Sure enough, two bad things happened to the Chiefs last night in their first exhibition game this summer, a loss to the Jaguars. Both may very well not be horrifically bad things, but one in particular is why pre-season NFL football is so wretched.
Let's cover the bad thing that can actually be a good thing first.
It happened right at the end of the first half right after the Jags scored a touchdown to go up 18-10. with seconds left in that half they kicked off, and as they did they demonstrated the genius that is their coach Doug Pederson.
He had his kicker do his dangedest to kick the ball right at the goal line. He did, and sure enough the ball landed about a yard into the end zone then plopped back out about a yard into the non-end-zone area. Mecole Hardman rushed over at the goal line, grabbed the ball, and slinked back a bit into the endzone to down the ball.
Uh-oh.
At first the officials called it a touchback, which is what Hardman wanted, but Pederson rightly objected. Yes, it was indeed a safety, as unwitting as Hardman was about it all. The officials agreed. Two more points for the Jaguars.
Ick. With a half-minute left in the half they get a 35-yard touchdown pass play, a 2-point conversion, and a 2-point safety. 10 points in 30 seconds of play. Actually, to be honest, the entire time span for that ten points was seven seconds. From .33 to .26. Ighckghck...
Here's the thing. Radio guy Mitch Holthus was yammering the whole time about how there needs to be some review of the rule -- what with the new kickoff rule and all -- that they should look at it and adjust it and they haven't encountered this kind of thing and all the rest of it. On and on he went. Now Mitch is the very best football announcer in the country. He is fantastic. We love him, he is great.
But he was completely misled about all of that.
The rules state that after the ball is kicked off, it is a live ball. For the entirety of the time is goes anywhere. There is no more letting it just bounce in the end zone while the returner holds his arms out as if he's getting ready for takeoff. This is an excellent rule, and it is one that Pederson insightfully exploited to his advantage.
Good thing it happened in this meaningless pre-season game because now everyone will know to get their kicker to aim for that goal line -- which requires the returner to have to make a decision about whether to run it out, and if he stumbles or is indecisive he's going to get hammered at the five-yard line. If he hopes to down it in the end zone -- bringing the ball out to the 30 -- he'd better get it right because if he's off by even an inch, he's then downing it right there at his own one-inch line or, as Hardman did, committing a safety.
Of course, again, now everyone knows what to do with this. Everyone's kicker will now try it, excellent -- we have one of the best kickers in the league. Everyone's returners will now have to step up their on-field judgment about where that ball is going in relation to where they are in relation to where the goal line is, also excellent -- let's see who does that the best.
That second very bad thing that happened occurred on the very first Chiefs play on offense. Mahomes hit Marquise Brown for a nice first down pass, it was very nice, yay! A super nice preview of the 150 passing connections this season between the two on the way to even greater and greater Super Bowl glory! Yay!
Except the *#&%*@# Jaguars defender went the extra mile to punish Brown by driving him into the ground, seriously injuring his shoulder/collar bone/clavicle/something-right-there, whatever it is there where the injury occurred. They say he'll be out for about a month, which is good in that he'll be back for most of the season, but bad because yet again a pre-season game means unnecessary injuries.
And this one was even worse because the Jaguars player was very clearly pile-driving Brown into the turf.
What - is - with - that?
I really think during a pre-season game if you do something like that, there has got to be some penalty. I know football is violent and I know the players often can't just stop and treat ball carriers with kid gloves -- I know all that.
But this kind of crap? Stuff you really could easily avoid as expert tacklers who spend every working hour not only practicing tackling but being trained about how to make good solid tackles without injuring the opposing player?
Again, two very bad things, but because it is early in pre-season action things that (a) with the Hardman safety our special teams now know what they really have to work on, and (b) with the Brown injury there should be enough time for him to get a full recovery and get back to help the Chiefs win ball games.
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The image is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.
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