Kansas City Chiefs Week 6 Helmet Stickers
Terrelle Pryor (2) gets away from Kansas City Chiefs outside linebacker Tamba Hali (91) in the second half at Arrowhead Stadium. The Kansas City Chiefs won the game 24-7. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports
The Kansas City Chiefs did what they needed to do and dominated the rival Oakland Raiders at their home fortress. Arrowhead Stadium was ablaze with the zeal of one of the NFL’s finest fan bases, as they broke the Seattle Seahawks record for loudest fans at a game. It was an easy, excellent victory for the Kansas City Chiefs, and the only undefeated teams reside in the AFC West. Below are some of my “Helmet Stickers” for the game, and there was plenty of good to go around.
1. RB Jamaal Charles
The star of the Kansas City Chiefs offense, Jamaal Charles scored two touchdowns on the ground and once again made a significant impact in the passing game with five receptions for 50 yards. Charles kept things ticking on offense, and you can just call him the Chiefs metronome at this point. It’s amazing just how important he is to the Chiefs, and don’t tell the Chiefs that running backs aren’t important in the league anymore. While Alex Smith struggled to just 4.1 yards per attempt, Charles kept the offense pushing forward. Honestly, the only reason why this one was close is because Smith played so poorly, and I disagree with the notion that Dwayne Bowe has gotten worse; he just can’t get the ball consistently from Smith. I’m not sure if that’s part of the gameplan (you know, to make Smith a complete game manager) from Andy Reid, but I do know that Charles played a great game while Smith was quite poor. Charles may have only averaged 3.5 yards per carry, but he was better than that statistic indicates.
2. CB Marcus Cooper
He continues to put on a show this season, and it’s just insane the numbers he put up on Terrelle Pryor yesterday. Not only did Marcus Cooper intercept a pass, but he also got his hands on five passes for a total of five PDs. It was another terrific performance by Cooper, who has been a breakout player for the Chiefs this season.
3. OLBs Tamba Hali and Justin Houston
Having two dynamic edge rushers can really set a defense apart, and the Kansas City Chiefs have one of the most dangerous pass rushing tandems in the NFL in Tamba Hali and Justin Houston. The Chiefs pass rush was all over Terrelle Pryor, and Houston chipped in three quarterback hits and a sack. But nobody could match the performance Hali put up on the Raiders offensive line, as he terrorized the opposition with 3.5 sacks, five total QB hits, and it just seemed like he could do no wrong.
4. ILB Derrick Johnson
Derrick Johnson has been one of my favorite players for the longest time, and it seems like the last few years have been a giant middle finger to Todd Haley, who seemed to arbitrarily place Johnson in his doghouse back in the day (I don’t think Haley did anything with purpose either). On a day in which the Chiefs defense sacked Pryor ten times and hit him 14 times in total, Johnson joined the party and had some textbook ILB blitzes. He finished the day with two sacks and nine total tackles, and the Kansas City Chiefs gameplan to hit Pryor as much as possible and constantly put pressure on him definitely work. This Chiefs defense is just downright nasty, and they have plus players at every single starting position; that’s awfully difficult to do in the NFL.
5. P Dustin Colquitt
Let’s give a little bit of love to the punter, shall we? Colquitt had a punt of 60 yards, bashed four punts inside the twenty, and he averaged an excellent 49 yards per punt overall. One punt was at the four, one was at the seven, and he had a 59-yard punt that ended up at the seven before the Raiders got it up to the 34 on some lateral to rookie CB D.J. Hayden. Colquitt was forced to punt eight times due to Smith’s inability to move the ball up the field, but he was excellent with five of those eight punts traveling at least 49 yards. I only saw one bad punt out of Colquitt all game long; that deserves a helmet sticker for sure.
6. The fans
As I saw in the Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Ravens game, a raucous, fired-up crowd can really screw with the opposing team’s offense. It’s harder to call plays, it’s harder to audible, it wastes time on the clock, it can disrupt the flow of an offense, and it can even make it impossible to snap the ball in time thus burning timeouts.
The Kansas City Chiefs fan base has the loudest, most fired-up fans in the league, and I’ve seen just how great Chiefs Kingdom is by following Arrowhead Addict closely. Playing at Arrowhead is one of the toughest things for an opponent to do, and I remember Ross Tucker said that it was one of the hardest places for him to play. Chiefs fans circled yesterday’s game against the Raiders as the day to break the Seahawks record for the loudest fans, and they passed. Read all about it by following this Arrowhead Addict link. The best part about it all for Chiefs fans is the fact that their stadium isn’t designed like CenturyLink to amplify the noise; essentially all the noise was straight from the fans and not scientifically manufactured. The Chiefs can hold more fans in Arrowhead, but it’s still extremely impressive to cause 137.7 decibels of straight up noise.
So congrats, Kansas City Chiefs fans. It wouldn’t be fair not to give you guys helmet stickers.
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