These were the words of Patrick Mahomes to his teammates when we were down 24-0 to the Texans early in 2nd quarter.
This is the reason we actually truly ecstatically have a chance to win this Sunday. Taking nothing away from the spirited, committed play of previous Chiefs playoff participants or the present ones taking the field with Mahomes.
But there is no question -- this guy is a gamer among gamers. Could it be that with his vocal but also demonstrative leadership at the most important position in the game, the whole team could genuinely have enough got-it to get us to the promised land? So far so good.
As it is we've got the Titans this Sunday for a trip to the Super Bowl. And like last week we started as 7-point favorites but that line has already grown. Thing is, you know it: let's just whoa back a bit now...
The Titans have been a bastard to us for quite some time now. Of course there was this regular season's debacle, well, the 4th quarter debacle. I was thinking, yeah, we had a number of ding-dong things happen to us in the Texans game -- the difference from all the previous playoff affairs? They all happened in the 1st quarter, not the 4th when it has always hurt us the most.
But ya know? There was that wild-card playoff game catastrophe from the 2017 season, when we were comfortably ahead 21-3 at halftime. Then remember the year before in a game close to the end of the season the Titans squeaked past us in that one too, with the help of another measure of victory courtesy the foot of Ryan Succop.
Then there was that loss that started the 2014 regular season, when we just played like crap against a Titans team that eventually went 2-14 on the season. Yeah, we missed the playoffs by one game, the only year an Andy Reid Chiefs team has missed them. Know what else is stultifying about these last three particular losses mentioned? They were all at Arrowhead.
So yeah. Not a great record of achievement here folks.
So yeah infinity, there is that one thing that'll win this game for us.
Our sustained excellent play absent that crazy-ass insane thing that kills us in the 4th quarter.
Okay, so what is it about that overall level of play? There are a few things about which we can ruminate.
1. Patrick Mahomes must play out of his cotton-freakin' mind. Yes I mentioned that in the Texans preview, and we all know he does that as a matter of practice, but this time it's for real. If the Titans have the field position advantage and chew up clock with that outstanding running back they have, we will only have the ball six or seven times in the entire game, at best. This means we've got to make the most of our possessions, the very very most, three or four touchdowns even. Fewer will make it much more of a nailbiter, and yes, it would actually be very nice to win a close playoff game for once, at least. With Mahomes and this offense it can be done, but we simply can't afford any of the dropped passes like we had against Houston.
2. Our defense will certainly designate someone to be the Derrick Henry-hunter, likely Reggie Ragland, and it is good to have somebody like him there for us. If Chris Jones isn't in there it will be much more of a challenge for sure. And with seven or eight guys staying close to the line of scrimmage for the play's duration we've got to have extraordinary games from our cover guys. Yeah, they need to play out of their cotton-freakin' minds too. They can. Thing is to get there we really can't have a second poor game from Charvarius Ward and we've got to get our free safety to channel his best Eric Berry.
If all of this comes together as it should, really, then we'll be good.
As it is, the hope is still very good. Nice to have it once again last a bit further into January.
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Chris Jones photo is by Dave Eulitt of Getty Images.
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