Chiefs at Steelers - Week 10 - Record: 1-8

Thank goodness for this blog. Ahhh, some more therapy.

Would you believe that as we started our overtime drive, I actually thought, "Hmm, we haven't had a single turnover tonight! Yowza!" (Well, I didn't say "Yowza" in my head, but I did think about how neat that was.) Then, of course, after conjuring some splendid last-ditch-final-drive-in-regulation magic to get us into game-tying field goal range, Matt Cassel turned back into

Matt Cassel.

His first typically wounded-duck pass dropped right into the hands of a Steelers dude after which Pittsburgh summarily kicked the game-winning field goal.

Eeee-yeah. That's nice.

Well, look at it this way. We're still on track to get the top studly QB in the draft.

Otherwise, a final valiant attempt to win the game does not erase the contemptible embarrassment that is this Chiefs team. It isn't just that we drop easy passes and get stupid penalties or even that we look like we drop passes and get penalties because we're so bad. (I counted three different times we were penalized on plays replays showed just really weren't penalties.)

It's that we're an embarrassing team.

Now, first remember, that I love my Chiefs. I will always love my Chiefs. I will root whole-heartedly for all Chiefs things. Always and forever. I could sing the song right now but won't because this is a blog post. With only writing, no sound. And good thing because I'd embarrass myself. Anyway...

I have to confess I was really embarrassed to be a Chiefs fan tonight, just because of our insipid behavior, displayed in bright colors for a whole national television game-watching audience to behold.

About halfway through the third quarter, Dwayne Bowe caught a nice screen pass and ran it in for a score, one that would've given us 17 points. The way our defense was playing that might have been good enough for the win.

But before he crossed the goal line he foolishly held the ball out behind him in the defender's face to show him up. Sure enough, the sports gods duly punished us. Flag on the play, Branden Albert, holding. And no, that wasn't one of those not-a-penalty calls. Albert did hold the guy. So it all comes back, we go nowhere, and Succop misses the chip-shot field goal. Great drive, mindlessly stupid unsportsmanly move, then our due justice: zero points.

That wasn't even the worst of it. When the Steelers got the ball back, backup QB Byron Leftwich threw an incomplete pass on one of those plays where the quarterback gets hammered and loses the ball as his arm is going forward. The whole time it looked as such. But Justin Houston picked up the loose ball and ran it in for a touchdown, upon which the entire Chiefs defense gathers in the end zone to juke and jive with an idiotic looking hip-hop dance, resulting in a very justified flag for excessive celebration. 15-yard penalty.

Upon further review the play is an incomplete pass, but because our team decided to work real hard to be the best in the NFL at embarrassing themselves -- at least they should be good at something -- the penalty was still assessed on the play and Pittsburgh got a very generous first down. Yeah, that's right, we got an excessive celebration penalty on a play that didn't even exist.

This, folks, is the Kansas City Chiefs.

So yeah, Romeo Crennel may be a very nice man. I really don't know the guy, but he does look like a very nice man, he really does. A wonderful, good, fine gentleman. I mean that, I'm not being facetious at all, from what I see I like Romeo Crennel.

But he should be fired right now.

We have fine players out there. Dang, we played even with the Steelers, dang it, even with Roethlisberger in there. We should be better than this, and yet we're thoroughly embarrassing ourselves in every aspect of the game because our coach just isn't doing the job, big-time. Ironic, isn't it, that last year's Chiefs-coach-who-must-be-fired, Todd Haley, now the Steelers' offensive coordinator, was watching on the other sideline. I can't believe he wasn't smiling reeeal big on the inside.

As the season progresses, or regresses as a more appropriate description of this still unfolding train wreck, we'll surely get more into the leadership situation of this team. The more I think about it the more I wonder just how ugly it really is. And I don't think there's a Chiefs fan who hasn't been thinking how far it goes, far past Scott Pioli.

But more on that when I have time. It's late, I've got work tomorrow, so until next time...
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