Eagles at Chiefs - Week 2 - Record: 0-2

This post could just as easily be titled "The Exasperating Kelce," or even the "The Exasperating NFLers," or yes, yet again, "The Exasperating Reid Part MCXXIII."

Let's look at each one, briefly, and we'll start with our head coach.

1. "The Exasperating Reid Part MCXXIII." From the little I've seen and heard most people are screaming about his decision to go for it on 4th-&-1 from about our own 30-something. I don't fault the decision at all. I don't even fault Kareem Hunt because he'd come through wonderfully on those kinds of short yardage situations at other times in the game. What I do fault Reid on is going to this well once too many times, and when we didn't make it this one time, it was costly. Yes, have Kareem blast through for a key 1st down often enough, but there are times you need to do much better at either (a) disguising the look, or (b) just running some kind of novel play action run-pass option which they've done several times before to fine success.

That is just one of those typical Andy Reid specials that make you pull out your hair. 

2. "The Exasperating Kelce." The critical play of the game was by far the Kelce drop right at the goal line after a splendid 14-play drive that put us in position to take over the game. Our defense was playing very well and our offense was humming well enough to sustain clock chewing drives late -- that was the game-winner right there. 

Thing is Kelce has shown a penance for dropping those kinds of passes, and this one was crushing. The ball flipped right up into the defender's easy grasp whereupon he ran for miles. A bit later the Eagles got down to the goal line where they just "tush-pushed" it in for the score.

14-point swing.

I can't help but think about that one play from another ugly Chiefs-Eagles game, also at Arrowhead, this one in 1972. Their QB who never amounted to much threw a long pass right into the hands of our defender, I don't even remember who it was, sorry. In his attempt to corral it he dropped it right onto his foot whereupon the ball popped right up into the hands of an Eagles receiver who ran it in for the touchdown. We lost 21-20. The Eagles that year won only one other game the whole season.

Oh, and yeah, two games so far, two critically bad Kelce things. The first one was Kelce slamming into Xavier Worthy on the third play of the first game, damaging his shoulder and keeping him out of this game and maybe others. I wonder how many people are going to blame the newly-engaged-to-Taylor-Swift factor for this? I dunno, I don't give that much relevance -- it does seem Travis is committed to working hard and playing well and winning more football games. There is a lot more football to come.

3. "The Exasperating NFLers." If you want to read a bad word into that epithet about the people who run the NFL, especially all the powerful elements who really want things to be a certain way so they can make as much money as they can, then yeah, you can. And please, again, I think making as much money as you can is great...

But not when you deceitfully work to destroy the competitive integrity of the game.

And the NFLers are doing that.

I've spoken at length about the Scorecasting factor, simply that officiating can be influenced to make calls or not make calls that influence the outcomes of games. If that is true -- not even to mention the more direct influences -- then competitive duplicity is a reality in these things. I've said a hundred times before in response to the standard bleat "Well why don't you just stop watching?" -- while I enjoy cheering on my Chiefs no matter what, yes, indeed, I do pay no attention to any of it outside of Chiefs games for that reason.

As it was I can't believe how many gambling commercials there were and alcohol commercials there were and even insurance commercials there were -- yes, insurance may be fine but still implies that if people aren't behaving recklessly, they are terribly fearful others will. That's nice. NFL games are smothered with these kinds of advertisements and yeah, it can be distressing that so much of this money is going into the pockets of all these valiant football warriors I like to root for.

Getting back to the Scorecasting factor, one terrific example of the challenges we have as Chiefs fans is what happened with the Eagles "tush push." There was at least one obvious example of their linemen slamming into the Chiefs linemen well before the ball was snapped. I don't know if it was just because everything happens so fast in a great big pile of 350-pound behemoths that the refs just didn't catch it, but that's just giving them the benefit of the doubt. This without even mentioning Drue Tranquill's recovery of a Jalen Hurts fumble in one of those, but, well, it's just a great big pile of huge bodies so who knows? Advantage not-the-Chiefs.

This has so much to do with the veritable Scorecasting reality in that the NFLers absolutely do not want to see the Chiefs anywhere near a Super Bowl again, and it does manifest itself quite clearly on the field. I'm not going to go into all the evidences and reasons and how much the officiating does indeed go regularly against the Chiefs. I've pounded on this keyboard enough about that. At least some people did say something about those tush-push injustices. Always good to call them out.

But this team showed yesterday that it is far too good to be worried about except to the extent we are impeded as we are. This is one of the reasons the Chiefs are so likeable -- they work hard and they work smart and they win in spite of what they are so painfully up against.

Our defense balled out yesterday, we have some fine young players especially on that side of the ball who appear to be committed to always improving. From just that one opening game to today that improvement showed. Our special teams always excels, no worries there -- yes Harrison Butker did miss a super-long field goal attempt yesterday, but are you really worried about him?

We have Patrick Mahomes. He keeps showing why he is the GOAT. It isn't lost on anyone watching just how amazing he continues to be out there. We have a fine offensive line, and when we get Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy back we should be good there. 

The concerns about our running game, however, are legit -- we absolutely need a go-to running back. Isiah Pacheco is a hard-working, tough runner, but his vision is just not-that-great. He cannot be the answer. It is funny, this graphic about Mahomes plucked from a social media post. Dang. 

So yeah, I do think it might be worth it to give up a high draft pick to get a back from another team who is really pretty good but underutilized. I do think if we don't move on that we could be in trouble.

I do sometimes think about what it would be like to have the following Chiefs team, sort of a retro dream team scenario...

What if Mahomes could have our 1960s linebackers over there on our defense?

What if we could stick our 1980s secondary back there?

What if we could have our 1990s pash rushers up front (::cough cough:: Derrick Thomas ::cough cough::)?

What if we could have our 2000s offensive line in front of him (::cough cough:: and Priest Holmes ::cough cough::)?

I just delightfully ponder a season of 57-0 wins every single game.

Ahhh...

But then, that's the paradox of this whole thing. I'd love to see 100 straight Super Bowl titles with every game of every undefeated season featuring similar scores. But yeah, no one would watch. And the NFLers would get no money.

Annnd, you see something wrong with that?...

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Eagles at Chiefs - Week 2 - Preview

Remember the 2017 season? It was very weird. We started great, winning our first five games including that opener when we torched the Patriots at their place.

Then we went on a really bad losing streak, dropping 6 of 7 -- yeah, really, six games of seven we lost. We simply could not get a good win particularly in that stretch where all the New York teams (Giants, Bills, Jets) just had our number. It was gruesome.

Then we closed out the season winning out next four to salvage the thing, including a final-game debut of Patrick Mahomes beating the Broncos on New Years Eve.

But then to close it out there was that once-again mind-boggling heart-shredding playoff loss, this time to the Marcus Mariota passing-to-himself Titans.

In the middle of that worst part of the season I'd blogged despairingly about "The Exasperating Reid," citing a number of things he was doing that simply wasn't doing us any good, and yes, I do confess, I waffled wildly about whether or not he should replace Alex Smith with Patrick Mahomes. In hindsight, certainly thinking about the way our season ended anyway, it may have been best to keep Mahomes on the bench just learning the whole time -- it may have been valuable for his growth to get us to the plateau the Chiefs have occupied ever since.

I bring it up because The Exasperating Reid still does show up every once in a while. He was there very much in the first half of last season's Super Bowl when I do firmly believe our wickedly vanilla play-calling was the thing that did us in the most. Not our offensive line woes, not the slanted officiating, not that the Eagles played very well anyway -- all of those were factors. 

But the key factor? 

Andy Reid.

The exasperating part is just that we can never really complain too much about any of this because there are so many extraordinarily good things he has done and still does do for this team. We are who we are and we are where we are -- now already one of the greatest dynasties in NFL history -- because of those good things.

That 2017 season? I remember when we were 6-6 and on life support. Then we went off, and made the playoffs yet again. Andy Reid had a lot to do with that. We've won three Super Bowls since then, all critically close, and Andy Reid leading the way with fine play-calling and inspirational composure was significant to say the least.

In the opening game loss to the Chargers on Friday I could say there was a bit of The Exasperating Reid going on there. He could have run the ball more for one thing. But I also wonder about our pass blocking and WR route running. There were just too many times Patrick had to scramble around back there. And there were too many of his misfires on his passes.

I say this because I watched the last part of the Bills-Ravens game Sunday night, and the Bills QB Josh Allen was firing lasers to his receivers even in good coverage. He was also able to do that because of his great pass protection. Umm, the Chiefs have I think the best center, best right guard, and best rookie left tackle in the league -- that's what they say anyway. Our new left guard was serviceable and our right tackle is as well, when he isn't getting penalties. Sooo, what's up with that? 

Why isn't Patrick having all day back there and firing lasers to his receivers much more regularly? Why do we have to watch him scramble and squirm and squeak and slither out of trouble all the time? It's wonderful to watch him do his magic when he does have to do that, it's great, but why does he have to do that it seems like all the time?

Granted the Chargers played terrifically on defense, I got that. More kudos to them. And the Ravens did force Josh Allen to scramble a bit sometimes in their game, too.

But still. Is that The Exasperated Reid, or The Exasperated Mahomes? Is Patrick still a bit too gun shy? Yeah he did try to go deep a few more times than before, but I've been thinking. Why? Who cares about getting back to throwing the deep ball? Who's saying that crap? We should just be running the ball well and making sharp clean passes to our receivers wherever they are. Granted we didn't do horribly with that on Friday -- Hollywood, JuJu, Tyquan, and Travis actually did okay.

I also watched the end of the Monday night game, when the Vikings put on a clinic driving the ball down the field to score a game clinching touchdown. I thought, now that's a well-oiled, well-coached machine. I mean every play their brand new starting quarterback ran was laid out for him to have the best success -- and everyone executed. 

The Chiefs on Friday night? It just looked like too many times we were not oiled, and not coached very well. Andy Reid even admitted it! The team starting off poorly really cost them Friday night. I remember when he did confess back in February that, yes, his team was not adequately prepared for the Eagles.

What's funny is, getting back to that 2017 season when we opened with a delightful pounding of the Patriots, do you remember the second game of that season? It was a victory at home against the eventual Super Bowl champions, who coincidentally defeated the Patriots. That team we beat was

The Eagles.

So yeah we have the Eagles at home this weekend in the Super Bowl rematch nationally broadcast afternoon game. Will we be prepared this time? Will The Exasperated Reid pleasantly surprise us with a game plan that gets the best of a very good team?

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I'm blogging about this game early in the week because on Sunday I'll be watching most of the game, but we'll be heading to a family event as the game is winding down and that event will go into the evening, so I won't be blogging right afterwards. Very likely it'll be the next day, so just a heads-up. But I just felt like putting down some thoughts now I'd had a couple days after our opener this year, for your Chiefs Game Today enjoyment in the mean time.

Thank you for your readership.

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Chiefs at Chargers playing in Brazil - Week 1 - Record: 0-1

Starting to pound this out as the 2nd half starts, and I can make some notes so far for our 2025 season opener, which is in Brazil. I'd heard a while ago that Chargers season ticket holders were really steamed in that the Chargers marketing information told them they would be able to see the Chiefs among all the other teams they'd play. Surely the assumption was the game would be in Los Angeles, but, well, here we are in Brazil for all the NFL international friendliness they want.

To the game:

Here at the beginning of the 2nd half we got the Chargers on a three-&-out down just 13-6. 

The start of the game was not good, not good at all. On the 3rd play of the game while running his route Xavier Worthy slammed into Travis Kelce, I don't know how it all happened but Kelce blasted Worthy's shoulder. Worthy was announced to be out of the game, and we can only wait to find out what the deal is with this injury.

But yeah. We're already down Rashee Rice for six games and promising rookie Jalen Royals is nursing a bad knee. Thing is we've gotten actually pretty good production from Hollywood, Tyquan, and JuJu. At the end of the 2nd half Tyquan made an amazing over-the-shoulder catch on a deep pass, one that we have just not been seeing from our team for some time. It was sweet to watch. 

It set up an amazing last second field goal from Harrison Butker when we had barely ten seconds to get the field goal team on the field to get the kick in. We did, quick, quick -- and Butker banged it through from 59. These are those things that show what kind of championship caliber team we are.

Here on our first 2nd half drive we are moving the ball. It is mostly Mahomes making quick throws to Hollywood and JuJu -- good! This works! On one play Patrick had nice running room out of a scramble and he himself laid into the defender standing him up as he went out of bounds. He's not backing down. This is Patrick Mahomes.

Sure enough, our man does it. As I put down these words Patrick does a little RPO maneuvering in the backfield, holds it, makes a few pass fakes, and takes it to the right pylon. Sweet.

Thing is, for some of the rest of this game? 

We are getting no real pressure on their QB Herbert. Just none at all. We just have to put more pressure from more pass rushers but that just makes our defensive backfield more vulnerable. Yeah. We just need another Derrick Thomas back there, for sure.

I know people complain when we get Carl Cheffers officiating our games, and while for the most part it has been even-steven on the calls, some have gone against the Chiefs when they shouldn't have. We got the Chargers down to a 4th down early but they called Karlaftis for a roughing the passer. Of course, it really wasn't. He didn't do much to hit him and it was a split-second after he released the ball. It was not as if he should've known not to hit him. Just another crappy call that goes against the Chiefs. Point is the Chargers went on to score a touchdown.

Spags is now dialing up the extra pressure. Tranquill just made the play getting Herbert.

Regarding our offense everyone seems to feel the Chiefs will air it out more this year. Let's get Patrick to use that arm of his to greater effect! Yay! Well, he's thrown a few of those but he's been missing. The only one he made was that super-nice throw that Tyquan caught at the end of the 1st half -- again excellent work on both ends. Indeed let's see more of that! Thing is it hasn't happened.

But then let's just admit it, the Chargers defense is actually very good. They are right on top of everything. They are quick, smart, and smothering. Our O-line is playing okay, but our running game is just not getting what we could. Yes those O-linemen are getting too many procedural and holding penalties, but first game jitters, okay -- that'll all get worked out. But then, just like we need another Derrick Thomas on defense, we could really use another Priest Holmes on offense. Taking nothing away from Isiah and Kareem, they're actually doing as well as they could. It is not bad at all, mind you. But, yeah...

Now Herbert throws a way-too-easy TD pass to a way-too-wide-open receiver in the end zone. Ugh. Our defensive backfield kind-of looks a bit regularly flummoxed out there tonight. Jaylen Watson did make a fine play to defend a pass in the end zone a couple plays ago, but still. With no real pass rush pressure, it is hard to stop as good a QB as theirs. And our D-backs are all very young, they need some time to get this thing down.

And oh my. Just now Mahomes scrambling right in the middle at the line of scrimmage on a 3rd-&-5, 57 guys around him, going down, parallel to the ground and flipping the ball forward to JuJu for the 1st down. That's just Patrick Mahomes.

And now the nice long TD pass to Travis. Nice. But we missed the two-point conversion we needed because Harrison missed the PAT on the earlier touchdown. Now 20-18 them, moving on into the 4th quarter.

Chargers back with the ball and they are just tearing up our defensive backfield. They aren't even bothering with the run, just making our D-backs look silly.

Annnd we get another Cheffers deluxe. They don't call the obvious holding by their RB against our outside pass rusher while Herbert throws a TD pass, but they do call the facemask against our guy when he barely grazed the guy's facemask on the attempted stop. Yeah, I can see how it is all interpretation -- I do think the facemask should be called no matter how incidental.

But don't go telling us all that the Chiefs get the calls because they don't. Earlier in the game there was the very interpretive call against Karlaftis that really wasn't, while a few plays later their guy tackled Patrick then gave him an extra deliberate shove to the ground that, yes, they wouldn't call. That behavior was far more of an intentional action against our guy. Just interpretations? Maybe. 

But they certainly can go one way more than another, and they sure have in this game.

Little time is left, we're now down 9, so we must score twice to win. Those missed conversions do loom very large now.

As we scramble to get back in this one, our O-line is just not holding up. Patrick just doesn't have the time to get get off a good pass to guys getting their routes clean.

And now on 4th-&-7 Mahomes scrambles right and heaves it to a wide-open Hollywood to the five. Wow.

We get the Butker FG, to make it 27-21 them with just under 3:00 to go. 

We have a chance.

But yeah, it is Herbert against our D-backfield -- they just got a 1st-down pass completion right away. Eee. They'll run some to get us to burn our timeout... but we've got to stop them. Okay, good, a sack. We burn our last timeout, but it is now 3rd-&-long.

Oh crap. Herbert is allowed to scramble, run right, and get the 1st down with wide-open running green ahead of him.

Good containment, D-line.

Will this inadequacy on our D-line be a factor as we move forward? I mean it just didn't really do much on the whole, against what I'd heard was a bit of a weakened Chargers O-line. 

Yikes.

But yeah, the Chargers finally beat us in a close game. I mean we'd had their number for so many games, so many close heart-breakers for them.

Yes, true, we now have to take on the Eagles next week. Maybe we'll see what we can correct and be ready for next week, and we'll be a bit better with our young D-backs getting some experience under their belts.

As it was it was nice to see a sea of red in the Brazil stadium seats. It was definitely a Chiefs-favoring crowd.

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Standard Issue Preview Post - 2025 Season

Sitting here on a lazy Friday after a week of some vacation and some work preparing for my school year in my teaching job. Thought I would listen to Mitch while doing a few minor errands around the house and am enjoying it immensely. In this last preseason game he can spend some time interviewing key Chiefs Kingdom people. Just finished listening to Brett Veach, and while he shared the typical "Yay Chiefs!" things, it was just good to hear the voice of the guy who just does wonders putting our team together.

They were just finishing up talking about cut-down day which is this Tuesday. They will get down to the required 53 and it is always a bit interesting to see how that plays out. Right now some are conjecturing they'll likely pick up a released defensive end when he becomes available after that date.

So far I've just recognized how blessed we are to have a team filled with really pretty decent players in every room, and we can actually be disappointed about who we have to keep off the roster. Remember the days just before the cut-down date and we'd be resigned to the reality: "Um, we got nobody in that position room." "Uh, that position room is so weak, uggh, I hope who we keep is any good." "Well, I think the people we keep there can be okaaay..."

Oh my. Awful memories.

As it is the Chiefs just now drove down the field under backup QB Gardner Minshew for another score, this time a field goal. The first team offense did their job getting us to 17-3, now it is 20-3. We may actually win an exhibition game!

The best thing about this is that Patrick Mahomes is done today and that means he got through the entire preseason without issue. ::Whew!:: as it has always seemed to be good to breathe in these moments. As a team we've been generally injury-free for the most part, but then there is a whole second half of this game. 

We're also wondering what is going to happen with the imminent Rashee Rice suspension. That they have yet to make a firm decision is disconcerting. The whole legal protocols have already been completed, but the NFL continues to drag its feet. Some think nothing will happen until a recently scheduled September 30th hearing after which they'll bring the hammer down, but they have had plenty of time to fully examine all the details of what happened now well over a year ago.

As it is now, next game that counts is the Friday opener September 5th against the Chargers in Brazil.

Go Chiefs!

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Last Super Bowl LIX Take (I Think)

Okay one more take on the whole thing from last night. I always say I won't put out "Sad Chiefs Loss Postgame Take III" or "IV" or even "V" for the therapy, but I don't think I can add anything except for these items here.  

First of all, a link to a post I made about our history with the Eagles. Of course our clutch win against them in the Super Bowl two years ago was epic, but our other history is kinda not-great. In 1972 we lost a key regular season game to them and they were horrible that year. By one point. In 2005 we were ahead against them 17-0 and again 24-7, and lost. One more win that year and we make the playoffs -- we finished at 10-6 and that was not good enough to make it. Then in 2017 we did beat them, the second game of the season after beating New England in the opener. We were then 2-0 defeating -- get this -- the two teams who would go on to play in the Super Bowl that year, the Eagles prevailing. Go figure.

That 2017 Chiefs season ended with a horrific playoff loss, by one point ::aagh:: to the Titans. I really think that loss was the most emotionally crushing for me, of all of them. Yes there was the very painful '97 Denver loss, and there was the excruciating Colts loss of 2013 (well, just about every one of the Colts losses was unnecessarily jarring).

But that Titans loss? I just remember being abjectly crestfallen the day after, and it didn't go away for a while. I say this because while this Super Bowl loss was indeed disappointing, I'm just not feeling it like I did then. I think for all of us Chiefs fans much of that is just how blessed we've been over the past several years, and how much promise a Patrick Mahomes-led team still has.

With that in mind, here are the brief notes about this one I did not mention in my take from last night, except for one which is I think an important reiteration.

One, Andy Reid's coaching. I'd seen a ton of people rail all over OC Matt Nagy, but please, this is on Reid. After the game he did the standard blaming himself, and, well, he's right. He was indeed a genius against Buffalo, but was terrible against Philly. He had to have known they played a very aggressive zone defense, which meant he could have taken advantage of play action and quick throws to his wide-outs. Instead it was as vanilla a passing game as you could have, and the Eagles feasted.

It is fine to give credit to the Eagles, but our coaching could have been better. To his credit the offensive players just did not help. Mahomes missed throwing to the best options, receivers dropped balls, plays didn't develop, all of this aside from the fact that not having a left tackle just killed us.

The entire first half it was like watching the Tampa Bay Super Bowl loss all over again, really. I don't think any Chiefs fan could say anything less, I swear it was an exact replica. That first half Chiefs offense was just gruesome to watch, and hate to say it but it was chiefly because Andy Reid just had a very bad day coaching.

The reiterated thing was that penalty that very much wasn't a penalty against Trent McDuffie on their tight end. I know, I know, people will squawk that you can't make much of that one play and that the Eagles would've won anyway. Granted there was so much more to the Eagles fine play and the Chiefs poor play, but that penalty was really huge, really really huge, and yet again it should not have been called. It would have taken the Eagles off the field and kept them from scoring a strong foothold touchdown. Being down 7-0 did enough to stunt our already not-dominant running game to make that much of a difference.

My added point here is, how many people will make this case? For all the incessant screeching about calls favoring the Chiefs, how many will say anything loud and bold about this? I think I can hear the silence, all around the pitiful blithering that oh well it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Huh. From the volume of screeching it seemed like all the presumed Chiefs favored calls before would have mattered. I don't see everything on social media or in the punditsphere, but so far I've seen zip about that -- or really, anything about any of the other calls that went against the Chiefs.

The Bolton personal foul call that was pretty cheesy and most times is passed on? The Omenihu offsides which again was barely there and which linemen get the benefit of the doubt 97% of the time? I believe each of these did not lead to touchdowns but field goals, if I'm not mistaken, but those still represented added Eagles points and even more critically allowed Philly to run more clock each time.

Umm, yeah. Where are all the moralistic Chiefs haters now?

Then there was the halftime show, and in my preview take two posts ago I'd made mention of how ugly Kendrick Lamar's music was. Well, apparently he did sing that song dissing Drake and I guess the lyrics were altered a bit to weed out the vulgarities. I just don't know because I watched none of it.

Thing is, everywhere I've looked online people have lambasted the performance -- worst halftime show ever they said. Almost every take I saw said this. Of course I thought, good. Again, maybe next year they'll consider just having something that is fun and upbeat that is not rap or hip-hop in any way. Nothing even again those two music genres per se, it is just -- hey, NFL, do something that other pro football fans like.

And then finally, after seeing a few of the takes on this year's Super Bowl, there are the standard number of dumb ones. One of them said something about the Patriots never being beaten this badly in any Super Bowl they played in, so the Chiefs' dynasty can't be a good as the Patriots one. Well, anyone could argue the merits of any given "dynasty," but here's my take.

I too agree, the Chiefs dynasty is not as great as the Patriots one.

It could be if Patrick can snatch a couple more Super Bowls in his career, that'd be great. But just from my perspective, here are my rankings of past pro football dynasties.

1. Patriots, early 2000s to late 2010s. Legit No. 1, I agree.

2. 49ers, early 1980s to mid 1990s.

3. Steelers, all of 1970s.

4. Packers, all of 1960s.

5. Chiefs, early 2020s to ?...

6. Lions & Browns, all of 1950s.

You could then think about Elway's Broncos, Manning's Colts, Shula's Dolphins, Gibbs' Redskins, maybe other smaller one's here and there, that's cool.

But the Chiefs so far anyway are at No. 5 in my rankings, and I do think most would agree. It doesn't mean I'm dissing the Chiefs in any way, but I also share this because I still do believe that...

Tom Brady is still no better than No. 6 on the all-time QB list.

And yes, Mahomes is still No. 1.

So yeah, last night's Super Bowl loss was disappointing, but we've still got the best QB ever in pro football history at a still young age, and he's already got the Chiefs on track to continue its dynastic run. Maybe we'll move up in the rankings, that's cool. We lost a Super Bowl?

Dang.

We were still in a Super Bowl.

That's amazingly great, really.

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Super Bowl LIX - Chiefs and Eagles

Okay, just feel like writing this now, and the 4th quarter hasn't even started. The Eagles just got a deep touchdown pass completion to make the score 34-0. 

It was simple today.

The Eagles are a very good team to begin with, they just really really wanted this especially after the Super Bowl two years ago, and they were just exceptionally prepared for this one. Their defense was probably as good as the Bears was in '85 -- even though weird: the Chiefs defense was actually really pretty good today also. Their stud RB Saquon Barkley got not-much today.

It was our offensive flailing-about the entire game against this defense. The television people just said the Chiefs hadn't even gotten past midfield. Yet right after they said that sure enough Mahomes gets it to Worthy to get the ball to their 40. Huh, how about that. Past mid-field yay!

Anyway, other factors besides the fine Eagles defensive performance.

The main one was our offensive line. This whole game honestly felt like that Super Bowl against the Buccaneers four years ago. We simply could not hide that issue on our left side, especially against a team like this. Not having Joe Thuney at left guard because we simply did not have a decent left tackle was crushing. The Eagles defensive line just overwhelmed us. Patrick was sacked who-knows how-many times.

I have to add that I do also believe all the "Officiating favors the Chiefs" thing crippled us. Again, the Scorecasting factor tells us definitively that those kinds of things do influence how a game is called.

The first penalty of the game favoring the Chiefs was indeed totally legit. You can't substantively push off a defender as a WR, and AJ Brown did that to Trent McDuffie's head. Even the television ref said it was legit even if he didn't agree. But right out of the gate doubts are planted.

Just a bit later they called a head-to-head hit from McDuffie to their tight end which so wasn't. It would have been 4th down and we would have gotten their offense off the field. It was totally reminiscent of the phantom roughing-the-passer call on Chris Jones against Tom Brady in the 2018 AFC Championship Game. The Eagles went on to score a touchdown. This phantom call was a million times more damaging to the Chiefs than the previous legitimate call was to the Eagles.

This just set the tone for the rest of the game. The Chiefs simply looked like they could not play as aggressively as they would have liked.

In fact just to add to the whole officiating thing. It is early in the 4th quarter now as I write this and Patrick gets strip-sacked, Eagles recovering. But right as this was happening he got hammered in the facemask, a clear penalty. Not called. So yeah, I agree with all the people who are saying the officiating does favor a certain team. But again as I shared in my last post quite truthfully I feel, it isn't favoring the Chiefs. It never has.

But I will not take away from what the Eagles did legitimately. They did win convincingly, more kudos to them, honestly. They just played really well today.

For next year it is clear we also need something more of a running game. Wonderful work from Kareem Hunt and Isiah Pacheco this year, but we need much more there back there. Even though Saquon Barkley was regularly stuffed tonight, just having him there opened up the rest of the Eagles offense and their fine QB Jalen Hurts took advantage of it. When he needed to chew yardages with his running and needed to make a decent pass often enough, he did.

We got a touchdown late in the 3rd, a nice long pass completion to Worthy at the goal line, so it wasn't a shutout, that's okay. We actually got a couple more TDs, the last one to Xavier on a super long bomb into the end zone, ahh, reminiscent of the 2018 Mahomes. It was nice to see considering.

Well, the three-peat is done. It was really nice to talk about it all season though, that was fun. Not many talked about the Packers two three-peats they had before the Super Bowl era, so really, it wouldn't have been as unprecedented as they say.

The great thing is Patrick Mahomes won't take this lightly, and ya know? Neither will Brett Veach. He'll know what to do with the draft, and with shoring up the things we must. He's got this.

And there is no reason to be disappointed. Here we were in the Super Bowl again. Again. Let's make everybody even madder when we get there again next year.

So just for next year -- who cares, it can never be too early!...

Go Chiefs!

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Super Bowl Preview Final Take - Chiefs and Eagles II

I just have to pound out a final post to share thoughts about another couple of things that are major in the pro football mind out there. They are

"I still can't stop whining about how much I think the Chiefs are being favored by the officiating."

"Kendrick Lamar and SZA are doing the halftime show WOW that's great!"

That first one first, one I addressed a bit in my last post. This time I want to make more clear something that not a lot of these people are realizing and recognizing and grasping as a truth about professional sports and professional football all around these days.

The Scorecasting factor is still very alive and well.

In other words, yes, the NFLers along with the officiating and any other influential forces do work to make the results they want happen on the field or the court or wherever.

You may think I am agreeing with all the "The Chiefs are being favored" bleaters, and in a sense I am. But here is the brutal truth:

They are favoring the opponents of the Chiefs, not the Chiefs.

Yes, you heard me. People assume it is the Chiefs who are being favored because they end up winning a lot of games. But the fact is the Chiefs are such a good team that not only should they be winning those games by way more than they do, but they have done so well shaping their roster and so well disciplining themselves to play so well on the field that they are, yes -- it follows...

Overcoming the NFLer influences against them.

It makes for closer games, that's for sure! But the Chiefs have always been at a disadvantage in every game they play. They're just so good they overcome it, and they have become as good as they are honestly and above-board with wise decision-making and smart calls. This is opposed to a team like baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, who have been successful through deceitfully manipulating the advantages of their greater fan base -- yet no one ever calls them out for their exploitation and in that sense, actually "getting the calls" in their favor.

I wanted to respond to a social media post that typically whined about the Chiefs favoritism, but because it was of course one of a million of these things I didn't because I'd just be a trollee. But here is what I typed out before deleting it, just to be briefly redundant about this important idea:

To all the whiners: Agreed. The NFL does try to rig games - for all the teams who play the Chiefs. Brain-dead people can't see how phenomenally good the Chiefs are to be able to overcome that, and blind to how many calls actually go the Chiefs opponents' way. Jealousy is painful.

What's more the whole whining about Chiefs favoritism is great for the NFL to get viewers, but it doesn't help the Chiefs. That mentality is so infused into the mainstream that the officials, by virtue of the Scorecasting truths, may very well make sure they make the proper amount of very close calls go the Eagles way. 

As it is the Chiefs have had to deal with so many ugly calls against them this year, but, well, they don't say anything about them because they know they are so good and so tight and so disciplined and so well-coached and so professional that they can still get the job done on the field.

Don't think the calls favor Chiefs opponents more than the Chiefs? I can only think of Dalton Schultz in the regular season's Texans game completely shoving off the Chiefs defender so he can be open at the goal line for a touchdown. It was so obvious and so blatant -- but no one said anything because, well, the Chiefs. There are dozens of other calls over the course of the season that could be mentioned that go the opponents way but, well, as usual, the Chiefs. 

The main thing is the Chiefs have had to just get so freakin' good precisely because they must overcome the Scorecasting reality that afflicts them. They know they must be that much better because they know they are more against it than other teams are. The NFLers loathe having the Chiefs anywhere near the Super Bowl, but hey, they've blasted that sentiment so much into the mainstream that the Chiefs are now the villains of the pro football world, and, well, that is probably perfectly fine with the NFLers if it means more people tuning in to hate them.

But don't be mistaken about calls favoring the Chiefs when the calls are mostly favoring the Chiefs' opponents. It may be extraordinarily grudging, but give respect where it is due when they win games anyway.

I have to make mention of that second thing, the halftime show, something the NFL arranges to try to get even more people to tune in -- just so they can see some famous hip-hop or rap star.

Ahem, why does it always have to be some hip-hop or rap star? When are they going to have a fun, upbeat, dance-filled number with traditional pop or rock music that is exciting and entertaining that features fine musical talent that is not that gruesomely ugly hip-hop or rap?

As it is Kendrick Lamar and SZA are the showcased performers. I know nothing about these artists because most of that kind of music is total garbage, particularly because of the lyrics. 

Lamar's No. 1 hit from last year is "Not Like Us," and they say it some kind of diss against Drake who I guess is not fully racialist enough or something. The other day I happened to hear Lamar on the radio say something along the lines of "I just gotta be me, no matter what people think," something these people have blapped a million times before to excuse the worthlessness of their music.

"Not Like Us," by the way, is filled with F-bombs and N-bombs and B-bombs and just about every other kind of bombs that fill these insipid things. Yet no one says a thing about any of it, and these songs are extremely popular. SZA's most popular seems to be "Kill Bill" about her murdering her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend. This is popular too, in a world where when people actually do that, it shows up in the news and everyone blithers "How did this happen?" for the billionth time.

Well, something of how it happens is an organization like the NFL gives these people a platform to bilge their sewage before hundreds of millions of people. 

Yes, you are correct, I would not watch any of this, Super Bowl included, if my team wasn't in it. I don't watch any of the halftime show anyway, but I still want to watch my team -- one that is pretty good and I believe is pretty decent in character. 

Could the Chiefs be just as responsible for being a vital part of this ugliness? Yes, they could, but as I've shared before, I confess I am conflicted. Patrick Mahomes could be the worst serial killer on the planet, I still want him to throw 100 touchdown passes a year.

Thing is, he's not, he is one of the most respectable individuals in professional sports both on and off the field, and he leads a phenomenally talented team -- our team from an area of the country that at least has a reputation for being hard-working, reliable, and upstanding. I take pride in that, much because much of my family is from there and still resides there.

I heard on the radio that well over a billion dollars will be bet on things related to this game. That is also a grave evil. But in that radio report they noted that Missouri is one of the few states that does not allow that kind of official gambling.

Good for them! At least there is that. good for my blessed state of Missouri for holding true to righteous things. Will that last? I don't know, probably not. But at least for now there is some principled position there in the state where the Chiefs play.

So yeah, let's watch on Sunday. Let's see what happens. What will the officiating be like, and can the Chiefs fine play overcome what the NFLers have against them? And what will they do with Kendrick Lamar's most popular song at the halftime show? Will he even sing it? Maybe it will be so wretched that just maybe the NFL will turn around and take some Super Bowl halftime show in the near future and actually have something different, and way better.

I mean, I recently watched a video of that first Chiefs Super Bowl win, the one against the Vikings in 1970. Know what the halftime show was? A marching band. Seriously, how about this crazy idea: Bring that kind of thing back. Those guys are actually amazing. Have one with the best marching band people doing crazy fun things to good traditional pop, rock, Motown, or yeah, even classical music. 

Ahh, that they'd actually do that.

Otherwise we get this dreck this year -- at least hopefully sandwiched by a Chiefs dominating football performance. 

Can't wait to see it happen!

Go Chiefs!

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The first image is simply a screenshot of a recent Colin Cowherd social media post. The screenshot of the Kendrick Lamar story was clipped from the Awful Announcing website. The image of the marching band was clipped from Halftime, a website for marching bands.

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