Today: a really good thing to note and a really bad thing to note, as well as a somewhat good thing to note and a somewhat bad thing to note related to the actual on-field game action.
The really good thing was that the Chiefs did the best thing in addressing what happened to the little girl related to the violent traffic incident involving Andy Reid's son the Thursday before the Super Bowl. It has been my contention that this has been a huge weight on the Chiefs even affecting their play on the field ever since then. Yes, it may not have had anything to do with the incident, I know. But something has been afflicting the Chiefs play ever since then.
As far as this particular incident that left a small child disabled, the Chiefs finally arranged to meet all of the girl's medical needs as well as provide her any care and aid she needs to get her going and enjoying a quality life. From the details of her story there is very good news about her -- she was able to actually start school earlier this year.
The really bad thing was how one of our players behaved today in an on-field incident that was absolutely shameful. After a Cowboys player grabbed Rashad Fenton's helmet for a blatant and violent face-masking, Fenton leapt out of the tussle and was making crazy gestures toward the Cowboys out there in the middle of the field. The most disgusting one was his pretending to cock and shoot a shotgun.
Now I may be incorrect about all of this, but if that was the case, Fenton should not only have been penalized but ejected and certainly face a fine and suspension time. After seeing the Chiefs do the right thing and make sure to care for that little girl who suffered at the hands of a Chiefs employee last year, now we see another Chiefs employee, one of the players -- in fact one who has shown he's a pretty good D-back -- go off and do something like that. If what I saw was what it was, I can't see how there isn't more appropriate and severe censure of such actions.
As far as the game goes, the somewhat good thing was our defensive effort. Today it was again nothing less than excellent. Yes, the Cowboys did not have their fine WR and fine OT, so Dallas was a bit hamstrung, but our defense still did the job holding the opponent to zero touchdowns on the day. This is a team they said was the top scoring team in the NFL. Our defenders were hitting their marks, making plays, tackling with authority -- and our pass rush was ferocious. Frank Clark looked strong, Chris Jones was a monster yet again, and Melvin Ingram again made his presence felt. All this besides the fine play of our linebackers and D-backs -- Charvarius Ward made the interception of the year to stuff a real Dallas threat.
The somewhat not-so-good thing was our offense. Our first drive was standard Chiefs Andy-Reid-designed Patrick-Mahomes-executing amazingness. After that? Ugh. Clyde Edwards-Helaire was back in and actually had good runs. Mahomes did make some fine throws and our receivers did well enough, particularly Tyreek Hill who made a nifty move after a catch late to get a clutch first down.
But the problems with consistent Reid-arranged pass routes and steady Mahomes-hanging-in-the-pocket-just-long-enough-to-hit-those-receivers to get that needed yardage on offense was again just not there throughout the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters. Half the time Mahomes just looks too timid to fire that ball right in there through a small window. It just seems like he's expecting a receiver to be more wide-open than he can be, when he is good enough to make the throws he's simply not making.
Against the Raiders he and Reid had it down. Make your reads then get what the defense gives you. Don't worry about anything else. Dallas has a fine defense, give them credit, they have a rookie pass rusher who was as disruptive as anything.
Funny, we are at 7-4 right now, the same record we had in our Super Bowl year when our last loss was to the Titans -- same as this year. We have a bye coming up, then we play a tough Broncos team who earlier beat Dallas themselves in Dallas. We'll see if we can get our offense untracked, keep our defense stifling, and make sure our players don't do idiotic things that derail the integrity of the Chiefs Kingdom.
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The photo is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site, thank you.
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