Chiefs Vs. Buccaneers: A Tale Of The Tape

The Kansas City Chiefs (1-4) travel to the Southeast part of the country to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-3) in a battle of two teams looking to get on the winning track after poor starts to their season.

We're going to break this game into a few different categories and decide which team has the upper-hand in that particular area. The four areas we're going to look at are coaching, offense, defense and momentum.

Coaching

It's no secret that Buccaneers rookie head coach, Greg Schiano has had a rocky start to his professional head coaching career. Most of the 'hooplah' with him surrounds the decision to tell his defensive lineman to go for the ball in a 'take a knee' situation with Eli Manning and the New York Giants at the end of their game.

This is not a decision that Schiano backed away from and even one of his defensive lineman, Gerald McCoy, basically said that he was just doing what his coach asked when questioned by reporters following the game. Thus deflecting questions towards his coach as to whether or not he was committing something seen as 'faux pas' in football circles. Not long after it was an article from Mike Silver of Yahoo Sports that really went after the rookie head coach.

On the other hand you've got Romeo Crennel, who is widely respected around the league as a good football person and an even better guy. He hasn't had a whole lot of success as a head coach yet from his time with the Cleveland Browns and now five games into the 2012 season with the Chiefs. A few questionable in-game decisions have soured some Chiefs fans on the defensive minded signal caller as a head coach.

ADVANTAGE - KANSAS CITY CHIEFS

If for no other reason than experience. The Chiefs defense seems to be playing like most thought it would at this point in the season and it's just too soon to know what is going on with Greg Schiano and the Buccaneers. Both teams came into the 2012 season with high hopes and both have been disappointing so far. The edge goes to Crennel because he's been there and done this before.

OFFENSE

The Chiefs are on a record-setting pace for turnovers this season and while much of those turnovers are centered around injured quarterback, Matt Cassel. It can't be overlooked that tipped passes off the hands of Dwayne Bowe and fumbles from Jamaal Charles have added to the offensive woes for this football team. If not for the Jamaal Charles leading the NFL in rushing through the first five games of the season this offense would be in a much dire situation.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are also hurting from poor quarterback play so far this season. Former Kansas State quarterback and first-round pick, Josh Freeman, is completing just 54% of his passes with five touchdowns and four interceptions through four games. Freeman is in his fourth season and the former Grandview High School standout has benefitted from the off-season acquisition of wide receiver, Vincent Jackson. Jackson has 16 catches for 304 yards and two touchdowns through four games.

ADVANTAGE - TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS

The fact is we just don't know what we're going to get out of Brady Quinn as the Chiefs starting quarterback. There have just been too many turnovers and the most important position on the football field for the Chiefs is a huge question mark right now.

DEFENSE

The Buccaneers currently boast the NFL's 4th best rushing defense by giving up just 73 yards per game, but are ranked 32nd (last) in the NFL against the pass at 345 yards per game. They haven't faced a bad quarterback yet though as they've seen Cam Newton, Eli Manning, Tony Romo and Robert Griffin III.

The Kansas City Chiefs defense comes in ranked 8th in the NFL against the pass at 208 yards per game, and sit at 22nd against the run at 121 yards per game. The Chiefs are coming off a game in which they shut down the Baltimore Ravens offense that, coming into that game, had been the 5th ranked (30 ppg) scoring offense in the NFL. Despite giving the Ravens four turnovers the Chiefs defense still allowed just nine points and no touchdowns.

ADVANTAGE - KANSAS CITY CHIEFS

Despite the Buccaneers officially ranking a little bit better than the Chiefs defense statistically speaking, much of the Chiefs problems defensively have been the offense putting them in terrible spots. That happened again last week against the Ravens but the defense responded, and eventually the offense will figure it out and the defense will sway some of those stats to better reflect the talent on this defense.

MOMENTUM

Despite fans excitement about the Brady Quinn era beginning in Kansas City, there isn't much momentum for the Chiefs offense just yet. We don't know what we're getting with Quinn and optimism is not momentum. The Chiefs defense on the other hand has some momentum after playing lights out against the Ravens last week.

The Buccaneers are coming in as losers of three straight as they lost to the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins.

ADVANTAGE - TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS

The Buccaneers may have lost three straight but all three of those games have been by less than a touchdown. The Chiefs need to figure out what they have in Brady Quinn and the fact that it's in Tampa Bay, the edge goes to the Buccaneers on the momentum side.