Sunday, September 17, 2017

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

I did not like this game at all. I just didn't. It was waaay too nerve-racking.

We're up 27-13 with 0:14 left in the game. The Eagles are in the red zone and I'm thinking, "Nkay, touchdown pass, on-sides kick recovery, Hail Mary pass completion for the touchdown. I'm sure of it. They'll get 14 points in 14 seconds. Only the Chiefs."

And sure enough, they get the touchdown, our vaunted special teams bungles the kick return and they get an easy on-sides kick recovery, and their QB Carson Wentz throws a perfect floating strike into the middle of the endzone with all four of their tall lanky receivers ready to swallow it up. That's until Eric Murray's lone flailing hand shoots high up from the crowd to bat it away. Whew...

(Eric Murray -- life-saver -- if you remember there was that extraordinarily dorky play at the end of the first half when Terrence Mitchell misplayed an interception right into the hands of their tight end who went racing for the endzone. Murray was left all alone to make a touchdown-saving tackle. WHEW...)

I already don't have any hair on my head, so then I had to have lost hair on other parts of my body. Okay, way too much information about the near heart seizure we all were about to suffer, but yeah, this game was indeed really aggravating.

Yes I must say it was really fun to watch Superman Travis Kelce fly across the goal line on that amazingly spiffy shovel-pass play. It was really fun to watch our defense step it up in the 4th quarter featuring another Superman flight by Daniel Sorensen to thwart a Wentz pass attempt. Then there was Superman Justin Houston deflecting thrown footballs off his head (allowing Chris Jones to make an interception). Then there was Superman Kareem Hunt powering his way across the goal line to put us up by those two scores late in the 4th quarter.

We have a team of Supermen, really.

Because that's what it took for us to win this game against the Eagles good quarterback, tough defensive front, and phenomenal offensive line. Thing is, even against that line our D-line registered six sacks and umpteen QB pressures.

But it took the efforts of our special talents at the specialty positions to ultimately take care of business, because for most of the game our O-line and Alex Smith were miserable. This was not a fun game to watch, it just wasn't.

The number of times Smith reverted to his looking, looking, looking and not throwing the ball to receivers he can make completions to and then just getting sacked was just mind-numbing. Again again again he is doing this. But then, at a crucial point in that last touchdown drive he steps back and fires a fantastic throw to Chris Conley down the sideline for a big gain. GUHHH? Why doesn't he have the confidence to make that throw more often?!!

In the end it was those big plays from our studly Superman players -- and Kareem Hunt, I mean, wow...

The crazy thing is that Alex Smith was 21 for 28. Huh. That's actually pretty good. And a couple times he scrambled or ran for important yardage. Huh. We can all go back to that old saw about how he actually managed the game well in light of the 57 times he was sacked, yeah, I guess. I guess we can say this game was a lot like a 2013 game in which we win by a few points because he just controlled things well. Okay.

Really, I shouldn't complain. Seeing Hunt do his thing -- that's better than before. Seeing receivers like Conley and Tyreek Hill out there making plays -- that's better. Seeing our defensive front anchored by people like Jones and Houston playing pretty well against a good O-line -- that's better. Seeing our D-backs hold their own in an Eric Berry-less defense, that's actually not bad at all. I mean, Eric Murray -- heroically rescuing us Chiefs fans from certain football obsession death on a number of occasions today!

So while this was a bit exasperating, we got the win and there are things we can be pleased about. It may look daunting, but when you have a team of Supermen, it'll all turn out fine in the end!
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