Chargers at Chiefs - Week 17 - Record: 12-4

Well how about that. What a phenomenally exciting end to the regular season. As I posted a week-and-a-half ago, we Chiefs fans are tremendously blessed. We have had a number of wonderful regular season finales, we have. I can't help but think about that miracle New Year's Eve set of games in 2006 that got us into the playoffs. I think about two years ago when Patrick Mahomes in his first full game, also on New Year's Eve, led the Chiefs to the thrilling close win in Denver to close the season. Even just last year when we throttled the Raiders to ensure we got the bye then.

Thing is, now we need some wonderful splendid spectacular play in the postseason.

But that is for a preview post for later. For now, the joy. I did get to see the very end of the game when I was at a restaurant having lunch with my dad, and I watched on the big screen TV Damien Williams pull off a terrific twisting driving touchdown run to put the Chiefs up by 10 with just a few minutes left in the game. A mere few seconds after that the Dolphins Ryan Fitzpatrick rifled a touchdown pass to his tight end in the back of the end zone to put Miami ahead of New England 27-24 with less than half-a-minute left. The Patriots then just could not pull off another of their charmed wins.

We got the bye.

Watching everyone in Arrowhead and all the players on the sideline go bananas was really fun. Yeah, it seems odd: the fans can't see that extra Chiefs game this year and they're cheering for that, but really, you really do want the bye for extra rest and time to prepare. As it is we get the home game for the division playoff game in two weeks.

We'll need it too because we've got to try out a new free safety. We lost Juan Thornhill for the entirety of the postseason with that notoriously wretched ACL-tear. More on where we are with that in a preview post next week, but it is encouraging to see Juan already eager to work hard to be back soon.

As for this game, a couple of real quick shout-outs to people.

There's Damien Williams, wow oh wow, what a day. He had a number of grinding runs getting key yardages throughout the game, but his highlight reel included two spectacular touchdown carries, both of which saw him hammered at the point of attack, but he stayed on his feet and took them to the house. One of them went for 84 yards. He was also fantastic coming out the backfield catching passes.

I also want to give a shout-out to Steve Spagnuolo, our defensive coordinator, who has just done wonders with getting the most from the defensive players we've got out there. The thing that is most encouraging as we go into the postseason is that he was the defensive coordinator with the New York Giants in 2007 when they upset the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl, largely because of their defensive performance against Tom Brady and company. It is good to have him out there getting us tuned up for what we are all again hoping is a very deep playoff run.

Well yesterday it got pretty deep already with the stunning game results, and yeah, adding another fine chapter in the storied history of the Kansas City Chiefs. I like being able to say that because there is good reason to justify it. Four straight division titles, seven straight winning seasons, a record of something like 48-2 against division rivals over the past six years, something like that -- they even mentioned the team had set an NFL record for most total points in a two-year period.

Oh yeah it is all very very very fun.

More and more and more as we get ready for the postseason next week!

Playoff preview post then!
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Chiefs Game Tomorrow - Final Regular Season Game Versus the Chargers

I'm putting in this brief post because I'll unlikely be posting tomorrow after the Chargers game. Unless the Dolphins beat the Patriots to help us get that bye, something about as improbable as the Democrats inviting Trump to their New Years Eve party, the game is meaningless. We'll be hosting a wild-card game at Arrowhead next week against someone.

I'm sharing this because I'll be spending the entire day with my elderly dad on Sunday, and even if we happen to catch the game, which is unlikely, I won't have the time or capacity during that day to post. The day belongs to him. And pretty much after that it is a preview post, which will be pretty brief for obvious reasons.

Anyway, it is funny, the Chiefs could actually play the Raiders in that first playoff game. That would require the Chiefs, Patriots, Texans, Ravens, Colts, and the Raiders themselves to win tomorrow, and funny, all are heavily favored. Maybe the Raiders aren't because they'll be at Denver, but they're still good enough to win that one.

So yeah, wouldn't that be something. Fifty years after that amazing AFL Championship game in the '69 season, we could have a rematch.

Again, a playoff preview post to come early next week!
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Chiefs at Bears - Week 16 - Record: 11-4

Pretty copacetic tonight. The Bears didn't put up much of a fight. Not to say our defense wasn't stellar again, or our offense wasn't matriculating the ball down the field as it should. But the Bears were just dropping passes and slipping up just about every other play.

On the national broadcast they predictably did talk about the fact that their QB Mitch Trubisky was picked eight spots above Mahomes in the 2017 draft, but I've always thought Trubisky was never that bad. The Bears fans just don't like it that the Bears haven't been competitive this year. That's fine. It was interesting, however, that they showed a montage of Trubisky making similar fine plays at QB as Mahomes has made.

But really, I'm sure every Chiefs fan is perfectly happy with Mahomes. By miles.

It is simply because he's doing those amazing things so often, and commanding the offense with tremendous dexterity. To wit: On the first drive of the game, Mahomes threw a pass to Blake Bell for a 1st down, and he threw it so sidearm that it was practically underhanded. It had to be that way because the ball had to go under the defenders outstretched arms. Again, amazing.

We eventually scored a touchdown on that drive when Mahomes waltzed into the end zone from about 20 yards out. He could do this because the opponent's defense must do so much to cover so many people, they are so preoccupied with the coverage they lose track of the running Mahomes.

One of those critical components of the Chiefs offense is Damien Williams, and what a bonus to have him back in the lineup. After they gave the ball to Spencer Ware with the first few runs, they went to Williams and he was dynamite. He even caught a touchdown pass for us on the evening.

One thing I really liked was seeing Mahomes throw a terrific 3rd-&-18 pass to Tyreek Hill to get the 1st down, and in the replay he had his tongue hangin' out. That was significant to me because my grandfather, a very respected MD in Kansas City, used to do all the handyman things around the house or magic trick things for his grandkids with his tongue hangin' out.

He was one of the reasons I'm such an impassioned Chiefs fan, of course. Neat to enjoy that moment tonight.
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Chiefs Above the Masthead

I happened to catch this image at the very top of the NBC news website. Typical ad for NFL type things, but I did a double take -- as in two Chiefs appearing in the promotional photo. Usually when they splice these player images together for these kinds of things they'll have an equal representation of the top players in the game, usually most of them are from the large market-media darling teams, for sure. But hey, whaddya know about this?

Among the five, three of them are a Patriot, a Charger, and a Ram -- Boston and Los Angeles teams -- but the other two are, yes, Will Shields and Tony Gonzalez. How about that.

Been doing some reflecting on this Chiefs team of late, and while I bilge my standard Andy Reid reproof at least once a year, I can't say that my Chiefs Kingdom perspective right now isn't pretty danged great. I mean, yeah, I do get too emotionally wrenched by this Chiefs thing, but ya know? Just not letting what seems like the inevitable playoff brutality get to me is quite liberating.

The secret again is just enjoying the moment. Really, when you think about it, whatever has happened in January, you do realize that every fall for most of the years since Carl and Marty took over in 1989 have been pretty awesome for the Kingdom? Really, very awesome. As Chiefs fans, when you think about it, we are pretty blessed.

I mean, yes, it is great to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Chiefs Super Bowl win, but how about the 30-year anniversary of that 1989 year? Really, that was just as much of a benchmark of tremendous Chiefs success through the entire history. Since that year, the Chiefs have had winning regular season in 21 of them. How many teams would kill for that kind of success? In that time we've compiled a record of 274-219-1, a winning percentage of .555. That is amazing, considering this includes a pair of 2-14 seasons and a pair of 4-12 seasons. That -- is amazing.

Point is, even if we haven't done the winning in January, we get to enjoy an entire fall of excellent play on a regular basis and with it always is the hope that we'll do exceptionally well in the postseason.

There is a lot to be said for that.

This year is no different, seeing how well our defense has steadily improved, seeing what we've got in Patrick Mahomes and his receiving core. It is wonderful just to enjoy this now.

We get to see from top to bottom the pieces we've got in place that make the Kingdom so fun.

This past Sunday Clark brought over Dick Vermeil to bang to pre-game drum. That whole pre-game drum thing? They've now got a special area up in the middle of the stands for that now -- I mean, that is just flat-out sublime, that they would fix all that up. Thing is, before the game Vermeil was allowed to give the team a pep talk.

Get out.

I mean, that is just beyond the pale -- beyond the pale of awesomeness, really. Vermeil is such a winning guy, he's got winning infused in every cell of his being. I can't even imagine what it was like, but I heard it had all kinds of "You guys never had to work as hard as we did" -- but in a good way, you know! But he finished with how proud he was of those players and the Kingdom.

Here's the thing. Yesterday we snatched Terrell Suggs off waivers. Wow. He was made available because the Cardinals weren't going anywhere, so they wanted to let the 37 year-old Suggs get a one-last chance somewhere else. Other teams not bound for the playoffs that could have had him didn't bite because they'd be committing themselves to a tail-end-of-career defensive stud for garbage-time season play. So four teams made a claim on him, and the team with the worst record of the four got to have him.

With their four losses so far on the season the Chiefs won the prize.

Think about that. Because the Chiefs lost that terrible horrible no good very bad game a few weeks ago against the Titans, we had that one extra loss to allow us to pick up a guy who may just be the key to shoring up the defensive front for the deep playoff run. I mean, we wish it didn't happen because Sunday we lost Alex Okafor for the year, and we'd already lost Emmanuel Ogbah and Breeland Speaks.

Brett Veach is right on top of all this. He's the man. He's gettin' it done in the front office, and maybe, just maybe Andy Reid will have the playmaking acumen running at its highest octane come playoff time that we're so blistering opponents they won't have a chance to do anything against us.

Just like the Christmas time story. No matter what happens later, right now as we celebrate that greatest joy of all, Christ's birth, Chiefs fans can have "visions of Super Bowls dancing in our heads."

Happens every fall.

Very very nice indeed.
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Broncos at Chiefs - Week 15 - Record: 10-4

These games are the funnest. Lots of snow, and during the game. A lot of times they've covered the field so if it isn't snowing during the game it just isn't there.  But today! Awesome.

Most times that snow can be debilitating to a high-powered offense, but it can also have an impact on the defense. The Broncos simply could not do anything with our ability to throw the ball down the field and at least get into scoring position.

Mahomes was terrific, 27-for-34, 340 yards, two TD passes. He threw to Kelce all the time. Hill had two touchdown catches. Watkins showed he's still excellent despite what everyone has been saying. Even Robinson and Hardman did very good things out there. It makes me wonder, why run the ball at all. Yes we didn't have Damien Williams again, and if we could use LeSean McCoy more frequently I think we'd be okay. Darwin Thompson's getting some reps, that's good too.

But still. Mahomes is getting it done through the air no matter what we do.

If we can just build a huge lead like we can, easily, like we did today, we won't have to worry about a 4th quarter. Still even when way ahead, we've got to run the plays with assertiveness...

We're also still getting too many penalties on big plays! Are we not disciplined enough?! A splendid Mahomes-to-Kelce big pass play was wiped out by an illegal block. Mathieu intercepts a pass on 4th down for a stop close to our end zone, but we get defensive holding. Lucky we got Thornhill intercepting the very next pass to make it moot.

Another thing is we are just leaving too many points on the field in the red zone. I heard Mitch say Harrison Butker has the NFL record for most points by any player over his first three years. This is (a) because we do have such a potent offense, but also (b) he is kicking too many field goals when we get close to the goal line. The Chiefs by far have the most touchdowns from beyond the 20 this year. Easy to see why. We have the weapons to stretch the field, it is an awesome array. But what about just pounding it in when close?

Sure enough though, the 4th quarter starts, we have the ball, we're driving, doing great, then Patrick scrambles, scrambles, scrambles -- and throws a pick at the goal line. Errgh. I must say his scrambling earlier in the game to buy time to connect with Watkins on the two-point conversion, that was a thing of beauty.

So what did we do today in the last five game-minutes, even in one like this ahead 23-3? When that five-minute time period started, the Broncos had the ball, and on 4th down their QB threw an incompletion they challenged as pass interference, but it wasn't. That pass interference thing, though. Makes me very nervous, that new way they're doing pass interference reviews. Just when will that ugliness ruin us in the playoffs? I know, just getting emotionally prepared for it, sorry, call me the anti-Pollyanna, you can, I understand.

So as it is we get the ball under that five-minutes and run clock with Spencer Ware this time. He does very well actually, very nice. Feels like 2016 -- pretty neat. Here is where that steady grinding works, however. Just not close enough for it to be meaningful as far as the Reid playcalling being stellar when it is crucial.

Next week is when it gets really serious, regular season-wise. The Bills need to beat the Patriots and we need to win out -- the Bears and Chargers close out the regular season.
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Chiefs at Patriots - Week 14 - Record: 9-4

Before this game I considered the only thing that mattered was what we did in the last five minutes of the 4th quarter in a close game. Doesn't matter if we blow them out, doesn't matter if they blow us out. This is just the regular season. Both teams will merely be learning from this to prepare for when it really counts in January.

That's why all that mattered was that this was close and we ourselves practiced actually really truly doing what it took to win a close one.

So here's what happened, starting with that five minutes remaining.

5:04 to be precise. We're up 23-16. That close score we need. Patriots have the ball.

Now their first score back at the beginning of the game was on a flea flicker that we thoroughly bit on. Sure enough, they pull off another trick play, a halfback option pass they get all the way to our 30. Our defense was aggressive all day, which was actually pretty effective, but dang, keep your eyes open guys!

We get them down to a 4th-&-6, but in our aggressiveness we let Brady slip away to slog for 17 yards. Ball now inside the 20.

2:00 - Patriots still threatening. They run and lose two, 2nd-&-12. Next Brady throws an incomplete pass in the end zone, now 3rd-&-12. Edelman makes a nice catch to the 5, but it is now 4th-&-3, about a minute left.

Sure enough, we blitz, force Brady to throw it quickly. He makes a nice pass, but Bashaud Breeland makes a phenomenal play on the ball and taps it away.

Game over.

Thing is, I'm still not sold on this whole thing. I could write a lot, but here are the main things. We dominated this game in the 2nd quarter and much of the 3rd, but we still looked like we could not put the hammer down. Sorry. We also got very very lucky -- yes! The Patriots were the victims of another team's luck! Oh that that would happen in a playoff game.

On two plays the Chiefs totally lucked out when the officials just messed up calls. Don't get me wrong, there were five calls I made specific note of that the officials egregiously missed that aided the Patriots. Five of them, way too many to consider the refs were not yet again favoring the Patriots. One of them was a flagrant shove of Mahomes out-of-bounds and right into the sideline equipment that very much should have been called. Another was a pile-driving of Mahomes into the turf after a pass release that was also obvious, but again, they just chose not to call it.

But the two plays that really helped out the Chiefs? Kelce caught a first down pass, then went backwards and fumbled it away. The Patriots got the ball, but they lost the yardage they should have gotten -- I don't think the guy who recovered the fumble would've scored -- but the officials just should have not blown their whistles.

The other play was a touchdown by their receiver at the pylon, but the official on the field ruled his foot went out of bounds at the three-yard line. Well, it didn't, it should've been a touchdown. The problem was Belichick had no challenges left, so it couldn't be challenged. Whut? I'm sorry, yes, I'm arguing vehemently in favor of the opponent, in this instance, but sure enough, that kind of thing could happen to us. It has! In the absolute worst ways! How much do we all know it!

The Patriots were robbed of a touchdown they should have had because the NFL simply does not do the right thing and just get the call right. Get rid of all that coach's challenge stuff and have two officials in the booth -- I think I've said this a hundred times in this blog, but really, no one else is on board with this obvious solution? Again, have two officials in the booth with original play judging capacity. It is the simplest thing on the planet.

Just - get - the - call - correct.

Yay we won. We've got the AFC West wrapped up. We've got a winning season for the seventh straight year, all under Andy Reid, kudos to him for sure. It's nice, I know. Not dismissing this, it is indeed great. Four straight AFC West titles, excellent.

But there are so many things that still need to happen out there for us to be successful in the playoffs. Dammit we just have to do better on offense in that 4th quarter. Sorry, but the Patriots just looked sharper, better coached (what's new?), more persistent. Really though, we should've been up 37-16 in the middle of the 4th quarter. I think the reason we finally took them down is because man-for-man the Chiefs had the talent edge. The Patriots needed more from their receivers, they didn't have much of a running game, and Brady has lost a liiitle bit -- but he's still extraordinarily good.

So it is nice the Chiefs are talented, but the discipline? Oh my. Last week we had no penalties, but today we went right back to getting far too many penalties, and several really that cost us. It has gotten to the point when every time the opponent's quarterback throws the ball I'm freaking out waiting for the PI flag to be thrown.

Some of the nice things though, we'll close with that.

Tanoh Kpassagnon had another blocked kick! This one a field goal attempt. Meanwhile Butker was nails for us, making all three of his kicks. We did allow them to block a kick, but Dave Toub will make sure that gets cleaned up. Still, Colquitt got two nice booming punts late to keep the Patriots pinned back, one of them a 57-yarder.

Mahomes made his standard amazing throws. He got one to Hill to get the first down on a 3rd-&-19 -- Hill, by the way, really needs to get the ball more. When he did get the ball he made plays with his still eye-popping speed and quickness. Mahomes touchdown pass was to Hardman deep, again while he was backpedaling.

Breeland had an interception against Brady to go with his game-saving bat. Travis Kelce had a fun wildcat touchdown, employing that fun playmaking we're all hoping Reid can use to greater success in the postseason.

Again a shout-out to our defense. Spagnuolo really got them to be aggressive, blitzing a lot and, believe it or not, it did seem to rattle Brady. For all the ways we let them zip past it, it did work most of the time.

So yeah, will we now keep playing hard and still vigorously PRACTICE WINNING CLOSE GAMES even though we've wrapped up at least one home game here in January? Winning against New England is big in case they stumble some more and we can squeeze into that playoff bye spot.

It was fun watching Mahomes on the sideline just dress down the team to fire them up when they were bumbling around as the 4th quarter started. And right there was Travis Kelce with a bloodied face, right there hopefully being inspired even though it was his careless fumble that almost gave the whole thing away.

Here's to that Mahomes-led inspiration keeping us focused and, yeah, getting our clutch postseason game on full bore. We will need it.
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Raiders at Chiefs - Week 13 - Record: 8-4

"Chiefs have not lost a Sunday division game since 2014." This was the stat of the day shared by Mitch on the post-game radio show, and this is truly amazing. One of the terrific things about Andy Reid is his dominance against our division. Just an update overall: All-time we are 65-54 against the Broncos. We are 63-55 against the Chargers. And we are now 66-52 against the Raiders. That's pretty cool.

But for now? We've simply got to handle other teams out of our division. Here's one of those things with Andy Reid. Here's precisely why I just fear we're not going anywhere in the way of glory with him and his amazing playmaking ability leading the team.

In the middle of the 1st quarter we had the ball deep in Raiders territory, up 7-0, with a 3rd-&-1. Reid runs Darrel Williams into the line, no gain. On 4th-&-1 he runs Williams again into the line. No gain.

See, if this guy has all this amazing playmaking ability, what good is it if we don't use it? What good is it unless we use it to get good yardage and more points? Here we are in the middle of the 1st quarter ready to put the Raiders away, and we get vanilla with the game calling.

How about this? How about our head coach, no matter the score or situation, just runs the plays? How about putting confidence in the best quarterback in the NFL and on that 4th-&-1 do some play action, roll out Mahomes, and have him pass it to Kelce for the 1st down?

Why is Andy Reid so scared?

Remember, even though we pounded the Raiders today, what will happen when we are in that close game? A nice pasting of the Raiders is fun, but we really need those critical games when Andy has absolutely got to adjust his playmaking to be better than the opponent late in a very close playoff game.

Yes! I am Monday Morning Quarterbacking, I am! I confess! And it's not even Monday! Aagh I'm sorry! But we are all so good at it! We do it for most all of January just about every year!

As for the bulk of this one, the weather was poor today, and we just played a Raiders team that was woefully overmatched. Ngck. Don't get me wrong. I'm really pleased with this. We're now in total control of the AFC West at 8-4. Maybe it'll be good we're playing New England next week so we can tough out a reeeally close game and we can -- ngcknghghnkck -- you know it --------

Practice winning a close game that will result in winning a playoff game that we actually do win because we truly fully actually 

TOOK CARE OF BUSINESS.

Some really good things about today's game, just to put 'em down.

Tyreek Hill did his job again. Routes, catches, acceleration. Awesome in only a few catches. I also like Sammy Watkins still drawing lots of attention. Don't get down on him. Watkins' play makes things wide open for Hill and Kelce.

One of those particularly nice Mahomes throws to Hill was a dime that helped lead to our first TD. He also threw an amazing pass to Kelce, while backpedaling, perfect for Kelce to jump up and nicely snatch it right at the 1st down marker.

When we were up 31-3 in the 4th quarter, we decided to let rookie Darwin Thompson run the ball, get him experience, chew clock. He really responded by essentially single-handedly matriculating the ball all the way down the field capped by a rushing touchdown.

Our defense was solid today, frustrating Derek Carr making his day at Arrowhead yet again just miserable. The highlight was the play of another rookie, Juan Thornhill, who had a terrific stop on a Raiders 4th down, and just a bit later read a slant pass play like a book and picked it taking it to the house.

Harrison Butker, on a blustery day, banged through a 50-yard field goal. Speaking of special teams, at the very end of the game we got a blocked PAT returned for two points, neat. But yeah. Can we get one of those to win an incredible playoff game, if we need some crazy wonderful play like that to win then? Can we?

And our discipline across the board was very strong, no penalties! Can you believe it! None, zero! That's major. This is only the third time in all of Chiefs history when they've had a game with no penalties at all. (I should note they had a penalty but the Raiders had one on the same play so they were offsetting.) The Raiders were abysmal with the penalties, 12 all together and most were big. They even got hit with a PI that had to be reviewed in New York, an INT that was reversed and followed by a Chiefs touchdown shortly afterwards.

On to the game of the year against the Patriots!
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Chiefs 2019 Mid-Season Report

There was this In the Bleachers comic panel that came out a few months ago. It was so telling -- especially for Chiefs fans. It was good therapy, because of the agony we must endure every playoff season.

Every single one of them, and not just a few.

It is indeed like hell, interminable -- you just never believe it will ever end. As I've written a number of times before, some is the NFL itself loathe to have a small-market Midwest team in its premier showcase event. Some of that is mixed in with the Scorecasting Factor, the proven reality of officiating favoring the team preferred by the higher-ups -- even if they do so unwittingly, they still do it. Please remember, games turn on single plays and if that one single play may be decided a certain way, you are more likely to get the outcome you like. There are other factors that hopelessly derail our postseason chances, but yeah, most just consider that it is putrid luck.

Thus, the comic panel shared here. It sure does seem like the Chiefs are always calling tails. Look, the losing guy is even in a red jersey.

I just have to share with you this. My son played soccer a number of years ago and was on a really good team, should have gone all the way. But yeah, sure enough, in a key playoff game, the official was abjectly wretched and made the worst critical calls costing us the game. Funny, his team wore red. Funny, the coach (a terrific coach, by the way, a young enthusiastic 22-year-old) interestingly, was a Chiefs fan. And the thing is, every time something bad happened he would say, "Unlucky." Just that, he shouted instructions to the team all over the place then -- something bad happens even if a player messed up -- "Unlucky." Bless his soul. Let it go and move on, I like that. 

I guess this is why I put the comic panel there as the featured part of this post. Because in some ways, all of this is just like that. I noted last year that some did cite losing the coin toss to the Patriots in overtime as the reason we lost. No, we lost because of that stupid offsides call the line judge made against Dee Ford. But ya know? I got ya. The defenses had to have both been gassed, and if we had the ball first we should have easily marched down the field and scored a touchdown.

I dunno. There are still too many things that could've happened just to keep us out of the Super Bowl.

There have been so many before.

See, this decade is shaping up to be exactly like the 90s, maybe even worse. Remember what happened in the 90s? The Chiefs were a dominant team, through the whole decade. Really. They had the best regular season record of any in the NFL except the Bills, and won a grand total of three playoff games. Again, the Cowboys, with not-as-good a regular season record for the decade, won three Super Bowls.

The Chiefs are so far holding one of the best regular season records over the course of this decade. I haven't done the math yet, I just don't know if I will, some stats wonk can probably dial it up easily. But I'd venture to say the Chiefs may even have the best record of the decade of any NFL team except for the Patriots. Really. Go ahead and show me I'm wrong. Of the nine years in the 2010s so far (2019 being the tenth season) we've had seven winning seasons. We've been to the postseason six times.

And we have a grand total of two playoff wins.

Really? An excruciating decade like the 90s Chiefs repeated?

And don't tell me about all the teams who rarely get to the playoffs to begin with. I understand, I feel for you. But this isn't about a bad team being justifiably bad, or a mediocre team getting there every once in a while on some fun lucky play. This is about a consistently very good team being dumped on when it counts all - the - time.

Unjustly? Ehh, that's something I've racked my brains about for eons. One decade of going through it is plenty, now we face a second? With the kinds of playoff losses we've had this decade just a recurrence of the nightmares we endured in the 90s?

What about the idea that we've just played "over our heads" each of those times, and playoff action has always just exposed us? Excuse me, but, huh? A legitimate point, but not this often -- it just doesn't happen.

Remember this -- I could certainly cite the legion of excellent players the Chiefs put on the field and regale you with myriad instances of their consistently fine play. But remember this:

In the 2014 regular season we blasted the Patriots (even leading to Tom Brady's benching). They went on to win the Super Bowl. (We didn't even make the playoffs, much because of poor officiating in one particular game late in the season)

In the 2015 regular season we smeared the Broncos, in Denver even (leading to Peyton Manning's benching). They went on to win the Super Bowl.

In the 2016 regular season we bested the Falcons, who went on to the Super Bowl and almost won except for a furious comeback by the Patriots.

In the 2017 regular season we handily defeated both the Patriots and Eagles, both of whom went on to play each other in the Super Bowl.

Okay, okay, I'm belaboring the point. Sorry. But remember this whole Chiefs-fan-Chiefs-blog is really only one thing.

Therapy.

And I do appreciate you joining me. Group therapy is good.

"Hi, my name is David and I'm a Chiefs fan."

"Hi David."

Thanks for being there.

In fact I must interject, my devotional just this morning was from Ecclesiastes. What a great lesson for us here. "And I saw all the toil and achievement from one person's envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after wind." So true, and count me guilty! I must tell you I do hold on to a greater perspective in all this, and I wrote about it here. And really, ultimately, everyone who wins in these sports things are winning just because the coin toss went their way, let's face it. Healthy perspective in many ways.

In the meantime, as we zealously indulge ourselves in this engaging diversion, there are very good things about the Chiefs we can cherish now, no matter what happens. Since this is a Chiefs blog, might as well still highlight those things. Here's the deal with this year's team, going forward. Very good things. In fact three of them are key, tremendous Chiefs assets, we all know:

We've got Clark, we've got Brett, and we've got Patrick.

Yes, sorry, I did not mention Andy. Once again, I hope we go to Super Bowl after Super Bowl with Andy from here on out, I really do. He is a phenomenal enough playmaker to do it, he really is. But I honestly don't think we will until either (a) he gets a smidgen of play calling adjustment ability especially late in games, or (b) we just get another coach.

With Clark, maybe that will happen. He has at least shown that he's going to take care of business when he needs to, and maybe he'll soon make the right call with regards to getting us to the point when we're not dropping game after game after game because we just don't know how to "put the hammer down" late in the 4th quarter. He did the right thing most recently in letting Bob Sutton go and bringing in Steve Spagnuolo to run the D, and he did it in properly summary fashion. Clark does that, that's very good.

With Brett, we have a general manager who also knows what to do to take care of business. He really does his homework. Besides all the other fine moves he made, an example of one of his best was snatching up Charvarius Ward for practically nothing. This kid has learned and grown and while he still needs to keep it up, his play has actually been very nice. On the same token he was extraordinarily wise in not picking up someone like Jalen Ramsey for what would have been most of the entire farm -- just not worth it. I'm also eagerly looking forward to more amazing draft work from Brett, and hoping we just go crazy drafting a lot of strong defensive players.

With Patrick, well, you know.

Thing is barring some other unforeseen insane thing that happens to us -- and here's to having our turn to not have anything like that happening -- we'll have Mahomes at the helm for at least the next decade. Yeah I'd like to win ten straight Super Bowls, definitely. I'm with you. But even with Brett putting a fine team around him, right now I'm just hoping for one. really. If we can get at least one, that'd be really nice. Last year in a similar post as this one I'd already written about hoping we can at least get that one. Yeah, it just seems we've had so many chances, how many more can we have?

Print by Anthony Oropeza

So even with Mahomes, I'm keeping my expectations tempered, realistically. Can Patrick lead us to multiple Super Bowl wins? Of course he can. Can we win the Super Bowl this year? Of course we can. The Ravens appear unstoppable, they do, but we've beaten them before and playoff games almost always hinge on one crazy wild play or sequence that swings a game in your favor. Oh are we so due for a number of those.

And the rest of this season? A very good thing about Andy Reid is his coaching skill against teams in our division. We have three of them in the remaining five games, all at home. We also have a meeting with the Patriots in there, so that'll be a nice tune-up for playoff action.

Overall, even if we don't take it this year, or the next... to tell you the truth, this upcoming decade looks to be very promising, I know. Detractors disperse, please. And really, I'm preaching to the choir. Most Chiefs fans are hopeful, very much so, and for very good reason. They always buoy me in my therapeutically-massaged funk, even if vicious in reminding me that each season is a new one and there are very good reasons to be expect great things in the Kingdom no matter what happened in the past.

You know, last year during the regular season the Chiefs had something like ten straight coin-toss wins. Typical of their regular season, just dominant. Then in that one postseason coin toss we needed, we lost. Well, maybe the same thing will happen here sometime soon, only in reverse. All the horrific postseason "coin-toss" losses, one after the other after the other...

It's time for a win, for once.

Well, for once now. I can't conclude this without a mention of appreciation for our one, we are fortunate this Thanksgiving to have had that one we do have, Len Dawson and the rest of his excellent team's one. That's important. And sure enough, this year is ours in that it is the 50th anniversary.

1969.

Nice.

Still looking forward to looking through Michael MacCambridge's new book about it.

Again, here's to the next one we have.
___

Chiefs at Chargers in Mexico City - Week 11 - Record: 7-4

I'm going to make this post here at the start of the 2nd half. It's just one of those late night games that I've got to blog now. No worries. Here're all the things I'm seeing so far. Don't worry, we have a bye this week and with Thanksgiving week time off I'd like to take a few minutes and offer up a mid-season review. Sorry, but it will not be complimentary.

In fact already on the drive I'm watching now, Yelder fumbled the ball away, but we got rescued by a Melvin Ingram penalty. Then a bit later McCoy fumbled yet again, but somehow miraculously recovered it. This is not championship-team-caliber football. This looks kind of like the Vikings game when we messed up a lot, but still won. If we pull this one out we can thank the Chargers for messing up so much themselves.

Anyway, I got the idea the Chargers have injuries on the O-line. This means we should be able to stop this Chargers offense, have something of a pass rush. So far we did get a big play from Frank Clark's "strip" and Derrick Nnadi's interception. We also got a nice pick from Tyrann Mathieu, but other than those big plays, alas, we have not been stellar on defense. Our run defense is still very very soft. The Chargers have tons of offensive yardage but have only managed three field goals.

We should hammer the Chargers, we really should. But so far we look just like we did last week. Just not able to take care of business like we should. And THE PENALTIES. Memo to Andy Reid: THIS TEAM IS NOT DISCIPLINED. With this offense -- why on earth are you committing so many penalties?

Interlude: As far as the rest of the season goes we should run the table. With the talent on this offense we should get to 12-4. Even though we should put away the Chargers here -- and right now, after Darrel Williams scored, the Chargers have to punt -- it'd be better if it's close and Reid can practice his 4th quarter work... It'd be nice if it were close for every game for the rest of the season so Andy can practice his 4th quarter management. As we saw last week all too well -- only the 4th quarter matters.

And in the playoffs, Andy - has - got - to - manage - the - late - game. Do you think this team is going to beat a Ravens or a Patriots in the playoffs? Wull, yeah, with this offense -- but then Mahomes had a horrible 1st half: only 63 passing yards, his worst 1st half so far in his short career so far. And we've lost Tyreek Hill to a hamstring -- how long he'll be out we'll have to see.

How about this idea -- hat tip to my work colleague: How about running the West Coast offense that Alex Smith did pretty well?  And give our defense a little more time to rest? With this offense? But ugh, on one play when the Chargers intercepted a pass, we sent everyone deep. Whuh? Come on, bring someone back underneath! For that matter spread Mahomes around! When he runs he makes things happen!

Know what else I'm seeing? Yes Mahomes is amazing. But you know what Philip Rivers does that if Mahomes can do we would be utterly unstoppable? He just gets that ball in those tight windows.

Oh, there you go. Mahomes with the deep nice touch to Kelce, then Kelce with the toe-drag at the side of the endzone to score. Now it is 24-9. So far anyway, the blowout we thought it would be. Bad. Bad bad bad because we so need Reid to work like crazy on his skill at putting the hammer down in last minute when we need it the most.

Briefly I've also wondered how much the altitude is going to affect us, affect the Chargers. Errgh, maybe it has affected Philip Rivers throwing a duck -- and then affecting Tyrann Mathieu who dropped the easy pick. Errrrrrghck. Our run defense has picked it up a bit, so -- the altitude affecting them a bit more?... I knew Mexico City was high, but they said earlier that it is 2,000 feet higher than Denver's stadium!

And that Mathieu dropped pick? Allowed the Chargers to later on that drive score a touchdown. Nkay, good -- it's closer now. 24-17. Reid can now practice his close-game close-out.

Nkay, already Reid fails yet again. With eight minutes left we're moving the ball, get to midfield, and his playcalling becomes just inexplicable. He can't dial up a play on 3rd-& not-long to get that 1st down. It is just impossible for him to do.

The Chiefs just got a nice three-&-out with the help of a super stop by Frank Clark. Now can we grind and chew clock and here we go again: 3rd-&-3 how about Andy taking care of business here. 

And no. Mahomes does what he did to fail in the previous 3rd down fail. He just steps back and dumps it incomplete. How about we get Mahomes to step back a bit more and throw that ball to that fine wideout in that tight window just past the marker? HOW HARD IS THAT?

PLEASE ANDY REID WILL YOU BE THE HEAD COACH YOU CAN BE???

Okay, now Rashad Fenton makes the clutch play and picks Rivers deep. What a sweet play. Rashad had to fight to get it. Very very very nice.

Now there're four minutes left for Andy to put the hammer down. I'm not listening to the game on ther radio as I sometimes do, but how many times so far tonight have Mitch and Kendall said "It's time to put the hammer down!" 7, 8 times?

Now 3rd-&-6, and... Mahomes just runs. Gets the 1st down. Nice. The announcer just said one of the most profound things ever. "The Chiefs need to play with some attitude."

Okay, Chargers have burnt all their timeouts and we have another 3rd-&-NOT-LONG-AT-ALL.

Well, so much for "having attitude." Nghckfnckghngh. Mahomes just strolled left and dropped. It looked like we didn't even know what to do out there. How about just "You go there while we make everything looks like we're going over here. I'll throw it to you." Bam.

Two minutes left, score is still 24-17. So yeah, I just feel like if we do win this we've just lucked out again. Ergh. Too many ::Ergh::s I know.

So Rivers has 1:53 with no time outs. Ball is deep in his own territory. Put the hammer down put the hammer down put the hammer down put the hammer down...

4th-&-4 after Rivers passes the ball into a very tall Chris Jones helmet. And on the next play he still gets the 1st down.

Remember last year? We're up good, at home, Thursday night football, then the Chargers score a touchdown in the last minute, then get the two-point conversion and win 29-28. Hmmnmnmmnmmmnn...

Sure enough right now Rivers completes a 50-yard pass. Are you even kidding me. (Never mind that the receiver totally pushed off the defender, and the refs stopped the clock when the receiver was clearly downed in-bounds)

Our defense is gassed. Their offense is moving the ball and it could be yet another miracle finish for the Chargers. Remember that game in 2013 or so? The Chargers had a miraculous last minute win after each team scored back and forth. Remember that game in, I believe 2008? We were up by 12 -- by 12! with under two minutes left and still lost.

So yeah. Even if we pull this off, there is no reason in the world Andy should have let it get to this point. We're playing at 7,000 feet and our defense has to be exhausted. 24 seconds left and the Chargers have the ball at the 14-yard line.

And wow. Daniel Sorensen intercepts the ball at the goal line. Oh my.

We saved it. We saved it. 

Still.

Ngckghcknghckgtckmngk.

You know what I mean.
___

A Tale of Two Teams (Or, The Four Horsemen of the Football Apocalypse)

This is a tale of two teams.

It is a tale of the Packers and... the Chiefs. It is a tale of the Patriots and... the Chiefs. It is a tale of the Ravens and... the Chiefs. It is just as much a tale of the Steelers and... the Chiefs.

Before I commence, here is my post about yesterday's debacle. This post here is really an addendum to that. New stuff, but still kind of the same stuff. The same therapy-oriented stuff. Yeah. I'm with you. ::Siiiigh::...

Since 1989 when the Chiefs started a run of playoff appearances that any team would covet, 15 in all, (7 in the 90s, 6 so far this decade with another likely this year) under the tutelage of three Hall-of-Fame head coaches, those other four teams just mentioned have 12 Super Bowl titles. They've got a half-dozen or so other Super Bowl appearances and many great playoff victories. Each one of those teams individually have, really, had not many more playoff appearances than the Chiefs have over that time period. (Just FYI, the Patriots have had 20 appearances in that time. Just not that many more than the Chiefs...)

My point is the Chiefs have been, for the most part, just as dominant as those teams have over those years and -- with the exception of some thrilling games and fun wins and fine play by excellent players for which we should all be very proud --

Have nothing to show for it.

The reason I bring up those particular teams is just to point out what they've done recently. Right now, yet again, all are playing winning football. But some things they have done that the Chiefs haven't done demonstrate why those teams will continue to win into the postseason and the Chiefs -- well...

• Yesterday the Packers took care of business against a team they should have taken care of business against, the Panthers. They won 24-16. I know little about that game, but whatever happened, they took care of business in a close affair. Look back at two weeks ago when the Chiefs played the Packers, were down by 7 and punted the ball away on 4th-&-3 with, what, about 4 minutes left, and never saw the ball again. The Packers just took care of business and made the 1st downs like they were supposed to late in that game.

• Yesterday the Patriots did not play, had a bye, but with the exception of a few random slip-ups -- that crazy last second pass-and-pitch play the Dolphins had to beat them last year comes to mind -- the Patriots take care of business. All the time. Do you remember in 1996 when Sports Illustrated predicted a Chiefs-Packers Super Bowl? Well, the Packers made it -- against the Patriots. The Chiefs didn't even make the playoffs. I'm kinda thinking the same thing will happen this year, Patriots-Packers -- sadly after all the rabid talk through the year about the Chiefs being a Super Bowl shoe-in.

• Yesterday the Ravens destroyed the Bengals -- I mention this because the Chiefs should have destroyed the Titans yesterday. Point being, the Ravens took care of business early and often, just like the Chiefs should have. I truly fear meeting the Ravens again in the playoffs. That quarterback they have, Lamar Jackson, is getting better and better -- and right now, I'm sorry but he'd have a field day carving up our soft-butter defense.

• Yesterday the Steelers were ahead of a fine Rams team 17-12, and with a couple of minutes left, plenty of time in the NFL, the Rams had the ball just needing to score that touchdown -- and sure enough, the Steelers got the stop. Yesterday the Chiefs had a Titans team way not-as-good as the Rams in the exact same predicament and we let them score a touchdown -- we made it look so easy for them. The Steelers meant business. We didn't.

This is the tale of two teams.

Two teams: the Chiefs and any one of those other teams, teams who don't have any more talent than the Chiefs have, or even have had, annnnnd...

Well, really, you know the story. Yesterday's set of games was just another chapter in the saga.

To give Andy Reid credit, to give all the players credit, yesterday's game just seemed like yet another time we just got hammered by the Four Horsemen of the Football Apocalypse. Yes every team goes through it, they do, they get the worst visits from the Four Horsemen. I know. It's just... the Chiefs. As good a team as they have, it's just... you know.

What are the Four Horsemen? You know what they are:

Turnovers. We'll start with that one. This year the turnovers have killed us, when we've always seemed to be the ones who take advantage of them the most. In the Colts game LeSean McCoy's fumble. Critical. In the Texans game another fumble by McCoy. Critical. Yesterday the one that stood out was Damien Williams' fumble they returned for a touchdown. We're up 10-0 easily driving for another score and that happens. And it is also the turnovers we're not getting. Frank Clark not making that easy pick-six is the best example. We even were blessed with a poor call getting a turnover when their QB lost the ball but did pin it to his side, had possession, but we swooped in and took it -- the officials gave it to us when they shouldn't have. Even when an official makes the wrong call in our favor do we end up losing.

Penalties. The 1st half penalties were crushing. Again, this is legitimately on Andy Reid. We cleaned it up in the 2nd half, but still, instead of being ahead 28-3 at the half, as we should have been, the game was tied 13-13. Please. One of those penalties was an illegal pick by Tyreek Hill he didn't have to make, negating a touchdown pass reception by Travis Kelce. Instead of 7 we got 3. This is not even to mention the intentional grounding by Dustin Colquitt. A splendidly skilled placeholder for years and years and years, he commits a penalty like that at the totally completely thoroughly wrong time, one that gave the Titans a much shorter field to aid them in scoring the winning touchdown. Such is the Chiefs...

Injuries. This is just the breaks of the game, I know, but still. All of us have had visions of Super Bowl glory dancing in our heads all year long -- but of course there isn't a Chiefs fan who doesn't add the thought as long as we stay healthy. And the Patrick Mahomes injury isn't even the worst of it. What is really debilitating is both our offensive and defensive lines have been devastated by injuries this year. Emmanuel Ogbah has been terrific, he's out for the year. Alex Okafor had been out for weeks. Chris Jones was out for a while. Frank Clark is playing injured. Over on the O-line we've been clobbered. I won't go into all the gruesome details, but the worst is having Eric Fisher out for so long and squinting every time we have to watch Cam Erving try to block out there. So yeah, ::Errghck:: -- that it could happen that we'd just have one good year when injuries don't hurt us too much. ::Sigh:: Guess not.

Crushing calls. Both from the officials or our own coach. About halfway into the 3rd quarter of this one I actually thought -- seriously, I actually did think, "Damn. Three of the Four Horsemen have been killing us today. I'm sure that fourth one will rear its ugly head in the 4th quarter sometime."

Yep. It did.

In the Chiefs Game Today blog post yesterday I pointed out how agonizing it is to once again watch Andy Reid fail to close out a game in the 4th quarter. Now please, it must be said again. I don't mind emphasizing it: there is no question Andy Reid will always be revered, for good reason. He will always hold a cherished place in the annals of Chiefs Kingdom History. That's a given, he deserves it, nobody will ever dislike him.

But just as sure, for Andy Reid not to make the right calls to get that 1st down at that time we had the ball in Titans territory with under two minutes left and a five-point lead was -- well, I covered it in that last blog post, and I've already regaled everyone with the searing agony of watching all the time a Packers or a Patriots or a Ravens or a Steelers do what Reid should be doing. Please, I'm not even saying I'd do better, I'm not Monday morning quarterbacking. I don't know what Reid should have done. Still, again, if those other coaches are doing it, whatever it is, why isn't Reid?

So that's Andy Reid. What about the officiating calls that so often devastate us in the most mind-numbing ways?

I do hear until I'm deaf "The calls even out." For the most part the officials did fine yesterday. But dammit don't tell me about officiating evening out when that Titans rusher was clearly offsides at the end of the game to block our field goal attempt. Yes I'm 1,000% with you that it never should have gotten to that point if Andy Reid knew how to manage the last two minutes of a game. Still, yeah -- no, the guy was offsides and no trying to spout about how he timed his jump just right changes that. No ridiculous official proclamation from the NFL that it was the correct call changes that. If that guy was not offsides then neither was Dee Ford in that playoff game last season.

The Four Horsemen just can't cease attacking the Chiefs in the most brutal ways. And yesterday -- ::Ouch::

I will add a positive here, and it is that we are still in position to at least get into the playoffs. That's not a bad thing. We'd like to think Andy Reid is learning, and even with my doubts we can hope that he is. We'd also like to hope that with Reid being the player's coach that he is that the players themselves won't get too down on his inability to close games for them. Maybe the Mahomes-esque inspiration and leadership will power up in the hearts of these guys and they can take care of business through the rest of the season.

We have several games against division rivals coming up and Reid always seems to do better against them, for good reason. That's cool.

Here's to seeing these afflictions just making our players, and Reid himself, stronger and better as we finish the regular season and maybe even watch them make that stout playoff run we've always been hoping they'd have.
___

Chiefs at Titans - Week 10 - Record: 6-4

This was definitely a game we simply could not afford to lose. It always seems to be like that when we play the Titans.

Opening game, 2014. We lose to a thoroughly lousy Titans team that would go on to win only one more game the entire season. We miss the playoffs by one game. That was the game we could not afford to lose. That very first game of that season, that was the blow-it -- a season that later featured a complete thrashing of the eventual Super Bowl champion Patriots. Go figure. (Well, we now figure, that's what this post is all about.)

Playoff game, 2017 season. We're up 21-3 at halftime to a very mediocre Titans team, and somehow find a way to lose 22-21.

Today, it was just as ugly. Just as typically ugly. Right now I feel the way I did during the middle of that 2017 season when we had a stretch of games against not-that-great New York state teams, remember that? The Giants then the Bills then the Jets -- a season we were playing great, buuut we lost them all. And sure enough at that time I had the opportunity to do exactly what I'm going to do now, although I truly believe it is still just as justified as it was back then.

Share my standard Andy Reid what-the-hell-are-you-doing rant.

Here is this version. It isn't a whole lot different than the others, but I reeeally don't think there aren't quite a lot of us who share these sentiments.

I really do not believe the Chiefs will ever win a Super Bowl with Andy Reid at head coach.

Yes we've all had these thoughts before, but they always seem to be muted by the times we watch him do his playmaking and his management of the team as a player's coach. We behold how wonderful he is at those things and simply brush off any detractions.

But sure enough, what happened today was inexcusable, and sure enough it was yet another one of those "Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me. Fool my thrice shame on me some more. Fool me four times it is ridiculously shameful. Fool me five times is shamefully criminal. Fool me..." I really think we're up to about 23 times of being fooled, to be honest with you. All Chiefs fans should be serving life sentences for the most feloniously shameful foolishness.

Here's why, for the 57 thousandth time.

Reid cannot manage things at the end of a game.

Sure we have Patrick Mahomes. Sure we have Tyreek Hill. Sure we have ___ (any of all the other playmakers we have). But when we need the head coach to make that one call that will win us the game because WE'RE TRYING TO WIN THE GAME DAMMIT AND NOT TRYING TO JUST NOT LOSE -- it gets really gruesome.

Here's the evidence. This year we've lost all four of our games by a touchdown or less. Does that sound familiar? It should. The Chiefs have lost eight straight playoff games decided by a touchdown or less. Thing is, Reid is responsible for five of them. Sorry, but there were definitely things that could have happened with the sideline judgment that would have avoided:

A 1-point loss to Indianapolis after the 2013 season when were ahead 38-10 in the 3rd quarter.

A 7-point loss to New England (2015) when Reid was just outcoached by Belichick again. (Reid's 4th quarter management of the 2004 season's Super Bowl was abysmal.)

A 2-point loss to Pittsburgh (2016) when the opponent did not score a single touchdown the entire game.

A 1-point loss to Tennessee (2017) when we scored zero points in the 2nd half.

A 6-point loss in OT to New England (2018) when Reid was just flat outcoached by Belichick YET AGAIN.

In this game we were up 29-20 early in the 4th quarter, right after Mecole Hardman's streak to the endzone after a terrific pass from Mahomes. It should have been over at that point. We should have been "putting the hammer down" then. Up by nine with 11 minutes left.

And sorry, not getting the job done was on Reid.

So, note to Andy Reid, a reminder for about the 83rd time: "Step it up and be a clutch leader. Lead this team to win, don't just stuff your face in a play sheet to not-lose." ::Sigh:: To be honest I really don't think he will ever do that.

This game is just another brick in the wall. So here's the bottom line. I reeeally hope Clark and Brett are paying attention. I think every Chiefs fan feels this way. Again, I've seen nothing online or on the twittersphere or anywhere, but I know it.

Here's what's what:

Andy Reid, there is no excuse for you to being doing this, none. You have one of the most phenomenal offenses ever in the NFL. Yes today we had stupid turnovers (well, really, just one, but it was really costly as it was returned for a touchdown). Yes we had unfortunate injuries (but fortunately people like Tyreek Hill and Mitchell Schwartz came back in). Yes we had a slough of penalties (but that, really, is on you anyway because this team is simply not disciplined enough, it really isn't). Yes our special teams fell apart at the end of the game (but why are we relying on them so much in instances when it looked like they were frantically trying to make up for situations that shouldn't exist anyway?)

See the issue is with this talent and your playmaking we should've been ahead 21-0 in the 1st quarter. By the middle of the 4th quarter we should have had a comfortable 49-27 lead. Even with the rotten stuff there - is - no - excuse. With this team with this talent?

And we're frnckgckngcking 6-4???

So, here it is. Even with all of that, you can rectify that with one more valiant attempt to get the critical 4th quarter call right. Please, we beg you. Please, in the 4th quarter rally the troops to go for the jugular. To take no prisoners. That last series when we had the ball in Titans territory, up by 5 with a little under two minutes left? Super Bowl teams make the 1st down and send us home happy, especially against a team we moved the ball against pretty much at will all afternoon.

Instead it looked like everyone out there on the field was just expecting us to lose. I'm sorry but it just did, and that comes directly from your obsession with NOT-LOSING. I mean, please, today's 4th quarter was a collapse of epic proportions, it really was.

I wonder. Mahomes had 446 passing yards today. Really, how many quarterbacks with over 440 passing yards have ever lost an NFL football game? I'd say a few, but I know it isn't many, in all the annals of NFL history I'd bet it is very few. We had twice as much yardage as the Titans, and still lost. We had twice as much time of possession, and still lost. We got 1st down after 1st down by barely trying, yet couldn't seem to get one when we needed it because you played --- to --- not --- lose.

Well, let's just say this, from every Chiefs fan on the planet.

Go for it Andy Reid. You have our wholehearted support: win the Super Bowl this year. And please, you will have no excuses if you don't, not with this talent, not with your -- granted it is extraordinary -- playmaking ability. There is no excuse.

But we promise you, all of us know as much as we know the sky is blue and the sun is hot: you will at some point HAVE to make a critically beneficial 4th quarter call that will win us a game by a close score. You will, guaranteed.

If you do, we will screech with joy and we will want to carry you off the field with all the well-deserved accolades. We've got you. You're there. Way to go.

But if -- okay, this is for Clark and Brett -- if Andy doesn't, then see-ya, and let's see Eric Bieniemy in at head coach. He's already got all the Reid playmaking stuff in his hands, working with him for so long, and then, and then, not only do we get that but we get a coach who -- let's hope -- will...

Ahem...

PLAY ----- TO ----- WIN.
__

Vikings at Chiefs - Week 9 - Record: 6-3

For whatever you can say about our very very very bendy defense, they did come through at the very tail end of the game when we needed it.

With the score tied at 23 all, the Vikings had the ball with a bit over two minutes left in the game. And wouldn't you know it. We got a three-&-out. And it wasn't just any three-&-out, it was a dominating one. One play that stood out was Daniel Sorensen's smothering of a swing pass for a loss on 2nd down, especially significant since the Chiefs were abjectly miserable stopping the screen pass all day long.

What can you say about our offense. My word, will it be nice when we get Patrick back. Again, again again again, nothing against Matt Moore. He's done wonderfully, he really has. But those weapons on offense we have.

Tyreek Hill being Superman all over the field, I mean the guy is a phenomenal football player. Our first touchdown was a leaping grab after which he kept his feet under him to propel him into the endzone.

Sammy Watkins with one-handed snatches all over the place. I've always considered the time Watkins missed because of that hamstring injury was a blow to our offense against teams like the Colts and Texans.

Travis Kelce being stout and getting a long clutch reception late to get us into field goal range for Butker to win it.

And Damien Williams. Reid started McCoy, but I wonder how long he is with the team. I hope he's around and they don't just jettison him -- we may need him later -- but it is clear Williams has shown he's the cream of our running core. His 91-yard sprint was a thing of beauty. After a superb weave through the line he turned on the afterburners. When Tyreek joined him as he neared the endzone it looked like the US Olympic track team finishing a close one-&-two in the 400 meter, sweet.

Our run defense did okay actually, but again, there were just too many times we got caught out of position, pursuing too ferociously taking us out of plays. Maybe this is just a by-product of Spagnuolo's defensive scheme, because there were times we made major clutch plays. If you can believe it we held their terrific back Dalvin Cook to under 100 rushing.

It was nice to see this team show they've got some ganas and rise to the occasion late to take this one.
___

Packers at Chiefs - Week 8 - Record: 5-3, Part II

I simply cannot go to bed late at night here without adding this note about tonight's game. I thought I'd do something I'd never done before, just to see. I typed in my search box "Andy Reid 4th & 3." Sure enough I got a twitter-storm of revulsion against Reid's call to punt late in the game tonight.

Completely, wholly justified revulsion.

I rarely look at social media for this kind of thing, I am not much for Twitter. But in cases like this it does instantly provide some kind of idea of what a few people are thinking about regarding something like this. Sure enough, I am just as frustrated with Andy Reid as the rest of the Kingdom. What do you do with someone like that?

He is a genius playmaker. His offense has the best pro football weapons in the universe. Matt Moore is not a great quarterback -- please, no offense, his pro football acumen has served him very well with this offense, kudos to him for that -- but Moore has weapons at his fingertips like he has never seen before. Tyreek Hill alone had the Packers totally on their heels tonight, as a feature of their game plan.

So yeah, I did very prominently think one of the key things I saw tonight in that tweet-storm of exasperation: We all know why Andy Reid has no rings.

Really. He just doesn't have the balls. The Chiefs have had just as good a team as the Patriots for years now, and in that time -- while Reid's been in KC -- Bill Belichick has three rings. It is simple. It is because he knows how to go for the jugular with what he has and he has always done that.

Here's the thing. Maybe Reid'll finally learn from this. Maybe he'll finally finally finally rise up and make a good, solid, bold, courageous decision late in a critical playoff game that actually does get us the dubya in a game decided by a touchdown or less. He absolutely must because, here's the main thing. When you think about it, not only does this one single move cost us this game, not only does it show us that he still hasn't learned -- but probably the worst thing of all is the message it sent to all those amazing players on offense.

I really really really hurt for the Kingdom right now thinking about what Hill, and Watkins, and Kelce, now this phenomenal rookie Hardman, and all the other fine offensive players are thinking -- Damien Williams even, who came in and played lights out football in the 2nd half. What they are thinking right now feeling that their coach can't trust them to do what his already splendid playmaking is helping them make happen.

I don't know. I wasn't going to be too upset that we lost this game as the Packers are pretty good and we're just waiting for Patrick to return. That's cool.

But this -- this is still just really disconcerting, it really is.

It always has been.
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Packers at Chiefs - Week 8 - Record: 5-3

We actually could have won this game, really, if Andy Reid's decision-making at the end of the game was not what it typically can be to derail our chances. We have an offense that is lights-out, and he decides to put the game's outcome in the hands of a very bendy defense that cannot afford to be bendy at the most crucial time. That a bit later.

First, to be a bit positive, some really good things about our team:

Its playmaking. The Reid way has got defenses scrambling and with our playmakers, these guys showed again tonight they can do great damage. The Packers plan on defense was to essentially play on their heels. A great example of this was the play at the beginning of the 2nd quarter when everyone was moving around in the backfield after the snap, leaving Kelce wide open down the field to catch a lofted pass for a TD.

I also really like Steve Spagnuolo being aggressive with our defense. He blitzed often enough to rattle Rodgers, if you can do it against one of the best QBs ever, you should! We sacked him something like five times tonight. Ragland and Hitchens have picked up the run defense at least a little.

The not-so-good things: We're still not pursuing with assertiveness! It isn't about tackling -- it is about hitting our marks with at least some sense of purpose! The touchdown that ended up winning it for the Packers was just a weave job by their guy all the way to the end zone. Add to that our defensive line still can't get a good enough push when we need it.

You also cannot fumble on the first play after the defense has been on field for eons. McCoy did that and Rodgers got the ball right back, and after a bit of wearing out our defense a bit more, he threw one of the most amazing touchdown passes ever. By the way, Damien Williams came right in, did really well, and LeSean McCoy did not see the field again.

Here was the major ding-dong thing Reid did that is just so aggravating. It was punting the ball away at close to midfield on a 4th-&-3 with about five minutes left in the game. We were down by only a touchdown. Even though the punt was downed inside the 5, when you do that you are giving the ball right back to Aaron Rodgers with a long field to just chew up the clock. And he did just that.

Andy Reid, you really really really really really really really really have to go for it there.

Haven't we said something like that before, oh, about 57 times? When your D-line just can't get that push to stop the run late, take a chance with your dynamite offense. Come on. Errrrrrrrrghh.

We knew this game against a strong Packers team would be tough. Matt Moore is not Aaron Rodgers. What was so nice was that Moore actually did wonderfully. He's taken this offense and done really well.
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Chiefs at Broncos - Week 7 - Record: 5-2

Mahomes refusing to get on the cart
and walking off the field after his injury

Certainly everyone in the Chiefs Kingdom is still holding their breath. They've been holding it until sometime in the middle of the 2nd quarter. We'll all be holding our breaths until we find out more about what happened. Early reports are that Patrick Mahomes had a dislocated kneecap. At least there was no ACL injury or anything, and so far they've determined there is no break. An MRI will determine if there is any ligament damage or anything else to be really concerned about.

The announcers were saying that Chiefs personnel appeared to be less worried than you'd think about his knee, that they feel he'll be okay. Still holding breaths though. I'd like to think that if the injury is not so bad they'll still keep him out for a few games just to be on the safe side. We're 5-2 so we have at least a little cushion in that category. If it is more serious, well, let's just ensure that he's good to go for future seasons.

It doesn't mean we can't still do well this season. Tonight we clobbered the Broncos, and the reason was our defense. They were saying on the television that the Chiefs were getting tired of all the discouraging remarks, all justified, really, watching them play against the Texans: "You're not good pursuers. You're not good block shedders. You're not good gap fillers. You're not good tacklers. You're not good pass rushers. You're not good."

They definitely took it personally.

The Chiefs registered nine sacks on the night, including a strip-sack fumble returned for a touchdown and an alert stop on a fake punt. So please -- please please please stop already with the criticism of Frank Clark. The guy was monster on defense when we got him, he was a monster when you didn't think he was, and he will be a monster for a while.

I have to add that it was really good to see Anthony Hitchens back in there. He made a world of difference in our run defense, and of course he got help from all of our front seven who again decided they needed to actually hit somebody out there.

One more thing because it is late. It's all good except for all of our breath-holding we're still doing.

Tyreek Hill.

When Matt Moore went in for Mahomes, he was taking some time to get a feel for being out there, not doing much. For quite a while he wasn't getting Tyreek into the mix. Sure enough when I noticed it, and when the announcers noticed it, well, finally Andy Reid noticed it. We started to see more of him. That sweet deep floating pass from Moore to Hill, oh my. It dropped into Hill's lap and he could just turn on the jets to score the TD.

Still holding my breath though...
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Texans at Chiefs - Week 6 - Record: 4-2

This is definitely not a Super Bowl team. Sorry but just having Patrick Mahomes and a planetload of receivers will not get it done.

I actually thought our defense would be better than they've played. Know what? This really feels like 2003, you know, awesome offense and not-great defense -- but ya know? It's worse this year. We started out 9-0 that year and I hate to say it, in 2003 our offense was just much more proficient. This year's Chiefs offense is really just Mahomes being ungodly on the football field.

But the key is that Mahomes simply cannot get anything going with an offensive line that is as miserable as this one. At least in 2003 we had a beast offensive line. This one is is garbage. Eric Fisher and Andrew Wylie are injured and their replacements are balsa wood. Our center is not able to do what Mitch Morse did last year, but then Morse was injured all the time so it didn't matter.

This game was a loss from the beginning. Here's what we all witnessed before Tyreek Hill's fantabulous touchdown grab:

1. Personal foul on Anthony Sherman on the kickoff.
2. Mahomes has to scurry around right after the snap, and tries to heave the ball with a defender all over him, smashing into his arm.
3. Swing pass to LeSean McCoy who stumbles down after catching it, little gain.
4. Big play to Darrel Williams who was freed on a pick play that Kelce may have made, at least the announcer insisted he did.
5. Swing pass for no gain, but now they call Kelce for an illegal pick.
6. Motion penalty, five yards back on us.
7. Misdirection pass to Hardman which was the first decent thing, 14 yard gain.
8. Holding call against an O-lineman. (In case you've missed count, that's four penalties against the Chiefs on eight plays of the game so far.)

This game was brutally ugly. Besides the fact that Mahomes doesn't have a good offensive line, his ankle has to be bothering him because his throws were awful. At least four or five times he threw the ball right at a defender -- most times they just dropped the INT.

I also have to add that the officiating had it in for us today. We got tons of defensive holding calls against us, and I'm sorry but I don't believe we were fairly treated. At one point Kelce was mugged at the line and the Texans intercepted Mahomes pass, but they made some ding-dong interpretation of pass interference not-counting for some reason. Interception stays. A couple plays later Bashaud Breeland was called for defensive holding yet he barely touched the guy.

Guh?

This is what happens when you form a super team. They've got to reel you back in. That's what everyone thought about this team, it's a super team! -- and for pretty good reason what with Mahomes et al.

Yeah, sorry, I know I get really melodramatic about these down times, but we just lost two home games in a row for the first time since 2013, and in both games it just looked like everything was against us. Not only the over-officiating, but our woeful line play on both sides of the ball is just killing us.

It is simple. We can stay in games from our exceptional skill-player game -- that's why both these past two games were reasonably close. But today the Texans took a page from the Colts playbook: Just run the ball against the Chiefs because they have no linebackers. Yes Anthony Hitchens is injured, but we were like melted butter out there. We are not pursuing with speed, we are not looking sharp at the point of attack -- and every team knows it. Just run the ball against the Chiefs. What makes this worse is that an opponent's steady running game burns clock and keeps Mahomes off the field.

I've thought a bendy defense may be just okay, but after looking at it the way the Colts and Texans have successfully seen it, I've realized that this defense is a crushingly real liability.

Yep, I've called for this for eons, no reason to stop now: we absolutely need a Ray Lewis guy in the middle of our defense, we really do. Unless Brett Veach can do something incredibly magical for this year, so we can have some confidence that we'll actually be competitive in the playoffs, I'm kind of hoping that notwithstanding that terrific stretch when we actually win games convincingly, we can finish with a record poor enough to get high enough in the draft to pick up that guy, and when he matures in a couple years hope we get a stronger assurance of Super Bowl potential when Mahomes is in his prime.

Next we've got a Thursday night game. At Denver, who over the past few years has lost the last several home games to the Chiefs in horrible ways. They will not be kind to us at all.
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Colts at Chiefs - Week 5 - Record: 4-1

I'm going to put this post in now because I'm so busy right now I simply won't have time to complete a full blog post later. Yes, I am doing work right now while I'm watching the game. And yes I am taking notes throughout.

Some notes right now as I'm watching this game in the middle of the 3rd quarter is that for one, this Chiefs team is driving me crazy. They get a penalty on almost every other play. At one point the announcer said the Chiefs are beating themselves. No kidding.

They also have no pass rush. This Colts quarterback is just not-that-special, yet he has all day back there. We've also lost Chris Jones to a groin injury -- he's out for the rest of the game. That doesn't help matters. We lost Anthony Hitchens earlier, that doesn't help our run defense, which has also been deplorable. Yes, they were who they thought they were -- a team with massively good offensive linemen who just pushed our tacklers all over the field.

On offense Mahomes was not sharp, missing his marks, just way more often than he does. Our O-line was not stalwart, making Mahomes run around too much. His receivers were dropping passes all night long. And on one play their linebacker rolled over Mahomes and wrecked his leg -- that's nice. I'm watching right now and Mahomes is walking off the field limping again, on a play that has Andrew Wylie on the turf. Down an O-lineman we can't afford to lose.

The only thing that, so far anyway, that has been keeping us in this one is the Colts are making a poor play here or committing a penalty there. We're also benefiting from close officiating calls that are going our way. Kelce almost fumbled the ball away but they ruled he did not have possession -- incomplete pass. Another pass appeared to bounce off Sherman's hands and intercepted, but on one camera angle it did look like it hit the turf -- incomplete pass.

There's a whole quarter left, so yeah. But everything I've written so far should bring great concern to the Kingdom. No pass rush and no run defense is just really disconcerting. I'm not as worried about the receivers -- not everyone has a great day every game... Mahomes et al will get it together.

But I hate to say it the Colts, with a team that has not-much-of-a-passing game and little in the defensive backfield -- I mean look at that, we have 10 points against a young, inexperienced Colts D-backfield -- the Colts looked much more disciplined, much more focused, much more fundamentally oriented to hit their marks. If this Chiefs team is going to the Super Bowl about which everyone is so certain, they've got to get it together.

And so... with about five minutes left we had a 4th-&-1 at midfield, down 16-10 and with a decimated O-line we run it and don't make it. Sure enough, the one who makes the tackle is, yep, just like the Chiefs luck -- Justin Houston. This game is a testament to the fact that if you have a reeeally good offensive line, you have a chance to win an NFL football game. If you don't have O-linemen you may not be able to protect your star quarterback enough to get him untracked in games you have no business losing.

Ugh.
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