Titans at Chiefs - Week 1 - Record: 0-1

Well that was an ugly nffgcknk.

It'd be nice for once, ya know? For once it'd be really nice for us to have a dominant team from the start of a season to the end. Just to have things go smoothly, everything running like clockwork, come out of the gate with a comfortable 31-7 win, convince people we were for real on the way to a 12-4 record and -- I know, how ambitious: at least one single playoff win -- at least.

I thought we'd maybe have a shot at that this year. We've got true football studs in people like Eric Berry, Anthony Fasano, Justin Houston, Dontari Poe, Travis Kelce, Knile Davis, and yeah, even Alex Smith though you wouldn't know it from today. Yeah, I'd like to think there are a few others, but well, this was ugly.

Smith had a miserable game and we could go into all the reasons why. Smith himself was subpar, but his offensive line was awful, our receivers were awful, so what do you expect. Jamaal Charles couldn't go anywhere. Our defense was very bendy, a lot because we just have a very weak defensive backfield. And having key injuries to key people like Derrick Johnson and Mike DeVito when you just cannot afford them in any way didn't help.

There are another dozen or so very very ugly nfffkgcknkking things I could paste all over this post, but I just want to mention another thing -- in fact in my opinion it is one of the ugliest things among them all. Yes, injuries and poor behavior that cause suspensions and things are pretty bad, but in my view this here is right up there. I've always thought so, and if you'll indulge me I'm going to light into it again. I know not a whole lot of people agree with me, but let's get right to it.

One of the worst things ever is

Free agency.

Even after the end of our season last year, one that ended in such traumatically ugly fashion, I actually thought we were set for a great year this year. We had depth, we had promise, we had a brand spankin' new front office group to make the best decisions about player stuff, and wow! With free agency (yeah, thought we'd actually benefit from it) we could sign a couple players to fill holes.

Well, the truth is,

Free agency crushed us instead.

And it wasn't just free agency. It was the asinine attempt to solve the crappiness of free agency:

A salary cap.

Again, after very eagerly thinking about who we could get in the free agent market to fill holes, I watched Branden Albert go, Jon Asamoah go, Dexter McCluster go, Tyson Jackson go, and... who else. I know I'm forgetting someone.

The result? A hash of players trying to get together and play together and -- damn, with pro football you desperately need consistency through the years, and when a team has that much disruption, fergetaboudit.

The most telling evidence was what happened with our offensive line today. It was a disaster. Smith couldn't get untracked, Charles didn't go anywhere.

Then there were the salary cap room-makers. First releasing Brandon Flowers, then Ryan Succop. Our defensive backfield today was predictably softer than a marshmallow, and Succop was splendid hitting four straight-down-the-middle field goals today for... the Titans. Meanwhile our new rookie FG kicker boinked two off the upright. One fortunately went in -- guess there's that.

So yeah.

The Curse, a wretched part of it just plain the whole free agency thing, starts very early for us this year.
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