Haley Already on the Hot Seat Two Weeks Into the 2011 Season

Todd Haley is finding success to be just as fleeting as all the goodwill that comes with it.

The Chiefs coach was on the short list of just about every award after taking a 4-12 team his first year to a 10-6 finish last season. With emerging stars such as Jamaal Charles and Eric Berry, Kansas City won the AFC West and was thought of as a team on the rise.

Well, Charles and Berry are out with torn ACLs, along with tight end Tony Moeaki. The Chiefs are off to one of the worst starts through two games in NFL history, getting blitzed 89-10 by a pair of teams that won just 10 games last season. And all the positive vibes that come with success are but a distant memory for an angry fan base calling for Haley’s job.

“I’ve said this to a few people; that’s not something I generally have worried about or thought about at whatever level or whatever I’ve been doing,” Haley said. “Kind of been raised that way and believe that way — that you focus on the task at hand and focus on the things that you can make improvements and do your job to the best of your ability. The NFL is a team results business.”

Therein lays the problem.

The results have been terrible.

Going back to the end of last season, the Chiefs were trounced by the Oakland Raiders in their regular-season finale and the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the playoffs.

The preseason schedule wasn’t much better — a shutout loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, lopsided defeats to the St. Louis Rams and Ravens, and a narrow loss to the Green Bay Packers when Kansas City played its starters nearly the entire way against the Super Bowl champions’ backups.

Haley vowed the Chiefs would be ready for the regular season, and they wound up losing 41-7 to the Buffalo Bills. Then came last Sunday’s disaster in Detroit, where the Chiefs lost Charles for the season and what was viewed as a must-win game by the unsightly score of 48-3.

The schedule doesn’t get any easier.

Haley said his approach has always been to go “full-steam ahead, trying to be the best I can be, and that solves a lot of problems.” But that might not be enough to solve all the problems surrounding a floundering franchise with a fan base pining for a contender.

“Teams will never be judged on individual results, and that goes for coaches and players alike,” Haley said in a rare moment of candor. “When you lose, it’s tough. When you win, it’s a lot better.”

But the losses are mounting and statistics are sobering — or, perhaps more accurately, enough to make Chiefs fans of legal age pour a stiff drink at their next tailgate.

They’re on pace for 72 turnovers after committing six more against the Lions, three of them on interceptions by Matt Cassel. The lone turnover that the Chiefs forced in that game, an interception by safety Jon McGraw, was given right back to Detroit seconds later when he fumbled it on the return.

Kansas City has been outscored 150-27 during its four-game skid. The offense ranks among the worst in the NFL, and the defense is just as bad. Even normally reliable punter Dustin Colquitt has been battling the shanks, and kicker Ryan Succop is 1 for 3 on field-goal attempts.

“We don’t feel sorry for ourselves at all. You can’t,” linebacker Derrick Johnson said. “When you start feeling sorry for yourself it’s going to be a long year, and the outcome of the games are not going to change, and we definitely don’t want that to happen.”

But the fact remains that only a handful of teams ever have been outscored by more points through two games. The 1961 Raiders lost by a combined 99-0, the ’73 Saints were outscored by 92, the ’89 Steelers dropped their first two games 92-10, and the ’78 Colts by a combined 80 points.

Even the odds-makers in Las Vegas are having a hard time putting the Chiefs’ miserable start in perspective. They installed the San Diego Chargers as 13-point favorites for Sunday, and people immediately poured money on them to cover. Hours later, the line was more than two touchdowns.

The outlook is so bleak that many fans in Kansas City have begun a “Suck for Luck” movement in which they plan to openly cheer for the opposing team so that the Chiefs finish with the worst record in the NFL, land the No. 1 choice in the NFL draft and select Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, whom most scouts consider the closest thing to a sure-fire franchise quarterback.

If the Chiefs do indeed play poorly enough to land the top overall pick, it likely means that Haley is out of a job, even though it’s something that he insists does not enter his mind.

“My focus is, and will continue to be, and has been on, ‘What can we do to be better?’ It was the same the first year, last year and this year, and right now, we’ve done some things that have caused us to lose a couple games,” he said. “Right now we’re 0-2 in the first quarter of the season, and the head coach — and I know the players and the staff — will be doing everything in our power to change the results.”

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Haley already on hot seat, but not concerned

It took only two weeks of the season — and one of the worst starts in NFL history — for Chiefs coach Todd Haley to be placed on the hot seat.

Haley didn’t necessarily start the season there. After all, the Chiefs won the AFC West last season. But season-ending injuries to TE Tony Moeaki, FS Eric Berry and RB Jamaal Charles, the loss of offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, underwhelming play from QB Matt Cassel and being outscored 89-10 in two games have abruptly changed the feeling in Kansas City to one of dysfunction.

“Certainly, there’s blame to go around all over the place in (Kansas City). But we’re in a league where often the head coach takes the first hit,” NFL Network insider Jason La Canfora said on “NFL Total Access.” “This being a division winner (last year) that now looks like a bottom dweller, that could spell the end of the regime there.”

Whether he’s really in jeopardy of losing his job or it’s simply fabricated media fodder, the reality is Haley is already answering questions about it. He told reporters Monday he’s not concerned about his job, and he “absolutely” feels like he’s getting support from GM Scott Pioli and CEO Clark Hunt.

“I’ve been excited about the opportunity to be here and for a reason, because of the leadership in place and the opportunity that gives you to have a chance to succeed,” Haley said. “When you lose, it’s tough. When you win, it’s a lot better. Like I said, it’s a team results business. Right now, we’re 0-2 in the first quarter of the season and the head coach and I know the players and the staff will be doing everything within our power and have been to try to change the result.”

There’s not much else for Haley to say here. It’s easy to shovel blame Haley’s way as the figurehead of the Chiefs, but as La Canfora suggests, the culpability goes far beyond the head coach. Whether this is all overreaction that could be calmed over with a couple of wins or simply the tip of the iceberg to major internal problems remains to be seen, but it’s shaping up to be a long, long season for the Chiefs.

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Last Three Games Already a Win For 2011 For the Redskins

In a time where players are clamoring to shorten the amount of preseason games (and money- grubbing owners itching to turn those preseason games into regular season games), the Redskins last three games of the 2010 season (last week’s loss against Dallas, this week’s win over Jacksonville, and next week’s finale against the Giants) are ironically nothing more than three extra preseason games for the 2011 season.

When you boil it all down, they’re nothing more than a few extra 2011 exhibition games that take place at the end of 2010, serving as auditions for players to keep their jobs and earn invitations to the 2011 training camp in Ashburn.

And like a late preaseason game where the coaches withheld the majority of their starters to prevent injuries heading into the regular season, the group of starters that the Redskins trotted out on Sunday looked like a rag-tag menagerie of football players thrown together and duct-taped for the purpose of finishing an NFL game.

Here’s a fact to digest: thirteen of the Redskins 22 opening-day starters did not start against the Jaguars yesterday. That includes the starting quarterback, running back, tight end, 3/5ths of the offensive line, 2/3rd of the defensive line, and half the secondary. Their starting running back on Sunday (and overall leading rusher) wasn’t even on the active roster when they played Dallas in September. Neither was their nose tackle, the lynch-pin for the much-discussed 3-4 defense. Both of the starting safeties were guys who were originally drafted as cornerbacks within the last three years, and one wasn’t even on the team as recently as Thanksgiving day. I really wound’t be surprised if the Redskins coaches made players where those “Hi, My Name Is:” stickers on their practice jersey during the week.

So like any other preseason game, the Redskins coaches undoubtedly spent Sunday sifting through the this hodge-podge of passed-over veterans and newly signed & promoted youngsters to determine if any of them can legitimately make a difference for this team next year, and who should be updating their resume(s).

Sunday was day for defensive players like nose tackle Anthony Bryant and linebacker Rob Jackson to make impressions on their coaches. Bryant has the size to be a nose tackle in the NFL, and while he isn’t the most dominant guy in the league at that position, he’s played a lot better than the disappointing Ma’ake Kemoeatu has. Jackson showed glimpses of being a very effective situational pass rusher on Sunday, just a few days after being promoted off the practice squad. His speed and hand placement on pass rushers frustrated Jaguars offensive tackles for a good part of the afternoon.

Sunday was also a day for someone like Kevin Barnes to showcase his skills. Barnes was drafted as a cornerback yet started the game at safety for the Redskins, since they had almost nobody else healthy enough to start there. And ironically, probably just as Barnes was getting comfortable in his new position, he was flippled right back to cornerback after Carlos Rogers went down with an injury. So it was a game like this where Barnes could showcase his ability to help out against the run (which he did very effectively, both as a safety and as a corner), and his coverage ability (leading to the game-deciding interception in overtime).

In the end, all the 2010 standings will tell you is that the Redskins dropped almost 5-7 slots down the first round of the 2011 draft, and simultaneously took a big dump in the punch bowl that was the Jaguars playoff aspirations.

But it in reality, it gives the Redskins players, coaches, and fans something to hold on to and discuss as this season comes to a close and we begin to spout the inevitable mantra of “we’ll get ‘em next year.”

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