Scott Pioli is presently hailed as a draft genius. Everyone knows why: Eric Berry. Forget that all but one of the remaining picks made significant contributions through the season. Eric Berry was seemingly NFL posteason-ready the day he was drafted. That’s not normal, even for a top five pick. At present pace, Berry is going to spend a lot of Februaries in Honolulu.
In contrast to an overwhelmingly successful 2010 draft, the 2009 draft was not genius level, ultimately yielding four career backups, three goners, and a kicker. Two of those backups (Donald Washington and Quentin Lawrence) are probably going to have short careers. The historical perspective of that draft was going to hinge on the trade made in the 2nd round: the 34th overall pick to New England for quarterback Matt Cassel and veteran linebacker Mike Vrabel. The knock on the trade was that Cassel was too inexperienced and Vrabel was too old.
Today, Cassel looked inexperienced and Vrabel looked old.
I won’t waste much space being critical of Vrabel’s performance. He was banged up early and played out the game well under 100%. I was happy to have him around because he’s one of a scant few Chiefs who knows what a playoff victory tastes like, but he’s 35 years old. I doubt anyone, even Vrabel, thinks there’s enough left in the tank for another year or two as a starter. It’s getting close to time to cut cord.
The question is whether or not it’s time to do the same with his trademate. I refuse to sugarcoat what I just witnessed: Matt Cassel was awful. His completions were few and his mistakes were plentiful. He clutched the ball too long, took needless sacks, missed receivers by a mile, and, worst of all, one out of every six attempts landed in the willing hands of a guy in a road jersey. As I watched I couldn’t help but sense an air of familiarity. I had seen this exact execution somewhere else before, but I couldn’t pinpoint when and where. It reminded me a little of last week’s soulless demonstration against the ever-imploding Oakland Raiders, but this team didn’t look demoralized like that one did. No, this was something else. For the entirety of the second half I struggled to discern exactly what.
Then, shortly after the game, I examined Cassel’s stat line, and it dawned on me: what I was witnessing was a replay of Kansas City’s gameplan in week 14. Against San Diego. Captained by Brodie Croyle. Only Croyle didn’t cough up the rock three times. This unit wasn’t demoralized. They were scared. They didn’t believe they could beat the Baltimore Ravens. Why should they dare to dream such a thing? The Ravens, after all, have Terrell Suggs, Ed Reed, and Ray Lewis. Those guys will surely shut down Jamaal Charles, right?
At this point I’m just improvising, because I’m trying my best to get into Charlie Weis’s head. I’m doing my best to understand why, when Charles was the absolute only player demonstrating any degree of success against the Ravens, he was given only two carries in the entire second half. I’m struggling to determine why, with a surmountable point deficit, it ceased to be important to help rest the defense by controlling the clock, rather than stranding them onfield for nearly 42 minutes of regulation football. I’m not coming up with anything.
What I am coming up with, however, is a scathing review of a player whom I errantly exonerated a few weeks ago. Matt Cassel looked lost. He looked like a rookie. He’s a six year vet with three seasons as a starter now. Going forward, his inexperience can no longer be used as justification for any shortcomings. I’m not back to the point of stating the guy should be outright replaced, but I’m not far off, and if that’s how Pioli chooses to spend his first pick in the coming draft, so be it.
Lost in the fray of all of this is that a defense that allowed 30 points didn’t play that badly. In particular, Tamba Hali, Glenn Dorsey, Brandon Flowers, Brandon Carr, and the aforementioned Eric Berry collectively played one of their best games. Flowers and Carr effectively eliminated two of Joe Flacco’s top four targets, while Dorsey and Hali dirtied his jersey and kept him on the run. Unsurprisingly, with 42 minutes of playing time and an invigorated Todd Heap covered only by an aging and recently ineffective Jon McGraw, Flacco ultimately made a halfway decent game for himself, but, in the words of coach John Wooden, don’t mistake activity for achievement. Any quarterback worth his salt would post 265 yards with that much time to work.
Even Matt Cassel.
Having said all of that, it’s important now for Kansas City fans to remember from whence their team came. 10-6 with a playoff berth was a pipe dream six months ago. Today it was a reality. The foundation this team is built upon is young. The core of the coaching staff, including MVPs Mike Clark and Brent Salazar (the two strength and conditioning coaches who miraculously kept every starter and every key backup healthy for the entire season), will likely stay put. The 2010 Kansas City Chiefs were not built for current success. They were built for future success. 10-6 with a playoff berth was a bonus. The outcome of today’s game should serve as discouragement to none. It was a mark in the L column, but the season itself was a W.
Very good article Nathan. In August I was thinking 6-10 or 7-9 so this team totally surprised me. The Chiefs should be even better in the next couple of years and I can’t wait. Bring on the 2011 season!
Comment by ChiefsWarpath.com — January 10, 2011 @ 11:07 am
I’m still not sold on Haley. He’s a hard ass coach, like a Cower, but Bill knows what he’s doing. I still think Haley calls the game like he’s playing Madden. I hope I’m wrong. I hope he learns and grows and becomes a Gruden. Only time will tell. I wasn’t dissapointed, because they did play better than anyone thought at the beggining of the year. Our D showed up. They would have been even better if the o didn’t give up 3 turnovers in a row. Berry was AWESOME. The man anticipated a play and came 30 yards across the field and made a tackle. He’s going to be special. His name was called alot more than Ray Lewis. I wasn’t sure who’s jersey to buy next, but #29 will be in the rotation next year.
Comment by ChiefJ — January 10, 2011 @ 1:20 pm
Well put indeed.
My only difference in veiwpoint is that I see Cassell as someone who is growing into the leader role and in the last two weeks, he has had the snot hammered out of him. The defensive lines that we faced, and the blitz packeges that were thrown at us simply were not handled by our O-line and backs. I especially noticed #67 Richardson standing around counting how many defenders he could let pass by him.
Bottom line…6 win turn around…AFC West Champs…Playoff game at home…It feels like when we started to turn things around w/ Marty in 89-90
Love those Chiefs!
Comment by Big Chief JJ — January 10, 2011 @ 2:47 pm
Very well said. Very well said. But, did the season have to end like this?
Comment by Argin — January 10, 2011 @ 2:56 pm
Very well said. Very well said. But, did the season have to end like this? And, yes they were scared!!
Comment by Argin — January 10, 2011 @ 2:57 pm
JJ, I gotta disagree with you on Richardson. He’s been bad more often than not during the second half of the season, but he played a solid game Sunday. If he consistently played like he cared, he’d be one hell of a lineman.
Cassel took a lot of abuse because of the line in the Oakland game, but he brought the pressure on himself Sunday by holding the ball way, way too long.
Comment by nathanKent — January 10, 2011 @ 8:50 pm
Your article keeps important things in proper perspective. Yes, losing in the playoffs, especially a one-and-done, is sudden and demoralizing, but the big picture shows better days for us. Also, you are quite right about the defense playing well in spite of the points scored against us. Neither the offensive unit nor Weiss’s playing calling helped them, and they kept us in the game for three quarters.
I can’t imagine what was going through Weiss’s head in the second half. I believe Weiss was more to blame for Cassel’s under-achieving day than Cassel himself. Running more in the second half would have taken pressure off of him both psychologically and literally in terms of the pass rush. Thank God he’s gone.
Comment by Charles — January 10, 2011 @ 9:43 pm
I would like to point out that that bogus intentional grounding penelty in the second half seemed to mess with Cassel, he was afraid to throw the ball away after that. But the blame is firmly on Charlie “sabatoge” Wies for taking the ball out of Charles’ hands in the second half. We may not have won but we would have been in the game if we had stuck to our guns.
Comment by aj58soad — January 11, 2011 @ 5:15 pm
As far as the draft goes, I know a lot of people wanted us to take Curry a couple years ago. He hasn’t turned out to be all that great either. I agree that first draft was not all that great, but it was first year together and they did get a late start together. Turns out Brian Orakpo was the gem in that draft. 2010 draft was great.
I see things in this game a little different but a lot the same. First, we have to give credit to the Ravens defense. They are good. Agree our young team may have played scared. Second, it seems like all year long we gave up on the things that work (usually the running game). We did that in this game. I don’t know if Charles was shaken up or what, but we should have ran him some more. Weis must have been dreaming about Florida, because he called a bad game–again. Our offense couldn’t stay on the field to give our defense a break. Consequently, the defense played their butt off, but couldn’t get the Ravens off the field. We had the longest run against the Ravens in 5 years. If we could have continued to run the ball, Cassel might have had a better day. Of Cassel’s three interceptions, one was a real bad throw, one was a little high, but catchable, and one was a hell-mary on 4th and 20 something (essentially a punt, with a chance for a reception or penalty). Weis was unable to get any rhythm going on offense. Your right, Cassel looked like a rookie. This was his first playoff start since high school. Peyton Manning lost his first three playoff games and was 26-22 in his first three years. Cassel has had 10 wins in 2 of his 3 seasons starting (24-21 by my count, missing 1 start in all three seasons). I think he grew as a leader this year and hope that he learned from this experience.
I’m glad you mentioned the trainers. I mentioned it a couple weeks ago and was scared I would jinx the team. Whatever it was they did in training camp really worked. We did a great job of keeping everybody healthy. Kudos to them!!
Enjoyed the commentary from you and Argin this year. I hope we have an active off-season, so we can get on here and debate. My first thought is to draft a center or WR. Go Matt Cassel and Go Chiefs!!
For the webmaster: I love your website. One recommendation for next year, is to provide a link on gameday so we can discuss a game after it’s over or even during the game. Sometimes, we have to wait a couple days after a game to talk about it.
Comment by Jeff in VA — January 11, 2011 @ 8:21 pm
A couple of things, Jeff–Cassel has missed two starts as a Chief. Second, the “it’s his first playoff game since high school” doesn’t fly. The guy is 28. Half his football career is over. There are plenty of QBs who didn’t shit the bed in their first playoff start. Really though, if it was just the one playoff start that turned out badly, I’d let it slide. It’s not. I started to line up behind the guy on the strength of two games, but those two don’t erase the 13 that were at or below average. Granted, he didn’t throw a lot of interceptions, but neither did Damon Huard in 2006. Once again, don’t mistake activity for achievement.
Comment by nathanKent — January 12, 2011 @ 12:25 pm
Well, I disagree with you on that one Nathan. To me, one game of experience is one game, doesn’t matter if it was at 22 years old 48 or 28. Cassel missed two starts as a Chief and he didn’t start the first game of the 08 season as a Patriot against KC. Brady started that game and was replaced by Cassel. Therefore, he’s missed one start in each of the past 3 years.
I think he had a good year. He was more valuable to the Chiefs than any other QB in the league was to their team, with the exception of Brady and Vick. 200 yards a game is good if you run for 164. We were ranked near the top ten in offense this year. I think you were spoiled by Trent Greens passing yards. I still haven’t figured out in the past 3 years who we could have picked up to be Chiefs QB that would have been better than Cassel. Everyone wants a Tom Brady or Peyton Manning on their team, but there just isn’t enough of them to go around.
Comment by Jeff in VA — January 13, 2011 @ 8:13 pm
I’ll do my little list again–here is the list of starting QBs in the league that are better than Matt Cassel: Brady, Vick, Rivers, Manning, Manning, Rodgers, Brees, Schaub, Ryan, Flacco, Cutler, Roethlisberger, and Romo. That’s a conservative list. Palmer, Freeman, Hasselbeck, and Garrard probably belong too, and in a year we might add Bradford as well. That’s half the league.
Comment by nathanKent — January 13, 2011 @ 8:59 pm
They might be better, but they weren’t more valuable to their team this year than Cassel was. Just because they throw for more yards doesn’t make them better.
Lets assume your right, that they’re all better than Cassel, how do you propose we get one of them to play for the Chiefs? Thats my point, there may be better QBs, but their teams aren’t going to give them up. I’d be happy to get one of those QBs, no arguement from me there.
Comment by Jeff in VA — January 13, 2011 @ 9:14 pm
Gotta agree with ChiefJ, sometimes I think Haley plays Madden the night before the game to decide his gameplan….
Other than that, losing sucks but winning isn’t everything. Look at the Raiders, they swept their division but still missed the playoffs. Bahahaha!!!
Comment by Daniel — January 14, 2011 @ 2:42 pm
Jeff, do you really believe Matt Cassel was more important to his run-first offense than Aaron Rodgers was to his pass-first offense?
Comment by nathanKent — January 17, 2011 @ 1:08 am
Matt Cassel has been mentioned as a top ten MVP candidate in every conversation on TV this year, just as Rodgers has. They have similiar stats. Rodgers has more yards because his offense throws the ball down the field and ours throws short passes (like NE). Cassel has 4 fewer INTs. Rodgers has better receivers than KC does.
We don’t have Aaron Rodgers on the Chiefs and GB isn’t giving him up. All year you’ve bitched about Cassel, but you haven’t offered a solution. Who could the Chiefs had picked up last year that would have been better than Cassel? Who could the Chiefs pick up this year that will be better than Cassel next year? What is your solution?
Comment by Jeff in VA — January 17, 2011 @ 9:06 am
I can’t believe I am going to say this because I’ve defended Cassel all year. I just read Carson Palmer wants a trade. We should consider trading Cassel for Palmer. I would consider this an upgrade. I’m not saying we should give up on Cassel, I just think if an opportunity to upgrade comes along, we should take it (no matter who it is). P.S. Palmer was Cassel’s best man at his wedding.
Comment by Jeff in VA — January 23, 2011 @ 9:31 pm