IN HIS OWN WORDS: CRAIG GLAZER CONSIDERS THE 9-1 KANSAS CITY CHIEFS!!!

TKC NOTE: Tonight Craig Glazer consider the Kansas City Chiefs in his own words . . .

Chiefs: The Bubble Bursts

If you are a die-hard Chiefs fan, stop reading now. Warning! Warning! If you are a dyed-in-the-wool Chiefs fan, you will not like what follows. Let’s be blunt, the Chiefs defense is good, not great. In fact, right now it would be hard to say they are the best defense in the NFL. If you disagree, you might want to take a look at the Carolina Panthers defense. Now comes the ugly part, the Chiefs offense is horrible. They are not just inconsistent or struggling, they are terrible. Our offense ranks outside of the top 15 in every category. I know, I know Jamaal Charles. Yes, he is a good runningback, but as you saw last night against the Broncos, not nearly enough to make a difference. The Chiefs have no credible receivers at all. Dwayne Bowe, our star wide receiver, likely would not even start for most NFL teams. He’s not even a number 2 guy. Dwayne, I know you read my stuff and I like you personally, and I’m not mad about the marijuana bust (it was stupid, but no one’s mad at you, it wasn’t really a big deal, you just weren’t thinking very clearly) the issue is gaining separation from defenders. Dwayne can’t seem to get that, he lacks speed overall and has way too many drops. The Chiefs targeted him 12 times last night, and he caught 4 balls. That speaks for itself. Bowe has three touchdown catches in ten games. Not good. Let’s continue. Donnie Avery is a bust. Junior Hemingway is irrelevant. Our Tight End crew is mediocre at best. Overall, our receiving corps gets a ‘D’.

I mentioned Jamaal Charles is a very good runningback, he is. However, he is your only back. Charles has proven time and time again he is not a good short yardage back, especially in the red zone where he gets stopped more often than not. Because the Chiefs have developed no other back, I would give their running game a ‘B-‘. Let me go further, the Chiefs were using Charles as a receiver fairly effectively earlier this season, lately that’s disappeared. Ah, now you say that they have nine men in the box to stop Charles. Really, if that’s true, why can’t our receivers get open.

Now, let’s talk about the offensive line. Branden Albert has played very well. Rodney Hudson has been solid. However, everybody else is either hurt or playing inconsistently. Our number one draft pick, Eric Fisher was improving only to be hurt every other 5 seconds, as he is now. Alex Smith does not have a lot of time to throw and the line does not give Charles the kind of blocking he needs to spring the big run which he has done almost not at all this year. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on Alex Smith, I think he is a good quarterback with no weapons, and good enough to take you deep into the playoffs if he had some.

The Chiefs vaunted defense is showing signs of decay week by week. Much of that comes from an inadequate offense that has the defense out on the field too long, as we saw last night. Our sack-happy linebackers Tamba and Justin never touched Peyton Manning. Guys you might have wanted to hit the guy after he threw one or two passes even if it meant taking a roughing call just to get the guy on the ground. Instead, Peyton kind of got the night off to rest his badly injured ankle almost as much as he would have if he’d lain in a hospital bed and convalesced. Our sack attack has one sack in the past month; that stinks. As stated in my last article, our pass defense regularly gives up huge bombs every week. The only good news about our defense last night was they did shut down the Broncos running game. Remember, Manning could move the ball whenever he needed to last night, he merely wanted to get a two score lead, which he did, then protect his body until the game ended.

We’ve often heard that this is the worst 9 and 0 team in NFL history; that’s not true. The worst 9 and 0 team was the 2003 Kansas City Chiefs; all offense, horrible defense. The 2013 Kansas City Chiefs are clearly the reverse of that; all defense, horrible offense.

Now comes that old line, to wit ‘Give credit where credit’s due’, the Chiefs are 9 and 1, they are tied with Denver for the best record in the AFC. Under Coach Andy Reid, this team is much improved from where they were over the last several years where they were incredibly awful. I am well aware that we play Denver in 2 weeks at Arrowhead, where we have a slight chance to win the game. I’m also aware of a much tougher final six games. Barring an injury to Peyton Manning, outside help from teams like New England beating the Broncos, our Chiefs will be the number five seed in the AFC Playoff picture. The Chiefs will travel to Cincinatti or New York for a road playoff game. Due to the fact the team they play on the road will not be all that great, yes we have a chance to win one playoff game. Then it’s on the road to New England or Denver. Say Good Night. Hey, it’s nice to playoffs even if it’s ever so briefly. Wait until next year.
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