For the Chiefs I did put losses down for the Buffalo and Cincinnati games, because while those teams are definitely having down years, they are still very dangerous. I did put down wins against the Raiders, Chargers, and Patriots, which would put our final regular season standings at 11-6, barely good enough for the 4th seed.
Losing to the Packers last night really put the hurt on our chances to get the No. 1 seed. We'd need help, and I'm just not confident very good Ravens, Jaguars, or Dolphins teams are going to get it for us.
My confidence is just so low right now mostly because of the absolute atrocious play of our wide receivers, Rashee Rice excepted.
One of the real problems is these guys simply cannot run routes to give Patrick the confidence he needs to get the ball to them. Marquez Valdes-Scantling is supposed to be our deep threat, but on one play down the field he was open but turned in too sharply and simply did not make the necessary turn-around to the ball to get it. A receiver getting paid -- what, three, four million dollars a year? -- has got to be able to do that.
And that deep throw late in the game that everyone thought was pass interference? Yeah, it may have been, but MVS has still got to come back to that ball and get it, PI or not. It was simply insane last night that the key play of the game for the Packers, really, was their receiver -- smothered by three Chiefs defenders and literally falling to the ground -- snatching the duck of a throw from 30 yards away (after which they scored an easy touchdown), while our critically important receiver can't just easily turn as he should to get a perfectly thrown ball by our QB.
This is a real issue.
And for those who claim the Packers got robbed on an unnecessary roughness call when a tackler really smacked Mahomes just as he was going out-of-bounds? Sorry, wrong. It was the right call. You don't do that to any quarterback, much less one that is so valuable to the league. Yes, I agree, if Mahomes is a "runner," I get it, smack away. But he was clearly going out of bounds and all you have to do is ensure he goes continues out of bounds. No big deal. The Packers defender did commit a penalty, it doesn't have to be beyond that white area for the hit to be genuinely unnecessary.
I did want to remark on the idiotic racialist thread that sadly got some traction at all this week, about the young Chiefs fan who painted his face black on one side and red on the other. I'm not going to get into it all and share a number of things I wanted to, but interesting no one mentioned on the broadcast last night, good for them, and the story seems to have died the quick, painful death it deserves. Just hoping this is something meaningfully related to the very hopeful reality that the ugly racialist stuff may actually be dissipating, that would be nice.
Otherwise, football-wise, we play Buffalo next week and again, if we lose and lose to Cincinnati a few weeks later, we should still be good if was can win out otherwise. We'd be at a 4th seed though, and facing a really good Houston team who believe it or not would, if all of this transpires, have a better record than us and would definitely be looking for revenge for 2019.
It'll be very bad for us if we just don't get this receiver thing fixed.
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