Chiefs at Cowboys - Week 14 - Record: 8-5

I am certain that some obscure Norse god who is freezing his buns off in the coldest part of Valhalla somewhere put some bodacious hex on the Chiefs the day after Jan torched his Vikings with three clutch field goals in Super Bowl IV. Since then, we have had the worst worst worstest of luck in the clutch field goal department. Don't think so? To wit:

1971 - Jan Stenarud (the same) can't get just one of, what was it, three or four field goal tries? I dunno, I lost count--against Miami in the notorious Christmas Day overtime divisional playoff game. We make the playoffs but once (1986) over the next 20 years.

1990 - We dominate the Dolphins in the wild-card playoff game, ahead 16-3 in the 4th quarter. They scamper back and go ahead 17-16. With a couple minutes left we drive all the way down into easy FG range when a holding call puts us back a bit. Nick Lowery then just can't hit the 50 yarder.

1995 - Lin Elliot just can't get any of three very makeable tries in a divisional playoff game we should have easily won over Indianapolis. We lose 10-7.

1996 - We are 9-4 on the season but lose the next three straight, including one again to Indy at home and the last one against Buffalo. Amazingly we still have a shot to back into the playoffs when Morten Andersen, probably the greatest kicker in NFL history, lines up for an 18 yarder against Jacksonville. If he makes it, Atlanta wins, Jax loses, they're out and we're in. He misses. He misses an 18 yard field goal.

1997 - Pete Stoyanovich makes a key field goal in the divisional playoff game against Denver when a holding call nullifies it. We line up again, and he promptly boots it off the upright. We end up losing 14-10, when if it was 14-13 we could have just kicked another FG on 4th and 1 in those last seconds rather than throw an incompletion to give the game to the Broncos.

1999 to 2001 - The Raiders don't miss any of their game-winning FG's against us at home three years in a row. The '99 version was in the last game and it knocked us out of the playoffs that year.

Fast forward to today's game, when Lawrence Tynes comes in to tie the game after two incredible pass plays to get us right into range with only 16 seconds on the clock. A bad snap messed it up to begin with, but he still should have hit it easily. Don't think there's a hex on us?

Fact is, it should have never come down to that. We were clearly showing we were the better team in this game, and yet we still couldn't get the job done, committing critical penalties and turnovers. We're still in this thing, but we'll have to see if we're true finishers.