On Friday my free play at the website was on the KC Chiefs +3 over Minnesota.  Brett Favre was making his debut in a purple uniform and the Vikings had kicked butt the previous week.  KC, on the other hand, suffered three turnovers (a net -3 in TO Margin) last week at home losing to the Houston Texans, 16-10.  I had released the OVER in that game.  The weather report was only a 20% chance of showers.  Needless to say, most of the game was played in a torrential downpour of rain.  Hard to score points in that kind of weather.  Also, two times KC had the ball first and goal and only came away with 3 points.

That kind of pitiful red zone play happened again Friday night.  Down 17-13 and with less than 2 minutes to go in the game, KC had a first and goal from the Viking one-yard line.  I thought, not only was KC going to cover, but they were going to win outright!  Two no-gain runs up the middle and an incomplete pass from recently acquired QB Matt Gutierrez left the Chiefs with a 4th and goal from the 1.  In what I felt was a moronic call by KC, acquired in the past week WR Ashley Lelie (that name always sounded like a porn star to me) ran a fade which fell incomplete.  The Chiefs lose.

Why would a fade route pass be called on a play that will cause you to win or lose the game when the two players involved, Gutierrez and Lelie, have worked together very little, if hardly at all.  Fade routes in the end zone require very good timing between QB & WR.  Gutierrez is the current #4 QB in camp and Lelie just checked in a few days ago.

This looks like the ghost of Herm Edwards is running the offensive show in KC.  Well, no, we probably would have had four straight dives up the middle.  Even Herm's play calling would have been better than the ill-fated fade route between two players who probably didn't even know each other's name.

BTW, Brett Favre looked like he hadn't played football in a couple of years.  But the opposing starting QB, KC's Matt Cassel, doesn't have much of a deep-ball arm.  At New England last year, Cassel was unable to air it deep to Randy Moss.  The Chief's don't have anyone even close to Moss's ability, but Cassel hasn't been asked in two exhibition games to toss it deep even once.  It looks like the dink and dunk days of Steve Bono (a name from the past) are back in KC. 

It probably doesn't matter this year if Cassel can throw deep as I doubt he would ever have the time to do so behind the Chiefs' terrible offensive line.  It looked like the Vikings had resurrected the Purple People Eaters of the 1970's, Minny's front four led by Carl Eller and Alan Page, both members of the Hall of Fame.

This could be a VERY long year in KC. 

Two games in NFL preseason action Thursday night.  Cincy is a 6.5 to 7-point dog at New England while Philadelphia is a 3-point road favorite at Indianapolis.  The Bengals lost last week at New Orleans, 17-7.  More concerning was QB Carson Palmer’s ankle sprain which will keep him out of Thursday’s game.  Second-stringer J.T. O’Sullivan should start with Carson’s younger brother, Jordan Palmer, getting at least two quarters of action. 

Philly lost at home to New England last week, 27-25.  They outgained the Pats, 420 to 257, and had a +1 turnover advantage.  However, they couldn’t get it into the end zone settling for 4 field goals on 6 attempts by Fred Akers.  While normally I like to bet on a preseason team, in this case the Pats, that was outgained by 150+ yards in their previous game as it is a 62% winning wager over the past ten years, I don’t like laying that many points in preseason action.

Indy lost last week as a home dog, 13-3, to Minnesota in coach Jim Caldwell’s debut as the Colts HC.  Peyton Manning played one series and was sacked three times.  Manning will see more time this week but rookies Curtis Painter from Purdue and Chris Crane out of Boston College will get a fair amount of playing time.  The #2 QB, Jim Sorgi, is still out with an injury. 

Both Philly and Indy have multiple injuries, most notably the Eagles with four starting offensive linemen not playing.

A very good measuring stick for capping preseason is to look at how a coach historically has played exhibition games.  The Eagles’ Andy Reid is only 14-27 SU, 19-22 ATS.  Surprisingly, this is the very first time he has led the Eagles as a road favorite in the preseason.  The Colts have a very bad streak going in preseason, 3-16 SU, 5-13-1 ATS, over their last 19.  However, that record was compiled under Tony Dungy, not the current Indy coach. 

I am passing on both games Thursday.