Chiefs at Rams - Week 11 - Record: 9-2

Brief notes about this game: It was supposed to be in Mexico City, but the field there was so trashed that they had to move it to Los Angeles. I'm glad they did that, for a number of reasons.

What was with the uniforms? The Chiefs looked stylish in their all-whites, but the Rams were donning their all-yellows. No wonder the Chiefs don't have an all-gold look with a red trim, they'd look like bleeding bananas. Oh, and how about this. We're in our road whites at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the site of Super Bowl I, the Kansas City Chiefs being a proud participant.

And of course this is the showcase game of the year. 9-1 versus 9-1. They'd mentioned all kinds of ways this game was the biggest matchup of the year this late in the season in NFL history and all that. What was kind of goofy is at one point in the middle of the 2nd quarter they showed a graphic: Total yards so far for each team: LA 191. KC 191. And the 9-1 records. Weird. It was also 23-23 at the half, with both kickers missing an extra point.

Right out of the gate there was crap call on Eric Murray -- he was doing nothing inordinate to a "defenseless receiver." He addressed him cleanly as receiver Robert Woods dropped the ball. A touchdown pass followed. This is the kind of officiating silliness the Chiefs have to deal with, it feels so interminable. After the call the announcers said nothing, no remarks about how easily the call should have been made. And there was a penalty right after that on Demetrius Harris nullifying a big gain, but they didn't show a replay or share a thing about it. Jordan Lucas had a block-in-the-back penalty called against him later on a punt return that was barely a touch on the back of the defender. In the 3rd quarter on Goff's TD run the right tackle moved well before the ball was snapped. No call. Errgh.

Yes, we ourselves just can't stop committing legitimate penalties. We had ten, yes ten penalties in the first quarter of this game. We could do much better -- sounds like a broken record. But it just drives me crazy that so much of the aggravation comes with the interpretation type calls in the hands of the officiating. Sometimes they may not even be paying attention, as one PI call was made after the pass was clearly tipped at the line. Andy Reid went screaming about the tip by making what looked like a time-out motion -- and of course they charged him a time-out and never gave it back. He won the challenge, yet was still charged a time-out, something we could have really used as we had a two-minute drill going at the end of the 1st half. This is just ding-dong officiating. Yes we need to get our asses in gear and not commit penalties, but how ding-dong is this officiating.

What is so ironic is that they said before the game that they put the first-team officials in there, even replacing officials regularly assigned to this team to make them even better, something they only do in playoff games -- unprecedented they said.

This is not even to mention the ridiculous taunting call against Tyreek Hill during his touchdown on a mile-long Mahomes pass. Please. Now I personally don't think players should do that. I don't like most of the idiotic dances they do -- I think they're all foolish. But please. What Hill did with the peace sign scoring that long touchdown? Gimme a break. This is just on the NFL and another mark against the league for not doing more about it all.

Patrick Mahomes had his 32nd TD pass of the season to Hill, his 33rd to Hunt, his 34th to Conley, his 35th to Kelce, his bomb to a wide open Hill his 36th, and that nice crossing pattern to Conley for his 37th... Six altogether. There are only 21 QB seasons in NFL history of more than 36. Whole seasons. Mahomes still has five more games ahead of him for this season. Something I really like seeing a lot of, something that you just didn't see nearly as much as you are this year: Mahomes is getting that time to throw, his receivers are getting out there in a lot of space.

Mahomes got thoroughly schooled tonight with those strip sacks and D-TD's -- I like it. I want that to happen. I want him to know how to be better by avoiding those kinds of things, having them happen, then learning from them. That second TD by Samson Ebukam was just a fluke thing anyway. Those things happen.

Give them credit, the Rams may not have the best defense in the world, but their defensive line without question is one of the best, and it did make a huge difference tonight. It was so intimidating that late in the game  on one particular play Mahomes just gave up. He stepped back to pass, felt the pocket collapse, and just tucked in. He's always tried to find a way out, but on this play he just gave it up. He'll learn.

Oh, and still he converted a 4th-&-2 just a couple plays later, leading to our go-ahead score late. That's cool, but from those last two drives when we had a chance to tie the game, he'll learn how to adjust to that fierce pass rush, and know he doesn't have to go for broke on any given play -- the two last picks were on deep throws.

This was a barnburner for sure, the highest scoring Monday Night Football game ever. It was like a basketball game, the score, really. Final: 54-51 Rams, first time ever both teams scored 50+ in a game. It was the third highest score, both teams combined, in NFL history.

This is just a single game against a non-conference opponent. While it had all the pageantry and accolades and all the rest of it, it was just one game. In fact it was a great game for us, because we can learn so much from it, and Mahomes can grow more from it.

Not saying much more about this, because I'm hoping to have a mid-season report of sorts coming up. It's the right time, we've got a bye week, I've got a little time off for Thanksgiving, let's really look at this Chiefs team in the context of history. That's next...
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