Back to football: I'm going to try and stay more positive this week in all aspects being that it's Thanksgiving week. In the end, there were a lot of positives to take away from the game - just gotta look at it from a positive perspective.
First off, we won the game. Never forget how tough it is to get a win in the NFL - no matter who you're playing. Every team is full of the top talent out of College and these guys are professionals - they do this all day, every day. Just ask the Chiefs how hard it is to get a win.(In case you missed it, the Chiefs lost to the 0-10 Raiders last week). Nothing is guaranteed and any team can win or lose on any given Sunday. I've been a fan of the team since I was 5 years old rooting on Joe in the super bowl and I've seen this team have immense success and immense failure. Let us never take for granted a winning football team and a team that will still be playing meaningful games late into the season. I remember seasons where the games didn't matter anymore by this point. When you were already depressed because your best hope was "next year is our year" and that's 10 months away....
Overall, we lost a lot of aspects of this game and still won the game.
We lost the special teams battle. We ended up with 5 drives starting inside our own 10 yard line. There were numerous issues that lead to this. We had 1 punt that was let go that should've been fielded. We had one punt have a weird spin on it that our returner couldn't judge. We had 2 penalties on punt returns that backed us up and we had an ill advised kickoff return mixed with a penalty that set us up at the 7 yard line. Statistics will tell you that if you start a drive inside your own 20 yard line, your chances of scoring drop drastically. If you start within your own 10 yard line - it's even worse. The league average from 2001-2010 scoring % from drives inside the 10 was between 15-17%(that's total scoring - FG or TD. The chances of a TD were about 10% and FG about 6) I say between because the only numbers I could find was a graph, so it was hard to tell exactly what number it would be. Our own coverage teams did a decent job, but, you can't start that many drives inside your own 10 yard line and expect to be successful. You could give the best offenses in our league today the ball 5 times inside their own 10 yard line and they'll struggle to score points.
So, to be positive about it: We still scored 17 points while starting inside our own 10 yard line 5 times(see, doesn't that sound better
)We lost in the run game on both sides of the ball. We have been a team that, over the past 3 years, has won games by running the ball and stopping the run. We did neither well in this game. We averaged a bad-at-best 2.3 yards per carry and gave up 5 yards a carry to the opposing team. We got beat in the trenches on both sides for the run game. Just by looking at that stat - we should've lost this game. We usually have the script flipped. If we were to average 5 yards a run and give up only 2.3 per run - you'd be certain we won the game.
So, to be positive about it: We still won the game that went opposite of our winning formula.
We lost the turnover battle. Not much to say, but, we had 3 turnovers, they had 1. Just like our run defense, over the past 3 years, we've won games by having a positive turnover differential. We did not.
So, to be positive about it: We still won the game with a -2 turnover differential.
We'll dive into why we lost those individual battles throughout the thread, but I wanted to take a minute and remind us all to try and stay positive and look for the best - just like the players need to. If they only focus on the things that they're not doing well and on the negative, that negativity will color everything. The fact is, we're a 7-4 team in the thick of a playoff hunt with a great defense, superbly athletically gifted QB, a future HOF RB and a HC who's never missed an NFCCG. Things aren't always doom and gloom. Are there things that our team can do better? Absolutely. But, instead of boo our players to be better, let's build them up for success.
A couple things for everyone to keep in mind with my upcoming posts:
I'll be highlighting some things that CK can do better or things that he missed - that does not mean that he sucks or that I don't think he can lead us to a SB. That means, I'll be showing some things he can do better. Will some of those be things that he's needed to improve on for a while? Yes. But, again, that does not mean he sucks or that he's being poorly coached. It's hard to work on these things in leaps and bounds during the season.
As usual, breakdowns to follow and Happy Thanksgiving!
