Not good no matter how you look at it

Well, this wasn’t a part of the plan. The third game of the NFL exhibition season is when coaches expect to see the most out of their team before the real games begin, but for Kansas City, it was a possible preview of the nightmare to come as they fell 14-10 to Seattle.

On the first offensive possession of the game, Matt Cassel, the quarterback new GM Scott Pioli handed a 63 million dollar contract to in the off season, was sacked and went down with an apparent knee injury never to to be seen again. Not a good sign. But that wasn’t all. The Chiefs only TD of the game came on a 28 yard interception return by the talented Brandon Flowers, who proceeded to depart shortly thereafter with a shoulder injury of some kind. Receiver Devard Darling also left with a knee injury. It looked like a Mash unit out there.

With Tyler Thigpen jumping in for Cassel, the offense managed little other than some good running from Jamaal Charles who had 54 yards on 7 carries. KC continued to struggle with their line play despite the introduction of two new players into the mix this week. They gave up 4 sacks and the offense was an abysmal 1 of 10 on third down conversions. Thigpen did little to help his cause in the battle for a spot on the roster despite the unknown nature of Cassel’s injury.

In addition to another poor offensive performance, the Chiefs specials teams pretty much failed at every turn. Rookie kicker Ryan Succop missed a 28 yard field goal attempt as well as hit the crossbar with a 53 yarder. The punt team muffed one return and failed to down a ball they should have gotten to inside the five. All in all an mess.

Despite giving up 406 yards on defense there were some bright spots. Top pick Tyson Jackson showed marked improvement, recording a sack and tipping the pass that turned into the interception by Flowers. Monty Beisel filled in nicely for Derrick Johnson at linebacker, but if the offense leaves them on the field all day long, it will be a very long season.

Watching the performance made me think of a line from the TV show the Big Bang, when Penny, the next door neighbor views what’s going on across the hall and says “Holy crap on cracker”.