X-Factors Inside the Huddle Parker: The road from Independence to Kansas City MVP We all know about the high-profile, absolutely-can’t-miss players coming out of college who are now playing in the NFL - Andrew Luck, Dez Bryant, LeSean McCoy and J.J. Watt, just to name a few. But there are also players who were longshots to even get a NFL team to look at them, let alone invite them to camp. They weren’t drafted, but were persistent enough and managed to catch the eye of the right coach at the right time to be given a chance. And once given that chance they made the most of it. That describes Kansas City strong safety Ron Parker, a fourth year player out of Newberry College - yes the same Newberry that’s part of the all-powerful South Atlantic Conference. Prior to that, his only college offer came from Independence Community College (in Kansas) where he played for two years. When he transferred to Newberry he was a fifth string safety and eventually earned Division II All-American honors. Parker was undrafted coming out of college, but was picked up by Seattle and cut. Afterwards he was picked up and cut by Oakland, Carolina and Seattle (again) before the Chiefs took a chance on him. That paid off last weekend against Buffalo when Parker was named the team’s MVP for the week. Parker literally won the game for KC and kept our playoff hopes intact. For most of the game he was matched up against one of the league’s top receivers in Sammy Watkins, limiting the rookie to just 27 yards. A key moment in the game was when Buffalo’s Bryce Brown was just about to cross the goal line, which would have given the Bills a 17-3 lead. Parker came out of nowhere and knocked the ball loose. It went out the back of the end zone for a touchback, keeping KC within a touchdown. You can’t strike gold with every pick in the draft. That’s why the good teams are able to find and develop little-known players like Parker who can become very reliable players in the NFL. Tough Day for Smith You also have to give credit to Alex Smith for surviving a tough day against an outstanding defensive line. Smith got bounced around like a pinball while taking 10 hits and six sacks while his backfield was caught behind the line eight times for losses. KC’s offensive line looked very ordinary, which isn’t going to be good enough with teams like Seattle and Denver still on the schedule. On the other hand, Kansas City was able to win back-to-back games in Buffalo for the first time in 43 years - going back to our old AFL days. This was also a huge win in that it gives us the tie-breaker over both Buffalo and Miami who are also in a dogfight for a playoff spot. We’re in a lot better situation than we were just five weeks ago, but we also have a long way to go. Mays Will Return Joe Mays is coming off the injured reserve list at a great time with KC hosting Seattle on Sunday. The inside linebacker will be important in stopping the run. Seattle had an unbelievable 350 yards rushing last week against the Giants. Seattle is very mortal on the road and Chiefs’ fans have been circling this date for a long time. There were a lot of people who wanted us to go after the Guinness noise record in this game. On the other hand, Seattle’s defense isn’t quite as stout as it was last season, particularly against the run. We need big games from Jamaal Charles and Knile Davis in order to keep quarterback Russell Wilson off the field. After Seattle, there won’t be much turnaround time before Kansas City travels to Oakland for a Thursday night game. We’ll be at the game with all of our best friends in the dreaded “black hole.” We’ve been out there before and it’s always been a great experience. Of course, the experience is always better when Raiders’ fans are growling because they’ve just lost another game to the Chiefs. They’ll be growling pretty loud on Thursday night.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 02:44:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015