Why The Chiefs Will Turn It Around

You were probably chuckling as you read this headline and probably have a smirk on your face right now. That's OK. The Chiefs performance has not warranted a better response.

Lets go back to last year (as painful as that sounds.) Its week 8 and the Chiefs have just been blown out by the Titans 34-10. Larry Johnson has been suspended and the Chiefs ball control / running game plan was anything but that.

Something had to change. The Chiefs had to open up the offense and with a tough road game coming up against the red hot Jets, that's exactly what they did. With no LJ and a scat style runner as the starter (Jamal Charles), the Chiefs went to the shotgun. The results were 280 yards passing by Tyler Thigpen, 102 receiving yards by Dwayne Bowe and 80 yards rushing as a team. The Chiefs continued that success throughout the rest of the year. It wasn't until they had already emplamented a new style of offense, 4 games later, that LJ was able to come in and run because the defense had to actually defend the pass.

You can argue that the Chiefs still lost those games, but I can assure that Todd Haley and the better conditioned squad of this year, will not blow the second half leads that the Chiefs of 08' did. Todd Haley up to this point has had a few questionable calls, but nothing close to the sideline blunders that we witnessed last year.

See, without LJ, the coaching staff becomes more creative. They know that there is no power running game and I believe it creates more opportunities for the other players. You might ask "If it was that easy, then why don't they always run a pass oriented offense?" Plain and simple, LJ just doesn't fit into a shotgun / pass oriented offense. His pass blocking isn't great and although he can catch, he's not quick out of the backfield or out of passing routes. He comes out almost every time the offense passes. Talk about being predictable.

I think it's very difficult to manage a player with Larry's paycheck, ego, and skill. Especially when you don't have the type of personnel that a player like that needs to be successful. As a coach, I think that you probably want it to work out. You want a power running game, you want a happy LJ, and you want to take a guy that people have said is "not the same" to flourish.

All in all, this is a HUGE weight off of the back of the Kansas City Chiefs. I think you will see a much better offensive output then what you have seen lately and I do believe that the Chiefs will win the next two games at Jacksonville and at Oakland, after the bye week. At 3-6 with Pittsburgh coming to Arrowhead, the skies will look a lot brighter than they do right now. If KC ends up with 5 wins, I'll consider it a turn-around for the season and the franchise. Sad but true.