Chiefs at Raiders - Week 7 - Record: 3-3

Why is Todd Haley continuing to torment us all? Why why WHY?

I still really truly believe in the depths of my heart that this guy just flat-out cannot run a professional football team. And yet now he goes out there and really puts the screws to a decent Raiders team in our fourth road game in the first six of the season.

Granted the Raiders had a completely wretched quarterback situation. Their starter, Kyle Boller, came in to start after Jason Campbell was injured last week. He played abysmally. They had picked up traditionally studly QB Carson Palmer during the week, but he had no time to become familiar with the Raiders offense. He still came in half-way through and predictably was just as bad.

So yeah, the Chiefs got six interceptions on the day (yay!) but was it us, or was it their quarterback? I'd really like to think that our D-backs are as good as I've always said they were, but I don't know.

Why is Todd Haley doing this to us?

In fact, the radio guy today said that Scott Pioli was a nanosecond away from firing Todd Haley in the middle of the Colts game when we were down 24-7.

Grreat. Then we came back.

Then we go and win the thing outright.

Now Todd Haley is doing his "good coach" impersonation.

I'm going crazy, I really am.

We're already fully out of the Andrew Luck sweepstakes. Some half-dozen teams it seems are 0-6 or something as bad. Now we're amazingly a scant single game behind first-place San Diego, who we play next Monday night at home.

So what's it going to be Todd: a world championship (or at least for now, a splendidly inspired run at one), a 3-13 final record so that we may still get a remote shot at Andrew Luck, or -- are we going to end up with the worst of the worstest scenarios of all?...

A painfully underwhelming 8-8 record, a 17th pick in the draft to get someone who just can't help us (namely someone not Andrew Luck), and more absence from any playoff contention?

We still commit too many stupid penalties -- offsides, too many men on the field, excessive celebrations -- ergh these bug... are you paying attention Todd Haley? And Matt Cassel -- ergh. One minute he's doing something utterly spectacular, the next he's throwing a pass like the one where he had an eternity to throw the ball, and he lofts this balloon up for any of the 57 Raiders players, coaches, or fans to swoop under it and pick it off -- needless to say, one did.

Yes, I am quite cynical. That's just me. I only write because I'm a Chiefs fan and I want to see them win the Super Bowl. I know they do too. We all do, I'm saying nothing revolutionary here, I know. And hey, any time they beat the Raiders it is a cause for celebration.

I'm celebrating, I really am. I'm thrilled that we destroyed them in their yard.

But Todd Haley, sorry...

He's still driving me crazy...
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Chiefs at Colts - Week 5 - Record: 2-3

Yes, it's true. Todd Haley is driving me insane. Certifiably.

The guy should be fired, still, but he's now doing things that make it less and less likely that he'll be fired. Like:

Getting Matt Cassel and his wide receivers to work together to form a real passing offense. Haley's pick-up of Steve Breaston is now looking like an act of genius (aaagh!) because the guy has been such a stud for us. Yesterday both Bowe and Breaston had two TD catches apiece, and every time they've done their thing I've called them "beast," in the very positive sense quite often used these days. As I thought about it, it works on a different level, as in "B"-st, the letter "B" referring to the first letters of their names.

In fact yesterday Bowe had a catch in the endzone that'll be at the very top of the year's highlight reel, if it isn't already the catch of the year. He was running that patented out-pattern at the side of the endzone with Cassel tossing it up for him to grab. With the defender running into him (clear pass interference) he grappled for the ball behind the guy's back, juggled it a number of times, then snagged it as he fell to the turf.

Cassel himself showed yesterday his never-say-die approach to the game, bringing us back from a 17-0 and later 24-7 deficit. One play on our TD last drive exemplified his resolve. He ran out of the pocket, tucked the ball in, and didn't do the weinie QB slide -- instead he ducked his head and run forward for a couple more yards, getting hammered at the end of the play.

Our defense lit it up in the 2nd half as well, and this led my son to text me about something those close to what's going on with the Chiefs have started to point out. All that oppressive physical conditioning that Haley put the team through just before the season started is paying off now.

When we get to the second half, we are now dominating other teams that are tiring out. Come to think of it, yes, starting with the San Diego game, we've been playing very, very well in the 2nd half.

Now, can a 2nd half team be a contender? I still don't think so, not with this team. Remember, we still played a weak Colts team without Peyton Manning, and it was still very close.

And I still think Haley should go, except that he still did find a replacement for Jamaal Charles, for now anyway. Jackie Battle stepped in yesterday and played marvelously. And he is working out rearranging a defense that was designed around Eric Berry, and at least in the last three games it has played relatively decently.

Aaaagh! Todd Haley is making me crazy, that's all.
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Vikings at Chiefs - Week 4 - Record: 1-3

Okay, so let me get this straight. For Matt Cassel to have a fire lit under his rear end and play well, we need him to get into a sideline shouting match with Todd Haley after one of Haley's plays typically fails? Hey, I'm all in favor of the Bill Parcells style of kickin' player-ass to get them going, but I'm sorry.

I really think Haley has about three Super Bowl victories to go before he is in Parcells' class.

What got it done for the Chiefs today was a blending of all the things that got them into the playoffs last year.

They were, in no particular order:

- Cassel playing like the take-no-prisoners QB that he can be.

- Bowe having one of his patented phenomenal days, with his one beautifully wonderfully excellently touchdown play standing out (and it was indeed vintage Bowe because he bobbled the catch terribly before doing his geniusness on the field).

- Our defensive backs so in the face of the Vikings receivers that Flowers, Carr et al didn't have to take off their jerseys at the end of the game, they were already in the Vikings receivers mouths.

- Tamba Hali getting two clutch sacks and being all over Donovan McNabb like maggots on meat.

- Solid special teams play that included a long run-back on a punt from Gilbert Arenas, a booming 60+ punt from Dustin Colquitt, and five big-time field goals from Ryan Succup including two from 50 yards out.

What we also got were two bonuses that (gulp!) may give the Chiefs the ever-so slightest chance of being slightly competitive this year. (Oh I have no illusions about the slightest of slightosital nature of our chances -- they are still exceedingly slight...)

1. The fine play of another wide receiver. Steve Breaston has proven that he is not another Mark Bradley or Chris Chambers. He has been all over the field, making great plays (last week's catch against San Diego had to have been at the top of the highlight reel all week), and just being a very solid go-to guy when we need him.

2. Stalwart play from our defensive front. Can you believe it? I actually liked what I saw from Tyson Jackson today. And that was with Wallace Gilberry in there still doing better than Jackson. Our overall defensive scheme held super-back Adrian Peterson under 100 yards on the day, and that is really saying something.

Will I still give Todd Haley a break? Nah. Any team can beat any other team on any given Sunday. Today we got good performances from all our guys, at home, in a close contest, against a less-than-mediocre Minnesota team.

So the crusade still moves forward. We should still replace Haley with Jim Zorn (oh my -- don't get me wrong -- just for the rest of the season!) and find someone who'll

Get the job done every single week.
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Chiefs at Chargers - Week 3 - Record: 0-3

So can we fire Todd Haley now???

Do not let the close 20-17 score fool you. This was a disaster from start to finish, only made close because San Diego had their own injury problems and Norv Turner is still their head coach lousing things up on their side. The Chargers should've won this game 40-10, really. This is a good team that is woefully coached, and oh do we know about that.

Probably the most telling evidence today was the fact that we had to burn all three of our timeouts expressly because we simply couldn't get the right personnel on the field for the right plays, situations that are standard procedure for any team registered to play in the NFL.

We actually had a chance to actually pull this one out (I know! It would've been a miracle!) With a minute left, Haley called a screen pass that was thrown right into the hands of a defender. Screen passes are wonderful plays, especially when you've got a guy like Dexter McCluster, but they must be executed with the greatest precision. The one we tried on that last offensive play fell apart -- simply because Todd Haley cannot get this team to execute as it should.

Sure there are a lot of things that enter into the mix of a loss like this one. Our offensive line is not playing as well as I'd hoped. We're missing key scoring chances (Succup missed his third FG in as many games). We can't get fumbles to fall into our defenders hands. We can't get our teams to mesh at the same times (In the first half our offense stank but our defense played okay. In the second half our offense took off but our defense went soft... Sigh.)

Yes, our injury situation is awful, but it is made worse by the fact that it'll most likely be continued to keep being used as an excuse to keep Todd Haley around. Come on, every other play is a play that just goes haywire because the players look like they don't know what they're supposed to be doing out there.

But hey. At least we're still on track to get some Luck, yes, Luck in caps, and every Chiefs fan across the vast arrays multiuniverses knows what that means.
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Chiefs at Lions - Week 2 - Record: 0-2

Okay, this isn't the "Fire Todd Haley" blog, but it certainly could be. No, it is simply "The Chiefs Game Today," and it is indeed about the Chiefs, and not the coach.

But the "Fire Todd Haley" theme will indeed be running through the course of this blog, this year, this season, and however many more miserable units of time we'll have to endure having Haley as coach until the day he isn't our coach any more.

Yes, today we faced what may indeed be a very good Lions team. They did look very good today, however awful the Chiefs looked. And I take nothing away from the Lions -- they themselves have been so bad for so long that I do wish them well. Thing is, if they play like this regularly, they should win a playoff game this year, leaving only the Bengals as the one NFL team that would have a longer drought without a playoff win than the Chiefs. (Unless, of course, the Bengals win a playoff game too, then... Well, we know the Chiefs won't be winning any playoff games this year.)

Here's the deal for the rest of the year. It is easy, it is simple, it is quite uncomplicated.

We need three things to be a Super Bowl contending team.

Just three. That's all. I don't ask for much. We do have a lot of things in place that are good. Again, I do like our team's owner, I do like our team's general manager, I like a lot about this team. I like a lot of the players. I could list a bunch of things I like about the Chiefs.

But these three things are in such awful, wretched, pathetic, putrid, and any-other-such-adjective that they really are the focus of what needs to happen for the Chiefs for however long it takes for them to happen.

The three things we need are:

- A head coach.

- A quarterback.

- Some luck.

I've already written a ton about a lot of this, but here's the latest:

A head coach. Is there still anyone with a nanoliter of brain cell matter who thinks Haley needs to stay leading this team for one more nanosecond? If so, raise your hand. I thought so.

Come on people, there is no way in the world an NFL team can do what this one has done over the past two regular season games, over the past four altogether including the final game last year and the playoff game, and still hang around. It just doesn't happen.

No no no no NO it doesn't have to do with turnovers, and it doesn't have to do with lack of talent. Turnovers happen but that's just the game. Some teams have better talent than others, but not by this much of a margin.

No, sorry.

This is coaching.

Haley's inadequacy was evident today after the opening coin toss. When you have a team like this one, who uses the run best with the score as close as possible, you want the ball with the score 0-0 at the beginning of the game. Well, the Chiefs won the toss, then deferred to receive the ball at the start of the second half. Yes, I know in the grand scheme of the game it didn't mean anything! The point is that this is the NFL where the talent is not so disparate and there is always the possibility any team can beat any other team on any Sunday!

What happened was Detroit stormed down the field, scored a touchdown, and instantly we were on our heels. And it was worse when we got the kickoff at the beginning of the second half, down then 20-3. So what was the point?

Listen. Let me make this perfectly clear. I am one of those guys who always always wants to hang on to a coach we already have for far too long! I was one of the last guys to support Herm Edwards! I was even with him to the very end, on his side, championing him to stay! I liked John Mackovic! For cryin' out loud I even liked Frank Gansz! (Okay, okay, I admit, not for that long.) I only disliked Marty Schottenheimer after he got fired and that was because I was just so mad at him for being such a choke in the playoffs!

This is one instance, however, when it is categorical. Todd Haley simply cannot stay. He should be fired, and right now. No "Let's give him a bit more time." No "He's just had some rough luck." No "It was the lockout's fault." Or any other excuse.

Take care of business now and get us a coach, even if interim, so we can have a good solid coach.

A quarterback. Today was another nail in the coffin of Matt Cassel, and another point for the case to get the best QB in the draft next year for the long-term future.

The nail was Cassel's complete inability to move the ball through the air. Sure Bowe dropped a couple of passes, but only a few times did he get decent separation. The other receivers were worthless, yet again, and it wasn't entirely their fault. And some of the six turnovers today were interceptions in which Cassel just threw very poor passes.

The point earned for my incessently strident case for a QB was in seeing what first-overall-pick-in-the-draft Matthew Stafford could do for the Lions. What is the main reason the Lions are going to compete this year? Everyone knows the answer:

They have a future Hall-of-Fame quarterback.

You could see it all over Stafford today. He fired the ball right where it needed to be, he knew what was going on, he brimmed with confidence. He still looked a little raw, but I'd sure rather be the team to have a Matthew Stafford getting all ready to make us a true contender right now. Instead we've got a seventh round pick who in college was a career backup throwing a grand total of 24 passes, and absolutely no one even remotely in the mix getting groomed to take this team farther than one playoff game.

Some luck. We are so due for this. We are so due for luck it isn't even funny.

Instead we keep getting the worst worst worst luck you can possibly get.

How's this for our luck? In fact, this will say it all, really.

Here's a simple question for you: How many teams have any players who suffer season-ending anterior cruciate ligament damage ever? I mean of all 144 North American team professional sports teams (football, baseball, basketball, hockey), of all the thousands of players in that mix who play hard and stress their knees day in a day out, how many teams mind-you have a history of having even a single player endure a critically damaging ACL injury?

30 of those teams? Maybe 40 as the most conservative guess? And how many players? Most of them just one. For their entire histories. If any single team has two or three in their entire existence, that's a lot.

Well guess what, completely, thoroughly, and abjectly luckless Chiefs fans.

We've already had two, and may even have a third in three weeks.

That, friends, is not only phenomenally incredible, but that it has happened to three of our very best players makes the odds for this kind of thing to happen simply astrostratogalacticable.

Tony Moeaki against Green Bay: ACL tear and out for the season. Eric Berry against Buffalo: ACL tear and out for the season. Jamaal Charles today against the Lions: it is inconclusive as of this writing, but if you watched it you have to admit it really looked like an ACL tear before he was carted off the field and out of the rest of the game.

This season is making that train wreck look like playtime in the sandbox.

Too much. Absolutely too much. Enough writing for now. This just too much.

Thank goodness I have a whole week to find even more gruesome adjectives that will describe next week's affair with San Diego. I really don't know if I'll find them. I'm already scared that I won't be able to find them for Pittsburgh, and New England -- several weeks from now!

But hey, maybe Clark and Scott will do the right thing with their head coaching situation before then, and there will be just one little thing this year that'll make me a nanoliter less depressed.
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Bills at Chiefs - Week 1 - Record: 0-1

Okay, let's just get this out of the way. No need to pull any punches, every Chiefs fan is thinking it, let's just be honest. Let's just get this thing over with and be done with.

It's time to fire Todd Haley.

What? After the first game of the season? Are you kidding me?

Now, who on earth is actually saying those words I just typed in underline right there? Maybe Clark Hunt, and maybe Scott Pioli, and maybe even Todd Haley's mom. But I really don't think anyone else is thinking those words. I really don't.

Let's look at the facts. And this is from someone who pays absolutely zero attention to anything else except the game. I don't read or hear any remarks from any columnist or announcer anywhere anyplace.

I'm just looking at the facts as they are out there on the bare naked field of play.

I have to start with the complete ineptitude of the entire coaching program, revealed in bright bold colors yesterday. This is 100% Todd Haley's responsibility. I can accept that maybe our guys were really, really affected by the lockout. What I can't accept is the catastrophe that was our attempt to overcome it. There is no reason in the world our guys should not have been better prepared for this one. Our exhibition efforts were abysmal and those who say the preseason means nothing only needs to look at the train wreck that is this team. How many of you could see this coming, watching us waddle around in the four "meaningless" games before the season opened?

What was that? Everyone? Everyone and his uncle could see this coming? What a surprise! (Bitter sarcasm purely intended.)

The fact that the offensive line coach was calling in the plays from the booth is something that just appalled me. The complete failure of Haley to get down precisely what he wants to do offensively through the couple of years he's been at the helm is inexusable. The fact that people like Charlie Weis have come and gone means we absolutely cannot get any coherence on offense. Did you see the train wreck out there on the field yesterday? (Whupp, I already used that metaphor, "train wreck," sorry -- 'cept that it's a pretty dang good one for this team so I may actually use it a few more times. Get ready.)

I guess my question is, don't these guys really want to coach for Haley? Chan Gailey, the guy coaching on the other side for the Bills, was unceremoniously fired by Haley and a lot was said about that. Why? Was there a lot more to it than just professional disagreement?

I can't really say, I'll give the guy that, there may be things about Haley that are very good and nice and positive. But when I look at Haley on the sidelines he just looks angry all the time, like he's going to have a meltdown if his idea or his play or his thing just doesn't work right -- that it is all about him. His whole demeanor just smacks of "this is all about me, so everybody make me look good."

Some may say this is just one game. But the fact (oh those facts) is that this is the third straight home game in which the Chiefs have been utterly, utterly blasted -- again, at home. Not just beaten but blasted. I felt awful for all the fans there, packed house at Arrowhead, ready to watch an at-least watchable game. The stadium was empty by the beginning of the fourth quarter.

This season is over, especially since we lost Eric Berry to an ACL injury. That is just a killer. The one guy who we can really put genuine hope in, the next Ronnie-Lott-Troy-Polamalu guy -- a real defensive playmaker -- gone. And gone after the very first scrimmage play of the game. Just unreal.

That makes it now four straight years of first picks in the draft who aren't going to have any real impact at all. The four? This year (Jonathan Baldwin who got injured in a fight in the locker room -- ahem, did you know your players were doing that Todd Haley?), last year (Berry), and the two previous years (Tyson Jackson and Glenn Dorsey -- did you see our run defense yesterday? -- it'd be funny if I weren't so upset about my pathetic team right now.)

Um, sorry, but I'm just not going to go over all the systemic failures in yesterday's game. The loss of Eric Berry alone doesn't explain this train wreck (okay, I won't use it again...)

I'm just going to say this.

Clark. Clark Hunt, listen up.

Find a coach who really, actually, truly knows what he's doing. I happened to catch a bit of the 49ers game yesterday, the one that featured a Niners team whose management fired do-nothing coach Mike Singletary and went out and paid money to get do-something coach Jim Harbaugh. The very predictable result? They handled a good Seahawks team simply because they'd

Been coached.

Even if you can't get that guy right now, still: jettison Haley, get a decent interim guy to manage the team for right now, and be looking for the next studly sideline general. Who cares if we suck this year; in fact our only hope is to suck enough to get a high enough draft pick to select the top QB in the draft next year.

Come on you guys, Clark, Scott, any other major Chiefs personnel, please... have you no humanity. You have millions of fans who every week deck themselves in red and gold and all other Chiefs accoutrements no matter how silly. They adore your team, Clark.

Please, we all beg you, let's make the firmest of all firm commitments right now. Stop pissing away year after year after year of contention because we absolutely refuse to get a highly drafted quarterback and nurture him. Let's get a coach who can do what no other Chiefs coach in all of our history has been able to do:

Skillfully develop that guy.

Don't believe me? Look at the Indianapolis Colts. For every single year they have had Peyton Manning they have been on the lips of everyone who speaks of the top echelon teams in the NFL. Every single year. Yesterday was the first game in eons he didn't play and look. The Colts were right back to mediocre.

Now this blog post isn't about Matt Cassel. I like him, I really do.

But he will not get us to the promised land.

And he won't get us there especially when Todd Haley is our coach.

For the Chiefs to be a Super Bowl contending team, it is categorical. It is imperative. It is unequivocal. It is everything that is true factual actual and any other superlatively descriptive word that implies factitude:

We need a quarterback that will be in the Hall of Fame, and we need a coach that'll get him there.

It is that simple.

Sure these things don't just drop from the sky. It is very hard work and requires a ton of luck (which the Chiefs are soooo due to get in huge massive slabs). Sure we need great forbearance and patience from Clark, Scott, and all Chiefs fans.

But it has to start right now.

Again, who on this planet who even remotely have any affinity for the Chiefs isn't saying in no uncertain terms, "Fire Todd Haley now"?

Okay, so yeah, let's get to it...

Fire Todd Haley now!
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Chiefs Preview 2011

Last night I caught much of the exhibition affair with the Packers, yes, that's the one, the one with all the fumbles and dropped passes eventuating in a one-point loss. Yes, a loss even though most of our starters were out there for the entirety. This does not bode well, as exhibition play is always about getting all your rookies and free agents a shot at showing what they can do. We finished it 0-4, which I'm pretty sure is what it was last year.

After the game we watched the last part of the horror film The Ring, about a very creepy zombie girl who comes out of the television and frightens the viewer so thoroughly that it causes not only death but gruesome physical disfigurement. Funny, when I turned off my computer shortly thereafter the giant "KC" arrowhead on my desktop went a very spooky shade of black and gray just before the screen went blank. That never happens.

Of course, I could only think.

Are this year's Kansas City Chiefs going to come out of my television set and scare the bejeebers out of us this year?

I do have some serious concerns about these guys, and I'll share them as I round up the five keys to this season. For each and every one, I'll put down a percentage possibility that I think the team will address them and play well. That is, if it says "70%" that means I think they've got a 70% chance to make the good thing happen and do well. Really, if they do all of them, we're going to the Super Bowl. If they don't, then it's just another zombie year.

Those keys to 2011 in order of importance:

No. 1: Todd Haley has to be a big-time big-game head coach. I really think he has the potential to be a fine head coach, but when I watch him I just sense he is too concerned about how he's doing. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I just get that sense. He's got to jettison all that worry and just have confidence in what he's doing.

It all starts in the front office, and I really like what Clark Hunt is doing in his dedication to the team, and I think Scott Pioli has made some great personnel moves to really start building this team. The key question is will Todd Haley have learned enough in his couple of years already at the helm to really start being a solid, winning head coach?

Chance it'll happen: 75%. Not too bad, because I do think the guy has the smarts and potential. Whether he allows it to flourish without being too self-absorbed is the key here.

No. 2: Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson really need to start playing like the top draft picks they were. It is axiomatic that games are won at the line of scrimmage, and these guys are really going to have to show they have All-Pro skill if we are going to have a chance. They actually do pretty decently with the pass rush -- with a lot of help from Tamba Hali -- but they absolutely must step it up defending the run.

We've been waiting a long time for them to come around. This year is the make-or-break year.

Chance it'll happen: 55%. Not too high, just because if they were something, we'd have seen it by now. I'm sorry -- I just haven't seen it. I just fear Jackson is going to be one of Pioli's major busts. And I have to add that these guys should be better simply because the Chiefs have a very good defensive backfield to help them. Even with that, will they be better? Ehh. Gotta show us there in the Show Me State.

No. 3: We must absorb the loss of Brian Waters on the O-line. This dude was studly, but his discontent eventually led him out when he got the chance. They're sticking somewhat heralded Jon Asamoah in that space and we'll see if he can open up space for our fine runners.

I really believe the key to the Chiefs offensive success this year is Dexter McCluster. This guy is phenomenal, and Todd Haley has shown his confidence in him. The question is, how much will teams now key on that patented shallow-flat route McCluster is so good at running?

Chance it'll happen: 80%. Little bit more confidence in this area, simply because I'm counting on Jamaal Charles being as good as he was last year.

No. 4: Matt Cassel has got to show Hall-of-Fame characteristics as a signal-caller. Oh yeah, how high can one's expectations get? I know, I know. But as I've documented thoroughly in this blog, only HOF QB's get you to the promised land. Is Cassel good? Yeah. Is he great? Nah. Can he be great? I dunno.

Again, I like the guy. He's a leader, a winner, and take-no-prisoners guy. For cryin' out loud he's an All-Pro QB. I know, I know. But I have to admit I'm not sold on the guy and he's just got to step it up for us. A tall order? Yeah.

Chance it'll happen: 30%. Now that's the chance he'll actually turn into a Hall-of-Fame QB. If he's close, maybe, just maybe he can still get us to the promised land.

No. 5: Wide receivers must step it up, a lot. How Cassel does depends a great deal on this critical aspect of our offense, something that was dreadful last year. Sure we have Dwayne Bowe, who is extraordinary. But the rest of the WR corps have been downright abysmal. We picked up vets Steve Breaston and Jerheme Urban. Are these guys really going to be the answer to helping Bowe, or are they going to end up like major busts Mark Bradley and Chris Chambers?

Chances it'll happen: 65%. Who's to say it couldn't happen, but I just keep thinking of Bradley and Chambers. Rookie Jonathan Baldwin is highly touted, but it'll take time for him to develop.

Those are the five keys in my mind. Again, if the Chiefs can make it happen in these areas, we're at least AFC West champs -- and hey, maybe we'll win a playoff game! Yay! If not, Chiefs fans will be feeling a lot like the guy who spent too much time watching the ugly zombie come out of the television.
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Final Note - The NFL's Revenge Is Still In Healthy Seething Mode

In case you didn't notice, for a third straight year and fifth of the last six, no Old-AFL team is playing in the Super Bowl.

I did write at length about this last year, but it still blows me away that those Old-AFL teams (which will henceforth just be known as the AFL) are still sucking big-time when it comes to anything Super Bowlish. Hey, they can't even get there. Just so you know what those teams are, to refresh: Kansas City, Tennessee, Buffalo, Oakland, New York, New England, Denver, San Diego, Miami, and Cincinnati.

When you look at these teams, particularly as a big fan of that whole AFL thing, you can't help but think of them with a great deal of pride. How they rose from their humble 1960's beginnings, how the "Foolish Club" managed to wiggle their way into the vaunted NFL with the merger of 1970, how they brought so many cool innovations into what is the NFL today.

But if you remember, the "Old-NFL" really didn't take too kindly to the smart-ass Jets beating the Colts in 68. And they really really didn't like the Chiefs doing it to the Vikings the very next year when they blabbed all over the place that the Jets win was the flukiest of flukes. It took the Chiefs to show that the AFL was for real.

Thing is, it was almost as if the Chiefs blew it by rubbing the NFL's face in it.

Here's one more evidence I've assembled that shows just how inept the AFL teams have been on-the-whole since that Chiefs Super Bowl win. Here's the question, think about this: Since the merger, exactly how many AFL teams have won titles in two different time periods with two wholly different teams?

Just in case you don't want to think that hard, I can give you the answer.

Zero.

Here's the brutal truth.

The Raiders came the closest. They won in 76, then again in 80 and 83. You could almost say they half-way did it, but there were guys from the 76 team on the 80 team and guys from the 80 team on the 83 team. The 76 guys were much more scarce on the 80 team because that team was more of that earlier 70's fine Raiders team eventually getting their long-sought-after title, but the 83 team had a few more 80 guys on it, and both were quarterbacked and coached by the same guy both years (Jim Plunkett and Tom Flores, respectively).

Other than that, absolutely nada. There have been only three other AFL teams to even win a Super Bowl since 1970. Miami won in 72 and 73, but only those two years. Denver won in 97 and 98, but only then. And New England won in 01, 03, and 04, and only then. Since 1970 KC, Ten, Buf, NY, SD, and Cin all have big fat Super Bowl oh-fers.

Now let's look at the Old-NFL teams in this regard.

Start with Pittsburgh, who won in the 70's (74, 75, 78, 79) AND the aughts (05, 08). Again, two totally different eras with two totally completely different teams and everything.

Then there's Dallas, who won in the 70's (71, 77) and then in the 90's (92, 93, 95).

Then there're the New York Giants, who won in the 80's (86, 90) and the aughts (07).

Then there's Indianapolis, who won in 70 when in Baltimore, then again in 06.

Then there's San Francisco, who could be argued to have been so good for so long that it was one good solid team effort from 81 to 94. Even though the organization that sustained that excellence was generally consistently stable throughout, you can't deny that the 81 team was completely and totally different from the 94 team.

Then there's Washington, who in some ways was kind of  like the Raiders situation in that the Super Bowls were all relatively close together. That is, the "different era" qualification wasn't as clear-cut as the other NFLers. After all they were all coached by Joe Gibbs. But the 82 team was truly a completely different team than the 91 team as far as on-field personnel. The time differential from first to last for the Raiders: eight years. That for the Redskins: ten.

Then there's Green Bay, who may not count if we're just talking about Super Bowls since the merger. Their first Super Bowl wins were before it, in 66 and 67. They won it again in 96. But they could very well make this academic if they win this Sunday, which would make them the first team to win Super Bowls in three completely different eras.

So really, for all intents and purposes, the history of Super Bowlosity has been very ugly for the AFLers. AFL teams with championship greatness in at least two wholly different eras: zero. NFL teams with that kind of greatness: seven. Overall tally since that 1970 merger -- NFL: 31. AFL: 10. Oh, and that 31st hasn't even happened yet, but will this Sunday, Green Bay or Pittsburgh.

I've spoken of Odin's revenge as clobbering the Chiefs, but it can't be denied it has extended to the entire AFL. It is indeed just as much the NFL's revenge, still resplendent in all its rage.

And since this enterprise is only about the Chiefs and the Chiefs doing great Super Bowl kinds of things, I think it is wholly incumbent on the Chiefs to make up for it. So I must add a few notes about what the Chiefs must do to break the spell, to vanquish the curse that has befallen the entire endeavor that Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt worked so hard to bring about.

I usually finish up the season with a note to the current Chiefs general manager, and this is no different. Thing is, I've pretty much already said what needs to be said last week. This is just an elaboration of that one thing.

I went ahead and looked at other team's quarterback situations as far as their success in drafting and developing (D&D) that one key guy. I made an initial attempt to go through the draft histories of every team in the NFL, but that proved to be too daunting. Sure I'd have liked to have seen what the success rate of other teams is like, but I know there'd be those teams with great success like Peyton Manning for Indianapolis, and the busts like Tim Couch for Cleveland the very next year. Every team has their booms and busts in this area, I get that.

I just want the Chiefs to be among the most successful ones, and it is clear they've been among the lamest. Once again, the key is that the Chiefs never, not a single time in their fifty year history have ever drafted and developed a quarterback who's been worth a damn.

So what I did do is look at each team in our division. I noted only the QB's drafted in the top seven for every year since the time of the merger.

If you'll allow me, by team:

Denver: They didn't pick John Elway in the draft, but in 83 Elway announced he would not play for Indianapolis, so the Broncos traded for him right away and it was as if he'd been drafted by them. He went on to have a great career, winning them two Super Bowls. Other than that, the Broncos did draft Jay Cutler with the 11th overall pick in 06, and he led the Bears this year to the NFC title game. They had a high-pick bust in Tommy Maddux in 92 (25th overall), but they got so much mileage out of Elway that it didn't much matter. So far, Denver's D&D QB situation outclasses KC's by miles.

Oakland: One of the only things that makes KC's dreadful D&D QB situation barely tolerable is that Oakland's has been just as wretched. Think Marc Wilson (15th overall in 80), Todd Marinovich (24th overall in 91), and JaMarcus Russell (1st overall in 07). I can't say I'm not unpleased about all this, as every warm-blooded Chiefs fan certainly can't. But the fact is Oakland still had great playoff and even Super Bowl success with the guys they picked up from elsewhere, much like KC has tried to do its entire existence. They got fantastic play from Jim Plunkett in the early 80's and Rich Gannon in the early 2000's. And it must be said that Ken Stabler was drafted and he did do wonderful things for the Raiders through the early 70's (including that 76 Super Bowl). That clearly gives the D&D QB situation edge to Oakland over KC.

San Diego: Funny that the Chargers are renowned for one of the greatest QB draft busts of all time, Ryan Leaf in 98, but in a twist San Diego has actually made some of the best QB draft picks of any NFL team. They got marvelous work from Dan Fouts (3rd round, 64th overall in 73). Ironically for the Chiefs they picked Trent Green in 93 in the 8th round at 222 overall. Drew Brees, a guy who got the Chargers into the playoffs, led the Saints the 09 Super Bowl title, and is considered one of the best in the game now, was plucked in 01 in the 2nd round, 32 overall. And the Chargers were somehow blessed to get the first pick in 04 which they used to get Eli Manning, but this would only get even better for the Chargers because they traded Manning for Philip Rivers and other fine players who have helped the Chargers dominate the AFC West though the 2000's. Rivers himself has become one of the best QB's in the NFL. So the D&D QB edge here? SD by light years over the Chiefs.

And now for the Chiefs. Come on, be brave now.

The only even remotely bright spot was Mike Livingston, drafted way back in 68 (just a few picks before Ken Stabler, by the way) but a guy who never emerged as a true, solid D&D guy. The catch is that no Chiefs fan can dismiss the fact that when Len Dawson went down in the middle of our Super Bowl season, Livingston held his own and carried the load, indeed quite admirably so. For that we are eternally grateful to the only guy who was ever purely Chiefs-drafted and did anything, even if it was for that one, glorious moment.

Other than that, it gets extraordinarily ugly.

We had Len Dawson go for so long and Livingston play for so long with a weak Chiefs team in the 70's that our next meaningful QB pick was all the way out in 1979. Steve Fuller was taken 23rd overall that year, and to say he was a bust is an understatement. He was very highly touted out of Clemson, and to be honest I remember two things about Fuller. One was that when the 49er scouts were checking him out they actually liked better the guy he was throwing to, Dwight Clark. The other was that in making one last effort at being a fine QB with Chicago, he was overwhelmed in the 84 NFC title game against those same 49ers. Oh well.

Bill Kenney came along and did well, but we still knew we needed someone really good to take the reins. Welcome to one of the greatest QB busts of all time, considering the character of that draft. The famous 1983 class of drafted QB's included the great John Elway, Jim Kelly, and Dan Marino, as well as the very good Ken O'Brien and Tony Eason. But selected as the second of that bunch (yes, way before Kelly and Marino) was Todd Blackledge. Looking at the guy you'd have thought this was a no-brainer, the guy looked like a truly studly quarterback. But sadly, this is a team victimized by Odin's Revenge. Turned out he simply could not read NFL defenses and no amount of grand eloquent coaching could change that.

In 89 and 92 we picked up notorious forgettables Mike Elkins and Matt Blundin, respectively. Notorious because they were so highly selected (32 and 40 overall, respectively). Forgettable because, um, who are these guys again? I just remember watching those drafts and each time thinking in the depths of my horrifically scarred heart that this guy was going to be that guy, that one D&D guy who's going to be the first for the Chiefs, the first to actually make things happen out there on a regular basis. Didn't happen -- in the worst way, and I really forget why. I don't think either of them played more than a handful of games at all, ever, for anyone.

We grasped a bit for that guy down in the draft a bit with Steve Stenstrom in 95 and Pat Barnes in 97 (interestingly from Stanford and Cal respectively), but they didn't cut it. A lot because you just can't get Super Bowl quality play from a 4th round pick unless it is some spectacular Joe Montana-like miracle selection. But a lot because, you know, Odin, all that, you know...

In the late 90's, early 00's, Chiefs management seemed to think Elvis Grbac or Trent Green would be playing forever, and they didn't draft a QB again until 06, and they got -- yes the flunkie parade goes on -- Brodie Croyle. Yes, I thought the very same thing then, also... This'll be the guy. He'll get us there. He'll be the first one. Yay. As it is Croyle has started ten games since that time (that is is only ten is rotten enough) and his record is a -- I'm really trying to think of an adjective that is worse than shameful, but I can't think of it right now, I guess I don't need to though, because the record says enough -- 0-10.

Now, here's the thing. Scott Pioli and Todd Haley, here's the thing. Chiefs fans around the universe are talking to you.

That you haven't drafted and started developing a QB since the wayward Croyle attempt in 06 is bad enough. That you had to fiddle around with someone like Tyler Thigpen for so long is really awful. That you think Matt Cassel is the answer is not as bad because the guy is a gamer, plays decently, and had a fine year at least before the Raiders and Ravens games.

But it is reprehensibly inexcusable if you don't get your asses into the draft right now and get the next guy who'll take us to the promised land.

Everyone in the division and most everyone in the entire league has embarrassed us with their ability to draft and develop a good quarterback at least every once in a while.

Right now the Steelers are in the promised land for the third time with a guy at the helm who was the 11th pick overall a few years ago. It isn't some castoff or traded-for guy who'd already spent most of his professional wad with another team. Right now the Packers are in the promised land for what will probably be the first of several times with a guy who was the 24th pick overall a few years ago, a guy who is arguably the single instrumental reason they are there. It wasn't some veteran superstud who's wiping up the last vestiges of a great career -- remember how everyone hated the Packers for jettisoning Brett Favre so unceremoniously? What are those fans thinking now?

Remember how the Chiefs got great, proud play from Joe Montana at the very tail end of his career? For that I am indeed very grateful -- the dude got us to the AFC title game in 93. But that was it.

So in conclusion to this mostly fine 2010 year for the Chiefs, here's the real deal. The real deal if we actually want to be truly promised land-bound.

Mr. Pioli, get that guy you need. Get the one you know is a pro guy, a pro-game guy, a clutch player who gets the job done deep in the playoffs, and get him high. We've got, what, the 24th overall pick or something like that this year? Again Aaron Rodgers was a 24th pick. Drew Brees was 32nd. Dan Fouts was 64th for cryin' out loud.

And Mr. Haley, brush up on your quarterback coaching skills. Come on, this is why we got you -- you got the Cardinals into the Super Bowl three years ago, you are an offensive guy -- get going channeling Bill Walsh big-time because you're going to be developing him. Really Mr. Haley, this is your moment of glory, this is it. If you can't develop whoever Mr. Pioli gets you're worth little because the promised land is all we're after, and you ain't getting there without this guy.

We ain't breaking the curse unless we finally, finally get the best D&D QB guy there is for the next ten years. It is that simple.

And then, and then for the Chiefs, for all of the faithful AFLers, for the legacy of Lamar Hunt who came up with the "Super Bowl," we can avenge ourselves and restore the AFL's rightful place in pro football.

Hey, and maybe, just maybe the Chiefs will soon be the first AFL team to get that second-era Super Bowl.

Get that guy.
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(Just a quick note about "the merger" for those who aren't quite clear on the concept. The American Football League lasted from 1960 to 1969, and throughout the decade it increased in popularity and gained more stature. The National Football League worked out an arrangement beginning with the 1970 season in which the AFL would join the NFL and become the American Football Conference -- with the new National Football Conference comprising most of the NFL's teams. To even out the teams [in 1969 there were 16 NFL teams to the 10 AFL teams], Pittsburgh, Baltimore [later Indianapolis], and Cleveland [later the Baltimore Ravens] offered to become AFC teams. The entire enterprise would be under the NFL heading.)
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Post Season Report - One Single Thing the Chiefs Need Most

I am a recovering Chiefs addict.

Because of that, I don't see, watch, read, or listen to anything other than Chiefs games on Sunday. While I've already shared some of the key parts of my sports celibacy, there are some reasons that rise above the rest that keep me from paying any attention to any sports things. One of the problems, however, is that my radar picks up sports things all over the place -- well, I really should say things-that-affect-my-teams type of things.

As far as the NFL goes, I only care about the Chiefs. But everything else in the NFL does affect the Chiefs. For instance, I would've only paid attention to teams like Dallas and Seattle to the extent that they shared the record for most consecutive playoff losses with the Chiefs. Now that the Chiefs are the sole holder of that distinction (with seven, see last post), I must now manage the serious disconsolation attending that fact.

I am also always picking up whatever the Raiders, Broncos, and Chargers are doing because whatever happens with our AFC West rivals affects how the Chiefs do through the season -- although again, I never deliberately pay a single lick of attention to any of their games or progress.

I can't. Knowing the things that so viciously rack the Chiefs just too deeply shreds my soul. So even though I step way back from all the Chiefsitude off the field, it is one reason I write about it. I admit this blog is part of the good therapy for a recovering Chiefs addict. But before you scamper away fearing this is just one pathetic whine session, please bear with me because it does get to a critical aspect of the Kansas City Chiefs and their future.

Yesterday was no different in the plain fact that my Chiefs-things radar locked on to two gnawing things that have happened with some regularity, and is certainly one of the most profound reasons this fan is so resolutely celibate. I don't have a clue as to what happened in these two events, because beholding them for any length of time requires enduring torment that is best avoided altogether.

Those two things were that the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers won yet another playoff game. (I will tell you one reason I was eager for an Atlanta win was because I was really rooting for Tony Gonzales and hoping he'd finally get some Super Bowl glory. Sadly, it won't happen this year and probably never will.)

Here's the context, just so you know. I don't necessarily have any animosity toward the Steelers and Packers. My affection for the Raiders is miles beneath any consideration I have for these two teams. If it were any two other teams doing the same thing, I'd be just as jealous. It doesn't matter. (Oh, and yeah, the intense jealosy -- not good. Another perfectly fine justification for staying so far away.)

I will say the one key thing about them in particular is that they are small market teams and ones that are wildly successful. I've always lamented how the Chiefs are a small market team and as such will never get the advantages the Grand Sports Powers-That-Be afford the Patriotses and Giantses. I think the Steelers get a lot of recognition because they've had such a fine organization and a rich winnning history, and the Packers catch the media's eyes simply because they are in the smallest market in professional sports and have this small-guy darling status in the media, kind of like Notre Dame does in college football. The Chiefs have just been done in by poor front office management and wretched playoff stupidness (again, see last post).

So yeah, the aggravation stirred up by the intense jealosy in all of this is just too much. Please know that I'm terrific with small market teams doing great and sticking it to the Powers-That-Be who zealouly labor to manipulate competitive integrity! I just want it to be the Chiefs doing that, that's all.

I can't neglect to share the gory details with you.

Remember just before the '96 season -- I'm pretty sure it was then -- Sports Illustrated had on its cover three key Packers guys (in a spiffy fold-out front cover) right next to three key Kansas City Chiefs guys. "Next Super Bowl: Packers vs. Chiefs" or something like that. Well, the Packers did go on to the Super Bowl that year, and won it. But they did it against the Patriots, and that was even before they had Tom Brady. (Oh, and the Chiefs didn't even get to the playoffs that year, starting 9-4 but losing their last three games.)

Do you know how many playoff games the Packers have won since that SI cover? Eleven. Do you know how many the Chiefs have won since that time?  Don't bother, the number wasn't even invented until the Mayans did it. In fact the Packers have won a total of 14 playoff games since the Chiefs last one a single one. (Oh, don't worry, there's a very good reason for that, one which I'm getting to, stay tuned!...)

Then there is the Steelers. Remember when we beat them in the '93 playoffs? Saturday, January 8th (in 1994). What a wonderful, wonderful game. The Chiefs played them hard, trailed by a touchdown in the last minute, got a clutch pass from Joe Montana (what other kind are there?) to Tim Barnett in the back of the endzone at the very end of regulation, and then got a splendidly splendid field goal from Nick Lowery in overtime to win it.

Oh yeah, we were finally on our way. We were finally a perenniel contender. We were finally among the elite of the NFL. We were finally going to have playoff victory after playoff victory and be wonderful and splendid and all the rest of it.

Well, ahem. While we did win our next playoff game that year against Houston, that would be the very last playoff game we would ever win. Now, how many playoff victories do you think Pittsburgh has had since then? :: Gulp ::

Seventeen.

They've also had two Super Bowl victories, and one of the reasons the Steelers are so successful and the Chiefs aren't is demonstrated in what happened in those games. It is as if the Steelers have precisely the opposite what the Chiefs have, and that is beneficially opportunistically fortunate things. The Chiefs just have rotten stupid things anytime they're in a postseason game.

Remember, the '05 Super Bowl? The Seahawks dominated that game. But the Steelers won going away, 21-10. Huh? There were four amazing critical plays in that game that either went against the Seahawks dooming them and their intrepid play, or going for the Steelers and giving them the whopping edge. I don't remember all of them, but one was a play in which they had a fourth and 57 or something like that and QB Roethlisberger scrambled all around then heaved a pass on his back feet all the way across the field for a touchdown -- I mean it was something incredibly stupid like that. Stupid? Yeah, stupid because not only do the Chiefs never get these kinds of things happening for them in any playoff game, they are always victims of them!

Look at the Super Bowl win over Arizona. Everyone knows about the two plays that ended each half. The Steelers won the game on an incredible final-play tiptoe reception by Santonio Holmes at the side of the endzone. But they also got that interception return by James Harrison at the end of the first half that went all the way across the field, and he barely got into the endzone by the teensiest of margins with no time left on the clock.

I have to tell you: do you know what I was thinking after watching that? Here was exactly the very thought I had. Ready?

"That would never happen for the Chiefs."

That's what I thought. Yes I'm sure bazillions of fans of other teams felt the same way about their team, that's cool. But really now, seeing how the Chiefs play in the postseason over the few years they've been in it, we have proof: it really really wouldn't happen for the Chiefs.

Let's get right to the most practical reason the Packers and Steelers do so well. And I'm going to focus on one critically important thing, something I've shared before but again have to get off my chest.

Yes it could be said the Packers and Steelers just have excellent front offices. Well, we're working on that -- I do really like Clark Hunt, following the lead of his dad and having that bold commitment to the Chiefs. I also really like Scott Pioli's leadership and I have faith in his ability to get good players -- his last draft was exceptional. There is the idea that if we have people like that it'll be more likely we'll get the right mix of players to do well, precisely what Pittsburgh and Green Bay have been able to do for so long.

But there is that other major ingredient that the Chiefs have so sorely lacked, and it is indeed one I've mentioned often before. It is no surprise. You may have even guessed what it is through reading all of this sad Chiefs woefulness. What have the Steelers and Packers had consistently that the Chiefs have never had?

A great drafted and developed quarterback.

Yesteryear it was Terry Bradshaw and Brett Favre. These years it is Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers.

Both of those guys are truly great quarterbacks. Roethlisberger has been controversial for his off-field problems and on-field inconsistency, but when it comes to winning he simply gets the job done. He's gutsy and talented and has already won two Super Bowls. That says enough.

Rodgers is up-and-coming -- and I must say I take this from what I catch here-and-there because, again, I just pay so little attention to it -- but he is one of the very best in the NFL right now. Not only did he effectively send one of the greatest ever, Favre, packing, but he has led his team from the No. 6 seed in the playoffs to the NFC Championship game.

Now, this leads us to the Chiefs quarterback situation.

I promise I'm not going to rag all over Matt Cassel. Everyone knows what a stinky game he had against the Raiders, and what an even stinkier game he had against the Ravens. Everyone knows that he was one of the studlier quarterbacks before those games, even overcoming an appendectomy to return and play great against St. Louis, and then against Tennessee. Everyone knows he had a great year overall with the services of only one good wide receiver, and he plays with great dedication and intensity.

I like Matt Cassel.

But the fact is the Curse of Odin's Revenge is extraordinarily powerful. It must be overcome with something much, much more potent than anything the Chiefs have thrown at it in the past. It requires not just a very good quarterback.

It requires a great quarteback.

Now, I've written about this before. Just about everything that needs to be said about having a great quarterback is right there. I really don't need to add anything to it, except to amplify a critical point in this conversation: He has to be drafted.

The Chiefs have never drafted and developed a truly great quarterback. When you look at that list from my post in 2008, of the ten Hall-of-Fame calibur great quarterbacks, seven of them were drafted by the teams they took to Super Bowl success. Only Unitas, Elway, and Young were not, and Unitas and Elway didn't play a single game with the team that drafted them, starting their fine play with their eventual Super Bowl teams.

It simply comes down to this. It is as plain, as clear, as simple as this.

Scott Pioli must draft the best possible quarterback he can, the Chiefs front office must do anything and everything to develop him, and the coaches must teach him how to deftly play the position at the highest levels of NFL competition.

Thuh end.

That's it. Right there. That's the secret.

Yes I know there is so much that goes into it. Yes, there are so many variables to it all. The Chiefs have even tried to do this kind of thing (Brodie Croyle, anybody?) This is exactly why the Chiefs have got to have the right mix of things going on. I've already shared I have faith in Pioli, I also have faith in Todd Haley -- it seems he's really learning and growing and as he gets there we'll have a solid foundation upon which to build our great quarterback situation.

This would require Matt Cassel to do well in the next few years so our guy can develop. Hey, maybe, just maybe Cassel himself can grow into being a great quarterback himself. That'd be awesome, I really hope it happens.

But the fact is this fan doesn't want to win just one playoff game over the next 17 years (oh that we'd have even one playoff win, how delightful :: whimper :: ) I want to have 20. With a half-dozen Super Bowl titles in there.

So yeah. We do need a bruising middle linebacker. If the best player in the draft at that position is available we've gotta snatch him. We do need another wide receiver. We still need offensive and defensive line help, no question, we have needs.

But here's the thing Chiefs fans. If we don't draft a guy who's going to be the next Ben Roethlisberger or Aaron Rodgers right now and get going with this thing right now, we are going to have a really hard time overcoming Odin's Revenge. It is just never going to end.

And wait until you see the postseason stats then, in another 17 years. It's already brutally depressing. It's already blasted my red-and-gold-bleeding heart all over the place.

There's only one way that's going end.
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(A quick note about how I may note so much about all this when I've made a firm commitment to sport celibacy. As I've shared, when things happen here and there and my finely-tuned sports radar just picks it up. I may see something on a television at a restaurant, my son may simply have a game on in the other room, or we may be invited to attend a Super Bowl party. I am sports celibate, but I am not anti-social. I also do allow myself the privilege of scanning past sports information to augment the meaning of my blog takes.)
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Ravens at Chiefs - Wild-Card Playoff Game

It just doesn't seem to matter.

Do you feel that way any time the Chiefs get into the playoffs now?

Please know that I had no illusions about the Chiefs chances -- everyone and his uncle knew the Ravens were a better team. But I will tell you there was a chink in those illusions yesterday when the 7-9 Seahawks, a team we beat handily at their place, played inspired ball and took out the world champion Saints. I thought, yep, in the NFL anything can happen, the playoffs are always wide open, and we are so due to win a playoff game that our postseason losing just can't keep going like this.

But for the Chiefs, it just doesn't seem to matter.

No matter what, we just can't win a playoff game. Needless to say our cherished team now holds a quite ignominious record: longest continuous streak of playoff losses in NFL history. It is now at seven. When you think about it, this kind of record is very hard to get. If you are a playoff team it must mean you're pretty good, and you're going to win at least one playoff game every once in a while. But, yeah...

It just doesn't seem to matter.

No matter what we do we just can't shake the Curse of Odin's Revenge.

Here it is, in all its rotten colors. Since our glorious Super Bowl win in '69, we have hit the playoff trail a total of 12 times. 41 years, 12 times. That percentage alone stinks. Of those 12 times, we have had a one-&-out in ten of them.

Ten.

Ten TEN TEN one-&-outs. We're presently at six straight and still going.

It just doesn't seem to matter in any of them.

We could be better than the other team (Den 97, Ind 95 and 03) and it doesn't matter. We could be worse than them and hope for a good swing our way (NYJ 86, Ind 06, Bal 10) and it doesn't matter.  We could be evenly matched with them and at the end of the game just happen to golly-gosh find ourselves on the winning end (Mia 71 and 90, SD 92, Mia 94) and it doesn't matter.

We could be in close games (Mia 71, 90, and 94, Ind 95, Den 97) and it doesn't matter. We could be in blowouts -- naturally always be on the losing end (NYJ 86, SD 92, Ind 03 and 06, Bal 10) and it doesn't matter. We could even be home (Mia 71, Ind 95, Den 97, Ind 03, Bal 10) where the Chiefs are supposed to be so devastatingly invincible -- in the postseason we only play in feeble Arrow-through-the-heart Stadium.

It simply plainly utterly doesn't matter.

All of this putridtude comes with the services of six different coaches (three of them are or should be in the Hall of Fame -- Stram, Vermeil, and Schottenheimer) and eleven different quarterbacks who have in their resumes a total of 26 Pro-Bowl appearances among them (yes, 15 of them were for Len Dawson and Joe Montana, but did you know that Bill Kenney, Dave Kreig, Elvis Grbac, Rich Gannon, and Trent Green were also all Pro-Bowlers at least once?)

You may say "What about those two years in that time we did win?" I know. But there was only one of those games that I believe we actually played a really good solid game, and that was the Houston game in January of 1994, our very last playoff win of any kind. ::Sigh:: Our offense was pitiful in the Oakland game of 91 and we won mostly because the Raiders played so poorly, and we barely eeked out the 93 Pittsburgh game in OT. Yes we played well enough to win those games so those Chiefs teams wholly deserve the credit, I'm great with that and proud to chalk up those dubyas. The main point is this, again...

Of the twelve trips in, ten were one-&-outs. No matter what, it just doesn't seem to matter. The kind of playoff awfultude we endure just never seems to afflict any other team. Every team sometimes gets a nice playoff performance, things that happen in the game that are good and fun and result in a win. Just sometimes. The Chiefs just always have some kind of repulsive playoff-game leprosy.

Here's a key thing: all ten one-&-outs seem to have similar characteristics. Just lots of stupid wretched things that happen to us every single time. Let me regale you with some, things that wiggled their way into our game today big-time.

Stupid distractions. This whole thing with Charlie Weis leaving to be offensive coordinator at Florida. Not a distraction they all said. Of course it was! I know Todd Haley has to get a good feel for how he wants his coaching staff, I know he really wants to do offensive coordinator stuff and he wants to see how that works out with his staff and Weis just may not have fit in with that. Whatever all the reasons are, it just reminds me of when Paul Hackett said he was going to USC just before the Denver game of 97. It was just a stupid thing that got in the way of our 100% commitment to excellence by every one in the organization. Sorry, but I just never see this crap happening with other truly contending teams.

Stupid reffing. How about the overofficiating against the Chiefs? Yes, you are never supposed to complain about the officiating because often enough it comes back in your favor. I'm good with that, I really am, especially when it comes back in the Chiefs favor fair and square -- exxxcept that in the playoffs, it just never does. The Ravens just flat outplayed us today, but my goodness, Eric Berry was called for a phantom defensive holding call, Glenn Dorsey was clearly held on a key first down run by their guy, and on one of their punts a linemen barely flinched and they called him offside giving them a game-breaker first down. And those spots at the marker that went their way and didn't go ours -- I was pulling out so much of my hair that I had to get hair plugs at half-time, then resumed pulling them out.

Stupid really-stupid things. Needless to say there is all the head-shaking type of stuff that goes against us. The field-goals-bonking-off-the-uprights kind of things, you know those incessent misfortunes that keep your stomach twisting because they just never seem to stop. Off the top of my head, Verran Tucker today made a great catch and had his toe on one foot out of bounds. Here's another one, they punted the ball and got it to bounce at the one nanoinch line and dribble back to the one (and it didn't even count because they got a first down on that lineman offside call). When we punted it went down to the one nanoinch line where our downer had one of his butthairs barely in the endzone, in there enough to bring it back out to the twenty.

Stupid collapses in some key areas of our game that are not merely break-downs but catastrophes. Probably the worst of all is the axiomatic Chiefs playoff truth that however well we did something in the regular season we just can't do it in the playoffs. It's as if we leave all of our talent on towel hooks in the locker room. Happens every time we walk on the postseason football field. Every single damn year we get the chance.

So here is today's lack-of-what-we-did-so-well-in-the-regular-season:

1. Matt Cassel. He had been doing so much to prove that he wasn't some schizo out there, but I'm afraid I'm back to being very concerned. I actually thought our offensive line was going to a problem, but they actually played great. It was Cassel who really really sucked out there today. He had nothing, and he had absolutely zero confidence in himself. Sorry, but even the most vitriolic detractors have to admit that is just not like him. When he could throw the ball he didn't and got sacked. When he did he threw it poorly or right into the hands of the other team. I'm pretty sure he had more interceptions in the Raiders and Ravens games than he had all year. Check it out, I'm pretty sure that's a fact.

2. Holding on to the ball. During the year we had an extraordinarily low 14 giveaways. During the game broadcast they actually put up a graphic there with Chiefs alongside a few really great Super Bowl type teams who'd also had only 14 in their seasons. Today we had five. A lot of this was Baltimore's fine defense, which we knew was going to be a factor, but still! Couldn't we have protected the ball way better, like we did so well during the year? Why do we fail to do it so spectacularly now?!

3. Smart, solid coaching. I don't think Todd Haley really knew what he had to do to beat Baltimore. When the score was 10-7 he went for it on fourth down deep in their territory when a field goal would've tied it and kept things really close. Instead we utterly failed and they took over the game at that point, simply because Baltimore is a team that can take over a game with a 10-7 lead. He also played his defensive backfield deep containment game far too long and far too softly, and their QB Joe Flacco just picked us apart underneath. Their tight end had ten catches, and at one point I saw Tamba Hali trying to cover one of their wideouts.

One of the key things we didn't really have at all in the regular season that was bad and was just as bad in this game was any kind of decent receiving situation to compliment the justifiably studly Dwayne Bowe. In this respect you can't blame Matt Cassel when a defense can so easily take out your only true threat -- I think the closest a football got to Bowe all day was when he walked past the encased signed one in the Hall-of-Fame room there at the New Arrowhead. The Ravens could swamp Bowe because we simply had no one else.

Here was the deal with the rest of our receiving core: Chris Chambers, benched for whatever reason. Verran Tucker, picked up off the practice squad earlier in the year. Kevin Curtis, a cancer-survivor signed on Tuesday (mind you nothing against him being a cancer-surviver, that's great, it's just that he was signed Tuesday). I didn't see Terrance Copper anywhere, but did it matter? You can't expect to succeed in a playoff game with that kind of wide receiver situation. Yeah, the eye-gouging stats here were brutal: our wide-outs caught a total of two passes for eight yards.

The fact is Chiefs playoff football is never being able to overcome our awful things like this receiving travesty, and never being able to take advantage of the good things we do do. Again, you simply can't feel any other way than

It just doesn't seem to matter.

I have to close this season with a kudos to the Chiefs for what they did accomplish. After all they did win the AFC West when everyone was just hoping we'd even come close to a ten-win season. This game was a good one in the sense that I continued to see great things from our getting-better youngsters like Eric Berry and Jamaal Charles. It was fun watching Tamba Hali play like a rampaging bull out there. And I was very encouraged by our offensive line, who in spite of some slip-ups by Branden Albert, upheld their end of the bargain today.

In a perverse way I no longer have to be stressed about the NFL record for most consecutive playoff losses. We already have it, so it's a done deal. Nothing anyone can do about it, and I know why it is happening. In that respect ultimately maybe it will then be the motivating factor that gets Todd Haley to hit the playbook that much more fiercely, that gets Scott Pioli to scour the draft boards that much more rigorously, that gets the whole team will step it up that much more because they are getting slammed with what it truly takes to be a champion.

This Odin's Revenge thing is truly awful. Maybe from all of this our top people will get it done to take it out.

Maybe something like this is exactly what we need.
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(A quick note about the above opinions regarding the nature of past games and teams. The Mia 94 game was a close one at a 27-17 final score because we were fully in contention throughout. The Ind 03 game was a blowout even at 38-31 because we were always two scores down and never able to really catch up. And briefly, the Mia 71 was at home but not at Arrowhead. One may argue about the team quality assessments, but I consider Super Bowl champion Den 97 the best team in the NFL that year, except for Kansas City. The Chiefs were just better, but were done in as usual by the typical playoff stupidness. And some may say that Marv Levy is one of the coaches who is/should be in the Hall-of-Fame, but I've only counted those who got to the playoffs. Levy did come close to getting the Chiefs in the playoffs in 1981. Still, if we count him that makes four such coaches and we still haven't gotten it done. Sigh.)
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Ravens at Chiefs - Playoff Game Preview

So now for the good -- what needs to happen for the Chiefs to beat the Ravens this Sunday. We already know that the Chiefs had a very poor game coming in and the Ravens are a very good team the likes of which the Chiefs have not faced this year. So let's just accept that going in and go over a bit of what the Chiefs genuinely do well that can get them the dubya.

They run the ball exceptionally well, this almost goes without saying. The Chiefs rushing game led the NFL by far. Jamaal Charles is an All-Pro who toyed with breaking Jim Brown's all-time NFL record for most rushing yards per carry. I didn't stay and see it, did he get it? He was at around that record of 6.4 throughout the game. Whatever the case, Charles is a game-breaker, and the Chiefs are a terrific big play team. They also get solid chunks of yardage from Thomas Jones, and coach Todd Haley uses the tandem very well. If the Chiefs can get that part of their game going and keep the game close so they stay a critical factor, they have a great chance.

I have to add that our offensive line has got to step it up. They have played extraordinarily well at times this year, particularly in games after poor showings. This game would definitely fit that description. The Raiders debacle may be a wonderful blessing if those five can pick out where they missed it and how they get back in it and open those holes for the backs. I also noted that Brian Waters was selected to another Pro Bowl. Kudos to Brian -- I'm looking forward to seeing him blow out some nice lanes for our backs.

That O-line must also play like maniacs in protecting Matt Cassel. He was smothered in the Raiders game, but I think at least some of that was Cassel just not doing things like stepping up and just flat-out getting rid of the football. That has been a tick in Cassel's game since he's been with the Chiefs, but the fact is, this year he has turned it around and shown he can play extraordinary football.

That presents another great thing about this team. Our quarterback. Cassel has really had a spectacular season. His phenomenal TD to INT ratio is a testament to his terrific decision-making. He is also a real gamer who will not tolerate losing. That intense fortitude rubs off on the whole team.

Cassel also has a receiver who is yet another Chiefs All-Pro, Dwayne Bowe. That combination is one of the best in football. And even though you gotta wonder when the opponent's defense will triple cover Bowe -- it just seems the other Chiefs receivers never get the ball -- the Cassel-to-Bowe connection has been reliable all season long. That long touchdown pass-play in the Tennessee game when Bowe plucked a strike from Cassel between five Titans defenders was a thing of beauty. It'll be a challenge against the very tough Baltimore defense, but if Cassel and Bowe are in sync we'll be fine.

Our defense has had those few awful games this year, but it has also had those several stellar games. It has ranked in the top half  of all NFL defenses through the year. Tamba Hali should have been an All-Pro, and by himself had, what, 14, 15 sacks this year? Remember when the entire team was at or near a record low of sacks for the whole year?

If we can get a good game from Derrick Johnson, we should be able to stuff the Ravens offense. He's always been inconsistent, but this year he's stepped it up and done splendidly in several games.

Our defensive backfield is one of the team's strengths. Brandon Flowers has had an off year, but he's still good. Brandon Carr can play great at the other corner. Our new rookie safety Eric Berry has learned and learned and learned some more, and he has become a true NFL player out there.

An added fine thing is the team's excellent turnover ratio. They haven't gotten a whopping number of turnovers, but they've rarely turned the ball over. When they're on, the Chiefs do a great job of controlling the tempo of a game. Get that awesome running game churning, mix in those crisp Cassel to Bowe passes, and play solid containment defense -- all things we've done really well -- and we'll win.

Our special teams have also done well, and I should add that it feels real good to have a very good punter to keep the offense on their heels, and -- yes, we can say it! -- a very dependable kicker whom we will really need when so many Ravens games come down to a field goal to win it.

Finally I can't neglect to comment on the coaching. Todd Haley is definitely a Coach of the Year candidate. He has steadfastly molded the character of this team, and he is a never-say-die tactician. Some of his decisions this year have been puzzling, but more times than not he's done some wonderfully innovative things and they've worked. He's not splashy, he doesn't overreach, and gets the most from what he has.

The main intangible is the New Arrowhead. If the fans can be in the game and roaring as they should be, that could be an extra little thing that could shake the Ravens. In what should be a close game, that notorious Arrowhead crowd could be a gamebreaker.

The best part is that if we can explode with three or four big plays like we are so capable of, it may not even be close.

Go Chiefs!
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Raiders at Chiefs - Week 17 - Record: 10-6

This is a playoff team?

I have to tell you there are a number of feelings that came back to me today. Feelings I've had in the past. Let me share each one with you.

1. This reminded me of the San Diego game three weeks ago, when we got shellacked there too. It was so similar to the extent that our line on both sides of the ball just got their asses stood up. It happened in the Denver game at there place where we also got blasted. Today the Raiders O-line and D-line just made silly putty with our guys. When we had the ball Raiders were all over us in the backfield -- our runners got nowhere and our QB's were sacked six times. When they had the ball our defenders looked like they were running backwards. This is a playoff team?

2. It reminded me of 2003 when we stormed outta the gate at 9-0, then just started to get really tired. Our defense was just not keeping up with the opponents' offensive weapons as the season wore on, and it really hit us in that first playoff game when a young Peyton Manning really took us apart and beat us at home. This loss to the Raiders, by the way, was our first at "The New Arrowhead." The way we looked today I just don't have much hope for next week's New Arrowhead game. We couldn't stop a very aggressive Raiders team that is generally mediocre, what on earth are we going to do against a really good aggressive team like the Jets or Ravens?

3. It reminded me of how much I loathe the Raiders. It's not personal -- it's just the Chiefs-Raiders thing. They've now beaten us four straight at home, and it was the first win by either team over the other by a score more than a scant touchdown or so for eons. The last big-scoring blowout was 49-31 back in 2000. (I should say the Raiders beat us 23-8 in '08, so there is that.) Hard to believe but the last blowout of any sort by the Chiefs over the Raiders, even with all our success against Oakland through the 2000's, was opening day of 1998, when we won 28-8. This was also the first time the Raiders swept us since 2001. It is just representative of the ugly truth that you can have wild success over a team for a long period of time, but sometime, somehow, it is going to come back around and they're going to kick your ass.

4. It just reminded me of all those games this year when I was just convinced we were just not a very good team. The ugly fourth quarter of the Houston game. The Buffalo game when we had to scratch and claw for a win. The San Diego game when I just knew we were not that good a team, after which I questioned my bad-team assessment when we beat St. Louis and Tennessee, but now am back to thinking we're just a bad team trying to wear a good-team mask.

The painful reality is that we have not had one single proven win against a good team like the Jets or Ravens all year long. We beat each team in the NFC West. Whuppy -- they all suck. We got clobbered in three of our divisional games, one by each team, Denver, San Diego, and now Oakland. The other AFC division we played, the South, also kind of sucks, with Indy right now barely trying to squeak into the playoffs.

Add to this the prospect of facing a couple of really awful stat situations, especially in light of how bad we played today. I do plan to preview the Chiefs playoff game later, but I just have to get all the bad off my shoulders now. Get it out of the way. Next blog time it'll be all good. For now, the brutal truth.

First, you must know that the Chiefs hold the record for most consecutive playoff losses in a row. Yes, the NFL record. They share it with Dallas and Seattle, by the way, at six straight futile postseason efforts. The trick is that Dallas' and Seattle's streaks both ended at six. The Chiefs' record is still active. Just for your information: If you remember, after we got wonderful playoff wins in 1993 against Pittsburgh and then Houston, we lost the AFC Championship to the Bills in Buffalo -- that was the first loss in the series. Then in 1994 we lost to the Dolphins, one and out -- two straight losses. In 1995 we lost to Indianapolis, one and out -- three straight. In 1997 we lost to Denver, one and out -- four straight. In 2003 we lost to Indianapolis again, one and out -- five straight. In 2006 we lost to Indianapolis again, one and out yet again -- six straight. Now, what is going to happen when we face a better Jets or Ravens team next week at an Arrowhead stadium that has probably been as cursed with rotten playoff luck as Marty Schottenheimer was? Get ready for sole possession of the NFL record for sustained playoff rottenness.

Second, do you know how many times the Chiefs have won the division and had a playoff victory? The answer is a whopping two. Yes, in the grand 50+ years of pro football wonderfulness in Kansas City, there have been exactly two years when the Chiefs have won the division and went on to win at least one playoff game. Just for your information: those years were 1966 and 1993. In '66 we beat Buffalo then lost to the Packers in the Super Bowl. '93 was when we beat Pittsburgh and Houston, the last year, by the way, we've even won a playoff game at all. Only Cincinnati and Detroit have longer streaks. I did once assemble the same number of playoff wins for the other three AFC West teams in years they won the division. It was a bunch. I've got the paper with that info on it somewhere and don't want to look for it, but trust me, it was a bunch for each. For the Chiefs, two. And what about the Super Bowl year of '69? Remember? We didn't win the division that year. We were the wild-card team from the AFL. Our overall postseason record since that Super Bowl win? Just for your information: 3-11. I call it Odin's revenge, the curse the Scandinavian god put on us for beating Minnesota. Yes, that's right, 3-11. Extraordinarily pukifying.

I know this is depressing, but I have to vent. Please, indulge me. Be a Chiefs fan with me. Thank you. Don't worry, there's more.

Third, if we do get the Jets, we are facing an 0-9 ongoing playoff record against teams from the old AFC East division. 0-9. After we beat the Joe Namath Jets in the '69 playoffs (the year before there was even an AFC East) our postseason losses against old AFC East teams has been in this order (its like a repulsively ugly tapestry, really): Mia-NYJ-Mia-Buf-Buf-Mia-Ind-Ind-Ind. All losses, to zero wins against any of them since. What's funny is none of the teams was New England. Think what it'll be like if we actually got so far as to face New England in the playoffs this year. ::Shudder::

So yeah, right now I'm kinda just coasting along, just shuffling through with my thoughts about how proud I am of this team winning the division. I mean that, after all that today's-game and yesteryears'-playoff blight, I can honestly tell you I am still really proud of these guys. They are a year or two away, during which we can hope for a couple more solid Scott Pioli drafts like he had this year and not like the one the year before when he drafted Tyson Jackson far too high. I hear rumers of an NFL lockout next year, but I know nothing about it because I'm only watching the Chiefs on Sunday. If there is no NFL next year, no big deal. I'd want to see my Chiefs finally start doing well for a while, certainly, to see them actually have a chance in the playoffs. But, whatever.

Yeah I know I'm looking past next week. Don't worry, next week I will be sitting eagerly in front of the television hoping like crazy the Chiefs' good team will show up.  It may be best that I think they'll suck so if they come away with a win, it'll feel great, the exact opposite feeling of those postseason instances when we should've won going away like the '98 Denver game or the '03 Indy game. And if we lose, then no big -- we're still that year or two away anyway.

I still have hope for this year though. Maybe we can be that team with the character to play well after having our faces planted on the turf -- we've done it a few times this year. Maybe Todd Haley will have the game plan to answer a horribly wretched loss -- he's done it before. Maybe the New Arrowhead mystique will be a significant part of turning away Odin's revenge this year. Maybe after all those pukifyingly rotten loss statistics, we're due. Maybe we'll just flat-out be that team that gets hot at the right time.

I hope. I really do.

And I'm also hoping to get to a preview this week, to simply go over what really must happen in real reality for the Chiefs to finally break the spell.
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(1/7/11 note: I have to add that upon further review I saw that the Raiders also beat the Chiefs 24-0 in 2002. I'd forgotten about that blowout simply because it was a loss by a demoralized Chiefs team completely out of contention in wet rainy Oakland on the last day of the season in which the Raiders would go on to romp through the playoffs on the way to the Super Bowl. Yhee. I can add, though, that it was nice when the Buccaneers whomped on them once they got there.)

Titans at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 10-5

Wow, are we really AFC West Champions? I am stoked that we are -- for indeed we are -- but I only ask because I look at that record there, you see it, 10-5, and am stunned. After each game of the past three years I had been pasting something like 3-9 up there at the top of each blog post.

Ahh, that I get to put the numbers 10-5 there is pure joy.

And of course to proudly proclaim that the Kansas City Chiefs are once again AFC West Champions!

I must also add that I'm sure San Diego fans are not at all pleased with my teams. This past fall my favorite major league baseball team the San Francisco Giants caught the San Diego Padres at the very end of the season, and went on to win the entire shabang. As the Chargers were nipping at our rear ends there for a while I was thinking about those roles being reversed, but a San Diego turnabout was not to be. Today the Chargers were walloped by the Bengals and yes...

The Chiefs routed the Titans.

A couple of posts ago I expressed concern that an opposing team could simply employ the "lightening strike" offense right outta the gate, as a ploy to take down one of the Chiefs best weapons, their running game. But today's game proved that if another team can do that, so can the Chiefs.

Before the Titans could sneeze it was 24-0. They managed a nice long pass play for a touchdown, but by the end of the first half we'd padded the lead to 31-7.

We got that fourth TD of the first half on a nifty pick and run by Eric Berry, who showed precisely why he was the -- what, fourth, fifth? -- pick of entire draft last year. He made a great play on a poor pass, then sped up the far sideline, made a great cut against the pursuit, and shot into the endzone. He even launched himself like a rocket as he crossed the plain -- tremendous fun!

I'm not sure because I didn't catch it, but I don't think we have a shot at a first round bye. We do get the home game no matter what as division champs, and I'm pretty sure we'll be playing either Pittsburgh, Baltimore, or the New York Jets in a wild-card game in two weeks. We'll look more at all of that when the time comes.

As it is we get the Raiders next week in a game that will be anticlimatic (kind of a bummer because I always like beating the Raiders in any game that is really meaningful for both teams) but a nice tune-up for the playoffs.

And for right now, no matter what happens, I have to say how amazing it has been to have a team that has been built and developed and managed and coached and led by the Chiefs ownership and front office personnel. From Clark Hunt all the way through everyone to Todd Haley, they have really done a phenomenal job to get our Chiefs from bottom feeders to title contenders. Kudos to all of them, what a job!

For now, it is all good. It is the best.

Kansas City Chiefs - AFC Western Division Champions!
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