Editor’s Note: Welcome to a new blog here on FantasyGuru.com. This blog will include the raw notes taken by our own Greg Cosell as he prepares for the Matchup Show on ESPN by analyzing NFL coach’s tape. Greg is Senior Producer of the show, and he’s been a producer at NFL Films for over 20 years. 

CHIEFS OFFENSE VS. CHARGERS DEFENSE

Chiefs ran 60 offensive plays, but had the ball for only 25 minutes – A function of play breakdown: 44 called passes / 16 called runs
Chiefs excellent on third down: 7-14
Chiefs opening drive: 12 plays, 95 yards, TD
This was Rivera’s first game as DC: Big change he made was Cromartie did not start, Gordon started at RCB – Cromartie did play with the first unit as the game progressed, about midway through the Chiefs first series
Thigpen huge completion on 3rd + 11 from Chiefs 4 yard line on the opening series: Great timing and anticipation, plus touch and accuracy on 17 yard out route to Bowe; Bowe beat Cromartie, who came in at RCB in the nickel
Chiefs continued to make extensive use of “12” personnel, with both Gonzalez and Cottam – Also it’s clear that Thigpen [...]

I never look at statistics when I watch games the next day in order to get a truly organic idea of what happened, that way nothing influences what I see.

I’ll be doing this instead of my podcasts the rest of the way, time permitting.

Here’s a look at the early games from Sunday with those hard to find facts about plays missed etc:

BAL-HOU

- I was surprised that the Texans moved the ball as well as they did in this game. That stood out as the game progressed. Plays were there to be made but they had penalties and too many mental breakdowns which prevented them from scoring. When you don’t watch the entire game, you really never get a sense of what really happened. Watching bits and pieces of this game on Sunday, I didn’t feel that Houston could have scored much more than they did. I felt differently after watching it fully on Monday.

- Owen Daniels missed two TDs on consecutive drives. One was on the Haloti Ngata INT. All Sage Rosenfels had to do is lob the ball over his hand on the first one. Second one was a pass to the right where Daniels had OLB Jarret Johnson [...]