49ers at Chiefs - Week 3 - Record: 3-0, Addendum

I'd already made my "Chiefs Game Today" post for this one, but right now at almost 7:00 pm I saw this article. Sure enough, just like last week when the Pittsburgh stadium was about half-full for the Chiefs game, today most stadiums had far too many empty seats.

Notice the article did not feature a shot of Arrowhead.

That's because when they showed the panorama of our stadium at one point during the game's telecast today, it was full.

It was genuinely a sea of red.

Now yes it was the first home game for the Chiefs. Yes Arrowhead is generally a fine place to see a football game. And yes the Chiefs explosive offense is quite the attraction.

But still.

The Chiefs fans are the best in football.

In spite of the idiotic things the NFL is doing to shoot themselves in the foot -- I notice Roger Goodell has not been fired yet, hmm, maybe some day -- the Chiefs still draw because of the superlative passion in The Chiefs Kingdom. The NFL and its competitive duplicity can eviscerate attendance and very justifiably so, but we'll still support our Chiefs.

Just a pretty fine marvelous thing I wanted to add.

Again, here's my take on the game itself.
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49ers at Chiefs - Week 3 - Record: 3-0

Do you feel the same way I do about this team? Please. Let's be honest. When the offense is on the field life is wonderful -- we thrill to watching all the talent do its thing, particularly in the passing game. When the defense is on the field life is miserable -- bar the doors Nellie because no gargantuan lead is safe.

Let's first just revel in the phenomenal first half of this Chiefs offense. Five possessions, five touchdowns. One of those touchdowns was a tremendous Mahomes scramble concluded with a bullet strike to Chris Conley in the back corner of the end zone. As Conley pulled in the pass the TV announcer exclaimed "Are you kidding me?!" This was the third touchdown of that five touchdown first-half performance.

The last touchdown of that half came at the end of a tremendous drive featuring amazing catches by Ware, Williams, and Kelce who grasped the ball with one-hand. The touchdown was a pass to Watkins who powered his way into the end zone. It was beautiful.

We should indeed marvel at it all -- wonderfully splendidly marvelous.

Then there is our defense.

About halfway through the 3rd quarter I thought, hmm, I'm going to start noting all the fine defensive plays we make. See how many we actually make. Here's what I wrote:

- Nnadi and Ragland stop runner for no gain.

- Bailey and Ragland stop runner for no gain.

- Bailey sack with 49ers in red zone and us holding a mere 14-point lead.

- Houston sack on the next play.

That's it. That is really all I could write about our defense. Our D really looked like butter as the 49ers just rammed the ball down our throats on the ground. Here, look at this -- 1st half score: 35-10 Chiefs. 2nd half score: 17-3 49ers.

With about 5 or 6 minutes left their starting QB got hurt, and they put in their backup. He promptly threw a TD pass to cut the lead to a single score, but a very questionable offensive pass interference call negated it. That call essentially secured the win for us because on the next possession Kareem Hunt and our O-line did decently enough running the ball to close it out.

We also got bailed out by a ton of 49ers penalties, so, yeah...

Really it is simple. We have no push at the line. We have poor pursuit. We miss tackles all over the place. Our smallish defenders are getting manhandled at the point of attack. Every 4th or 5th play we have some gruesomely ugly blown coverage. The announcers said at one point that defensive coordinator Bob Sutton will get it all cleaned up, that we're getting better.

Ha.

I don't believe it. It's just not happening, at least without Eric Berry in there. I mean, seriously, we cannot acquire Earl Thomas soon enough.

Watching Patrick Mahomes run this offense with all those weapons is pure joy.

The defense...

Very very scary. We all knew this would be the case, but it doesn't make it any less scary.
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Chiefs at Steelers - Week 2 - Record: 2-0

It has been just under 32 years, just a little bit longer than the number of years it had taken us to win a game with a starting quarterback who was drafted by the Chiefs. Well, Patrick Mahomes took care of that drought on the last day of 2017.

Today Mahomes and the Chiefs took care of the 32-year drought, finally winning a game in Pittsburgh. Since then the Chiefs have lost six straight there, most of them by scores that looked like we'd sent out the third string team.Would you believe it? Our last win there was that final-game-of-the-season special-teams win to get into the playoffs in 1986. Since then it's been very not-good.

We got this one, however. And through the first quarter it looked liked we'd walk right over them, leaping out to a 21-0 lead before our very bendy defense allowed Pittsburgh to rip off some long TD drives to make it close.

But enough of the bad things about our defense. Here were some good things about it.

Kendall Fuller was a pretty good back there, breaking up passes and smothering receivers -- yes I know he wasn't perfect but he made critical plays especially late. Reggie Ragland and Anthony Hitchens are pretty good run defenders -- I don't know if it was more them or more Pittsburgh's weak running game, but we did decently keeping them from beating us on the ground. (Yeah, Ben Roethlisberger kicked our butt through the air, but well, we already knew that...) And Dee Ford had a clutch pass tip to stop a drive after the Steelers were yet again marching down the field against us.

But hey, what can Mahomes not do. I was listening to Mitch on the postgame and he said the Steelers have always done this blitz zone thing that the Chiefs have never been able to figure out. Turns out the Chiefs today threw the ball deep down the middle of the field and that's the way to beat that stuff.

Hmm, everyone had always said Alex Smith doesn't have enough of an arm to get the ball there, and I'd always thought, nahh, can't just be that...

Well, maybe there was something to that.

Now we've got a guy with a cannon for an arm. Let the numbers speak for themselves.

Mahomes threw six touchdown passes today to five different receivers. He had five incompletions. Wow. Again, 6 TDs, 5 INCs. How often does that happen. I have to add that it was very nice to see Sammy Watkins show what he's got. I've always been high on him and knew he'd get it done. He did it in a number of ways today, really good to see that.

Mahomes also set a record for touchdown passes in the first two games of a season with ten. Next highest, Peyton Manning with nine in something like 2013 I believe the graphic said. What other  superlative stat-laden things will they say about him? Yeah, we can rapturously swim it all, but let's just give him some time to settle in and keep learning. There's a whole season and more ahead.

I can't deny that I'm itchin' to shred our defense a new one about letting a team riddled with injuries and an aggravating hold-out (Le'Veon Bell) make this an actual contest, but hey, we knew that going in, not going to get into it. At least they held today -- let's face it we're going to have to endure nailbiter games of 42-37 until Eric Berry is healthy and our young defensive players can establish themselves out there and contribute. And it was in Pittsburgh, a hellhole for Chiefs football for years and years and years.

So for now, let's just savor this one and what our new quarterback can do out there. Very very sweet.
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Chiefs at Chargers - Week 1 - Record: 1-0

The score looked like the one I think we all know we'll have to settle for with this team if we want to win consistently.

38-28.

Yeah, just too many points allowed by the defense.

But a lot of points scored by our offense.

First the bad: the defense. Yes, we all knew it, but it was confirmed today. I know many more Pollyannish Chiefs fans and pundits will say some good things about it, but really. Let's face it.

Our defense backfield stinks. Yes there were some nice plays. Kendall Fuller did okay, Steven Nelson was serviceable, Ron Parker was decent with a nifty interception... but yikes. Orlando Scandrick was miserable, and I just don't know about Eric Murray. I think they'd mentioned Armani Watts a couple times but I don't know how much he was in there. Sure enough, Eric Berry needs extra, extra time to recover from a heel injury, and he wasn't out there as everyone said he'd be.

But the truth is what is out there on the field, and believe me this game should've been much closer, or even a Chargers win because of that D-backfield. It's just we got tons of relief from a half-dozen easily catchable dropped balls by Chargers receivers. There were a few that were money in the end zone, easy Charger touchdowns, just dropped. Their receivers, whoever they were -- the Chargers threw to their backs all the time -- were just wide-open and in space over and over and over again.

But really, isn't that the 2018 Chiefs? Really, get used to it.

It seemed our defensive front did okay, being in Philip Rivers' face all day. You'd think that pressure would be good -- Dee Ford had a sack and was close on a number of other occasions. But dang Rivers is just so good, releasing balls just before getting hammered and hitting the target almost every single time.

Our offense?

Tyreek Hill.

There you go. He was it. No one else was seen from -- Travis Kelce was invisible, Sammy Watkins actually had a couple of nice grabs but nothing more. Our run blocking was not great as Kareem Hunt went nowhere.

But you've got to give credit to Patrick Mahomes -- the announcers said he likes "Patrick" because his dad is "Pat" -- because his skill was definitely showcased today. His rocket pass to Hill on that deep slant for their second touchdown was a thing of beauty. Mahomes did fine directing the offense and "matriculating" the ball down the field, on the whole he really did well.

Thing is, Mahomes did not do so well with some little things that more experienced quarterbacks do, like making quick plays at the end of the first half just to get into field goal range. With three minutes left and up by ten points, he missed an open single-covered Kelce on a 3rd down that may have gotten them the key 1st down but would've at least would have kept the clock running making it harder for Los Angeles to try to come back. Really, for those strategic instances he's got to use people like Kelce more.

But Hill's explosiveness was just astounding. His explosiveness along with his feel for the ball and for the game is just phenomenal.

A final shout out to Andy Reid for doing all those splendidly dipsy-doo things he does with the offense. You've got to hand it to Mahomes and the rest of the Chiefs offense, they did marvelously with it. Mahomes even threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to... Anthony Sherman! Only one thing, just one thing -- what's with Mahomes running all the time? I like the twist-a-roo option stuff with all that but, please, very scary!

Oh, and one more final shout-out to the fans. It was a sea of red out there at the Chargers stadium! A couple of moments in the game featured the Chargers offense on the field facing a 3rd down and the fans were really loud! How crazy was that!

Up next we go to Pittsburgh where we have lost, what, I think 57 straight games by a combined score of, what, 32-2?

Well, for this week we can enjoy a win under our belts and Mahomes in the film room keeping his game going and going and going.
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Chiefs 2018 Preview, Part II

Okay okay, here's a Part II of the Beginning of the Mahomes Era Preview Extravaganza. (Part I is here.) It really isn't going to be much, however, because I'm exhausted and I'm back to 12-hour workdays tomorrow. Today was also a work day for me, catching up on loose ends -- they don't call it Labor Day for nothing.

But since the opener is this Sunday in Los Angeles I probably should just pound out a bit more of my take on the Chiefs this year. Really, I might as well cut to the chase. I'm really looking ahead for any real shot at a Super Bowl in 2020, 2021. That's okay, really, nothing wrong with that.

Yes I am expecting Pat Mahomes to light it up. Yes I am expecting Sammy Watkins to show us much more than his piddle amount of playing time allowed us to see in the preseason. I think Andy Reid showed us nothing in the preseason very deliberately -- and I think most know it. Everyone is still salivating over the potential of this offense.

I have concerns about our O-line, but we still have solid players at four positions there, and Reid is keeping five offensive linemen on the bench just in case any get injured or Cam Erving at left guard doesn't work out. Pretty sure they all won't be there after Demetrius Harris serves his one-game suspension, but we'll see.

As for the defense, we do have solid players up front and, yes, we have the guys to get decent defensive backfield play. It's just will we be able to hold teams to under 30 points so we come out ahead if our offense predictably excels? That is the big question. We do have capable defensive players, but will weak links and new players unfamiliar with the system be our undoing?

Thing is, Brett Veach knows this and isn't taking any chances. In April he went bananas drafting for defense and if those guys come through it'll truly be down the road a bit before they can contribute on a dominant playoff contending team -- the Breeland Speakses and the Dorian O'Danielses and the Derrick Nnadis and the Armani Wattses. It usually takes a couple years to see how your draft picks really work out. Maybe they'll surprise right now! I'd like that! Trust me I want to win a Super Bowl this year!

The key D-guys from the draft two and three years ago? Just for comparison? Chris Jones, Eric Murray, and Steven Nelson. That's them, that's it, and really, they're not bad.

But it still seems a bit thin, and Brett has been workin' it, workin' it, workin' it to shore things up.

In some very profound ways it is all new out there. What a season this will be. Can we make the playoffs? Can we win a playoff game without some ding-dong stupid thing happening to kill us for once?!  Again, it's all new and it is clear Brett has shown that youthful vigor in taking care of business.

Let's hope that the very best of Hunt emerges for the first time in a long time, and I'm great with that happening at any point over the next several years, that'd be awesome. And yeah, that does mean nothing less than hoisting a Lamar Hunt (of course!) trophy followed by the one with Vince Lombardi's name on it.

And for those who don't know what I'm talking about with this Hunt thing, back in February I just ruminated intensely on some historical Chiefs items in a series of posts starting with this one.
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