FanHouse GuntherCunningham

Good news: Larry Foote is an NFL starter, which is all he wanted. Bad news: he went from the Steelers, twice Super Bowl champs in the past three years, to the Lions, winners of exactly zero games in 2008.

In Detroit, Foote will have to adjust to playing middle linebacker in the 4-3, and despite suspect pass-coverage skills, he'll upgrade the defense. (Given that the Lions were one of the worst units in the league, it would be hard not to. Point taken.)

Foote, signed last week and, after wrapping up OTAs with his new team, talked to WDFN-AM Detroit's Matt Shepard about the subtle differences between the Steelers and the Lions:

In the three drafts prior to Scott Pioli's arrival in Kansas City a few months ago, the Chiefs selected in the first round defensive end Tamba Hali, wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, and defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey.

For varying reasons, all three players could be elsewhere a year from now. Pioli, who came to Kansas City from New England, hired Todd Haley to replace Herm Edwards, and Clancy Pendergast to rebuild a defense that lost its way in recent seasons under Gunther Cunningham. This includes a switch to the 3-4 defense, a scheme Pendergast had some success with during the Cardinals' 2008 late-season surge.

The Lions coaching staff is coming together nicely. Gone are Rod Marinelli, Joe Barry and Jim Colletto. In are Jim Schwartz, Gunther Cunningham, and Scott Linehan.

The Rams fired Linehan as their head coach last September after the team stumbled to an 0-4 start. By all accounts he was dreadful, amassing a 11-25 record in just over two seasons. Schwartz hiring him to coordinate the Lions' offense might seem like more of same in Detroit. But here's the thing: just because a guy is a complete and utter failure as a head coach doesn't mean he's not a good coordinator with a firm grasp on Xs and Os.

It wasn't long ago that Gunther Cunningham was considered one of the league's best defensive coordinators. He was responsible for those dominating Chiefs defenses of the late 1990s, but, unsurprisingly, had less success in recent seasons in Kansas City. In fact, according to Football Outsiders, the '08 Chiefs ranked 28th in total defense and were equally as inept against the rush as the pass (coincidentally, 28th in both categories).

New Lions head coach Jim Schwartz was unmoved by Cunningham's struggles of late, and has named him Detroit's new defensive coordinator. The two worked together in Tennessee for three seasons, and, according to Schwartz, "instantly bonded, literally in about the first hour of conversation."

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is right around the corner, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterbacks: Oh, holy God. Do we have to start here? Can't we start at defensive line? Or even offensive line? No? Okay. So last season, Damon Huard was such the pinnacle of mediocrity, he may have redefined the word for decades. It wasn't so much that Huard was spectacularly terrible, throwing constant interceptions as he heaved them down the field, Rex-Grossman-style, it was that he looked singularly incapable of actually getting the ball downfield to begin with. So, after far too many games watching the offense set new franchise lows, Brodie Croyle who had been waiting in the wings, finally took the reins. The results were less than spectacular. Chiefs fans support Croyle because the kid has shown flashes of leadership and a pretty solid arm. The trouble is, the protection was so bad last year, no one knows whether to pin the offense's disastrous play on an inability by Brodie to produce, or a result of the fact that Croyle spent so much time on the run it's a wonder he's not dead in the cold, cold ground. So with a retooled and slightly upgraded offensive line, he should be better? Right? Right? Oh, Jesus, where's the bottle? Wait, what? Huard's still on the team? Must get bigger bottle. Heat Index: 2

For every loss, it's hard to accentuate any positives. So, like any other pissed-off fan, I'm going to rip on the Chiefs for the negatives. There were a few glaring goats of the game. Let's start from the top-down:

• Gunther Cunningham: Phil alluded to this already. Gunther Cunningham must have taken a break over the past 10 days. It is absolutely beyond me that you don't attack a defense with minus a running game. Where were the blitzes? Where were the decoy coverages? You have a quarterback who hasn't seen a snap probably since he was partying on his college campus. The gameplan was lousy, unimaginative, predictable. Gunther Cunningham, you were the goat of the game: baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
• Kris Wilson: There is absolutely zero... ZERO excuse for allowing a ball thud off your hands on 2nd and 4. Wilson would've had a first down and then some. Instead, the Chiefs ended up punting in overtime and, well, we know how that turned out

The Chiefs' traveling secretary needs to be fired, because he or she apparently forgot to book the defensive unit's flight and hotel rooms. The Chiefs' playoff chances took a serious hit when they lost a game they had talked all week of not being able to afford to lose.

That's right, the Chiefs fell into the trap. Well, at least the defense did. In what can only be described as a pathetic effort by the defense, Cleveland moved seemingly at will with a raw and gimpy quarterback in the first half, and an extremely raw quarterback in the second half.

Trent Green looked like the Green of old, throwing four TD passes and making several sharp throws. The offense opened up and scored 28 points. That should have been more than enough to counter a Cleveland offense that has been poor at best.

What happened? Wasn't this the same Kansas City defense which did not allow more than 17 points in any of the last 4 games, and only 53 total points in those 4 games? Apparently not. Gunther Cunningham made no effort to confuse the quarterbacks, instead hoping his veteran and crafty secondary would handle matters on their end. They did not, and it is awfully hard to do so when even inexperienced quarterbacks have all day in the pocket. No pressure by the Chiefs meant 15 or 20 yard completions all day for the Cleveland quarterbacks.

If you want a goat for this game, I give it to Cunningham. It was a terribly crafted defensive gameplan, and Cleveland took complete advantage of it. Kansas City's defensive line had been given high praise before this game (excessive praise, in my opinion), but today's game proved that they cannot stop teams on their own. I don't think you would have heard even any Cleveland fans attempt to predict that their offense would win the game for thim, and they are right. The Chiefs' defense won the game for them.

It's hard to believe that we are only a few years removed from the nightmare of a Chiefs' defense that used to patrol the field at Arrowhead.

Do you remember the defense I'm talking about? You remember Greg Robinson? He was the head cheese for the swiss cheese defense. His resume was impressive: he was the defensive coordinator for the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos. The only problem is, the times had changed but his defense did not.

Slowly but surely, the swiss cheese house that Robinson built has started to melt away. All we are left with are remnants of that defense. The supposed marquee free agents that Robinson brought in, such as Shawn Barber and Dexter McCleon, are long gone. In fact, only two starters remain from that defense: Kawika Mitchell and Greg Wesley. It's hard to believe that in 3 short years, the Chiefs have almost completely wiped out the entire defense.

To say that the Chiefs looked horrific on Sunday against the Steelers would be an understatement. Their defense either was exposed or they just had a despicable outing. GIven the Chiefs' defensive successes so far this season, I'll point to the latter. They will certainly need to make a strong statement on Sunday, where they face a Chargers' offense that's very beatable, but potentially very dangerous.

When the Chargers run the ball:
As dangerous as LaDanian Tomlinson is, the Chiefs have had surprising success against him, even in years where their run defense was leaky. Last season, the Chiefs held LT to 69 and 47 yards respectively. The year before that, they held LT to only 46 yards on the ground. LT has yet to post a 100+ yard game on a Gunther Cunningham defense.

That being said, the Chiefs don't look impressive on run defense this season. They've shown holes where there were none last year. Perhaps that's the result of the cover 2 focus the defense has this season, which has been known to show leaks on run defense. LT has been very good in the running game this season for the Chargers, though not particularly outstanding. But this is LT--he can break out on any given Sunday. It is crucial that the Chiefs hold LT in check.

Someone should tell the Chiefs that they've already taken a bye week. The way they played against the Steelers, it looked like the players were still on vacation.

Last week, in my live blog, I questioned the heart of the Chiefs. I knew that the Chiefs got away with one in Arizona. Today, there are so many words to describe the effort the Chiefs put forward against the Steelers: pathetic, outlandish, despicable, etc....

Today's game was a flashback to the equally disgraceful game against the Giants last season. Even if you didn't follow the Chiefs last season, no doubt you've seen the highlights: they comprise nearly 90% of Tiki Barber's career highlight reel. The Chiefs were outdone in every dimension of the game. Did I say that Herm Edwards deserved coach of the year honors? How quickly one game can change an opinion. They were outcoached, outplayed, outhustled. It's sad to say, but this Chiefs team that I thought was ascending showed today that they are a long ways from a playoff team. If they are a playoff team, they better prove differently very fast.

The offensive gameplan was unimaginative, predictable, and extremely counter-productive. The defensive gameplan was baffling and confusing. I don't know what gave Gunther Cunningham the idea that playing their corners 10-15 yards off the ball was a good idea. The Chiefs were giving the Steelers' receivers so much cushion that they could have easily opened up a sofa store. However, while the gameplan was iffy, 95% of the Chiefs' problems were due to effort. The effort was despicable. The Chiefs bounced off tackles like pinballs. I don't want to see how many extra yards were tacked on after a missed tackle because i think it might make me cry, and nobody wants to see a grown man cry. I don't know how many times you can preach to your team that you need to wrap up and tackle.

I wonder how much the Steelers paid the Chiefs' D before the game, because the Chiefs basically let the Steelers do all the things they needed to do. Big Ben needs a big game to prove his naysayers wrong: check. Santonio Holmes needs to start acting like the first round pick he was supposed to be: check. The Steelers need a big game from their running backs: check. Hines Ward needs to get back on track: check. Either the Steelers magically put all those pieces together at exactly the same time or the Chiefs gave them every opportunity to do so. I'm leaning toward the latter.