Posted on Mon, Nov. 09, 2009

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Chiefs lose to Jacksonville

By KENT BABB

Kansas City Star

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. —The Chiefs spent two weeks working on tweaking the offense, working on fine-tuning, working on improvement. The play calls and approach looked different. The result did not.

Kansas City lost again, and it did it the same old way: poor pass protection, questionable play calls, and the appearance of a disorganized unit that couldn't adjust quickly enough. Coach Todd Haley took a magnifying glass and scalpel to his offense for two weeks. Time was supposed to help the Chiefs swerve back onto the road toward progress. But this didn't look much like progress: a 24-21 loss to Jacksonville, a team with problems and a fan base that seems leery that improvement is taking place.

Sound familiar?

"I didn't see what we need to see," Haley said.

Nobody did. After the Chiefs' latest loss, Haley stood at a lectern and described a series of mistakes and letdowns that, regardless of what Kansas City tries, seems to stand in the way of growth.

Among those mistakes, Haley said Sunday that the 1-7 Chiefs must improve at:

Protecting Cassel.

Making quick passes.

Holding onto easy receptions.

Reducing the number of negative-yardage plays.

Those problems have shadowed the Chiefs all season, before and after the two times Haley revamped or polished Kansas City's offense. This time, Haley installed quickness and a blocking scheme designed to hold long enough for Cassel to deliver a quick pass. Haley kept calling the plays Sunday, and they kept falling short.

The only thing that seems to work is desperation. For the second time in four games, Cassel and the Chiefs offense worked best when they had nothing to lose. Jacksonville had a 24-6 lead late in the fourth quarter, before Kansas City did what it had been trying to do for nearly 58 previous minutes. The offensive line protected Cassel, he made quick decisions and delivered crisp passes, wide receivers got open and held on, and the Chiefs avoided negative-yardage plays.

Too bad the offense figured out itself — and Jacksonville's mysterious and effective decision to run the 4-3 defense after spending the season using the 3-4 — far too late.

"We really weren't able to get into a rhythm early on in the game," Cassel said. "We had our moments. We hit some passes; we knocked off some nice runs. For whatever reason, we kind of stalled out."

But as for the final two minutes, 32 seconds, when the Chiefs scored two touchdowns, converted a two-point conversation and looked as if Kansas City's group of weekly strangers had been playing together for years? Haley said he doesn't know what changed. Cassel didn't either. Maybe it really is this simple:

"Our back was against the wall," Cassel said. "We've just got to start that earlier."

KCJac

First downs1421

Total Net Yards301426

Rushes-yards14-6041-173

Passing241253

Punt Returns1-21-44

Kickoff Returns4-494-35

Interceptions Ret. 0-00-0

Comp-Att-Int23-39-018-27-0

Sacked-Yards Lost3-211-11

Punts7-46.64-39.3

Fumbles-Lost1-02-2

Penalties-Yards1-105-31

Time of Possession23:4736:13

Kansas City33015—21 Jacksonville7737—24

First Quarter

KC—FG Succop 45, 9:54.

Jac—Jennings 28 run (Scobee kick), 4:33.

Second Quarter

KC—FG Succop 21, 2:38.

Jac—Sims-Walker 61 pass from Garrard (Scobee kick), 1:02.

Third Quarter

Jac—FG Scobee 27, :47.

Fourth Quarter

Jac—Jones-Drew 10 run (Scobee kick), 4:26.

KC—Chambers 54 pass from Cassel (Succop kick), 2:32.

KC—Chambers 5 pass from Cassel (Charles pass from Cassel), 1:01.

A—45,546.

Individual Statistics

Rushing—Kansas City, Charles 6-36, Ko.Smith 4-17, Savage 2-4, Cassel 2-3. Jacksonville, Jones-Drew 29-97, Garrard 9-29, Jennings 2-29, M.Thomas 1-18.

Passing—Kansas City, Cassel 23-39-0-262. Jacksonville, Garrard 18-27-0-264.

Receiving—Kansas City, Long 8-74, Bowe 4-74, Chambers 3-70, Charles 3-19, Bradley 1-12, Savage 1-8, Pope 1-5, Ko.Smith 1-4, Cox 1-(minus 4). Jacksonville, Sims-Walker 6-147, Holt 4-37, Jones- Drew 3-37, Dillard 1-33, Jennings 1-9, Lewis 1-3, Jones 1-0, M.Thomas 1-(minus 2).

Missed Field Goals—Kansas City, Succop 56 (SH). Jacksonville, Scobee 53 (WL).