Burning Questions: Chiefs vs. Jaguars

After every Kansas City Chiefs game I will ask and answer a handful of burning questions that were going through my mind during and immediately following the game.

The Chiefs fell 24-21 to the Jaguars, though the game wasn’t nearly as close as the score would make you believe.  Here are the questions I found myself asking to no one in particular.

Where was Jamaal Charles?

With Larry Johnson sitting out the game due to a suspension, Charles received his first start of the season at running back.  Many (myself included) expected him to get upwards of 20-25 touches on offense.  Charles looked good during the week at practice and sounded like a man that was ready to take on the challenge.

Then something funny happened after kickoff… Todd Haley seemed to forget about his young running back.

Sure, his averages looked good: 6 yards per carry and 6.3 yards per reception.  But unfortunately for the Chiefs offense that was only the average of 6 rushes and 3 catches.

As a team, Kansas City only ran 12 rushing plays with their running backs and against a defense that gave up over 300 yards on the ground last week that just doesn’t make any sense to me.  Charles is similar to the Titans’ Chris Johnson in many ways, but he was never given the chance to repeat the performance the Tennessee running back put up against the Jaguars.

No matter what ends up happening with Larry Johnson tomorrow and beyond, Charles needs to touch the ball more if the Chiefs plan on winning another game this season.

Why Lance Long?

I understand why he is on the roster, I do.

He fits the profile of “the right 53″ that Haley and Scott Pioli are looking for in a player and having played in Arizona last year he knows the offense.  But when Lance Long is your leading receiver, things are not going well.

Long is a solid special teams contributor and down the road maybe he turns into a solid slot receiver, but he should not be targeted more than Dwayne Bowe or even the recently acquired Chris Chambers.  He had 8 catches for 74 yards, but showed at the end of the first half why he is not ready for primetime.

With the Chiefs trying to drive down the field for a field goal with one timeout left, Cassel hit Long on the right sideline with roughly 25 seconds left.  He caught the ball started running down the sideline and instead of stepping out of bounds to stop the clock, for some reason he cut inside and was immediately tackled in play.  Long’s unexplainable play forced Todd Haley to use his final timeout with 0:14 left on the clock.

Knowing he didn’t have a timeout to work with, Cassel (not to mention the Jacksonville defense) knew he couldn’t use the middle of the field and tried to make a play on the sidelines but nothing materialized.  Because of Long costing the Chiefs a timeout it forced Kansas City to attempt a 56 yard field goal that Succop just came up short on.  It also almost cost the team it’s punter when Dustin Colquitt had to make a touchdown saving tackle on Rashean Mathis’ return of the short FG.  Colquitt came up limping on the play, but returned and looked no worse for the wear.

The bad decision by Long will not show up in any box score, but hopefully it proves to Haley that the young receiver should not be his quarterback’s No. 1 target.

Is Mike Brown finished?

After he was late getting to two Miles Austin catches that both ended up being touchdowns (and blamed on Maurice Leggett) I called for the Chiefs to release Brown.  I take that back, but even with their problems at safety I know he should not be starting.

Brown is a great teammate that Todd Haley holds in very high regard.  He can be very important to helping the Chiefs head coach get his message across to the younger players.  I understand why it wouldn’t make sense to release the veteran.  But he is only hurting the team when he is on the field.

On the Jaguars first two touchdowns, there was Mike Brown completely out of position.  First he was late getting up to the line to stop Rashad Jennings as he burst through a wide open hole that the safety should have filled and galloped for a 28 yard touchdown.  Then at the end of the first half he completely blew a coverage, letting Mike Sims-Walker run past him for what ended up being a 61 yard catch and run touchdown.

Again, I feel he can still be a huge help to the young Chiefs, especially his backup DaJuan Morgan.  But anything he brings to the table in the locker room or on the practice field gets wiped away when he blows play after play.

Tags: Jacksonville Jaguars, Jamaal Charles, Lance Long, Mike Brown