Most football fans had taken Green Bay's 13-0 record and Indianapolis' 0-13 record for granted. Everyone assumed for the first time in NFL history there would be an undefeated team and a team that lost every game. However, the Kansas City Chiefs and Indianapolis Colts had different intentions on Sunday.
Entering their game on Sunday, the Packers had impressively won nineteen games in a row. Also, Green Bay is widely considered the current Super Bowl favorite, which begged the question, "When would the Packers lose again?" While the media may deserve part of the blame for shoving microphones in the players' faces and asking them about their chances on an undefeated season, Green Bay got caught looking too far ahead of themselves. They had three winnable regular season games left. One at Kansas City, followed by home games against the division rivals the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions. The Chiefs were having a horrendous year, losing five out of six entering the game against Green Bay and their only wins came against the Vikings, Colts, Raiders (Carson Palmer's first game where Oakland's quarterbacks threw six interceptions), Chargers in overtime, and the Bears with their depleted offense. Green Bay would win handily against the Chicago Bears at home with Jay Cutler and Matt Forte out for the season with injuries. The Packers would then go on to beat the imploding Lions to finish the season. Green Bay would be the #1 seed in the NFC and own the luxuries of a first round bye and home field advantage. However, this scenario is overlooking win number fourteen against the Chiefs.
Arrowhead Stadium has historically been one of the worst stadiums for opposing players, so Sunday would be no walk in the park for the Packers. The Chiefs has nothing to lose. They are last in the AFC West and were three games below .500 before beating Green Bay. Kansas City has played three different quarterbacks and have unsuccessfully been trying to establish an identity this season. They have two standout players in wide receiver Dwayne Bowe and linebacker Derrick Johnson, but the rest of the Chiefs players are by no means stars. While Kansas City may not have an abundance of individual talent, as a whole they showed real character when their season is over but they still compete for four quarters. The Chiefs were playing to prove themselves against the best team in the league, to be the one blemish on Green Bay's probable 19-1 season. That's something Chiefs players can tell their grandchildren someday--that they were the ones who ended Green Bay's 19-game win streak an perfect season bid. After watching game film, football analysts are still trying to figure out how an underdog like Kansas City was able to knock off the unbeaten giant of the NFL. The biggest explanation to take away is time of possession. The Chiefs had the ball for 36 minutes to Green Bay's 24 minutes. The Chiefs were able to run seventy plays against the Packers and maintained an even distribution between passing and running the ball. While no single Kansas City running back had a great statistical game, the Chiefs were able to pound the ball down the field on the ground for 140 yards and take a lot of time off the clock. In addition to rushing the ball, newly acquired quarterback Kyle Orton was able to spread out the field on offense by finding ten different receivers for three-hundred yards. The key was to run the ball often and keep Aaron Rodgers on the sideline for as long as possible. Other teams will break down the film of this game and develop similar game plans to limit Green Bay's scoring opportunities.
Similar to Kansas City, the Indianapolis Colts had a pride factor kick in against the Tennessee Titans. It is absolutely embarrassing to step onto the national spotlight every week and come out on the losing side each time. The Colts had a great opportunity to record their first win against the struggling Titans at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The Colts defense stepped up to force two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, and they knocked Matt Hasselbeck out of the game. On offense, they took the pressure off of Dan Orlovsky by running the ball for the majority of their offensive plays. Running back Donald Brown had a huge game for Indy, rushing for 161 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries. It was great to see the Peyton Manning-less Colts come together and win a game. They may have the opportunity to double their win total against the Texans if Houston decides to rest their starters or on the last game of the season against the dismal Jacksonville Jaguars.
It would have been quite a season to have a 16-0 team as well as an 0-16 team, but in the big picture these games will have little to no impact on the playoffs or Super Bowl champion. Green Bay will learn from its mistakes against the Chiefs and will face the Bears on Christmas Day with a whole new energy we have yet to see from the Packers. The Colts will most likely lose their last two games, have the number one overall draft pick and select Andrew Luck.
Showing posts with label Kansas City Chiefs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kansas City Chiefs. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Top NFL Plays of Week 10
3. Yesterday in the Denver Broncos vs. Kansas City Chiefs game, half of Tim Tebow's completions were touchdowns. Considering that he only had two completions make that stat much less impressive, but nonetheless, I think he deserves credit for his sole passing touchdown after lulling the Chiefs' secondary to sleep in a game that featured fifty-five Broncos rushing plays. In the fourth quarter, while the Broncos were only up by three points, Tebow connected with wide receiver Eric Decker for a fifty-six yard score. I give props to Decker for his salute to the American troops in honor of Veterans Day even though the officials did not agree. He was flagged for excessive celebration.
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| Courtesy of http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/extramustard/hotclicks/11/14/catrinel-menghia-eric-decker-penalized-for-saluting-to-troops/?xid=cnnbin
2. Chicago Bears speedster Devin Hester scored his third touchdown return of the year against the Detroit Lions on Sunday. As so many great special teams plays often start, Hester bobbled the punt, but doing so caused the Lions punt team to overcommit on Hester, allowing him to run to the outside and sprint down the sideline virtually untouched for his 12th punt return touchdown of his career. What was most impressive about his touchdown is that he returned the punt while he had an unspecified sickness. I would hate to be the opposing team when he's completely healthy!
1. Easily the most spectacular play from last Sunday was Kansas City wide receiver Jonathon Baldwin's catch, that ended up not counting because of a penalty on the play. Matt Cassel underthrew Baldwin, who was streaking down the field, and then amazingly, Baldwin caught the ball blindly behind the back of Broncos saftey Brian Dawkins. Baldwin went down with both the ball and Dawkins, but his efforts were nullified by the penalty.
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