Best & Worst of Chiefs ~ Buccaneers

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Apologies for the tardiness of this article. I could come out at you with a couple of different excuses, but I feel like Roy Munson sums it up best...



This is the formal introduction of my weekly Chiefs reaction articles entitled "The Best & Worst w/ His Dirkness." It's a work in progress and will evolve along with the season, so let me know what you're thinking Crodies.

*Best part of KC-TB game - Well, we got to see the team on the field again. However, most of my fun from Friday night came in the form of tailgating (pregame and postgame), as well as the sights and sounds of Arrowhead Stadium (including Rob Riggle's highlarious antics on the big screen).

*Worst part of KC-TB game - The Chiefs approach to the game made it very difficult to evaluate any of the players on the field. Atleast for me. There's not much to say about our 3rd string offensive line getting owned by the Buccaneers' starting defensive line. Hopefully the coaches were able to get something out of it.

*Best part about the Chiefs' strategy - No injuries. Pioli and Haley seem to value limiting their amount of injuries to the fullest. Haley stressed conditioning in his first two training camps and it led to a very low number of injuries in 2010 (I can't really remember the 2009 season...). I believe Haley changed his strategy for this year's camp because of the lockout, and is steadily easing his players back into the swing of things to assure their bodies are ready to handle it.

*Worst sight - Todd Haley's clean shaven, man-tanned look on the sidelines. That ain't how we reached them playoffs Todd. No sleep for you.

*Best idea - Renaming the first Chiefs preseason game of every year "The Jackie Battle Classic."

*Best play - How would you feel if I told you it was a 3rd quarter incompletion? Is that something you might be interested in? Good, because Johnny Baldwin's juggling catch (albeit out of bounds) was a perfect display of why we drafted this guy. He's got amazing go-up-n-gets-it skills.

*Worst play - I'll go with the sack for a safety where all 4 of the Bucs' defensive linemen seemingly converged on Tyler Palko at the same time. Oh, and Palko fumbled too, right?

*Worst call - How was that play ruled a safety? Clearly, Palko fumbles the ball almost immediately after getting hit and the Chiefs recover it outside of the end zone. This narrowly edges the refs ruling Jackie Battle down on his fumble when it wasn't even close. And this is the point where, if I lacked any originality, I would claim that it's preseason for the officials too.

*Best/Worst play - Tampa Bay QB Josh Johnson jukin' and jivin' his way through our entire defense for a 20 something yard run, which was awful to see, looking like he might score, and then POWE! As in NT Jerrell Powe, who plops himself down right on top of Johnson.

*Best crowd reaction - The booing of every kickoff that sailed deep into the end zone. They weren't booing their team, or the opponents, but instead just the rule, which is brilliant.

*Best analysis (Yes, I manned up and rewatched the game) - After Chandler Williams watched a punt bounce at the 20, and roll inside the 5 yard line, only to scoop it up and get drilled, Brian Billick summed up the situation nicely, "You don't wanna do that..." No you don't Chandler. No, you don't.

*Worst analysis - At one point, Billick breaks down the Chiefs schedule suggesting that the first half is made up of mostly divisional opponents, while the on screen graphics showed that only 3 of the 8 games are within the division. The second half of the schedule includes the same number.

*Best Vegas prop bet - Shane Bannon getting the ball on the Chiefs first play of the 2011 preseason. Paid out 40-to-1.

*Best KC players - Thomas Jones, Justin Houston, Dion Gales, Something Bakhtiari.

*Worst KC players - Jackie Battle, Verran Tucker, Allen Bailey.

Don't freak out until it's our starters who look bad,
His dirkness