Texans at Chiefs - Week 14 - Record: 6-7, The Brief Take

Not going to add much in this take on last night's game. Again, I need to get going. I have so much work to do. Forgive me.

So much more may be rambled on about this Chiefs thing or that Chiefs thing, much of it already the most obsessive navel-gazing regarding our team this year.

I will just say one thing for now. I can't imagine I know of any other time in our Chiefs history when such a good team has been hammered so much by the Four Horsemen of the Football Apocalypse. Remember what they are? Penalties, Turnovers, Injuries, and Poor Calls. There is so much to say about each one of those, and yes, my brain is filled with instances this year of all those things that would fill a very sad blog post right now.

That injury thing, for one, we were on our way to the show and my cousin texted me right out of the gate about Wanya Morris' injury. Was told it was awful. The main thing with that is prayers are said for him. But yeah. Those Four Horsemen, gruesome for us this year, and if you're a Chiefs fan you know what they have done to us.

Meanwhile, again, last night we got to behold some-600 collegiate followers of Christ put on the most amazing performance -- singers and dancers and instrument players and tech people providing costumes and sets and audio-video augmentation just joyfully giving glory to God in rich, bright, beautiful worship.

Not to share that to let on that I don't very much appreciate my football team's always dedicated play on the football field, not at all. But it was a wonderful evening of just knowing what's right and true and joyous in light of all the deceit and dissipation that goes far beyond anything related to the Chiefs.

There is a very real and vibrant hope.

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Texans at Chiefs - Week 14 - Record: 6-7

While the Chiefs tonight were suffering yet another nightmare loss in this lost season, we were enjoying the most spectacular Christ-centered Gospel-focused Christmas showcase at our daughter's college. It was amazing, a fully transcendent experience. 

So while I know some things that happened in this ugliness, it is late, I have a mind-bendingly busy week ahead of me, and I can't blog now about this one. I do have some things bopping around in my noggin about the current Chiefs state of affairs, and yeah, maybe I'll get to it soon. I will sometime, I will, but yeah, don't really feel too wholeheartedly into it right now.

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Texans at Chiefs - Divisional Playoff Game

I'm going to put in a brief post mostly to simply make the statement that does need to be said because millions of fans who've made the Chiefs their No. 1 NFL enemy are still convinced of this.

Sorry, but no, the officials did not win this game for the Chiefs.

Did two-thirds of the Texans play well enough to win? Absolutely. Give them their due. Did the officials miss a couple of calls that favored the Chiefs? They did, most notably the Justin Reid off-sides on the missed Texans FG attempt and the hip-drop tackle by Bryan Cook. That last one, if called, would have been one of the rare times they would have called it, though, because even though it is a new rule, I've rarely seen a defensive player penalized for it this year.

It isn't that they shouldn't. They should.

But that's a key point regarding the two personal foul calls some think shouldn't have been called, ones that did indeed favor the Chiefs. The first was the roughing the passer call on their fine linebacker, one that was indeed, roughing the passer. Sorry, it was. The second was when another of the LBs dropped on top of Mahomes after he made an awkward slide. I kind-of agree that it really wasn't so violent as to be worthy of the call, but you still can't do that.

Otherwise, while two-thirds of the Texans played terrific ball and made this a real game, that other third that is the special teams did not play well enough to beat the Chiefs who have a pretty good special teams. To wit:

The Chiefs kicker made three FGs and two PATs. 100% of his kicks, total. The Texans kicker missed a FG, a PAT, and had a FG attempt blocked. By Leo Chenal of all people! Again with that! The guy is a kick-blocking maniac!

The Chiefs opened the game with Nikko Remigio almost pulling a Knile Davis, taking the kick to the house. He didn't quite make it, but still took it to all the way down to about their 20.

It was also sad that former Chief punter Tommy Townsend had a chance to pin the Chiefs back late in the game when the Texans were still in it. He plopped the ball to midfield allowing the Chiefs to control field position.

Couple more things.

First, the main one, and it is not an unusual one. Two words:

Travis Kelce. 

He pretty much took the team and its wilting offense and put it on its back. He made big plays when needed, scored a much needed touchdown -- you know, standard Travis Kelce playoff stuff.

Second, the Texans pass protection just seemed to wear down late. George Karlaftis did not -- the dude has a motor running at 100% for the duration. I believe he sacked CJ Stroud three times in the 4th quarter. Spags also did his blitzing thing at just the right times to stuff the Texans, when again, they generally played really well.

Their running game was great, especially with Joe Mixon handling those duties. Their receivers, particularly their best WR Nico Collins and their fine tight end, were making impossible catches late in the game to keep them matriculating.

I will never not appreciate a Chiefs win, especially in the postseason, but I kind-of feel bad for the Texans. They played like crazy, were in this game, and could have easily won. Really. As it is this is the 5th time in five a Houston pro football team has lost to the Chiefs -- or the first time it happened, to the Dallas-yes-Texans.

Remember?

1962 AFL Championship: Dallas (later Kansas City) 20, Houston Oilers 17, in OT.

1993 AFC Divisional: Kansas City 28, Houston Oilers 20.

2015 AFC Wild Card: Kansas City 30, Houston Texans 0.

2019 AFC Divisional: Kansas City 51, Houston 31.

2024 AFC Divisional: Kansas City 23, Houston 14.

Ouch. I know how much that hurts, it was agony when we simply couldn't beat Indianapolis in the playoffs, remember that? Or do you want to forget too.

It wasn't that Houston was expected to win this game, but still, the fact they played so well, it has to hurt. Houston still must really not like Kansas City.

Meanwhile we just learned that the Washington Commanders upset the heavily favored Detroit Lions, a team that has never even been in a Super Bowl. 

Wow. This NFL football thing can be a bitch. Back before the Mahomes era we knew that so very well. But that's the nature of this thing, it just is.

Can't deny that we may feel the wrath of this next week when we face one of two excellent teams, the Bills or the Ravens. Whichever one wins tomorrow will be out for blood playing the Chiefs, they definitely won't let us off the hook in that one. So many things need to be much better for us next week whoever we play if we hope to make a truly legit run at the three-peat.

On to our seventh straight AFC Championship Game!

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The photo is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Texans at Chiefs - Quick Preview - Playoff Game

With extended family again for the weekend but will be watching the game with them! Don't know if I will get to a Chiefs Game Today post today when I'd like to, just a heads-up that I will soon! Thank you for your readership.

Go Chiefs!

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Texans at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 14-1

Quick take as, again, family is over and all that.

First, the gruesome injury to the Texans receiver. I just wonder if there is some way they can make sure receivers know how not to run into their teammates diving for plays, or something. Seriously. Just like how they train tacklers to not do certain things in tackling -- for the health and safety of both runner and tacklers -- can't they do something about how to have receivers run routes or know where they need to go to prevent this kind of thing from happening. I know these kinds of things are freak things, and that is the reality of professional football. But is there something -- I'm always great with anything that helps protect the players.

Second, put away all that plap about the refs favoring the Chiefs. The Texans' first touchdown featured an obvious hold on their guy, yet in the Chiefs series just before they called a total phantom hold on Trey Smith. Their tight end caught the ball wide open at the goal line, and right after that a shower of boos rained down from the Arrowhead crowd. Huh. 

Turns out they knew: the replay showed the tight end fully shoving the defender out of the way to spring himself open to make the catch. Guh.

Third, Xavier Worthy was on fire. Having Marquis Brown in there and DeAndre Hopkins making more of his amazing short connection catches has really opened up this offense. And just a nod to Andy Reid making it all happen -- his play calling for this game was a million times better than that of the last two games. The times he got Samaje Perine in the mix for huge gains was sweet. It was also good to see him go with Kareem Hunt after Isiah Pacheco just wasn't getting as untracked as he should have. 

Patrick seemed to be fine on the bad ankle, he even had some fine runs including one long scramble bonanza for a touchdown.

On to Pittsburgh for Christmas Day!

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The photo is from Evan Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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The Chiefs, the NFLers, and Making It Right

Yesterday was another atrocious day of NFL officiating that may actually be getting people to pay more attention to what is going on with the American professional football game. The Chiefs themselves were hammered mercilessly by the most antagonistic reffing, as they are quite often, and what is actually pretty cool is that I'm not the only one seeing it. 

With new social media venues like Twitter people are screaming about how rotten it is. I've even collected a number of tweets, most of them from the remarks in a tweet by excellent analyst of all-things-Chiefs Seth Keysor. I've put a number of them at the end of this post. 

The Chiefs are not the only team that can suffer. 

Last night I watched the last minute of the Giants-Commanders game. I only saw the last minute, when down 20-12 the Commanders were at the Giants two yard-line. They handed the ball to a bruising running back who pounded his way into the end zone, only to have it called back because of an illegal formation penalty. The judgment was that the wide receiver on the right side was not covering up the tackle.

Please.

It was a wickedly bad call that cost the Commanders a chance to win the game. The television referee expert they consulted afterwards even said it was a technicality and it should not have been called. Never mind that the receiver was close enough to the line anyway especially when all the NFL team's receivers try really hard to situate themselves so the formation rules are followed and as such are all pretty much all over the place all the time anyway, never mind that the receiver even took a step forward to signify that he's working real hard to follow the rule, never mind that we know the NFL favors the big market teams and the Giants play in the biggest market in the game and that officials are categorically influenced by what the NFLers want with regards to game outcomes.

Thing is the Commanders had another chance to win the game right after that when on 4th down their QB threw a strike to his receiver in the end zone and the Giants defender pulled him down -- slightly but very clearly impeding his ability to catch the ball. Incomplete pass. Should've been a pass interference call, absolutely. No "interpretation" that it wasn't pass interference may be accepted, it was pass interference.

Still, no call. Game over.

I have to add that one of the several rotten calls going against the Chiefs Sunday was one in which L'Jarius Sneed got a PI for barely touching the receiver's left hip. He didn't turn him, the pass was a near-impossible one to catch anyway, it was just excellent coverage. Well, you know what happened. It was on a 3rd down giving the Texans new life on a critical scoring drive. 

The pass interference call is one of the most aggravating things in the NFL, and I know everyone knows it. The "interpretation" thing is just crap because it goes so many different ways, and more times than not it goes the way that the NFLers want it to go.

Another egregious call that was particularly noteworthy was in the Patriots-Raiders game. I am no fan of either team, but with barely any time left in regulation and the score 24-17 in favor of the Pats, the Raiders receiver caught a pass at the side of the end zone that was ruled a touchdown. Upon further review they confirmed it, but everyone watching saw clearly that the dude's foot was out of bounds.

At that point the ball game should have been over, Patriots winning. But, well, the Raiders play in that new spiffy stadium in Las Vegas filled with ravenous Raiders fans who've been ever-so disappointed so far this season and having a tie-game would just be closer and better and funner and much more conducive to not having furious Raider fans be ever-so unhappy with such an crushing defeat by just one single little toe that was actually out-of-bounds but ever-so close so just give it to them...

The Raiders ended up winning the game in the end.

In fact, as I write this, just now I thought I'd check. I typed into Google just these words, "NFL officiating Sunday." That was it. Sure enough, the page lit up with stories and tweets about how wretched the officiating was (again, see below). I can't help but put Brittany Mahomes' tweet right here, because one of the most ugly non-calls yesterday was when the Texans lineman body-slammed Patrick to the turf. 

So the NFL people really appreciate their most marketable stars and don't want them hurt? Really? They really want to protect their most valuable commodities, and please know, not just Patrick Mahomes? Really? They'll make a game-altering call against our lineman just for blurting "Yo momma" to an opposing player but they won't protect the physical health of our quarterback by penalizing an obvious unnecessary roughness penalty that could cause a serious injury? REALLY?

I could go on, but I do want to put down some things that can be done, and believe it or not none of these items include a call to get rid of this ref or that ref. Chiefs fans had it in for one particular official, not even going to name him here, but it has way less to do with any given official on the field than it does with what I've called many times before the Scorecasting factor.

Again, the Scorecasting factor comes from the book written by guys who did the research, provided the evidence, and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that officials particularly in games like football and basketball can affect outcomes simply by implicitly -- or yes in some instances explicitly -- knowing what calls to make to please the NFLers. As I've shared here a number of times: I cannot urge you enough to read this book.

I will add that in looking at some comments made for a piece at Arrowhead Pride I was introduced to this book, The Fix Is In, one I know nothing about so I won't remark except to say that if veracious enough based on its premise, then it only adds to everything I've been saying here.

So here are five things -- good, solid practical things all of us can do to one degree or another to maybe perhaps possibly hopefully make all of this right and if not, maybe a little bit better.

1. Tell the NFL to get rid of the official gambling relationships. Please know this truth, no matter how much ridiculously rapturous fun it is or how much blamtastic interest in the NFL it generates, organizations like FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM and the like are horrifically immoral operations and in my view should not only have their relationship with any official sports organization promptly terminated but should have their operations made totally illegal and completely shut down. Will illegal gambling sites still proliferate? Of course they will, but this shouldn't keep the NFL from upholding the integrity of the game by working to thoroughly distance themselves from any of that, as they always did for years and years up until just a little while ago. 

Really, this particular item should actually be something I've hoped for for some time now: Fire Roger Goodell. The problem is that he is just one of hundreds of what I've called "NFLers," these are those who have a financial stake or gain from the competitive duplicity that occurs as elucidated by the Scorecasting factor. Firing Roger Goodell would have to include firing those hundreds of wealthy, powerful, mostly commercial enterprise people who are exploiting all of this to their advantage. It is wicked as all get out, but what do you do. Can we still see if at least that one thing can happen though -- summarily ending that relationship with gambling interests? Maybe when enough people see how much it compromises the integrity of the game then maybe it will happen.

2. Call it out. It is amazing how little is said about this situation especially from those whose voice would be quite influential. But hey, I get it. As one wise person once said, when your salary depends on it, then "See no evil hear no evil speak no evil" is the rule of the day. Two of my favorite Chiefs sites, Arrowhead Pride and Arrowhead Addict have today said zero about any of this. The Chiefs Bleacher Report page which posts tweets like they are candy has also posted nothing about the officiating. Fortunately again there are tweets by the thousands out there calling out the horrific officiating in all the games where it occurred.

I will also add that we need to call it out when it is happening among non-officiating personnel. I have to tell you whenever I see Jerick McKinnon do as well as he did yesterday, it always makes me think about how Andy Reid so inexplicably failed to have him run like the wind against a three-man Bengals rush in the second half of that AFC Championship game last season. I already wrote about it in my blog last year, but I am convinced the NFL implicitly tells coaches and others to keep games close, you know, because those NFLers are paying a lot of money for all of this.

My hope is it gets to the point when people are calling for games to be voided -- even though I personally think no games ever should be voided no matter how much cheating was going on. Catch the cheating when it is happening and stop it before teams benefit from it. That's the solution, but I do think it has to come from enough principled fans calling it out and making it obvious.

3. Get the NFL to put those two officials in the booth with monitors. Even if no one quite sees all of this happening, and even if we all believe it is merely officials just missing calls, one thing that can happen that is the easiest thing in the world to do is get those original play-call officials in the booth with monitors to see these things clearly, immediately wire down to the on-field officials, and make the right call.

Easy examples, from yesterday's game, the in-booth officials:

"That PI call you made against Sneed? Didn't happen, pick up your flag. 4th down Texans. Good stop for those Chiefs, don't be the official that determines outcomes especially with calls like that that shouldn't be made."

"That fumble you think Smith-Schuster had? Nope, he regained control of the ball before he was body-slammed to the turf. Make that a possession Chiefs, and tack on the 15 yards for unnecessary roughness against the Texans. And that other call you made against McKinnon there on the same play? Not. That's not the infraction you think it is, sorry. Pick up that flag too."

"Pacheco did have a facemask penalty against him, address that now, get the Chiefs that penalty yardage. We know you may have missed it but, well, it's hard to see how because his helmet was pulled right off his head. Come on guys."

4. Pray for the players, all of them. This is one of the most important of all. Poor officiating is worst not when it affects game outcomes but when it threatens the health and physical well-being of the players. I actually fear for our Chiefs players when the officiating is so one-sided and they don't make the calls against actions that truly hurt our players. A few weeks ago JuJu was hammered as a defenseless receiver, suffered a concussion, had to sit out a game, and the defender was even fined later.

But there was no call on the field. This was absolutely inexcusable, it was inexcusable regarding yesterday's incidents, and again that no meaningful media organization of whatever stripe is contributing to the outcry about this is reprehensible.

So yes, besides calling these things out, please be in prayer for the safety and well-being of the players out there, all of them. Yes I do very much know it is a violent sport, but I am in favor of every precaution that can be made to protect them, even the ones so extreme that it leads to fans blithering about how soft the game has become. Officiating like we saw yesterday does not help.

I will add in that profoundly spiritual sense that along with prayers it is good to have an eternal perspective about all of this. For one it is best to accept that inherent in the game is need to keep all fans happy -- 17 straight Chiefs Super Bowl victories doesn't do that. The best fans are happy when the other team wins and their fans get to enjoy what we've got to enjoy. The thing is, that happens best when we all know the game was fairly and evenly called.

In the end God wins anyway, no matter what. This is besides the point that all this is just a game. It's entertainment. All this is just thrilling diversion, even this whole discussion about it, keeps us engaged, interacting with one another. For anything that is of value it is always nice to see players themselves treat it all that way -- after games they smile and give good-game handshakes to one another, and some even gather at midfield and pray, players from both teams giving God glory thanking Him for all our blessings. Very cool.

5. Encourage what Brett et al are doing. This is the main Chiefs-oriented thing that can be done to address the NFLer's competitive duplicity. Just enjoy Brett Veach and his staff working their tails off to make our team as good a team as they can. I do believe that Brett knows somehow, someway, that the duplicity is working against him and his team, and he fights it by doing what he does best -- putting together a competitive team that not only has to confront the other fine teams on the field but also the NFLer insidious duplicity and the antagonistic officiating that goes with it. 

In some ways it makes sense why so few are complaining about the officiating issue. In a very perverse way it is there because that's what they want. And in that sense it has made it that much more of a motivating factor to get Brett et al to work that much harder because they know what they're up against. In a way it makes our success that much more appreciated. 

There is no way we can't be proud of the Chiefs success. We just got our 7th straight AFC West title, only two other teams in NFL history have had such an achievement. We have two very significant Super Bowl wins, the last one of the AFL and the confirmation (after the Jets win the year before) that Lamar Hunt's league was for real and could compete just as well against the NFL teams; and the one on the 100th anniversary of the NFL and 60th of the start of the AFL. Both were wins for the ages, everyone knows about Hank Stram's "Matriculating the ball down the field" performance in the 4th one, and the Chiefs 21-point 4th quarter comeback in the 54th one stands alone among them all.

There are so many Chiefs Kingdom things to be proud of no matter what happens that is ugly and rotten and wicked no one seems to care to do anything about. 

Again, in many ways overcoming those things makes being a Kingdom member that much better.

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Here're those tweets, by the way, as part of this blog effort to call it out. (Will add that I know none of these individuals. I don't see why I can't simply reproduce them here since on Twitter they are open about sharing their identities in whatever form they choose to share.) It is easy to see there are so many who see exactly what I see -- it isn't hard actually.

I cannot neglect to add this excellent tweet from Jason Whitlock related to the Commanders officiating debacle, this one speaking to another factor that is wrecking the game and one I also addressed in a post at the end of last season.

One more! I know I'm adding this a bit after posting this, but I can't neglect to include this one. Again, I'm not the only one thinking these things, seeing what's going on:

Chiefs at Texans - Week 15 - Record: 11-3

Yes, I do think we now have a problem with our kicker. This many misses especially on extra points or even more critically on very-close-game field goals is just getting a bit concerning...

But that's really not the issue.

Yes, I do think we have a serious problem with our pass rush -- I've said before I think Brett should draft a front seven guy with each one of his picks next year. Okay, okay, extreme, but we are just not getting to the passer.

But again that's really not the issue.

The real issue is the NFL and its wretched officiating. I'm not even saying the officiating is necessarily bad, I'm just saying it is wretched because they make calls against the Chiefs that are either egregiously bad, negatively affect our chances to win a game, or both.

That is wretched.

I saw a posted message on social media from a Chiefs fan kind-of-guy who said every fan thinks the refs are against their team. Yeah, I understand that, but, well, it's worse for the Chiefs because we all know the NFL hates our team.

Some will say "How can that be when we have one of the most marketable football stars ever in Patrick Mahomes and he and his team are featured all the time in prime-time and all and they all seem to like that?"

No, the NFL just wants the Chiefs not to win games by so many points if they do win, or if they can to get them to lose a few more times so they'll be kept back in the pack keeping things more competitive. This is besides the fact that KC is a podunk prairie town that is not New York Boston Los Angeles or Dallas. This is a point made many times before and I know not everyone agrees, but I do think it has a great deal of veracity -- something I've also elucidated quite a bit in this blog effort.

Today was no different.

Any time the slightest offense could be called against the Chiefs, it was. A number of times the Texans messed with us in some major way, it wasn't called. I could spend much more time on this and share a number of instances of both.

Here was a classic example. 

About halfway into the third quarter, with the game still very close, JuJu gets a pass and after a step or two he is lifted off the ground and slammed to the turf. Penalty flag flies. Good thing, total unnecessary roughness call against those guys. A chance for me to give the NFL a "good guy" kudos for actually insisting the officials protect our players. Okay.

Umm...

Turns out the penalty was on Jerick McKinnon for an illegal block, one that looked perfectly legal but they nailed him on not putting his hands up for the block but instead slightly hunching over to make it some kind of dangerous block -- even though he was straight up facing the defender and the defender saw him right there in front of him the whole way. The announcers described it as such, as did the television officiating expert they regularly consult. It was about as ticky-tack as you can get.

Not the end of the story.

Turns out JuJu ever-so-slightly had the football come loose while high in the air before being body slammed to the turf, except that -- here's the key part -- he regained control of the ball securely before actually losing it when his body crashed to the ground. At first JuJu was just down there, as he should have been -- you know, ground can't cause a fumble, all that -- except Houston challenged that ruling and won. The announcers and the television officiating expert seemed to feel it was a fumble, and the call reversal was justified, and all the rest of it. Nonsense.

Not only was it now Houston's football, but they got an added 15 yards to boot. Whuttt... It should have been our ball with an added 15 yards for us.

"Oh but that's just an interpretation. They all even out."

No, they don't. And while the Chiefs players and coaches and personnel and other fans who like to join them can say things like "Don't blame the refs," I can, and I think I have very good reasons to.

My attitude right now is this. It is one about which I've shared many times before, but I must calcify it in the depths of my soul.

I like my team. I like Patrick Mahomes and his phenomenally tenacious play and winning attitude which rubs off on everyone else. I like all our offensive weapons even if none of them are Tyreek Hill. I even like my team's defense even though I know about its inadequacies yet will never criticize them in the way many have criticized people like Juan Thornhill. I will also always appreciate a fairly fought pro football contest if evenly and justly called even to the point of my team itself not being given any undue favorable calls by refs because I don't want to have any such advantages because those would compromise the integrity of my own team's win.

The main point is I simply must keep my emotions in check when it comes to our chances in the postseason, simply because it is obvious what is against us. The Chiefs have hosted four straight AFC Championship games. Are you absolutely effing with me, that is unreal. Some television pundits have been given to call it the "Arrowhead Invitational," how wonderfully unreal is that.

But it is wonderfully unreal enough to the NFL to do things to try to spread the wealth around to the other teams. 

We did win this game, indeed. It was neat to see us get the most significant turnover of the game, in overtime deep in Texans territory, and then watch Jerick McKinnon jet into the end zone from some 20+ yards out to win it.

The thing is it shouldn't have been this close, against this team in their present situation. For the 57th time this was made much closer than it needed to be thanks to the NFL and its consideration of unchecked Chiefs success.

I guess I should just cool my jets, but that's a lot of what I'm saying here. Maybe all the crap afflicting our team is a good thing because a nifty overtime win is always way more exciting than a 48-3 blowout.

And a win is a win.

Do you know that besides clinching our 7th straight divisional title today (which we would have done sometime coming up here even if we'd lost today) we've had ten straight winning seasons? I'd posted about this before -- that we'd had two other nine-straight-winning-season stretches. Two others! This one makes three! Hard to believe that the Chiefs can really be counted as one of the most successful franchises in NFL history -- what with our 70s team and our most-of-the-80s and most-of-the-00s teams.

I know I've shared this graphic before, but I'm posting it again here. Eighth best ever. Pretty cool no matter how much the NFL hates us...

Which of course makes it all that much better.

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The image of Jerick McKinnon is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Texans at Chiefs - Week 1 - Record: 1-0

Can the Chiefs be any more dominant this year? Everyone had an inkling Clyde Edwards-Helaire would be special, but wow. 138 yards rushing on 25 carries, and I don't even think he caught a pass -- maybe one if I remember when he picked up eight or nine yards. What will it look like when he does the other thing he's supposed to be very good at -- catching passes.

Oh my.

His touchdown run was an ankle-breaking sensation. He got a crease then juked two guys out of their shorts to get free. Our O-line played splendidly as well, just sealing off linemen to give CEH his space. They were speaking all night about an Andy Reid team just never running the ball -- I think they displayed a stat that said the Chiefs were the lowest run percentage team ever to win a Super Bowl.

When you've also got Patrick Mahomes there, no wonder. He was his standard excellent self, throwing a touchdown pass to Kelce first, then Watkins, then later in the game ice it.

I mean. We have a phenomenal embarrassment of riches.

Ah, to be a Chiefs fan.

And the Chiefs actually allowed fans in the stands, and the some 17,000 who were there were making noise. It was wonderful.

There are a number of things I could add to this post about our delightful opener win, but I will share something right now about the whole political thing. I actually DVR'ed this one for the first hour simply because I didn't want to have to endure looking at a bunch of coronavirus hysteria stuff (needless masks, pointless spacing, unnecessarily empty seats) and racialist insanity (slogans & PSAs telling me about how racist I'm supposed to be). I did fast forward past a lot of it, at times I did happen to catch a couple seconds of the racialist stuff before I hit FF, and I do know about all the grandstanding they did at the start of the game.

But to be honest, it did seem to be toned down. The painted and pasted on slogans were not as brazenly exhibited. I really think they toned it down a bit because they know how questionable it is to basically give the finger to so many who pay these players' salaries. That is encouraging. 

To be honest, I think it was awesome to see Patrick Mahomes wear a Negro League jersey at the postgame presser. Kansas City is proud to have downtown the Negro League Museum, and there is no reason we should not celebrate the accomplishments of those players in the face of the discrimination they faced. I totally understand that. Not going to get into it now, but let's hope more is in the mix to address the disadvantaged than just meaningless on-field demonstrations and lethal Marxist-oriented suggestions which if implemented only make anyone and everyone's lives so much worse.

For the bulk of it, however, an extraordinarily fun evening. The anticipation for Chiefs greatness just continues even further beyond 02/02/2020. How fun is this ride.

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The photo of CEH is by Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Texans at Chiefs - Divisional Playoff Game

It looked as though the first of the Four Horseman of the Football Apocalypse would kill us before this one even started. Without Chris Jones in there due to a calf injury, it looked exceptionally grim. That ugly playoff spell that always seems to hover over Arrowhead was quite thick.

We were down 24-0 before you could even breathe. It wasn't just one crazy-ass insane play to do us in, it was dozens.

To wit:

They scored a TD quickly when they ran a play that totally faked us out. We're down 7-0. On the second play of our offensive effort, we got a false start against us. Then Kelce drops the pass and suddenly we had a 3-&-out. Right away they blocked the punt and ran in for a touchdown. We're now down 14-0. Everyone in the Kingdom is shellshocked.

Sure enough, all that's pounding in my head: Something about Arrowhead. 3-8 Chiefs record overall at home in the playoffs. What - is - that...

It didn't stop. We had another dropped pass on 3rd down. When they got the ball again we stopped tackling. Carlos Hyde, who as you remember was on the Chiefs at the beginning of the year, was chewing us up on the ground.

We finally got them to punt -- yay! -- but then, ::ngnck:: Tyreek Hill dropped the punt and they recovered. He never drops punts. Never. They follow with another TD. When the 2nd quarter started they added a field goal making it 24-0. I'm just thinking, no Jones, no Juan Thornhill -- we're just dead.

But the difference is we still have Patrick Mahomes. Not to single him out as unbelievably skilled as he is, because our entire team rose up -- and that ugly Arrowhead playoff thing? We did nothing other than kick its ass. 

It really started with Mecole Hardman's strong kick return. Kelce got untracked with a super catch & run, followed immediately by a nifty snatch of a pass at the hip by Damien Williams for the TD.

The Texans were then stopped, and they tried a run on a fake punt that Daniel Sorensen snuffed out.

At that point, we just took over. We started catching everything, especially Kelce who even when he was double-teamed was even forcing them to commit PIs or holding penalties. I mean I thought that one baaad thing that would hurt us the most would be some baaad officiating on a PI call. No, our receiving crew is so dominant that the Texans D-backs couldn't help but PI us all the time.

After that harrowing start, we put a 41-spot up on them.

Final score, 51-31. After being down 24-0, we blasted them 51-7. In fact I later discovered that the Chiefs actually ran out of fireworks to shoot into the air after touchdowns, we'd scored so many in such a short period of time. Wow, how about that.

And really, give credit to our defense, who put pressure on Watson just enough to keep him from doing too much damage. Steve Spagnuolo, what a blessing it is to have him in there calling things. And the fans did their job too! Decibel Up was also in the mix of keeping Watson in check.

I'm not going to post as much as I did back in 2015 when we all went bananas after we beat the Texans that time. This post is going to be pretty simple, for now. I may add some later, and perhaps include a preview post sometime this week. But I wanted to add just one more thing.

At one point around the beginning of the 4th quarter, just after our splendid quarterback had another of his extraordinarily nice pass completions -- this one to Sammy Watkins for a huge gain to the Houston 8 -- the camera showed a closeup of Mahomes face as he ran down to the gained line. He was looking to the Chiefs sideline.

It was just so much the look of a winner who will take care of business no matter what.

Call it "The Mahomes Look." He promptly followed that up with another TD pass to Blake Bell. They were saying at that point we'd set an NFL record of seven consecutive touchdown drives. Cool.

Next week we've got a very difficult challenge in facing Derrick Henry and those Titans again for the shot at the Super Bowl. Again more on all that later. For now, how sweet is this...

How very sweet it is to watch our team be the one comfortably enough ahead with a minute left...

How so very very nice...

We get to watch our team kneel to end it.
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Special thanks to Chris Donahue, Ben Green, and Steve Sanders for the photographs at the Chiefs official website.
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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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Chiefs at Texans - Week 5 - Record: 5-0

It is indeed a wonderful wonderful thing that the Chiefs are being showcased so much on primetime television. I remember back in around 2012 I tried to track how few times we appeared in these kinds of games. I never got a conclusive number over the time period I examined, something like 2006-2012, but the Chiefs definitely did not appear very often.

Understandable. Most of the time they were a bad team in a small market, exceedingly not who the NFL powers-that-be wanted occupying one of the two premium prime-time ultra-revenue-generating slots on a Thursday, Sunday, or Monday night.

But since the Andy Reid-Alex Smith era, the Chiefs have actually become good. Really good.

So here we are on national television yet again.

Thing about that is, for the purposes of this weblog endeavor, it is hard to put in a post after the game. I've always just blogged my thoughts about Chiefs game day football after the game -- get the whole overview and put it into words I can share with a few fellow Chiefs fans readers.

But when there are all these primetime games, I simply cannot do that. I work very early the next morning every time there is a Thursday, Sunday, or Monday night primetime game. Huh. The fact I've always been able to blogpost after a game has been because we've rarely had this kind of attention. Now I've got to do more of this. Huh. Kinda nice actually.

Anyway, I thought I'd put down a little of a preview of tonight's game with the Houston Texans -- hey, it's still "Chiefs Game Today," it's just I'm remarking more about it beforehand. Again, I don't follow any of anything else but Chiefs -- although I do confess as I have frequently before, my sports radar still picks up things here and there. But what I know is this.

Last year we played an early game against the Texans in Houston and did pretty miserably -- it was one of our four losses on the year. Alex Smith had a terrible day, much because Houston's defense has been very good -- from what I hear.

I know they've got a solid defensive line, yet another good one this season our offensive line has to address. They have super-DE J.J. Watt, and while I don't know how good he is I can't imagine No. 1 overall pick from a few years ago Jadeveon Clowney isn't really good.

I've also heard brand spankin' new QB Deshaun Watson is doing phenomenally -- this is the guy picked in the draft this year right after the Chiefs snatched Pat Mahomes. The Texans also have that fine WR DeAndre Hopkins. I know of no other weapons they have on offense, but I'm sure they're helping Watson be very good for such a youngster. In fact I also caught that they clobbered the Titans last week, scoring 57 points against them. Wow.

With all this Texans information in mind, I'm just not sure we'll be able to keep up our perfect record, honestly. Yes we have the playmakers -- yes, we've got Smith and Kelce and Hill and now this Hunt kid. But I'm very nervous about our makeshift offensive line holding off their defense. I'm also nervous about a defensive backfield that is playing way over their heads -- no Eric Berry, no Steven Nelson... Will our fine play back there continue? And the pass pressure is muted by not having Dee Ford in there, and I'm wondering why we're not going with the rookies Tanoh Kpassagnon and/or Ukeme Eligwe.

Andy likes to bring in his youngsters gradually, so having a cushy 4-0 record gives him a window not to rush guys, that may be okay.

Thing is this is definitely one of the distinct edges the Chiefs have.

Andy Reid.

It appears he's doing some of the best coaching of his career right now. Really, he's got the game planning going (all the misdirection), the stamina going (the finishing games late), the Alex Smith talent unleashed (the playmaking in the clutch).

Let's see how this all plays out with a few in-game notes as we go.

1st qtr. Chiefs 3-0. We had a nice drive to open the game and got a field goal. They got the ball and moved a bit but we got them to punt. We now have the ball again at about mid-field yet the Texans have thoroughly stuffed Kareem Hunt. They're actually tackling him, doing a good job on the initial push and wrapping him up.

Thing is, J.J. Watt and another of their significant defensive players have been injured and may not return. Watt messed up his knee on a simple rush with little contact. The Houston stadium has that ugly artificial tar-bit-peppered field, which I think should be outlawed. Any artificial turf field just makes it too likely somebody like Watt is going to having something awful to a knee or something.

Aside from our running game being stuffed our passing game is fantastic so far. It isn't just because of those Texans' defenders being absent. Smith has been making terrific connections all game long, converting a number of tough 3rd downs with laser sharp passing.

Halftime. Chiefs 23-7. The Texans' ability to get their running backs deep into the 2nd level is disturbing. They just had a drive in which they got down the field just running the ball right at us. Our D-line isn't doing the job and our linebackers are being stressed. That set up an easy touchdown pass from Watson to Hopkins.

We did get a nice drive that concluded in a Smith-to-West touchdown pass, and have dominated time-of-possession.

On our side of the ball Travis Kelce is having his way out there. Right at the end of the 1st half he made more big plays getting us deep into Houston territory, on one deep catch he got the penalty flag after some Texans D-back did a helmet-to-helmet. He's then had to go into the concussion protocol, though, so that isn't good.

We finished the half with another nice touchdown catch for Charcandrick! This was all him, taking the swing pass at about the 10 and weaving around to get into the end zone.

And how about the Standing-Line-Pointing Play! On one play half of our O-linemen were standing with their fingers pointing at defenders but perfectly still to be set, then the ball is snapped to Smith who swings a pass to Hunt who runs for a 1st down. All Andy Reid...

3rd qtr. Chiefs 23-13. Houston scored another touchdown on some nifty Deshaun Watson improvisation close to the goal line.

Just as the quarter closes here, though, Tyreek Hill makes the play of the game so far when on 3rd-&-16 he catches a bomb from Smith barely getting both feet inside the sideline.

So we're deep in Houston territory as the 4th opens, still a ball game, and while I must say our offensive proficiency is really really good tonight especially with the pass, our defense is being not-as-stout as it should be. Our D-line isn't getting the push it needs and our linebackers aren't a shut-down unit tonight. Our D-backs are holding their own but Houston hasn't been throwing the ball down the field and they haven't even had the ball a whole lot to begin with.

Notice we did not score at all in that quarter. A lot of that? Travis Kelce has not returned. This is definitely a concern.

End of the game. Chiefs 42-34. This was too close until...

Andy Reid and Tyreek Hill happened.

When it got toooo close at 26-20, Andy Reid turned on the jet sweep stuff and it all finished up with a nice De'Anthony Thomas sweep touchdown.

Then our defense put up their standard 4th quarter resilience forcing Houston to punt, right to Tyreek Hill who made the first tackler miss and after that --

See ya!

Really, the thing that got us all these points was our offensive line giving Alex Smith splendid pass protection so he could perform his marvels. Tonight was a showcase night for us all to behold the real talents Smith has when he has the fine coaching, the exceptionally skilled players around him, and the time to make things happen behind the line.

To our defense's credit, Houston's touchdowns came with amazing plays made in spite of fine coverage. One of their touchdowns was a bomb that Hopkins snatched in the end zone with our safety Ron Parker swatting it away only to have it drop right back into his hands.

Finally, when are the injuries going to end. More Texans went down, and we even lost Chris Conley to an ugly looking calf injury on a Texans on-side kick recovery in which, yes again on this turf, no one laid a hand on him.

So yeah, with a lot of other issues I have with the NFL, you can add my deep desire that they get rid of this turf thing, everywhere. They even said at the very end of game that Justin Houston has some kind of calf injury.

Good thing we're 5-0 because our schedule doesn't get any easier. I like it, but I'm concerned about our injuries to all these Chiefs players... really, to all the NFL players. I know there are other factors besides the turf, but there are things that can be done.

It can be made right, it can.
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Chiefs at Texans - Week 2 - Record: 1-1

That's Chiefs football. Chris Jones gets a hand on a late field goal attempt, partially blocking it, but it goes in anyway. Blocking it would have given us a chance, down only seven with three minutes left -- but yeah, the ball barely makes it over the crossbar. That gives them the 10-point lead.

Then Tyreek Hill, who's been the only real player on the day, takes the kickoff to the house, butttttttt...

Holding call against us.

That's Chiefs football.

So we go down to defeat 19-12, you mean it was that close? (Cairo Santos got one last FG with a minute left.)

The good news? The Texans defensive line had their way with us. Um... why is that good news? It is simply we didn't have our two starting guards because of injury, and I was hoping hoping hoping our backups, decent Zach Fulton and Jah Reid would be good.

They weren't. None of them were. Our O-line today was worthless. It's nice to think that a "stable" offensive line means a good one. I'm still not giving up on these guys, but the offense was a total mess today.

Missed receivers, critical drops, errant passes, and sack after sack after sack, penalty after penalty after penalty -- mistake after mistake after mistake.

The last time we lost a regular season game was last October against Minnesota. Wow, it's been nice since then. Thing is, this game was more like the Cincinnati game, remember that one? We could just never get untracked, kicking a lot of field goals -- Santos had four FG's in this one -- still losing.

More good news is the play of Spencer Ware and Charcandrick West. Those guys are actually doing pretty well. Our running game is fine, really. Then there's our special teams, and damnnn, Tyreek Hill. Very nice. Santos, punter Dustin Colquitt, our kick coverage team, they were the only thing worth anything.

Well, our defense did show up a few times, that's fine. Marcus Peters had a couple picks, that was nice.

But our passing game -- ::whimper::

Our receivers were nowhere. Jeremy Maclin was flustered. Chris Conley was non-existent. Albert Wilson was a non-factor. Reminded me of The Wide Receiver Project, and that's a very, very ugly thing, trust me.

And the turnovers. What a mess. It was just a mess, that's all.

It was simple. There is no question.

The Texans did not beat the Chiefs.

The Chiefs beat the Chiefs.

I still wonder, can this team really be an elite team? Can we have that got-it enough to be contenders? I mean it was nowhere today -- so disappointing. This is not a steady, strong team right now, I'm sorry.

Again, let's see what happens. Let's see if our O-line can be back to respectable. Let's see if our passing game can get back on track and Alex Smith can get back to not getting back to mistrusting his arm and his receivers.
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Chiefs Playoff Win - The Take, Part Five

The final post until Divisional Playoff Game action Saturday against the New England Patriots HOW GREAT IS THAT Kansas City Chiefs fans! (Here's the first of this set in case you want to start there.)

25-0. I really like Jon Gruden. He's the former Super Bowl winning coach (with the Buccaneers in 2002) who is now the color guy in ESPN's announcing team. He's just so exuberant and goofy, kind of today's John Madden.

At one point in the Texans game, sometime during the second half when we had a comfortable lead, he went off on how unbelievable the Chiefs were playing and how obscure some of their players were.

"Where did the Chiefs get these guys?" you know, that kind of thing. "Charcandrick West, where'd he come from? Look at this guy, and that guy [he names names] Who are these guys? And look at this -- check out this offensive line. They've got this guy playing here and that guy playing over there [more specific names mentioned] and they're playing terrific football."

As I beamed with pride for our beloved team, being celebrated so enthusiastically there by the top ESPN color guy, I thought of a couple things. Did you think these things?

That we're just sooo obscure and that its just sooo unbelievable that this piddly little team from some podunk town in some benighted midwestern place somewhere nobody else cares about would actually be playing truly exceptional, genuinely quality football. Huh, who'da thunk...

Should I be insulted? Even more, isn't this a plain indication that the Chiefs are simply never really considered seriously, especially by the eastern media snobbery who seem to take such affront that any team not a New York or Boston or Washington team would deign to be remotely competitive in a major professional team sports league?

My two sons (one is in college on winter break and the other works nights) told me two days after the game they spent two hours just chillin' watching Monday morning quarterback stuff on whatever sports station it was. They told me there was a ton of coverage about the all the other playoff games yet a scant couple of minutes on the Chiefs win. In fact, when the station boasted about their brief preview of the Chiefs-Patriots game, they ended up spending 90% of it on how great the Patriots were. It was so aggravating that they ditched the whole thing and just played video games.

Now I know two hours is not the most thorough sample, but it is indicative enough.

Whuh?

I know whuh.

It's because it's the Chiefs, "that obscure team from some podunk town..." well, you know the rest of their story. Never mind that the Chiefs have played miraculously this season, as we all know. Never mind that the rich character of the players in the midst of adversity (think Eric Berry, think Alex Smith, think a dozen other guys we could mention) should be justifiably showcased. Never mind that their 30-0 win deserved as much attention as the unseemly slugfest in Cincinnati, if not merely because no team has achieved a road playoff shutout since 1988.

I wonder what to think. I could think, as I usually do, that we're getting shafted, and think, "Hey, media blowhards, give the Chiefs a little cred!"

Or, how about I just ride with it?

How about we just let people be surprised by our accomplishments, simply because they've never seen us before? I'm great with that. It's always neat to find something new and exciting, and maybe people being introduced to the Chiefs this way will be the thing that gets us the most meaningful cred. And really, we've already got it whether or not people notice, so who cares?

The not-so-great thing has to do with the stuff that the powers-that-be/media-darling-exploiters do to manipulate things in their favor. Here's what I heard one sports item somewhere (I forget where) declare...

26-0. "Will we see one more Brady-vs-Manning matchup?"

Sorry, but this stuff is criminal. Sure it's all entertainment. Sure they're trying to draw the viewers. I get that. And yes I know they would have to go out of their way to unfairly mess with competitive integrity to make something like that happen, and no matter how much they try, it is hard to do. Yes, I'm afraid I do give them the benefit of the doubt -- they have to understand that to deliberately work a game to acquire some kind of outcome is indeed ultimately going to drive people from the game because they know it isn't all on the up-and-up.

I mean, really, why should I root for the Chiefs if I know the system has stacked it all against us? I do indeed stay and cheer on the Chiefs because I know there is enough there to keep the integrity intact. Do officials make calls that favor the home team or the darling teams? Yes, they do, it's been proven they do. (Check out the book Scorecasting for more.) Is it done with diabolically prearranged intentions? I don't think so, but sometimes I've had my doubts.

The last time we had a Divisional Playoff Game was 2003 against the Colts. But the time before that? Know when that was? 1997 season, against Denver. We all know so well how that went. More on that after Saturday if it merits mention.

For now I should add that I still kind of keep my Chiefs rooting interest healthy because I feel that the Chiefs are better served when they know what they're up against and employ the best football play to beat it. That's a lot of what makes this special. (See the video at the end of the third post in this series. It says everything.)

So yeah, we're not only facing the Patriots on Saturday, but we're facing all the east coast favoring biased media manipulation crap that goes with it. It will take a Herculean effort to take on that.

Our Chiefs have it to get it done.

27-0. One brief mention must be made of this, something that made me especially proud.

Seeing Clark Hunt up in the booth at the Texans stadium. It was at a point when the Chiefs were comfortably ahead, and they showed that gratuitous shot from every playoff game of the owners, enjoying things up there in their boxes. You know, you always see the Robert Krafts and Dan Rooneys and Jerry Joneses up there, all the time.

Wow. To see Clark there, finally, on the left half of the screen with the Texans owner on the right, it was just neat. I do firmly believe a lot of the Chiefs success right now is because of him, and it was good to see him get a good six seconds of recognition.

28-0. Now, to the facet of the game that gets its share of mentions, but not like this one.

Special teams.

When they talked about how the Chiefs won with "three phase" football, sure there's offense and defense, but damn.

Yes we need good play from the offense. Yes we need good play from the defense. Got all that. They get their proper respect, yes, it's all good.

But I'm going to go ahead and say it, say something that may be a bit radical.

This Chiefs special teams unit controls the game.

Do you know what I'm saying when I say that? They control the game. They actually take the reigns of the entire rhythm of the game's progression, and put it in a stranglehold that fully favors the Chiefs.

One of the Chiefs main weapons is field position, and you barely hear a thing about that. But do you notice that more times than not the opponent's offense is starting drives deep inside their 20, while the Chiefs are starting drives around their 30 or 40? It happens all the time. The most instrumental reason that happens is our special teams.

One, Dustin Colquitt. I've said time and time again how valuable this guy is. On Saturday he looked to be in his standard future Hall-of-Fame punter form -- yes, I think the guy should be in the Hall, though punters, regrettably, are rarely considered. He was pinning the Texans back deep at their end every time he punted (which wasn't much in this game, granted) and that gives the defense that much more of an edge.

Two, Knile Davis. Now I mention his name, but the entire kick return team's names should be here because they opened a lane as wide as the Grand Canyon for him to sprint through on the opening kickoff. Know how many times they returned a kick on Saturday? Easy question. Answer, one. Thing is, when they do, they run it out. I like that. Any time a team gets a kick they can even remotely run back, they should. Don't down it in the end zone! You're not even trying when you do that! The Chiefs run it out, that's awesome.

Three, Cairo Santos. We already mentioned the field goals, but want to know something amazing? When Andy Reid gave his official post game remarks Saturday, he made mention of a single Chiefs player, then he fielded questions. Know who it was?

Cairo Santos. Guh? He he was mentioned because on the seven kickoffs we had, Santos got a touchback on every single one. 7-for-7. Reid knows the value of that field position edge, and Santos got us that edge every single time.

Not only do we have an incisive, grinding offense led by a smart, agile quarterback, not only do we have a defense that smothers the passing game and deftly contains the run, but we have a special teams unit that controls the game.

Very nice.

29-0. It's about time we got a playoff win after having a season in which the Chiefs sent a bunch of guys to the Pro-Bowl. This year it was Justin and Tamba and Eric and Marcus and Travis. Alex and D.J. were named alternates. Sean and Dontari and Jeremy should've been named. There is just no way a team that gets that many guys into the Pro Bowl can go another year without winning in the playoffs, no way.

Remember when the Kansas City Royals had almost every member of its team voted to the major league baseball All-Star Game this past summer? Everyone went apoplectic. Their All-Star Game is in the middle of the year. Well, turns out the team won the World Series in October, if you didn't notice.

I mention the Royals because few teams I've ever witnessed play baseball had as much Got-It as those guys did. Sure I'm biased, okay. But they still had record levels of Got-It.

Remember when the Chiefs won the first game of their current 11-game winning streak? Against the Steelers at Arrowhead on that sunny October 25 day? The Royals had just won the American League pennant, and guess what.

Several players came to the game.

Just want to thank you, Royals, for giving us that extra measure of Got-It.

It's awesome to keep enjoying it deep into January.

30-0. This has been fun. Blogging like crazy about this team. Just sharing with everyone the joy of  riding the arrowhead pride wave.

Again, the focus this year is the joy. The joy of seeing these guys go to the mat with devotion and dedication, soaring out of the ashes of despair, of facing death in the face as Eric Berry did. To go to battle with the thoughts and prayers in all of our hearts for people like De'Anthony Thomas, here's to hoping things are well with him.

Oh I do so want to watch the Chiefs beat the Patriots on Saturday, don't get me wrong. But as of now we're one of the best teams in the AFC, holding our own among the premier teams of this football era -- Denver, New England, Pittsburgh -- how much prouder can you be?

Just seeing them take the field on Saturday...

What pride we will feel.

Except, the greatest thing...

They're not done.

The Chiefs players and coaches, they've got unfinished business.

Awesome.
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Chiefs Playoff Win - The Take, Part Four

Whew! This is hard, blogging like crazy about something you're impassioned about. I'd love to post Chiefs things all the time -- when we win a playoff game, it's maniacal! I've got family obligations pulling me in one direction (a wonderful thing actually!), then I've got work obligations pulling me in another direction -- I don't have time! I think I'm being reminded somehow that I've got to respect the sports celibacy, which, yes, I do manage to sustain for long periods of time.

But dang.

The baseball Royals are winning and are champions. The basketball Warriors are winning and are champions. Now the Chiefs are making their run. It is the golden age for my favorite professional sports teams -- I'm overwhelmed, but yes, in a very good way!

So right now I do have a few minutes. I get to pound out more of the 30-0 score items from Saturday. Again, in no particular order, with the exception of shifting things around a bit for a little continuity. Other than that, it's freestyle placement, which means really, you can just start here and scroll to gorge on all things Postseason Chiefs. (Otherwise, here's Part One, then Part Two, then Part Three.)

On with more of 30-0...

18-0. I thought I'd get to some items related to the Texans game itself. Situational issues, really, about how we did in particular situations.

On defense there were a couple of times the Texans had 3rd and 10 and I was just hoping hoping hoping we could stop them. I really think I had nightmarish visions of the 2003 season's Divisional game when we never stopped the Colts on 3rd and long, and that truly cost us. Today I didn't have to worry.

Besides the four interceptions, on these particular 3rd-and-10 situations I made note of, Eric Berry had a terrific pass defense on one, and Husain Abdullah had one on the other. Needless to say, with the four picks, our pass defense was in fine form, and that's encouraging. We've got Tom Brady on Saturday.

The offense was more of a concern, when a number of times we had 3rd and short and failed. A couple of times we unimaginatively ran the ball on the short side of the field and got stuffed. The first two field goals off those failures were both virtual carbon-copy 49-yarders that Cairo Santos hit splendidly.

19-0. Those field goals. To a large extent they were more instrumental in demoralizing the Texans than I think people have felt they were. Some say the game was over when Davis got us the kick return TD 11 seconds in. But when Santos kept hitting those long field goals, it whittled away the Texans morale considering how well we were playing on defense.

You must know that it reminded me of Jan Stenarud's 48-yard field goal against the Vikings, a first-score kick that set the tone for Super Bowl IV. The Vikings realized that the Chiefs only had to move the ball to mid-field and they'd score -- remember, the goal posts were on the goal line back then.

BTW, there is another critically important note about our special teams, but that is reserved for a 30-0 score bullet point of its own. Stay tuned!

20-0. What is happening with Jeremy Maclin? Yes, everyone held their breath when he went down. We all thought the worst, that his ACL was gone.

Well how about that: ACL intact. He does have an ankle sprain, and they're saying he may be able to go Saturday. We could definitely use him, but I think we'll be fine if he's not out there. Chris Conley has been accelerating his mastery of the system, and Frankie Hammond and Jason Avant are capable. We have good receiving backs in West and Davis also.

To be honest with you, the injury situation of Justin Houston and Tamba Hali is of more concern to me. Houston appeared to wrench his knee at one point and we were all gasping watching him limp off the field. Sure he returned, sure he said he was rusty, but I'm wondering if he's really 100%. I mean yeah, he isn't 100%, we know that, but we'll need him to be less rusty on Saturday.

21-0. The play that gave me the first major spark in my heart that we were going to win this game came when the Texans had the ball on our two-yard line and -- no, it wasn't when their QB threw the interception to Josh Mauga, it was the play before that, do you remember what it was? -- the Texans had the ball on our two-yard line and...

J.J. Watt came in to run the wildcat. It wasn't even that he was ruthlessly stuffed at the line, but that the Texans were trying this at all. Here they are down 13-0, and they brashly try to pan off this play as worth a dime. They couldn't utilize their well-oiled regular offensive weapons, so they have to try this gimmick. As the following play demonstrated, even their well-oiled machinery was pretty much conked out.

22-0. The whole approach to all of this was, and continues to be, so different than during that first week of January, 2014. Remember that? Remember the abject despondency? Even before that game I was screaming about how much we deserved to beat the Colts. It was only when I came to that moment of acceptance afterwards did any of this truly mean something. I don't know if that means anything to you. If you are an old grizzled Chiefs fans like I am, I think it does.

Here's the link to the post I made back then about the acceptance, and then there is this final post concluding with a photograph I made of the stunning Chiefs red sky the morning of Tuesday the 7th. Yes each post still begins with the viscerally scorching attempts to figure it all out, but that's what we do. That's what we all do with everything that is meaningful in life. Nothing wrong with that.

The key though is the acceptance.

This year it was different, the whole approach to this game was just different. After work this past Friday, the afternoon before the Texans game, I'd actually picked up a philosophy book at the library and the first quote in the thing was from Epicurus: "Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for." Now it wasn't as if I hadn't adopted this into my psyche for all this, but this merely confirmed it. It was nice, and so profoundly relevant to Chiefs anything.

They're in the playoffs for cryin' out loud -- how awesome is that. Just revel in it.

I then went out on my regular Friday afternoon walk, my mind filled with the acceptance project and prayers filled with joy about what is meant to be. Along the way even happened to hear Incubus' Drive on the radio: "Whatever tomorrow brings I'll be there, with open arms and open eyes..."

While walking I looked up and saw this sunset. It was as if Eric Berry's arrow shot into the sky lit it up with that deep cherry Chiefs red.

Later that night went for more walking, through my Beats headphones listening to Michael Manring's Welcoming -- absolutely transcendent music. Along with other songs from that classic Windham Hill collection, I also had streaming through my soul the last words of the 16th Psalm, "You will make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures in Your right hand."

Oh my, has God blessed us with Chiefs winning kinds of things.

It's good to just soak it up, right now, whatever happens later.

23-0. Nkay, on to the later. "No arriving allowed," I've also been reminding myself. "Further up and further in" as C.S. Lewis writes in The Last Battle of the rapturous sprinting toward the sublime.

On to face New England.

Because I do enjoy browsing the historical perspective with this blog, I can't neglect to bring up our postseason success against AFC East teams. Remember?

Not good.

Losses to Miami in '71, '90, and '94. Losses to Buffalo in '91 and '93. Loss to New York in '86. Make it the old AFC East throwing the Colts in with them and since Super Bowl IV we're 0-10 against the entire bunch.

Notice, however, which team is missing from this murderer's row?

Yeah, New England. We've never once faced the Patriots in the playoffs through all the years of the 50+ years of AFL-AFC football.

Many are saying we match up well against them. Sweet. But here are my brief Patriots-oriented concerns.

First, Bill Belichick is an expert at exploiting weaknesses and doing insanely sneaky things that work. There's a reason everybody is suspicious of them, what with deflategate and spygate and all that. He knows how to get into his opponent's heads, and he is a genius at getting away with it. Yes he's a good coach in his own right, but he has the psych game down. It isn't even just the off-the-field whack jobs he does, it's the on-the-field ones too, opportunely pulling out of his hat surprise tactics and edgy stuff that just works.

Second, the Patriots can attack a team quickly and mercilessly, and I'm kind of nervous about what will happen if the Chiefs get behind by a couple touchdowns. I don't know, but I really can't remember a time all season when we were behind by much except for the Green Bay and Cincinnati games, and it was like plowing a planet through drying concrete trying to get back into those suckers. Every single other game we were within reach or we were just flat-out firmly ahead for by however much and just grinded it.

Third, it should be a close game, and if it is, I'm also nervous about those stupid things returning to haunt the Chiefs that can happen in a close one. Tom Brady is flat-out phenomenal working things to get a close win late.

The things the Chiefs have going for them? To wit...

24-0. One of the obvious beat-downs against the Texans was in the battle for trench territory.

The Chiefs utterly dominated. On both sides of the football.

Games are indeed won by the team who wins at the line.

On offense it wasn't as pronounced as we struggled to run the football like we should. West made decent yardage, Ware a bit better. But considering the O-line was again racked with injuries -- Morse was already out with the concussion and Duvernay-Tardif went out with a concussion early in the game, we actually did really well. Tackle Jah Reid came in nursing his own injury and played guard, and did extraordinarily well considering. Here's to hoping Andy Reid continues spreading his O-line guru wisdom all over this crew.

On defense it wasn't even funny. The sacks, the pressure -- the Chiefs D-line is huge and quick and smart and our All-Pro edge guys are getting healthy -- this is the real key to beating New England. There were a number of plays Dontari Poe made that have been justly awarded glowing commentary, but one I think about was when he was blatantly held bulling his way right up the gut into the face of the quarterback, and a penalty flag flew. Good, they called it. But the call was holding against one of our D-backs. The officials had to have known the only way the Texans would even have a chance is if they hit the Chiefs with the ticky-tac fouls. And they did so more than once.

See, this is the key. When the New York Giants inexplicably won the Super Bowl in 2011 from a 9-7 regular season record, I thought, "That's inexplicable!" That was until I took a closer look at what they had and how they played in the playoffs. Turned out to be very 'splicable.

And those three key things are things the Chiefs have in spades right now.

1. A versatile head coach in Andy Reid.
2. A resourceful quarterback in Alex Smith.
3. A ferocious pass rush in Justin Houston et al.

That's what'll get us the W this Saturday.

Oh, and know what team the Giants defeated that January day in 2012? Remember?

The Patriots.

A handful of neat items to come in this blog post series! I just have to get to it tomorrow! See you then!
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