JACKSONVILLE, Fla. | The Chiefs spent two weeks working on tweaking the offense, working on fine-tuning, working on improvement. The play calls and approach looked different. The result did not.
Kansas City lost again Sunday, and it did it the same old way: poor pass protection, questionable play calls, and the appearance of a disorganized unit that couldn’t adjust quickly enough. Coach Todd Haley took a magnifying glass and scalpel to his offense for two weeks. Time was supposed to help the Chiefs swerve back onto the road toward progress. But this didn’t look much like progress: a 24-21 loss to Jacksonville, a team with problems and a fan base that seems leery that improvement is taking place.
Sound familiar?
“I didn’t see what we need to see,” Haley said.
Nobody did. After the Chiefs’ latest loss, Haley stood at a lectern and described a series of mistakes and letdowns that, regardless of what Kansas City tries, seems to stand in the way of growth.
Among those mistakes, Haley said Sunday that the Chiefs must improve at:
•Protecting Cassel.
•Making quick passes.
•Holding onto easy receptions.
•Reducing the number of negative-yardage plays.
Those problems have shadowed the Chiefs all season, before and after the two times Haley revamped or polished Kansas City’s offense. This time, Haley installed quickness and a blocking scheme designed to hold long enough for Cassel to deliver a quick pass. Haley kept calling the plays Sunday, and they kept falling short.
The only thing that seems to work is desperation. For the second time in four games, Cassel and the Chiefs’ offense worked best when they had nothing to lose. Jacksonville had a 24-6 lead late in the fourth quarter before Kansas City did what it had been trying to do for nearly 58 previous minutes. The offensive line protected Cassel, he made quick decisions and delivered crisp passes, wide receivers got open and held on, and the Chiefs avoided negative-yardage plays.
Too bad the offense figured out itself — and Jacksonville’s mysterious and effective decision to run a 4-3 defense after spending the season using the 3-4 — far too late.
“We really weren’t able to get into a rhythm early on in the game,” Cassel said. “We had our moments. We hit some passes; we knocked off some nice runs. For whatever reason, we kind of stalled out.”
As for the final 2 minutes, 32 seconds — when the Chiefs scored two touchdowns, converted a two-point conversation and looked as if their group of weekly strangers had been playing together for years? Haley said he doesn’t know what changed. Cassel didn’t either. Maybe it really is this simple:
“Our back was against the wall,” Cassel said. “We’ve just got to start that earlier.”
Earlier Sunday, the Chiefs looked confused and ineffective. They had a buffet of scoring opportunities in the second quarter, when the Jaguars fumbled at their 20-yard line and Kansas City moved to first and goal at the Jacksonville 8. But the Chiefs looked helpless, and it wasn’t long before the field-goal team was heading onto the field.
“With our margin of error,” Haley said, “we need to score points. … We can’t leave four points out there. We really can’t. Not in that situation. We have a chance, really, to get some momentum. A field goal was a letdown. We’ve got to do better.”
But in the final minutes, nothing was too intimidating. Wide receiver Chris Chambers didn’t even know the play calls — he was claimed Tuesday on waivers after San Diego released him — and he and Cassel somehow connected for two touchdowns. Chambers said afterward that coaches had promised he’d play, but only in simple situations. An 18-point deficit isn’t simple. Chambers said he hadn’t even participated in 2-minute offense situations during last week’s practices. The assignments came in late Sunday, and Chambers kept getting open and Cassel kept finding him.
To reach Kent Babb, call 816-234-4386, send e-mail to kbabb@kcstar.com or follow him at twitter.com/kb_kcstar
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