Chargers at Chiefs - Week 15 - Record: 6-8

Yet another horrific experience of exasperation, the - whole - stinking - game. Why endure it? Again, sorry to all those who think I'm being obtuse, forgive me. If you are something of a reader of my blog, I humbly appreciate your consideration of my thoughts.

Again, yet - another - massive - exasperation.

But I know why.

So I don't watch it. It isn't necessarily because I don't want to. This morning was church time and family time spent largely with a family member celebrating a major event. So, yeah.

I did peek in at a gamecast and actually listened to Mitch when I could. Here is what I saw or heard.

"And that Chiefs incompletion should have been a pass interference, but oh well, just another missed call." This by the way was from the radio color man, Danan Hughes, who, like 97% of everyone, including too many of our beloved fellow Chiefs fans, just shrug. 

I believe this one was just before the half and a chance for us to get points: Yet another announcement that Xavior Worthy was clearly PI'ed, yet we got no call.

Just before the end of the first half, with us ahead 13-3, the Chargers completed a deep pass to put them in prime scoring position, one that replays showed the receiver didn't fully hold on to the ball as he hit the ground. Danan expressly said so. Replay review ruling? Completed pass. The Chargers scored a touchdown with seconds left before halftime. Yet one more of the few critical calls unjustly going against us that are enough to cost us. All - season - long.

Down by three early in the 4th quarter, Patrick threw a pick. In the red zone. Great.

Late in the game when we could have gotten the ball back to kick a game-tying field goal, at least, we just didn't get a turnover we should have gotten. How many times have we failed to get an easy interception or fumble recovery this season? I believe Danan said, "The turnover ball is just not going our way."

When we stopped the Chargers at midfield and they punted, we had another holding call against our coverage team. I'm sorry, but this traditionally fine special teams unit cannot have that many of these penalties as they've had this year. Now, if we kept having guys running back kicks for touchdowns or something really beneficial because of the penalties, that is different. But we keep going nowhere on our returns and we get penalized. There is something very wrong here. And yes, fine, let's compare. Let's look at other teams coverage and our coverage and see. If we're really committing real penalties then we need to work on that. But I don't think that is it.

And finally, the worst of all. 

Couple minutes left. We get the ball at midfield, a good shot at getting that game-tying field goal, at least, and our third-string tackle gets a holding penalty against us and Patrick gets injured. At the time of this writing I have no idea how bad it is.

Our backup QB Gardner Minshew comes in and actually does great to start, completing a few clutch passes to get us into good Butker field goal range, annnnnnd... interception.

I didn't even see this game. I watched none of it. Again I know what is going on here and it is just too hard. I peeked in a few times on the radio and gamecast and this is pretty much all I caught. How much more exasperation did I miss? Really?

You do know the Chargers on the season on the whole have scored fewer points than the Chiefs. And they have given up more points than the Chiefs. And they are five games ahead of the Chiefs in the standings (one of those counted as winning the head-to-head this year).

The Chiefs have pretty much clobbered all the teams they've beaten (the one exception the close Colts game), and been defeated by a miniscule number of points in the games they've lost. Last week's loss to the Texans was their only loss by more than one score, and it was by only 10 points in a game our defense really played pretty well anyway.

If the Chiefs do not win their next three games, they will have their first losing season under Andy Reid in his entire tenure as Chiefs coach.

I did peek at the Arrowhead Pride site and the first thing I saw was this. There posted on the right, for your benefit. Note it is a page where the fans can put in their ideas. I know that what I'm going to see in 97% of the posts will just add to the aggravation:

The Chiefs need to do this or The Chiefs need to do that. 

Not.

There are things for sure they could do to improve. The offense coaching has been inadequate, for sure. We need a running back and pass rusher. That's fine, I get it. Thing is, every team does this. The Chiefs can always improve, and there are legitimate things they could do. I can think of a few more. We all do that every year.

But this is different, by light years. The reality again, for the 78th time --

The NFLers have created a narrative that dominates what kind of calls happen on the field, and they are totally debilitating to this otherwise excellent pro football team the Kansas City Chiefs.

I guess I just can't see how this truth is not obvious. 

Again, for the 5,294th time, I will always root for my team believing they could overcome these things. Maybe this is a fool's errand, just keeping on believing in the modicum of integrity that gives our team a chance. I feel very much for the legion of true red and gold fans who are devoted to the Chiefs Kingdom. I really do. And I do feel for the players and coaches who know they must work their butts off, risking injury out there on every play, yet resigned to biting their tongues because this is their living and they want to maintain a reasonable impression as respectable and honorable athletes when the Narrative is so painfully oppressive.

The last thing of course is that injury to Patrick. Prayers go up. Prayers go up to all the players who are injured, truly. The Chargers came in banged up and had some injury issues today themselves. 

But we all wonder about Patrick the most because of who he is, we all know that. Again, we just wait and see. 

Prayers.

__

Here you go. Just one thing from a fan's FB site. I've seen no videos, highlights, or replays from the game. Don't want to. Of course. But I came across this, and the heartening thing is there were dozens of comments to this post that did very much concur with the truth about what is happening with the Chiefs. 

At least there is that.

___

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.

___

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.

__

Interlude - How Bad the Wicked NFLer Dominion Has Become Especially for a Team Like the Chiefs

Watch the Lions-Cowboys game last night? Because I try to avoid it all because it is all so rotten, the NFLer influence and all, I only tuned in to the last minute or so just so to see how it turned out and, I confess, enjoy something of a wild finish if it is close. There is no question NFL football is compelling viewing, it is, all other improprieties aside.

Turns out the Lions clobbered the Cowboys, 44-30. Huh. Interesting that this really should have been the score of the Chiefs win over the Cowboys game last Thursday, and considering the Chiefs blasted the Lions earlier in the season, well, you can draw your own conclusion knowing what truly happened in that Thanksgiving ugliness. Note, what truly happened, not what people bleat who are hypnotized by the NFLer Narrative about how things go out there.

I noticed a tease in my social media that said the game was controversial. Okay, let's look.

First, the news item said Lions got an obvious safety that was called not-a-safety, even though replays confirmed it was and the television referee even said it was a safety. Not. After all this is the Cowboys we are talking about.

Second, later in the game, an offensive pass interference penalty was called against the Cowboys keeping them from moving on to try to get a touchdown -- and I agree, it was questionable. Fine. My question is, why wasn't the world screeching about this kind of injustice in the Chiefs game on Thanksgiving like it was for this call in this game last night, when in the Chiefs game it was obviously much more egregious? When in the Chiefs game not only were the Cowboy receiver OPI'ing the Chiefs D-backs like crazy, but the Chiefs were being called for DPIs?

You know why. It is because, again, this is the Cowboys. The Chiefs don't matter. Why was that such a big deal when no one said squat about them actually happening to the Chiefs?

Real quick, once again, for the 57th time, here's the solution: No touching of any kind, by either receiver or defender, in the process of route-running. Thuh end. Arms extended toward an opposing player? A flag. That'll end it quickly. Yes, there'll be lots of flags to start, to start getting these guys used to it -- and yes, game scores will be 78-74. But... so?

Out on my walk in the small downtown near where I live last night I was thinking of how glad I was November was over. It was pretty close to the worst sports result month for my teams ever. November ugliness: the Dodgers enjoying their ill-afforded advantages to win the World Series to start the month, then the NFLer-driven disadvantages afflicting the Chiefs so horrifically in the Buffalo, Denver, and Dallas games. ::Whew:: glad that's over. 

Shortly after that nice thought I walked past a restaurant window and inside their television was tuned to the opening coverage of that Thursday night game, and I saw commentary guys sitting with a chyron covering most of the screen that said something like "Three-Way Bet," something like that. It was a Draft Kings thing, or Fan Duels thing, or whatever... 

I don't even know what they were showing, it looked like some betting thing related to a player. I did note Cowboys WR George Pickens' name up there next to some gambling-oriented number. Still blows my mind that they are doing this shit, and it isn't hard to see how much this is seeping into every NFL game broadcast. You'll note the announcers say nothing about this stuff during a game, but they could.

I mean, why couldn't they talk about how much some player did this or that related to some betting prediction from earlier? Why don't they? They could, but they don't. Why? Simple...

It is because the NFL still does know it is all evil. 

It still does objectively compromise the integrity of the game. And yet, they are perfectly fine with allowing these gambling pukes to put up their ads and their takes and their numbers and I wonder when their ugly smelly feet will get so far into the doorway that all that filth will completely burst in and you'll start seeing much more of the gambling crap during game broadcasts. This is not to mention what it does to player, coach, and officials' behavior, game outcomes, and especially the whole fan environment out there related to how it affects the lives and livelihoods of people out there clobbered by those addicted to this stuff.

This is one of the reasons I've settled back and just accept and let it go. I pay no attention to any of it except the games and whatever news my mental radar picks up. I can still pray against the evil, and always hope sanity returns to these things that are in and of themselves kind of fun to enjoy. Maybe writing about it here will help -- it may be totally ridiculous for me to think it will, but I still try.

As for the game this week I've heard we have a weakened O-line facing a blistering pass rush. Great. We could overcome it, I know, but I don't care anymore. I love that we always have Patrick Mahomes and a group of other really talented players that will play their tails off no matter what. 

But I just accept our fate because I know, unless more people start calling out that NFLer Narrative, we will struggle.

Again, that NFLer Narrative, as it relates to the Chiefs: "The Chiefs are just doing stupid things and shooting themselves in the foot, losing these close games as they have. There is no officiating slant that destroys their chances, if anything the officiating favors the Chiefs!"  The underlying purpose is to make sure the Chiefs stop being so successful.

Many will claim that looking at the penalty numbers will indicate that the Chiefs get no more or fewer calls than the opponent. Sorry, but just comparing numbers does no good to identify how the Chiefs are being hosed -- you must look at each penalty call or non-call individually and then examine the impact any given call has on the outcome of the game. I'm happy to match up every single penalty call or should-be-penalty call in any game any time to compare. Let's get to the truth about this thing.

A terrific example is that ticky-tack lining-up on the line of scrimmage call against Jawaan Taylor in the Denver game that wiped a major gain on a Kareem Hunt catch and run. The Chiefs not getting a chance at a very likely touchdown did indeed cost us the game. Please, again, do not blame Jawaan Taylor for that. It is just foolish to do so.

One may say that by the strict interpretation of the rule it should be called a penalty. That's fine, as long as it is consistently called. The Chiefs are getting unduly scrutinized for those things that are simply not called as often for other teams. That lining-up thing? Do you know how many times I see receivers illegally covered or not covered or offensive linemen who are not exactly where they should be and it simply is not called? All the time. Yet the Chiefs are the ones who get hammered the most by officials costing us games, or as was the case last year, making games so much closer when they should be Chiefs blowouts.

I've even heard some people saying the Chiefs are getting calls against them so much this year because the officials must make up for all the calls they got before. Oh my. Not only is this also phenomenally unjust, but it only shows how powerful the Narrative is in people's minds, that again the Chiefs have always gotten away with so many favorable calls. Igghck.

About the gross inconsistency, I saw on my social media some guy referring to the infamous Kadarius Toney offsides call in that Buffalo game a couple years ago, remember that? Few Chiefs fans can forget it. This dude then brought up Miami's Jalen Waddles being offsides in exactly the same way in a subsequent game sometime, and it was exactly the same thing not-called. Really, it was the same thing with doubly infamous Dee Ford offsides in that AFC Championship game loss! Another of the many ticky-tack calls that are so inconsistently called against us, that, and here's the key, have a much greater impact on our success than it does on other teams.

We are simply too good for our own good, really. 

Sorry but the Chiefs should be 10-2 this year. The Buffalo, Denver, Jacksonville, and Dallas games were officiating jokes, especially the latter two.

Yes, I do let it get to me, yeah, here I am venting for the therapy. But then I also don't let it get to me. I avoid paying attention to it. I'll watch the games, that's mostly it. I'll get some news I can't help but pick up, like us being down two tackles for the Texans game up next. There is probably a lot more going on with my team and its preparation, but I just don't know about it. 

The fact is we are 6-6, and we can absorb a loss this week at 8-4, but not 6-6, unless of course some miracles happen to get us in the playoffs at something like 9-8. The Chiefs have also won out late in the season, so we can do it again. 

Yeah, here I am writing as if I still think this is all on the up-and-up and all that. The crazy thing is I still think our team is good enough to overcome the NFLers' debilitation, so I do stay attentive to the extent that I do. Is it foolish to do so? Maybe, but, yeah, I still like to cheer on my team -- maybe a good part of that is just to see them win and as such stick it to the Narrative. If they lose, I know why.

I do also know we do have issues on both the O-line with its injuries and D-line with its weak pass rush. But sorry, this team is so good we should be overcoming them. This is a reasonable 12-5 team, 11-6 at least, if it weren't for the Narrative.

Good thing our team will play lights out no matter what. There is that, and that is the one thing I can appreciate about these guys.

__

Chiefs at Cowboys Thanksgiving Game Officiating Debacle

Please stop.

Please, stop. It'd be nice if more people knew what is going on.

Stop. Really, please stop. Forgive me but it is simply foolish to not stop saying foolish things. It is just as foolish to just try to slough aside what's really happening with a sneering "Don't blame the refs. Don't make excuses. Get over it." Please stop. It is contemptibly foolish.

I get that the players, coaches, and other kinds of people must say the painfully conciliatory things. That is thoroughly understandable. Their livelihood depends on the facade, whether they make their money legitimately or illegitimately -- not going to say anything about the latter.

But everyone else? Everyone who actually wants there to be something of a competitive integrity...

Please stop.

Please stop blaming anything in these Chiefs losses on anything unrelated to the officiating. We did not lose yesterday to our lack of talent, focus, or desire.

Please stop blaming "the little things," like those times we fumble or don't get a fumble at inopportune times. We aren't losing these games because of an inordinate number of unfortunate twists.

Please stop blaming the coaching, and while I too have blamed the Chiefs coaching staff for not doing one thing or another at the right time, every team has those things happen.

Please stop blaming absolutely anything except the one single thing that is afflicting the Chiefs this season -- in fact what has afflicted the Chiefs quite often over the course of the past couple of years --

The NFLer-driven wildly unfavorable officiating.

Really, what should Patrick Mahomes say instead of what you see in that Arrowhead Pride headline posted there? It really should be "We have no margin for error because the officials are making so many terrible calls against us. We played well enough to win, in all these games, really. But the officials are crushing us very clearly in every single game." Again he won't because he knows he shouldn't, he fears they'll make worse calls in the future because they'll all take it personally, and he's supposed to comport himself as above it all. That's fine, we all know that.

What should Andy Reid say in his postgame presser? As he typically does he said, "We've got to clean up the penalties." Further in he did actually say he personally didn't like those calls, but what if he went all the way and said, "There is something going on with the officiating because so many of those calls in critical moments were not penalties." The headline really should read "Reid blames antagonistic officials for loss..." He won't say that either, understandable.

In my game post from yesterday I expressed a hope that people would call out all this. Well, peeking around, guess what, some are. Some are actually saying something meaningful about it.

I happened to catch a number of them, and this one from Dan Orlovsky is typical. (Orlovsky is a former NFL quarterback and is now some kind of regular television commentator.) Another mentioned how the officials simply do not know what PI really is. There have got to me much more than just these things I've found, if any of these pundits are honest about what we are all seeing clearly. Okay, good. Now go further and start examining why they are doing that so much against the Chiefs. Now let's hope they start calling out why it is happening.

Some will say the Chiefs lucked out last year and got favorable reffing since they won an NFL record 17 straight one-score games -- that has to be result of favorable officiating, it has to be. No, that doesn't follow, and sorry, it is foolish to think so. Yet so many do. No, the truth is the officiating went against the Chiefs in spite of our winning -- in fact (a point I've made before) we should have won many more of those games by blowouts but couldn't because of the detrimental officiating.

So please stop, again, stop saying anything about this team not being good enough. No. The truth is this is a phenomenally good team, all around, across the board. Do we have certain weaknesses in some areas? Of course, all teams do. But the Chiefs weaknesses are really not nearly as debilitating as the foolish bleats like "Blow up this team and start over!" I even saw one that said "Fire Brett Veach!" What idiocy. 

It is indeed why when I do look at those comments in each of those Arrowhead Pride stories I don't get very far because most of them are just idiotic. It is hard to take. The good thing is, about every tenth comment (glory be!) will actually be an intelligent remark about how much it is truly the officiating that is killing us. 

When will there be more?

I mean, I do think most in the Kingdom who don't put anything in comments sections of web things do know what is happening.

Funny, at one point in the game, I believe it was the Jaylen Watson officiating call on the non-PI (which again was actually an offensive PI, which makes all this so galling), afterwards you heard a very clear moan from the crowd. Yes, there was a sea of red there, enough to make their abject disappointment known when they saw the play on the big screen in the stadium. You could hear their boos over the broadcast audio.

That's something.

The Kingdom knows.

I'd like to think most of them are intelligent and observant and insightful and get it. Ultimately it is not because the Chiefs are deficient in that area or that area, it really is because they are too good. A 40-17 drubbing of the Cowboys in a major holiday game broadcast is death to the NFLers. So we get what we got yesterday. Whether or not it is just something we need to accept, I agree, is one thing. It is another thing to be in denial about what is happening.

I can't neglect to post right now about all this because writing this now is mostly just therapy, I get that. I accept what's been happening and move on. But I need to comment just as much as the next guy. I get that I like my Chiefs too much, but I also can't give in to the silliness about what the NFLers and many blithering fans are telling us we're supposed to believe about what is going on. 

The main thing related to all this is the idea about why I get so intense about all this, because, yes, it is true: There are indeed so many other things more important than a silly football game.

It doesn't mean I don't care about those things. I do put efforts into making my world a better place for all the other not-so-good things that need to be addressed all around us. There is indeed so much deceit and dissipation with really destructive things out there, but then again, this football stuff is kind of the point -- it is indeed a microcosm of those things, and if we just shrug and make excuses for the rotten things that happen out there, then why can't they be reflected on the football field?

How about we don't have deceit and unfairness anywhere? If we can't work to have that on a simple football field how much harder is it for us to have that out in real life? Yeah I could be making more of this than it is, I get that too.

But just blogging about it, that's all. Would love to see rightness happen everywhere, whether on the football field or some benighted battlefield out there somewhere. Pounding out words to process it isn't a bad thing.

Truth and Grace will reign no matter what anyway.

___

Chiefs at Cowboys - Week 13 - Record: 6-6

Typing this out in the middle of the 2nd quarter -- don't know how much I'll put in later. Right now we are ahead 14-10 and we're doing okay, but there was a play that drove me crazy about our team and what Patrick faces.

We had a, I believe 2nd-&-long but it was a long way to a first down, and Patrick escaped the rush. He's juking everyone to get himself free to get a nice pass off --

And he can't find anyone. 

They showed a replay of our receivers, this one with Hollywood and Xavier and they refused to do the one thing to help out Patrick.

Run like blazes to the open space.

When you have a quarterback like this and you're not running like blazes to get open, it is not hard to get why Patrick is not getting as untracked as he did in 2018. In my last blog post I'd mentioned it might be because he's getting hammered too much. It may also be because the opponents are keying on him so much, working their defenses better because they know how to defend him (at least a little) -- and it is certainly because the officiating regularly makes rotten calls or non-calls that seriously mess with our chances for success.

Granted Patrick also had to look for receivers looking in the sun through that stupid giant window at the end of the Cowboys' stadium, a very good reason for Patrick just not matriculating in that play set.

The problem is the Cowboys then got the ball and just drove for a touchdown to go ahead 17-14. On that drive they didn't have to be blinded by the sun. That's nice.

They say this game may be the most watched regular season game in NFL history. There're also a zillion Chiefs fans in the stands here. The Cowboys "America's Team"? Maybe the Chiefs can make a claim to that title.

Since it is Thanksgiving I'll be enjoying the game, then dinner with family. I'll post something when it is all said and done later.

___

Okay I absolutely cannot neglect to remark about this. I cannot. Yes, it drives me crazy. The rotten rotten rottenest calls that go against the Chiefs is one thing -- the narrative that those things don't hurt the Chiefs is another.

To start the 2nd half, again down by the 17-14 score, we got the kickoff, and moved the ball. At about midfield we got a nice first down play to Hollywood, and sure enough, penalty against us. Turns out Xavier ran his route, but they interpreted it as running it into their guys too much so they called a PI against him.

Here's the even-more insane thing. Tony Romo, the color announcer, said they should pick this flag up.

This means it really should not have been a foul. Even after the commercial break Romo emphasized it was just not a foul. Not only that, but Romo went on about how much the Chiefs have to routinely work their butts off to overcome those crappy calls.

Needless to say we had to punt.

Really, I guess all I can do is just keep enjoying the fact that the Chiefs will do the really hard work to let them go and play hard and still try to win football games in spite of it. That is not a bad thing, really.

Our team is a good team, not just with their play but with their hearts.

Today that is something to be thankful for.

No matter what happens, it's good for Thanksgiving, really.

___

Now for after the game.

Fine, I'm okay with watching Dak and his receivers playing very well. That's nice. Good to play against a fine playing team. We still should have won going away.

Their backs did well too. We still should have won this game, easily.

Their coaching was good, had a fine game plan. We still should have hammered this team.

This was once again, yet again, yet another exasperating experience watching our beloved team get thoroughly ratfluppered by the officiating.

We lost two of our offensive linemen to injuries throughout the game. Added to Trey Smith who was already out, we lost our two tackles, Josh Simmons and Jawaan Taylor. And yes, we still should have won.

Even with all the ridiculous little things that happened -- late in the game we dropped an easy interception and didn't gather up a fumble when we really needed to, we still should have taken this game.

Taken altogether, avoiding a few more of those little bad things and having an actual fair officiating effort for once, we should have won 40-17, at least, but then, they admitted something critically important right in the middle of the national broadcast. That in a moment.

But at the end of the game our metal was shown in brilliant colors when we were still within striking distance, Patrick evaded the rush, slipped out of two ankle tackles, and hit Xavier for a big play. A few plays later threw a strike to Hollywood who barely got both feet in bounds in the back of the end zone. Both incredible plays -- but just ones that showed how much we had to do to try to overcome the even more exasperating idiocy of the way this game was called by the NFLers.

Trent McDuffie had the most horrific PI calls against him. Three critical ones that replays showed the Cowboys receivers pushed off, but when McDuffie worked hard and properly just to stay close and make a play on the ball, they called the PIs against him anyway. I could talk about the Watson nonsense PI call late, or the non-call for worse PI action against Kelce earlier.

All of it so wretchedly debilitating for a team that lost by a scant three points. Yet again.

But then, I could go on and on and on.

Here's the thing.

They shared on the broadcast the Cowboys needed this game more than the Chiefs to stay in contention in their conference. The truth is, the Chiefs were expendable. 

The Chiefs were never going to win this game.

The NFLers want it that way because they feel they need new blood deep into the AFC postseason. So they are systematically taking care of business now, keeping the Chiefs as far from even getting there as they can.

Yeah, it's a fool's hope to think anyone who people listen to would be courageous enough to call it out, but I still hope it will happen. But then, why. It is what everyone wants. Why fight it and rail against it all the time in this blog effort. Maybe someone will read it and look. Maybe even mention it. Maybe.

But yeah, just to have truth shared. When it isn't over and over and over again whenever the Chiefs play football, it is just another wicked immersion in exasperation. I know, why do that, why put myself through that...

I just like my Chiefs, that's all, and I hate what they are doing to them out on the football field.

Yeah, back to family time. It is good to hang with them.

___

Colts at Chiefs - Week 12 - Record: 6-5

From the middle of the 4th quarter to the end of the game Patrick, Rashee, Xavier, Kareem, our D, and, okay, everyone else in the Chiefs Kingdom willed us to win this game. Before that, we were lost. More on that in a minute. But up to the end of regulation our defense got three straight 3-&-outs on the Colts offense, and one more in overtime. Our offense started their last regulation drive from their own 15, and it've been nice if after matriculating the ball into the red zone with a minute left, our offense had 87 plays to score a game-winning TD to close it out then and there but couldn't -- we still get the dubya in OT.

Wow. I can't. I just can't. Wow.

Good to have a game at home with the crowd being a 12th man to help the defense. On the Colts opening drive they got their offense all discombobulated and they were penalized a number of times to keep them from going past midfield.

Thing I heard from the announcer, though, was not good, the Chiefs defense gives up a 112 rating to the opposing quarterback on 3rd downs. That stinks. Our defense is a top-tier defense, but that. Ugh. Then he tells us we're terrible with penalties on special teams, and a holding call with their punt (the first of what seemed like 20 on us in the game) got us started with our first drive at the 4, after which Patrick threw a pick, him just not fully getting how that D-lineman could just swallow up his pass. Ugh ugh. This was the kind of stuff that just set this game up for yet another major exasperation.

It continued when Travis Kelce scored a wildcat formation touchdown, but, yep, nullified by another crappy officiating action against our guys, this one against the embattled Jawaan Taylor. Thing is the infraction just wasn't there. Yet again, the Chiefs are screwed by the typically antagonistic officiating. We got a field goal instead of a touchdown. 

They are indeed going out of their way to find anything they can call against the Chiefs. Sorry, yeah, broken record again, forgive me...

But that whole thing messes with the Chiefs, as it is indeed intended to do. 

They may say it all evens out and look at the penalties it is pretty even and all that blap, but the reality is you must look at particular calls in particular instances and see how much they impact the game, the rhythm -- in some ways forcing the Chiefs to play with an extra crick in their necks because they're afraid they're going to be hammered by some officiating call.

Later on we get more ugliness from other Four Horsemen: Trey Smith went down with an injury, Kareem fumbled in the red zone with the game still in reach early in the 4th quarter. Yeah this does feel like 2017 when we got blitzed in the middle of the season but the team managed to make a decent recovery to get into the playoffs. The rest of our schedule this year is a bit lighter, so we'll see if we can still snatch a playoff spot.

One thing I just wonder about is why Patrick has never been able to regain that 2018 form, you know, when he amazed the world and threw 50 touchdown passes on 5,000+ passing yards. Yes he's been amazing since winning three Super Bowls and getting us to two others. I got that.

But this Patrick Mahomes? While still the best quarterback in the NFL, he is just off. He really is. He is just missing too many throws. I wonder now, is he relegated to just being one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL? How sad is that? And it hasn't been just this year. Again, with a 2018 Patrick Mahomes playing with the most brazen death-defying, ferociously take-no-prisoners excellence, we'd be clobbering every team. Absolutely. But we're not. We haven't for a few years now, all our phenomenal success aside.

Harrison Butker with the game-winning field goal in overtime

And some of my thinking in this has to do with the shots he is taking. In today's game he was crunched by a Colts defender after the play, eliciting a flag. The dude did one of those slamming the 400-pound body-on-top-of-the-quarterback things, and got penalized. Well, good thing, I guess. Another one had the Colts dude slamming into Patrick's knees, drawing another penalty flag. Patrick gets shoved, crunched, pounded all the time back there and while most of it isn't a penalty, I just wonder. 

In 2018 he just had that wild-abandonment play that was so much fun to marvel at. Is it because he doesn't have the receivers? I don't think so. I know back in 2018 we had Tyreek, he was incredible, when healthy he still is over at Miami -- but now we have excellent receivers in Rashee, Xavier, Tyquan, and Hollywood, even JuJu has been good. And we still have Travis.

Well, with the help of a defense that would simply not be denied in keeping the Colts from doing anything in the second half, these guys got the job done. We're 6-5 and still in the mix with, again, a bit of a lighter schedule coming up. This Colts team was very good and we held their amazing running back Jonathan Taylor to 58 yards rushing. I was just told on the broadcast that the Colts got a total of 18 yards in the 4th quarter.

One more thing, looking at the standings coming into this one. I happened to glance at it and noticed the Points For and Points Against. Look. The Broncos are three games up on us, actually four because they beat us last week, yet compared to Denver the PF are about exactly the same, and PA are better for us! The Chargers were a game-&-a half up on us, and we are better than them in both areas, by far! (Yes both teams have played one more game than we have, but the point is still taken. We're really even with the teams way ahead of us in the standings at this point in the season.)

We play against Dallas on Thanksgiving Day, and having this win today will make enjoying that at least a little bit better.

__

From the official Chiefs website, the first photo is from Jacob Rice, the second from Kyle Rivas. Thank you. 

__