The game opens with Jamaal Charles blasting off on an 80-yard touchdown run. The Browns stall on their next possession, and Brady Quinn and the Chiefs offense comes back blazing hot, with Dwayne Bowe snatching a long pass to get to the Browns 4-yard line. Woo-hoo! I was actually thinking, wow, we're going to be up 14-0 quick. This is the same team that's been stinkin' up the place all year long?
Well. Turns out...
There we were in the red zone where we've been pathetic. And we were pathetic again. Three plays, three doinks of some sort or another. Succop comes in and doinks his FG attempt off the upright. I think we were in Browns territory once more the entire game.
This was just a classic example of a good, young, healthy, decently-coached team coming up against, um...
The Chiefs.
The Browns were simply waaay better than us in every facet of the game. Criminy they even got a run-back for a touchdown from someone not Josh Cribbs. That's really sad. But everything about this game was extraordinarily sad.
Our quarterback? Still crappy. Last week Brady Quinn looked so good that I actually thought maybe he may have something to show. They said today that in the Carolina game Quinn set a Chiefs record for completion percentage. Guh? I knew he did well, but that well? Well, today he went back to really sucking.
Our running backs? Charles got banged up shortly after his big run, and was ineffective. But any running back is much less effective when you're playing from behind for much of the game. Peyton Hillis? Browns fans were happy to be all over his ass, but I guess it's good they didn't much chance to boo him. He did very little also.
Our offensive line? It was back to being inconsistent, and very poor in the pass protection area. Branden Albert went down again. That's very not-good. This line is all over the place because of the injuries thing.
Our wide receivers? The question I can ask yet again: Where's Jon Baldwin? This was yet another day when the opponent's big strong wide receiver had a great day -- in fact the Browns had two of them, rookies even, who ate us up. Game after game after game after game some big strong receiver kills us. And our big strong receiver? Invisible. What gives??? Oh, and we just can't avoid getting clobbered by injuries. Dwayne Bowe went out for the game and for who knows how much longer with some rib issue trying to make a block. At the end of the game the only guy we were passing to or trying to pass to was this Jamar Newsome fellow, a call-up from the practice squad a few weeks ago. That's it. How many times do we see a Chiefs guy on the field playing regularly who was called up from the practice squad? Compare that to how often it happens with the other teams we're playing. Yeah. Yeah, I have a weird twisting thing going on deep in my stomach too.
Our defensive line? Too many times the Browns more skilled and seasoned O-linemen pushed us around. They enough got separation for enough running plays and they got plenty of pass protection for their quarterback to get crisp passes to his receivers getting fine separation. Dontari Poe was back to looking like a rookie. ::Sigh::
Our linebackers? Derrick Johnson had a couple of his patented in-like-a-shot backfield tackles. Tamba Hali was a bit of a force. But that was it. Our guys were pushed around there too. As I look at this squad, I think about that guy from Notre Dame who may be there for us in the draft. I just don't know, would he be that good? We so need that quarterback, but we may reeeeeeeeeeally need to get the next Ray Lewis too. ::Whimper:: this team needs so much help...
Our defensive backs? They said Eric Berry had injury/illness issues, and as such just looked weak out there. He even dropped an easy interception that would've stopped a drive they eventually scored on.
Our special teams? Succop sucked, adding a kick-off out-of-bounds to his missed FG. Our coverage team allowed that punt return for a touchdown, but to their credit the Browns' blocking on that play was extraordinary. The one shining spot beside the Charles run was probably our punter Dustin Colquitt's long booming punt that went out of bounds at the Browns 4-yard line. How great was that. But how awful was that, too, that a punt is regularly the coolest thing about a Chiefs game.
Oh the joy of that day in the future, whenever it is, when we can field a team that is as good as the other team on a regular basis.
Guess we can dream. Yet again, it's all we have.
_
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