DMC?
Goat to: Brady; Solder; punting on 4th down.
 
I do agree with some of SSF's post, that said I also agree that Cincy has been the club that looks the best in the league, they're coming off of a bye, and the Pats are on a short week. That sounds like a perfect storm. Weird things happen, but I'm assuming they'll be 2-3 and have to dig back from there.. Totally do-able.

Started to write a rant about first down play calling and not running enough, but they were actually fine on 1st down through the air and on the ground when the game was competitive. Were getting mostly to second and manageable and were dogshit there and worse on third downs.

Ran twice in a row exactly once and never handed off to Ridley twice while the game was competitive though, which seems flawed.

 

[Kliq]

The Pats looked bad, but some credit certainly goes to how well KC played tonight. It happens that the thing they are really good at (pass rush) clashed against something the Pats are really bad at (pass protection). Also, say whatever you want about Andy Reid's clock management (and you could say A LOT) but his play calling tonight on offense was nothing short of brilliant. Great job utilizing Davis and Charles, allowed Smith to make a lot of easy reads off the play action, great job creating mismatches on crossing routes, just a really strong game all around for the KC offense, playing a defense that was first in DVOA heading into the game.

 

[mauf]

The offensive and defensive lines are the goats.

Football is complicated, except when it isn't. If you get your ass kicked on both sides of the line, it doesn't much matter what your skill players do -- you will lose the game, usually badly.

The Pats' O-Line struggles are well documented. The ease with which the Chiefs O-Line (which is not considered an elite unit) moved the Pats' D-Line was surprising.

Brady might not be a top-3 QB anymore, but he's plenty good enough. The season will rise or fall on the ability of BB and the coaching staff to coax quality (or at least mediocre) play out of the line.

 

[mikeford]

Brady can't make a pass longer than 5 yards anymore and that's when he has all day to throw. Go look at the first offensive series. Screen to Vereen: short, out quickly and complete. Long pass to Edelman he had time to throw on, overthrown and incomplete. Then an intermediate pass he had time to complete but underthrown and incomplete.

His accuracy on anything longer than basically a dump off or a one-receiver read is a major problem even when he has time. He's not "plenty good" anymore.

 

[DJnVa]

Brady can't make a pass longer than 5 yards anymore and that's when he has all day to throw. Go look at the first offensive series. Screen to Vereen: short, out quickly and complete. Long pass to Edelman he had time to throw on, overthrown and incomplete. Then an intermediate pass he had time to complete but underthrown and incomplete.

His accuracy on anything longer than basically a dump off or a one-receiver read is a major problem even when he has time. He's not "plenty good" anymore.

 

No one is open. No. One.

 

[Stitch01]

PFF numbers
Fleming -4.4 (-4.2 in pass block, so yeah, protection still sucked if that number is right)
Brady -3.9
Connolly -2.7
Edelman -1.7
Stork -1.6
Develin -1.4
Both tackles graded positive so...yeah saw that kind of differently
 
LaFell 1.7 the big positive
 
Defense
Ninkovich -3.1
Easley -2.8 and terrible against the run
Ryan -2.4
Ch Jones -2.1
Vellano -1.9
Hightower -1.6
T Wilson -1.3
 
Chris Jones career best 1.3
Wilfork 1.0, graded good against the run
Brady 0-3, 1 INT beyond 20 yards. Now 1-14 with 1 INT for the season.

 

[JerBear]

PFF numbers
Fleming -4.4 (-4.2 in pass block, so yeah, protection still sucked if that number is right)
Brady -3.9
Connolly -2.7
Edelman -1.7
Stork -1.6
Develin -1.4
Both tackles graded positive so...yeah saw that kind of differently
 
LaFell 1.7 the big positive
 
Defense
Ninkovich -3.1
Easley -2.8 and terrible against the run
Ryan -2.4
Ch Jones -2.1
Vellano -1.9
Hightower -1.6
T Wilson -1.3
 
Chris Jones career best 1.3
Wilfork 1.0, graded good against the run
Brady 0-3, 1 INT beyond 20 yards. Now 1-14 with 1 INT for the season.

I haven't had time to go back and watch, partly because I'm dreading it, but I think the tackles were generally good but their few bad plays were so terrible they stood out far above the rest.

 

[Myt1]

When the whole team looks unprepared and clueless, the biggest goat is the coaching. I expected the offense to struggle but the defense was just awful and it's not due to a lack of talent.

Their linebackers are completely incompetent in coverage. When you can get gashed underneath and have no pass rush in the short amount of time it takes to set up those plays, I think everything else ends up crumbling around that. It makes it impossible to get off the field on third down, too.

 

[moretsyndrome]

Clock management excepted, Reid knows what he's doing.  Gruden was right; that was classic Bill Walsh for the first 28 minutes.  He threw everything at them.  Outside of one Jones sack (and man, is Jones easy to run on) and one block in the back penalty, they would have scored on every single drive in the 1st half. 
 
Even with Revis here, whatever has been missing from this D over the second half of the Brady Era is still missing.  Too often, all Revis does is get slightly closer to the WR who's running the 8-yard sideline cut on 3rd and 7 than guys like Darius Butler did.
 
No answers.  None. Somehow, Mayo can't cover Dwayne Bowe when Chung is still biting on play-action 10 seconds after the fake took place.  There just doesn't seem to be a consistent defensive improvement coming. The only thing that's coming are the injuries.  This could get pretty dark.

 

[( . ) ( . ) and (_!_)]

Their linebackers are completely incompetent in coverage. When you can get gashed underneath and have no pass rush in the short amount of time it takes to set up those plays, I think everything else ends up crumbling around that. It makes it impossible to get off the field on third down, too.

 
literally all of the defenses struggles stem from the inability to get even semi-consistent pressure with just 4 rushers.  That one missing aspect of the Pats game literally changes the entire game.  Any discussion of the defense starts and ends there.

 

[Harry Hooper]

Their linebackers are completely incompetent in coverage. When you can get gashed underneath and have no pass rush in the short amount of time it takes to set up those plays, I think everything else ends up crumbling around that. It makes it impossible to get off the field on third down, too.

 
 
Agree, seems like the opponent covered by the non-Collins LBs is too often available to the enemy QB for at least a 5-yard completion.

 

[SMU_Sox]

We knew the Pats would struggle against this defense. I didn't think they'd suck to the degree they did. The defense shocked me. Stopping the run was the one thing we were doing well. KCs larger tight ends and fullbacks didn't let the D set the edge or collapse the middle until maybe the 3rd quarter. And the Chiefs offensive line isn't highly regarded. Chandler Jones had an early sack but was abused in the run game. He and Logan Ryan are goats on D (although most of the defense qualified). On offense you guys have it covered.

 

[riboflav]

One positive is that Bruschi called Slater the toughest guy on the team and I concur. Of course that guy only plays about 30 seconds a game. Sigh.
 
EDIT: Edelman is pretty tough, too.

 

[patinorange]

Edelman played like an animal the entire game. Blocking. Chasing intercepted balls. Trying to spark something with ill advised punt returns. He did have a drop but he never stops playing. They should put him back at safety. Jesus, the defense was just horrible in every facet of the game.

 

[nazz45]

No answers.  None. Somehow, Mayo can't cover Dwayne Bowe when Chung is still biting on play-action 10 seconds after the fake took place.  There just doesn't seem to be a consistent defensive improvement coming. The only thing that's coming are the injuries.  This could get pretty dark.

We need a breakdown of this one. Definitely zone coverage because Chung is still watching Alex Smith in the backfield at this moment. Sort of had a vice coverage design to it for the slot receiver (Bowe) with Chung underneath and Mayo on top. Revis was on the outside receiver on the same side (playing off coverage).

Regardless, Chung attempts to jam/re-route Bowe inside, passes him off and just sinks in his short underneath zone with no one within 10-15 yards of him in any direction. Bowe runs vertical and stems to the corner. Mayo is late but I can't imagine his responsibility is anything more than protecting the seam. Chung does not react until the ball is thrown, making a desperate attempt to deflect the pass that must be 7-8 feet over his head, exhibiting the depth perception of a cow.

Maybe Chung did exactly what he was supposed to do. Maybe he was spying Smith after the jam. Or maybe he didn't get enough depth in his zone to defend the corner/comeback route. Whatever it was or wasn't, it highlighted just one of many (personnel or scheme) mismatches on the field from last night.

Edit - this is from memory after rewatching the play earlier today so I may be "misremembering" Edit 2 - Nope, images below