Chiefs at Seahawks - Week 16 - Record: 11-4

Yeah, I managed to put together a post promptly after this game. For what it is worth. It is therapy if anything. Thanks for joining me.

We had our standard ugly share of penalties. We had two nasty turnovers that essentially amounted to a 10-point swing. Yet again we missed tackles everywhere: not finishing the sack, not stopping a runner before the 1st down marker on 3rd-&-long. I'd heard briefly that our poor run defense would suffer under Seattle's fine running game, and yeah, we suffered. On offense we farted around far too much with plays that went nowhere, just plain failing to take advantage of Patrick Mahomes' phenomenal passing ability.

When we start getting Mahomes untracked with plays and routes that favor his abilities, whatever it is he can do, we'll do well. Let Patrick loose, really. He had his share of those passes. And some of our receiver catches, sweet -- that TD from Mahomes to Demarcus Robinson was a beaut. But this Seahawks team has a defensive backfield that was said to be a sieve, and we got 10 points in the 1st half.

We're now 2-4 in prime time games this season. We beat the Broncos and Bengals. We lost to the Patriots, Rams, and Chargers by a total of 7 points. We lost to the Seahawks tonight by a touchdown. Every game we've lost this year was in prime time. Six nationally televised games this year, huh. Maybe I shouldn't complain -- I remember went we went years without any.

We started ablaze at 9-1; we've since gone 2-3, barely winning the two we won in that span. I'm sorry but I can't help but think, hmm, did the ridiculously detrimental Kareem Hunt episode affect us? I guess that's what it's all about then, huh. Will we rise above it? Will we get off the mat and do business like we should?

So yeah, this was really intended to be a preview post anyway. We've got a playoff game. Yay. This December month is pretty much like all the others. We've done so well that we're in the postseason again YAY WE'RE ALL SUPER EXCITED ABOUT BEING THE PLAYOFFS AND SEEING THE CHIEFS MAKE A SUPER BOWL RUN YAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!

Until that inevitable playoff game -- almost always scheduled to be the first one on Saturday at 5:00 CST when no one is watching because the NFL treats the Chiefs like a no-draw piece of crap anyway -- we spend every minute of every week navel-lint analyzing our team and just feeling reeeeally good we've got another postseason shot at good things in January.

But that's all we ever get to experience.

A delightfully nice December -- just about every single year -- but a contemptibly miserable January.

So yeah. Call me cynical. Call me one who sees a Chiefs team that needs a bit more got-it than the splendidly boyish exuberance in Patrick Mahomes. Call me someone who fears a defensive backfield that will face in the playoffs a quarterback and receiver combination as good as Russell Wilson and Tyler Lockett and Doug Baldwin. (Baldwin, by the way, even faked being held in the end zone against one of our young D-backs, got the phantom call putting the ball at the one, and the Seahawks got the game-clinching TD on the next play. Only the Chiefs...)

And yeah, I'm going to bring it up again, sorry, but...

Call me someone who sees this Chiefs offense noticeably weakened because the NFL's ineptitude nine months ago cost us one of the best running backs in the league.

Yes, Damien Williams has done pretty darned well, really. Yes, Darrel Williams looks to have potential. Yes, Spencer Ware will do wonderfully when he's healthy again. Yes, Charcandrick West did a couple nifty things tonight even scoring a touchdown.

Will it be enough in January?

Don't get me wrong -- as in every December, I do feel the same way, as always:

I am hoping with everything in me this year January will be different.
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