I kinda feel like the game was closer than the score indicates. KC was able to move the ball downfield. It was turnovers that cost them. The Texans offense only scored one touchdown. I'd like to see us do better than that and I feel that we're still weak in the red zone. But I'm happy with the win and the direction we're going.
Great game yesterday. I know, the Chiefs ain't exactly the Colts but who cares. This is the NFL, not college football. There are no I-AA teams in the NFL. A win is a win. Someone else said they didn't panic when Schaub threw that horrible INT in the end zone and I agree. If that would have happened last year, we would have CAVED. This year....I don't know, something's different. I knew we could overcome it. That's the first time I've ever felt like that as a Texans fan. My favorite thing about this game? The 10 minute drive in the 4th quarter. It basically ended the game. We knew we were going to run it, they knew we were going to run it...but they couldn't stop it. I loved when they kept showing the KC offense on the bench. There was nothing they could do. Anyway, great game. This team is starting to look like a Kubiak team. Loved the defense hitting. Everything worked. Let's prove it wasn't a fluke and beat Carolina.
KC did only have 219 yards and only crossed midfield twice so they didn't move downfield too much and since you use the KC turnovers in defense of how close you think the game really was, don't discount the fact that the Texans had two turnovers indside the KC 25.
Thought I'd take a look and see what they're saying up in KC. The Texans didn't get many props for spanking the Chiefs yesterday: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/268410.html Chiefs flounder in loss to Texans By JASON KING The Kansas City Star HOUSTON | Justin Medlock shanked a 30-yard field goal, Eddie Drummond muffed a punt return, and Kris Wilson lost a fumble that was run back for a touchdown. Each time the Chiefs threw away points like birdseed, each time their offense stalled against the Texans — the Texans! — running back Larry Johnson thought more and more about the task staring at him and his teammates. “This is going to be a project,” Johnson said. “We need to grow some balls.” Sunday’s 20-3 loss to a mediocre Houston squad was maddening enough. But even more irritating was that, during the debacle, the Chiefs rarely showed any flashes of hope. After averaging just eight points in four preseason losses, Kansas City’s offense once again needed a defibrillator in Sunday’s season opener. Only one play went longer than 20 yards. The defense pitched in, too. Throughout the fourth quarter, when the Chiefs needed it the most, the unit couldn’t have stopped a turtle on third down. Houston controlled the clock for more than 13 minutes in the final period. “That’s wasn’t the real Chiefs team out there — at least I don’t think it was,” tight end Tony Gonzalez said. “In my heart and in the hearts of these guys around me, we’re a better football team than that. (Losing) 20-3 against the Houston Texans — nothing against them, they beat us — but we’re better than that. “Now we’ve got a chance to prove it.” That won’t be easy. The Chiefs, after all, couldn’t score against a pedestrian opponent such as Houston. Just imagine how much they could struggle next week against a Chicago squad that played in last season’s Super Bowl. “During this next week of practice, we’ve got to find ourselves real quick,” Johnson said. “If we don’t, we’ll be sitting at home when January comes.” Johnson was the most vocal Chief when it came to expressing his displeasure with Sunday’s offensive fiasco. He questioned the “decision-making” that occurred when the unit got into the red zone and hinted that there was a timid feel in the huddle. “We need to play all out,” Johnson said. “We can’t sit back and be scared about who’s going to see this and who’s going to see that. We’ve got to let that go. “Even if we make mistakes, we should make them in a way where (the opponent) realizes we have the capability of doing something. Throw three Hail Marys on the first three plays to let them know we’re not scared. Something like that. “Sometimes we play so timid because we don’t want to make mistakes, but then we end up making them anyway.” That was certainly the case Saturday, when the Texans got their first points on a field goal after Drummond’s fumble on a punt return. The Chiefs went three-and-out on their ensuing possession, and Houston capitalized when a coverage breakdown allowed Andre Johnson to break free for a 77-yard touchdown reception that made it 10-0 at halftime. “We worked our butt off all summer,” said Bernard Pollard, one of the defensive backs burned on the play. “We worked our butt off in camp, and we worked our butt off in the preseason. We’ve got to come back and regroup. “How? I don’t know.” Houston wasted no time snatching the momentum in the second half, when Kris Wilson caught a pass and fumbled while being tackled. Texans defensive end Mario Williams scooped up the loose ball and raced 38 yards untouched for a touchdown. Chiefs coach Herm Edwards threw the challenge flag and argued that the play should have been deemed an incomplete pass. But, after a review, the ruling on the field stood. Edwards, though, wasn’t about to make excuses. “It’s very simple,” he said. “You turn the ball over four times … that’s not good. It’s amazing that it was only 20 points. You turn the ball over four times, and (the score) is usually way out of whack. “We had a couple of nice drives and we self-destructed. We had some fouls and dropped some balls. You do that and you aren’t going to be very effective on offense.” Williams’ touchdown made it 17-0 less than 1 minute into the third quarter, meaning the Chiefs still had plenty of time to fight back. But a field goal by Medlock with 26 seconds remaining in the third was all that Kansas City could muster — partly because the offense didn’t get many more opportunities. The Texans maintained possession for 13 minutes and 13 seconds in the fourth quarter, including one drive that ate 10:26 off the clock. Houston had four first downs during the march, which ended with a field goal by Kris Brown that made it 20-3. “It’s not like we’ve got a horrible team that’s going to get beat 40-0,” safety Jarrad Page said. “We have a competitive team. We know we can make plays. If we figure out how to stop someone on third down we’ll win a lot of games.” Gonzalez is confident that will happen. “We still haven’t figured out who we are as a football team,” he said. “We’re still in the process of getting to know who we are. Once we figure that out, we’ll be a better football team than we were today — and a better football team than we were last year.”
Here's some more fuel for the fire. From Jason Whitlock's column in the Kansas City Star. He also uses the "M" word to describe the Texans: Chiefs weren’t as bad as expected By JASON WHITLOCK HOUSTON | On opening day, inside Reliant Stadium, playing against a mediocre opponent, the Chiefs were exactly who the experts thought they were — bumbling on offense, horrid on special teams and toothless on defense. Hillboy: If the Texans were so "mediocre", then what does that make the bumbling on offense, horrid on special teams and toothless on defense KC Chiefs? The Texans slapped the Chiefs 20-3, setting the stage for a week’s worth of sky-is-falling analysis in Kansas City. Surprisingly, and perhaps against my better judgment, I won’t be the ringleader. Oh, the Chiefs were bad. They turned the ball over four times. Herm Edwards’ pet kicker, Justin Medlock, sliced a first-possession 30-yard field-goal attempt. Eddie Drummond, the return man the Chiefs picked up and kept despite Justin Phinisee’s fine training camp, coughed up a critical fumble. And, most disturbingly, Kansas City’s defense surrendered a game-deciding 15-play, 65-yard, 10-minute, 25-second drive opening the fourth quarter. The Chiefs just weren’t as bad as I thought they’d be. Hillboy: ??? This stuff is F U N N Y! An officiating error knocked the Chiefs out of this game. Kris Wilson did not fumble at the beginning of the third quarter. No way. I don’t blame the refs for letting defensive end Mario Williams scoop up Wilson’s drop and run into the end zone. The refs know there’s instant replay, and there’s a way to correct an error that occurs before a whistle. Someone needs to explain to me how that fumble wasn’t overturned and made into an incompletion. “Well, I challenged it,” Edwards said after the game. “That’s all you can do.” Wilson added: “It was definitely an incompletion.” The bad call turned a 10-0 offensive struggle into a 17-0 rout that rendered Larry Johnson and Michael Bennett useless. When the half opened, I fully expected the Chiefs to jam Johnson and Bennett down the heart of Houston’s defense. It was there for the taking. Kansas City’s offensive line did a nice job in the running game. In the first half, Johnson and Bennett combined for 55 yards in 11 carries. Hillboy: I bet a lot of folks here also expected that as well. Memo to Whitlock: IT DID NOT HAPPEN... They split four carries in the second half. Turnovers, dropped passes, Houston’s clock-eating, fourth-quarter drive and the 17-0 deficit prevented the Chiefs from getting into their ground game. Hillboy: He can say this about the Chiefs but he calls the Texans mediocre? “We have to get back to the fundamentals,” guard Brian Waters said. “We have to hold on to the football, catch the passes that hit us in the hands …” Yeah, Dwayne Bowe had a terrible debut. By my count, he dropped three passes. Eddie Kennison’s pulled hamstring on KC’s first play tossed Bowe into the lineup. He choked. Let’s hope Kennison’s injury and Bowe’s performance will get Bobby Sippio off KC’s practice squad and onto the field. Sippio should be KC’s third receiver after Kennison and Samie Parker, who shockingly turned in a solid performance. Kennison’s early departure (and Bowe’s hands) hamstrung Mike Solari’s playbook. Solari’s opportunity to adjust was blown up when the refs counted Williams’ fumble-return TD. Hey, I’m not arguing the Chiefs should’ve won this game. That’s not true. But Kennison’s injury and the blown call compromised KC’s shot at being competitive. Trust me, the Chiefs can compete with the Texans. Hillboy: I wonder which Chiefs team he's talking about here - certainly not the one that currently in KC at the moment... And this Sunday, the Chiefs might be able to lock the Chicago Bears in a low-scoring offensive struggle, too. The Chiefs have two good backs, a physical offensive line, and I liked what I saw from quarterback Damon Huard. Despite the drops, Huard completed 22 of 33 passes. His two picks didn’t bother me. Huard made sound, quick reads and delivered the ball with accuracy. He was relatively calm in the pocket. Defensively, a coverage mistake or poor scheme left safety Bernard Pollard one-on-one with speedster Andre Johnson, who scored on a 77-yard play. Defensive tackle Alfonso Boone gave the Chiefs a presence inside. The Chiefs’ pass rush missed Jared Allen, who has to sit out one more game. The Chiefs weren’t quite bad enough for me to write them off and begin my “Dethrone The King Campaign” (DTKC). I’m patient. I’ll wait another week. Hillboy: Memo to Whitlock: If you think this was bad, just wait until you see the butt-kicking that awaits you next week in Chicago...
Not sure what you expected. No one outside of Houston is going to say it was the Texans who won this game as opposed to the Chiefs losing it. When you get no respect to start off with (some schmuck on Yahoo had us 31st in his power rankings), it's a grueling uphill battle to win it back (or get it at all in the Texans case). This was a great way to start the season. There are definitely things that need to be worked on (where was the blocking on KR's & PR's?, more consistent pressure on the qb), but they actually looked like a NFL team. I know the Chiefs aren't very good this year and are probably looking at a top 5 pick. But to be a great team, you have to beat the bad ones, too.
Yeah, how many times do we praise the team that beats us? We're too busy dogging our own team when we lose. I suspect it's the same in every other city too.
Yeah, true but you can at least stand up and be a man and admit it when you get your butts handed to you like the Chiefs did yesterday. They're talking about the game as if it was some sort of fluke that the Texans won. Last year that would have been true but with the extensive roster overhaul that Smith & Kubiak have done here, that's no longer the case. In time, I'm sure that the rest of the league will come to see that as well. To his credit, Herm Edwards did not reach into the bag of denial for excuses that everyone else is using in KC.
i didn't have a problem with whitlock's article; in fact, i agree: i couldn't believe the fumble ruling was upheld, though we would have won regardless. i did take (momentary) pause when he labeled a rookie in his first game a choker and if KC's third best receiver is on the pratice squad, oh boy. but the better team won sunday. line 'em up 9 more times; we'll 6 or 7 of them. the offense will get rolling in the next several weeks (think post-bye) and, combined with this defense, it's going to be a fun year.
From the very first line of the article: the Chiefs were exactly who the experts thought they were — bumbling on offense, horrid on special teams and toothless on defense. Does that sound like fluke? Does that not sound like they got their butts handed to them?
Amazing game. Schaub looked legit. Mario looked worthy of an eighth pick. Things are looking great in Texans land!!!
I thought those articles are indicative of what people wanted to happen. I thought people wanted us to be overlooked and fly under the radar and to not get respect so we could sneak up on people.
True but you'll notice that both articles called the Texans mediocre. They may be many things but yesterday, they definitely weren't "mediocre".
But the general consensus is that they ARE mediocre. Hopefully they prove people wrong, but it's no different than people calling Indy or Chicago really good or Oakland really terrible before the season starts. Those are the consensus opinions around the country. The Texans lost to some mediocre teams of the last several years - that didn't change the fact that those teams were mediocre.
Whitlock is wrong about the fumble. They covered this on ABC last night, there was a rule change this year and the Chief's TE had the ball with two feet down and almost immediately Fletcher pops him and the comes free. I guess they did away with that football move nonsense. I thought they blew the Dunta Robinson INT call, well not the INT as much as the return. They called him down but it did not appear to me that his knee actually touched the field. That would have been another defensive TD. There was confusion due the flag thrown on that play though.
it was a great win and a terrific start to the season, but if your exposure to the texans is somewhat limited (as i suspect it is for mr. whitlock), there wasn't a lot about yesterday's game that screamed, "not mediocre." the defense was impressive... but didn't face LJ at 100%. the offense looked solid... but scored just a lone TD and really, overall, wasn't paticularly any more impressive than a lot of what we saw last year. but for us who watch every week, etc., the subtle changes were dynamic. this IS a good defense; we've watch it grow and mature the past 9-10 football weeks. and while schaub was just ok, he definitely brings a different dynamic to the game; namely, the guy is terrific at selling the playaction. i never thought carr was any good at it; schaub really makes it go - that's going to pay dividends down the line, especially if green proves a decent threat. they have an easy schedule this year, so i think they're going to win 8-9 games. not sure they'll be an 8-9 win team, but i think they'll be close and i think with another shrewd offseason, they'll be primed next year to be a force.
