When: Noon central time

Where: Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, MA

SBN Affiliate: Pats Pulpit

Chiefs Blogs: Home of the Chiefs, Arrowhead Addict, BobGretz.com, KC Chiefs Football, Red Zone, The Mothership and KC Chiefs Fanatic.

Coverage of the game leading up to now is here. Keys to Victory for the Chiefs are here.

Listen online here.

Inactives today: OL Barry Richardson, OL Brian De La Puente, RB Kolby Smith, WR Maurice Price, LB Napoleon Harris, DL T.J. Jackson, QB Tyler Thigpen and WR Will Franklin.

Finally.

I feel like I've gone longer than last December without Chiefs football. It seems like it was early November the last time we really saw this team play.

Today, the Kansas City Chiefs take on the New England Patriots in the regular season opener. Make sure you click on that link to the coverage of the game leading up to now, which will give you a good rundown of what we've been talking about here.

For those new to the open thread, the auto-refresh comment feature makes it almost like a chat room but much more organized.

There's nothing else to say. Football season is finally here.

GOOOOOOO CHIEFS!!!!

The Know Thy Enemy feature runs for the first time during the regular season and I have to tip my hat to MaPatsFan from Pats Pulpit for dropping by and answering our questions. He did a much better job than I did answering his.

Do Pat's fan think Belichick is as big a jerk as everyone else thinks? If so, do you excuse it because he wins? How many losses make it inexcusable?

Belichick is not warm and fuzzy, that is clear. He hates press conferences and answers questions in a way that drives the media nuts. "For a team to win back-to-back conference titles, what would you say are the top three or four things they need to accomplish?" Belichick: "Play better than the other team, whoever that is." Belichick said in 9 words what most coaches take hundreds of words to say. Neither one says anything of value, but Big Bill just cuts to the chase.

No, most of us do not think he's a big jerk. Would the perception be different if he wasn't winning so much? I'd be lying if I said it wouldn't be different. Is it inexcuseable behavior? I don't think so. I think we'd give him the same amount of losses as any other coach gets. I actually LIKE him due to this "all business" attitude. We fans have latched onto the belief that he wins because the only thing he cares about is football and creating a championship team. Period. I think of him like I think of heart surgeons. Many of them are complete dolts beside the bed, but are brilliant mechanics in the surgical suite. It all comes down to whether or not you want the warm and fuzzy guy who's ok or the cantankerous professor that's winning games.

One of your questions, entitled "More Draftnik Stuff", is very good so I'll address it here.

Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli, VP of Player Personnel, told owner Robert Kraft they were getting "Young and fast" on defense and I think they did. With youth comes inexperience in the NFL and Belichick's defensive schemes don't help; it usually takes a few years to get settled in. But, I think Belichick and Pioli have done a good job of creating a careful balance of experienced vets and smart youngsters. That being said, I was glad to see Mayo picked. I think he's really doing well and appears to have the brains to play ILB in the Patriots' 3-4. His mentor is Tedy Bruschi so he's learning from a guy who's played his entire career in a Patriots uniform. Shawn Crable has exceeded my hopes at OLB. He needs to bulk up a little bit, but at 6-5 243 lbs, he's got really long arms to wrap around during tackles and has already batted down a few passes in preseason games. He appears to be a smart guy and can create some havoc on the edges. Once he learns more, I'm confident they'll be fewer mistakes and his mentor is Mike Vrabel. Bo Ruud was on the bubble, in my opinion. He was heading towards special teams, if he gained a spot, before he was injured. I was really rooting for this kid because he's a hard worker.

Now we get to cornerback, my biggest concern. Veteran Ellis Hobbs is our main starter. He's a serviceable corner, but no Asante Samuel. That being said, Terrence Wheatley is our other starting corner. He's done a pretty good job in preseason, but the regular season is a totally different ball game, as we all know. Jonathan Wilhite is doing well also, but these guys are young and will make rookie mistakes. The loss of Asante hurt, but we just didn't have the cap space to keep him on board. I wouldn't be surprised if you see SS Brandon Meriweather jump in at CB every once in a while.

Kevin O'Connell was a surprise pick to many, but I was really up on this kid early on. At San Diego State, his offensive line was so bad, he had the most rushing yards of any player on the team, including the running backs!! In the last preseason game, O'Connell threw a TD pass and ran for a TD. We're used to flat footed QBs (Bledsoe and Brady) so this is a welcomed wrinkle. I'm not ready to say he's the future of the franchise, but I do think it was a shrewd and inspired move.

How worried are Pats fans not only about Brady but who is the lucky player to replace him in the case that he is out for an extended period of time?

Worried, dang worried. Brady's always been an ironman and has started the last 127 games, third most for a QB behind Manning and Favre. I don't think anyone would disagree Brady is a major reason why we've had so much success over the last 8 years. I've seen signs he's "settling" in as a vet, which I suppose you have to after performing at such a high level for so many years. And after the 2007 season, it's hard to fault him. He's no longer competing for some of the internal "prizes" players get for off season work (parking spots) and is choosing to spend time with his son out west in some situations; understandable given the length of last year's season and the fact that Brady and other vets have played more games than any other team over the last 8 years. That said, I still think Brady's at the top of his game, but it's only a matter of time before Brady and the Patriots part ways. I do believe we're in the second half of his career.

Matt Cassel is a concern; it was a surprise to many of us he wasn't cut this past weekend, but I gotta believe Belichick saw something in him us fans just don't have access to. Countless hours of practice and film give the coaching staff a perspective we just don't get, so I'm holding on to the belief Belichick's smarter than me. ;-)

Will Pats fans ever forgive John Tomase?

John Tomase, sports writer for the Boston Herald, wrote a story confirming a credible source that knew the Patriots had taped the LA Rams walkthrough prior to Super Bowl XXXVI. It later turned out to be untrue as confirmed by Matt Walsh, Mr. 15 minutes of fame from the whole Spygate thing. The Boston Herald had to issue a front page apology. Initially, I thought a blanket party was the right approach and would've stood watch in a dark alley. Time heals all wounds, so I've softened my opinion a little bit. I don't use the Boston Herald for much and never have. It's a rag, in my opinion, and I've always found Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe far more credible and on top of things. Plus, how much credibility will Tomase have with the Patriots players and organization at this point? How much access will they give him? That being said, I do think anything Tomase now writes has been gone over with a fine tooth comb by both himself and others; my guess is it's pretty thorough, but again, I've always thought the Herald is a rag and not worthy of my time.

What the hell happened this preseason? Is this just another play by New England to make everyone think they're worse off than they are? (to the author, I've shortened this question up a bit and hope I hit all your points)

To start off, I'll say Belichick has always used the preseason for what I believe is its primary purpose: to evaluate players and the team in a game situation prior to the regular season. That's not to say other coaches DON'T do that, but Belichick could care less about the wins. Now, onto the actual play. You are correct that the defense got run over. If this were the regular season, I'd be worried, very worried. But I believe this year was like no other. There were many rookies on the field at key positions and Belichick had to evaluate their ability to play at an NFL level. It was a science experiement; tweak this, change that. Let's see what happens. In addition, we had a number of FA vets the coaching staff had to evaluate against the rookies. In the end, Belichick and Pioli chose youth over experience in a few key positions, which says to me these young guys are picking things up quickly. For example, rookie Jerod Mayo made the roster over veteran FA Victor Hobson and Terrence Wheatley established himself at corner ahead of the now departed FA Fernando Bryant. I stated in another response they will make rookie mistakes, but I believe they won these positions for 3 reasons: youth, brains and they show promise for the future.

To answer your second question, yes, I do believe this was a ploy to make other teams believe they're in trouble. At least, that's the belief I'm holding on to! ;-) To my eyes, the linebackers and defensive backs were playing incredibly soft in every game. CB Ellis Hobbs was giving tons of room to wide outs, as were the other CBs. My only explanation is that Belichick told them to play that way. In addition, you never saw some of the "nifty" stuff they're known for. Every defense and offense was vanilla. Nothing too fancy and nothing too exotic. One opposing veteran QB commented he'd only seen a very small portion of the Pats' playbook. Again, it's a science experiment to Belichick.

As a final note, I knowingly avoided a question about a certain player. PatsPulpit faithful should be able to find it. ;-)

***

Many thanks again to MaPatsFan from Pats Pulpit for stopping by. Don't forget about the open thread here for tomorrow's game. The thread will open probably around 11 AM or so.

Because of injuries, the Kansas City Chiefs are only dressing three wide receivers.

Larry Johnson has not played in a regular season football game since November 4th, 2007. The Chiefs' fullback is a brand-new rookie.

The offensive line is still very much in flux and unstable as a unit.

What kind of production can we possibly expect from this offense?

Let me make an unpopular prediction - Our offense is going to be extremely unproductive this weekend against the Patriots and for at least a few weeks after that. Let me tell you why. And this is more about the direction of the team over the next few weeks than specifically about this Sunday's match up.

I am in no way a believer in this offensive line until I see actual production on the field. I need to see it with my eyes for me to believe it. I need to see Larry Johnson running through big gaps in the line, defensive players flattened and most importantly in the rushing game stats.

I still feel stung from last season when I thought, not especially strongly mind you, but I thought that the Chiefs line would be adequate going into the regular season. And frankly, I have not seen really anything in the preseason to make me think that the line has improved much over last year's squad.

That mistake and the misjudgement by the Chiefs coaching staff has really jaded me to being a homer. It can make you look ridiculous and make you really question your judgement.

Next, behind Dwayne Bowe, the Chiefs have nearly zero depth at wide receiver. I know Maurice Price and Will Franklin are solid prospects and me saying zero depth is in no way criticizing their talents or the talents of Darling, Webb or Robinson.

My point is about our reveiver draft picks - they are unknown wide receiver talents in the NFL. Unknown. We really have no clue how much they will help this team. They should help this team. Wide receivers are notoriously hard to judge coming into the NFL draft. Past drafts are riddled with sickeningly high draft pick choices spent on wide receivers who never lived up to a tenth of their hype.

If the pressure is that high on a top WR draft pick and the odds that poor, then certainly those odds worsen as you drop into the fourth round (Franklin) and down to the undrafted college free agents (Price).

Again, we just don't know with these guys. Even Bowe is still proving himself after a huge rookie year. Expectations are heavy on him as well.

To top it all off, the Chiefs are starting the regular season tomorrow against what was last year one of the greatest regular season football teams of all time. At the very least, this game will be a major, major test for a young team. I like that we are playing the Patriots right off the bat. Baptism by fire. Let's throw them in and see what they can do.

What about your thoughts about this Chiefs offense?