11.03.2005
Thursday Football
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Kansas City Chiefs:
This game surprised me. KC either came in with no specific plan to cover Antonio Gates, or their plan was terrible. But form what I saw, there was no effort made on the part of the Chiefs to do anything special for Gates. Why no get one of the top linebacker athletes in the league (Johnson) on Gates? Why would you not do that? Why would you leave the task of covering him to whomever San Diego happened to line him up against? And how could you still be caught off guard when LT has a chance to throw for a touchdown? What were the Chiefs' coaches doing all week? They had, in fact, an extra two days to prepare. Did they just think they could come out and cover these guys with Wesley and Mitchell?
Back on offense, San Diego exposed KC's tendancy to run to the edge. The Chargers did a good job of pushing everything inside and KC was not able to make them pay for it by running up the middle (thanks to big Jamal Williams). Larry Johnson needs to be used more in order to counter this if defenses are going to mimic this philosophy. Johnson is a strong between the tackles runner who can bring good balance to this offense. It looks as if teams are anticipating the outside runs more when Holmes is in the backfield. But San Diego is just one of those teams that matches up well against the Chiefs.
Dante Hall had a big game returning kicks.
TARGETS(catches):
Gonzalez- 10(7)
Kennison- 9(7)
Horn- 8(7)
Johnson- 5(3)
Holmes- 4(3)
Hall- 3(2)
Boerigter- 1(1)
Dunn- 1(0)
Richardson- 1(1)
San Diego Chargers:
Not much really to say here. The Chargers were up 21-3 at halftime because they were well-prepared on both offense and defense. The Chiefs defense basically let San Diego do whatever they wanted to do and the Chargers' defense just outplayed KC. Shawn Merriman really has strung together a some excellent games recently and this front seven is very strong at attacking the run. TARGETS(catches):
Gates- 16(10)
McCardell- 8(5)
Parker- 7(4)
LT- 5(3)
Caldwell- 3(1)
Neal- 2(2)
Osgood- 1(0)
Peelle- 1(1)
Turner- 1(0)
Washington Redskins:
The Redskins' defense came to play, for a little while at least, but they certainly left their offense in San Francisco. The Giants were getting to Burnnel with just a 4 man rush, and as the Redskins kept backs and tight ends to help block, the Giants would just send the linebackers that were assigned to cover them.
Also, I'd be worried about what Chris Cooley will be able to do over the next couple of weeks.
Washington has to face the Eagles this Sunday, and they're going to have to do something about their pass protection Philly is going to shut them out too.
TARGETS(catches):
Moss- 9(4)
Patten- 5(1)
Cooley- 4(3)
Royal- 4(0)
Portis- 4(3)
Sellers- 3(1)
Betts- 1(0)
Thrash- 1(1)
Jacobs- 1(1)
New York Giants:
The growing trend (and a troubling one) of Eli Manning throwing off his back foot as he bails out of the pocket hurt the Giants in the first quarter of this game. Fortunately, they didn't need the 11 points they left on the field on their first two drives.
The Giants were again very productive when running to their left. Tiki Barber had 200 yards by the end of the third quarter.
I've been saying for a while that this Giants' defense is playing better than the stats may indicate. They get good pressure on the QB and they cause turnovers. Against Washington, there were five blue jerseys around ball at all times. And in the second half, New York never let up. They came after the Redskins all game.
New York also did a good job keeping Toomer involved in the game. His role has to be increased.
TARGETS(catches):
Burress- 9(4)
Toomer- 6(2)
Shockey- 6(3)
Barber- 2(1)
Ward- 2(1)
Carter- 1(1)
- posted by jrf @ 11/03/2005 01:54:00 PM
