Each week we focus on five pre-game areas. The next morning, we review those focal areas. This is the Take Five Rewind for Tampa BAy.
Original pre-game text is below with the post-game results in bold.
Tampa Take Five
1) The Backup Quarterbacks
We don’t expect to see a ton of snaps for Matt Cassel
in tonight’s opener, likely leaving plenty of snaps for backups Tyler Palko and Ricky Stanzi. Game evaluation will go a long win in determining who will be Cassel’s primary backup come opening day.
Palko is expected to work with the second-team offense this evening and is looking to show he’s ready to step out of the third-string/practice squad role that has defined his young career. The athletic lefty will make plays with his feet, but needs to show the ability to manage the game and take care of the football. He completed 24-of-42 passes last preseason for 215 yards with 0 TDs and 3 INTs to post a 41.3 quarterback rating.
For Stanzi, it will be interesting to see how he responds to the NFL learning curve. The fifth-round draft pick didn’t get his hands on an offensive playbook until the first day of training camp.
Palko and Stanzi aren’t just competing against each other; they’re competing against other reserves across the NFL as well. Kansas City hasn’t ruled out bringing in an experienced veteran, but it’s clear that Palko and Stanzi will each get a long look before any decisions are made.
As expected, Cassel wasn’t on the field long. He took just eight snaps and did not attempt a pass. Palko was first off the bench in the middle of the first quarter.
Neither backup quarterback differentiated themselves statistically. In fact, Palko and Stanzi turned in nearly identical totals in the box score.
| Passing |
ATT |
CMP |
YDS |
SK/YD |
TD |
LG |
INT |
RT |
| T. Palko |
8 |
4 |
34 |
2/3 |
0 |
14 |
0 |
61.5 |
| R. Stanzi |
8 |
4 |
34 |
4/11 |
0 |
13 |
0 |
61.5 |
Time in the pocket was at a premium with both backups facing heavy pressure throughout the game. Stanzi, however, did show off several nice throws while on the run.
“I saw that they can run for their lives,” Coach Todd Haley said. “It was pretty much a jail break almost every time we dropped back. But the quarterback’s job is to make it work. They’re tough, they looked like they competed the entire time, they didn’t give up, those are good things.”
2) The Kicking Game
It looked like the Chiefs were committed to Ryan Succop attempting high, pooch-like kickoffs throughout the preseason. That was before Kansas City claimed thunder-footed kickoff specialist Todd Carter off waivers.
Will Carter play tonight? If he does, will the moving the kickoff placement to the 35-yard line result in automatic touchbacks? Will Succop’s pooch technique be just as effective? More effective?
Expect Succop to continue handling the field goal attempts, but kickoff strategy will be a trial-and-error process this preseason.
Tampa made the case for a kickoff specialist with P Michael Koenen effectively ending the kickoff return game as we know it. Kansas City’s only return was a 13-yard take back that Quinten Lawrence fielded five-yards deep in the end zone. It wasn’t an advisable return and Tampa’s five other kickoffs all resulted in touchbacks.
Succop pinned his lone kickoff attempt five yards into the end zone for a touchback.
Take away Kansas City’s kickoff after a safety and six of seven kickoffs resulted in touchbacks Friday night.
3) Wide Receiver Rotation
Pencil in roster spots for Dwayne Bowe, Steve Breaston and Jonathan Baldwin. Past that, who will stake claim for the remaining openings at the wide receiver position?
Last year, undrafted rookie Jeremy Horne was the head-turner of the preseason and was awarded with a place on Kansas City’s opening day roster. He’s in the mix once again this year. Verran Tucker showed plenty of promise as a mid-season call-up from the practice squad last season and Terrance Copper has claimed a reserve position since the day Todd Haley became head coach.
There’s also Jerheme Urban, who’s turned in an impressive training camp to date and has been working with the first-team offense in his return from a season-ending hand injury last preseason.
In total, there are 13 wide receivers on the Chiefs training camp roster. Who will show something to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack?
Not much occurred on the receiving front. RB Jackie Battle led all pass-catchers with three receptions for 27 yards. Copper led the receiving position with two catches for 15 yards. Baldwin led the Chiefs with four targets, finishing with one catch for 14 yards.
4) Core Four
Those final roster slots are almost always determined by special teamers. Players such as Terrance Copper, Cory Greenwood and Jackie Battle have become reserves with roster staying power thanks to their special teams contributions.
Who will appear on multiple special teams units tonight? It’s the first step in reading between the lines to find the final 53.
Also, pay attention to which players run as gunners on the punt team. The wide receiver and defensive back positions are extremely crowded.
By my tally, there were three Core Four performers Friday night – S Reshard Langford, LB Justin Cole and OLB Cameron Sheffield.
Langford, Cole and Sheffield were on the kickoff, kickoff return, punt and punt return units when they took the field for the first time. OLB Gabe Miller nearly joined the group, but didn’t appear on the punt return unit until that group’s second time on the field.
Other notables appearing on at least three first-team units (by my count) included:
LB Cory Greenwood – KO, KOR, P
TE Jake O’Connell – KOR, P, PR
5) Preseason Is The Season
This will be the first opportunity for each of Kansas City’s nine draft picks to wear the Arrowhead logo on the side of their helmets. Thus far, only a nametag has decorated the red shells.
Jonathan Baldwin did miss practice time this week, so his snaps might be limited, but we should get a good view of the draft picks for the first time tonight. Who’s ready to show they’re ahead of the learning curve?
We saw plenty of the Chiefs rookies last night. Shane Bannon got the start at fullback in place of Le’Ron McClain while the other eight picks played significant snaps as well. Baldwin played more than expected after missing several practices early in the week.
Jerrell Powe made several plays at the nose tackle position, finishing with four tackles including a tackle for loss.
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ARROWHEAD STADIUM – This was not Chiefs football.
Todd Haley Postgame Comments 8/12
Filed under Kansas City Chiefs by on August 13, 2011 at 5:31 am {no comments}Opening Statement: “We’ve got one under our belt. It didn’t go exactly the way we wanted it to go. Every time we come out here, especially in our own stadium, we’d like to come out on the winning end. That didn’t occur tonight for a number of different reasons. The number one was turning the ball over early, which will get you beat most times in the NFL – a good lesson learned there for a bunch of these guys. Not being able to protect your quarterback will get you beat most times, not tackling will get you beat most times in the NFL. I thought those were the most glaring deficiencies out there tonight. There were a lot missed tackles; I don’t know what the number was, but just looking from the sideline, it was a lot. Turning the ball over is a problem. So we have a lot of work to do. We knew we had a lot of work to do coming into this game. They’re going to get a little time off tomorrow to recover…a bunch of those guys played a bunch of snaps…and then we’ll be back at it Sunday in St. Joe, back at it early in the morning and practicing at 3:00.”
Did you see this coming today? “I don’t think you ever see that coming. You don’t want to do that, especially on your home turf. That being said, that’s the first one, not the last one. What’s important is that our guys recognize they have a lot of work ahead of them and a short time to do it. Our goal is to be ready to go on September 11th here in Arrowhead and we have a lot of things to work on and a short time to do it.”
On playing the reserves more than the starters: “I’ve said all along that we’re going to need some of these young guys, a handful of them potentially, to contribute this year for us in order to continue to make progress, in my opinion. It may not be the case, but some of those guys that were out there are going to play against the high-level competition potentially. What I’m looking for though is to continue to be a disciplined football team throughout to see high effort and part of discipline is playing with good technique. We did some things as far as discipline was concerned; we didn’t have a lot of dumb penalties, we played fairly smart, it looked like the effort was real good throughout the game, even the guys that played a lot of snaps. But the tackling and some of those things are unacceptable and they have to improve. I’ve got a feeling that a couple of those guys could be guys that need to help us as we go forward. We need to be better and we need to work on some of those fundamental things.”
On the lack of off-season training contributing to the poor tackling: “I don’t know that the off-season program has anything to do with tackling. We’ve haven’t tackled a lot but we’ve coached it and we’ve taught it in individual drills and had a bunch of work in that area, but it is still unacceptable. That’s one of our points of emphasis for our defensive team going into this year. We felt that we had to be a better tackling team. The missed tackles hurt us in key spots last year and for us to improve, that has to change.”
On deciding who would not see the field tonight: “There were a lot of different factors. Some physical conditioning, ability, some guys had some nicks and things where we just didn’t feel like putting them into a game situation. Some we were trying to find out a bit more about, especially in the deeper, more stacked positions where we had more guys to look at. There were a lot of different variables but we had a plan for each and every guy and, as far as I could tell, we followed it. We just have to be better as a football team from start to finish.”
On the quarterbacks: “I saw that they can run for their lives. Both of them have some scrambling ability. That’s an area where we have been deficient as far as off of scrambles making plays, as far as what I think the standard is. We didn’t do it again today, which was disappointing. But those guys…you need to give them some time and I didn’t feel like they were holding the ball. It was pretty much a jail break almost every time we dropped back. But the quarterback’s job is to make it work. They’re tough, they looked like they competed the entire time, they didn’t give up, those are good things.”
On the effect poor tackling will have later one: “I think something you have to be careful of as coaches and players is you can’t accept certain things and a poor tackling team is not something we want on our resume ever. Right now it’s on there for this year and a little bit of last year. What’s important is that these guys and our staff recognize some of those areas that were blaring and that we get to work. Time’s limited and we’ve got a bunch to do.”
On T Jared Gaither
competing for a starting position: “He and WR Keary Colbert
are guys we’re excited about having in here. We’ve danced around with Keary Colbert a number of times here in the last few years and he’s a guy that’s an interesting story that was out of football but coaching; a guy that I really liked coming out, smart inside potential receiver which we don’t have a ton of on campus. He looks like he has a chance to come in and compete. Gaither is great competition. I’ve seen him play both spots; I think he’s capable. We’ve got to get him into football shape and try to get him into a position where he can compete. I think from what I’ve seen on tape he’s got a chance to compete at either side potentially.”
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