Chiefs at Raiders - Week 18 - Record: 6-11

It's about an hour or so before game time today, but I wanted to post this image I clipped from Facebook. (Take on the game coming up a bit later, of course.) 

This guy put up all the NFL team's records if close game results were reversed. It is exactly what I thought, knowing the Chiefs pretty much blew out teams they beat, but it was super close in almost every loss.

Close enough that one or two stupid calls or non-calls by the officials made the difference. 

This graphic just proves how many times this happened to the Chiefs over the course of the season. Any observant Chiefs fan could name just about every one of them, specifically.

Just this morning I glanced at the Cowboys-Giants game a family member had on the television, and in one play you could see how it was that the Chiefs were so terribly disfavored this year.

The Giants ran a play with both of their tackles lining up well off the line of scrimmage, pretty much where Jawaan Taylor lined up at a crucial point in the first Denver game when Kareem Hunt completed a terrific pass play to get the Chiefs right at the goal line. Nope, penalty on Taylor for not quiiiite being on the line of scrimmage to start -- play erased, we get bupkis.

Again, this is a procedure penalty officials really liked calling frequently against the Chiefs and Jawaan Taylor in particular, when otherwise I see other team's tackles in other games line up in the same place all the time.

Right then the Giants QB threw about a 20-yard pass at the sideline that was pretty much out-of-bounds, the receiver really wouldn't have been able to catch it. The commentator remarked, however, that there was some handsy activity by the defender but not enough to call a penalty. Again there really was no issue because even if he caught the ball he'd have been out-of-bounds, but still...

What's with the commentator remarking about how much or how little the jostling by a downfield player was anything that affected the pass play?

In other words, it is definitely on people's minds whether or not something is pass interference based on an official's interpretation. And oh did the officials do lots of interpreting against the Chiefs this year in that area.

I happened to catch an actually very fine take from a fan at the Arrowhead Pride site this morning. He made the case that the Chiefs entire offensive approach needs an overhaul, with the main issue defenses having figured out Patrick Mahomes, and that either the coaches need to do much better at changing things up or Patrick needs to get to a point where he is actually being his own offensive coordinator and making things happen more on his own out there on the field, or both.

Great point, I too have for the past couple of years been exasperated far too much watching Patrick just get too frustrated in the pocket and always have to bail too soon and just... phfthxxthpffssssss...

I thought, huh, this guy at Arrowhead Pride got it, huh, why didn't I see that...

But, well, I did. He said it much better, I admit, but I too feel we just need to do something about Andy Reid. The guy at Arrowhead Pride mentioned he should "reapply" for the job, and I do agree something dramatic like that needs to happen. Either he fixes things on his own, or the team has a firm word with him about it, or we just move on with someone else. Just tinkering with a few coaching changes or doing a bit of finger-wagging won't do it.

The problem is I'm still seeing very little from enough people about the real problem, the NFLers simply working against us. That graphic says a ton, I think. The Arrowhead Pride guy and too many others feel that we were "found out" this year and last year "we got lucky." No, the veritable truth is this is indeed a very good team that deserved everything they got last year (another trip to the Super Bowl) and should have at least made the playoffs this year but got extraordinarily hosed by the Scorecasting-proven debilitating officiating.

Do we need improvement in certain areas? Of course! Could we do much more from our game-planning and play-making and just plain coaching excellence? No question! But again, for the umpteenth time, every team racks their minds about these things, and it is always good to have the conversation -- spring season quarterbacking is always a robustly invigorating endeavor.

How about having the conversation about what is really going on in the NFL?

In the meantime, I'm just going to add my take about this last game against the Raiders here in this post a bit later. If we lose we could get as high as an 8th pick in the 2026 draft, I'm told. If we win we may drop to 12th or so. I'm not hoping we lose just to get four picks higher, really. It just doesn't matter. The draft can be such a crapshoot, if Brett just gets the best available player at 12 or 13 we'll be good.

___

Nkay. Game take. Just notes is all, really, tough to do in yet another horrific loss as pointless as any of it is anyway.

1. All kudos to Chris Oladokun for his efforts, but his two fumbles in the first half led to two Raiders scores. He also just couldn't get untracked -- constantly looking downfield, making short completions that didn't amount to enough, wandering around back there too often... much of that is on the coaching, again, but to their credit you just can't get it done in the NFL without the guns you need on the field.   

2. People need to stop the constant dissing of our special teams. Our punter Matt Araiza is terrific, and he played great today. Harrison Butker hit all four of his field goals and is still rails. Coverage was fine, though again we got flagged for something, yet again, on a return. 

3. We played Brashard Smith a lot and he ran well enough, but the offensive scheme is just not there (see fuller analysis above). When it is he'll be pretty good.

4. Our passing game was trash today, but then again we played our 4th string quarterback Shane Beuchele in the 2nd half and he did not do well. He got sacked in the end zone for a very unfortunate safety, which in the score was really the difference in the game. He just looked lost out there, even though he had that one terrific throw late to Hollywood which got us into ersatz game-winning field goal range. Again, if you don't have the guns you won't win. Anyone realize how valuable Patrick is yet? I know that is very much a rhetorical question, but it is still extraordinarily meaningful.

5. Our defense played great, people like Nohl Williams come to mind -- it'll be nice to see what he does for us in the coming years. But then, Williams had an interception dropped, and that was typical of this team this year -- a dropped pick here, and missed fumble recovery there, and each of those individual refusals to take advantage of opponents' gifts make a difference in a close game.

6. The defense bent just a little too much when the Raiders had only a minute left with no time-outs, and had to go at least half the length of the field to get a game-winning field goal. They did. Their tight end made a great play to get big yardage, enough to get them in position for their excellent kicker to bang through a, yes, 60-yarder to win it. Yet another wicked picture of this Chiefs season in one single ugly play.

7. And the only saving grace in this putridity, our first-round draft spot in April. It is... wait for it...

Ninth.

So there you go. Thuh end, 2025. If I do another post, great, if not, I may see you in April, or even as far out as August for something of a preview or September for our first game of the 2026. The main question, will Patrick be ready to go by then? We'll see! 

Otherwise, the main underlying question we can only answer as the season progresses, will we have a good enough team to overcome any more NFLer adversity, and if that adversity is still plainly there on the field will there be anyone who'll finally pay attention? We'll see about that too! In the meantime...

Go Brett and the Chiefs!

___

The Last Chiefs Game of the Season

The Chiefs play the Raiders in the last game of the season on Sunday. The NFL deigned to give us a nationally televised afternoon game because of the rivalry, so that's nice. This, even though the Raiders are a train wreck and the NFLers have been hosing the Chiefs all season long.

I thought I'd pound out thoughts about a few items, mostly the things I think about Chiefs improvement for the 2026 season. One of those things is Patrick gets better, and how much he is driven to excellence he'll be back soon enough better than ever. But here are the other things, in order of importance.

Number one, by far: Get a critical mass of people to see what the NFLers are doing to the Chiefs. They have so clearly worked things to make sure this year the Chiefs were nowhere near the playoffs -- we all know how lethal this team is once they get in. Again, amazing that over the past seven years the earliest the Chiefs season has ended in any of those years was in overtime in the conference championship game. Every - single - time.

I'm not going to belabor the point, although if I had the time and wherewithal I'd love to prove this reality, play-by-play, penalty call that should have been a non-call, and penalty non-call that should have been called. I'll look at both sides, excellent. I firmly believe the Chiefs disfavor will be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

For now I will just add that last night I watched some of the Rams-Falcons game. Over the past few years I've taken an affection for the Rams simply because my wife has always been a Rams fan. I've enjoyed rooting with her.

About halfway into the game a Rams receiver pushed off on the Falcons defender, and it is indeed an offensive pass interference. Fine, I get it. (The Falcons safety came over to intercept the pass anyway on this particular play.) They called it, that's fine. 

But I was furious, only because they simply never called the same exact pushing-off when the Broncos did it to our guy to get into field goal range late in the Broncos game in Denver, a non-call that won the game for them. They didn't call it the several times when the Cowboys did it against us, calls that cost us that game as well.

Late in this Rams game, with the Rams behind by three and scant seconds remaining, QB Matthew Stafford threw an absolute dime to his receiver at about the Falcons 10-yard line. The Falcons receiver was doing all kind of slapping against the Rams WR to keep him from easily catching the pass. It was obvious defensive pass interference, and the television official even concurred.

No call.

Rams weren't able to get into position to make the game-tying field goal. That one non-call cost them the game.

This happened to the Chiefs all - year - long.

The solution is something I've shared many times before. Make a rule that, ahem, no one can touch anyone else down the field on passing plays. No touching, grabbing, extending arms, pushing, shoving, jostling -- nothing. From the line of scrimmage on -- no more of this you-can-do-it-up-to-five-yards. Let the receivers run their routes cleanly from the start, and the defensive players: Just cope. Adjust. Get better. Do well to get in position and go after the ball. Great. Receivers: Go get open. Run your routes crisply and then if the D-back is close fight for the ball the defender has the opportunity to take away from you -- again as long as the defender is actually going for the ball.

A critical addition to this is put two officials with monitors in the booth. I've shared this a dozen times before too, maybe it'll take: Make them original call officials. No more challenge flags and definitely no more of this "We're not sure, let's check this out, and call up to the booth for review." If a booth official sees something from the start, he then stops play and wires down: "Hey, that's a penalty, you missed it," or "Hey, that wasn't a penalty, pick up your flag," or, in the case of the Chiefs-Cowboys game, "Um, you called defensive pass interference against the Chiefs guy on that? No, it was clearly offensive. You guys are a joke out there." 

Well, maybe not that last part, but I sure would love to hear that sometime when a stupid and very costly call goes against the Chiefs.

But again, it has to come from that critical mass of people wherever whoever they are who actually see what is going on and wants something to be done about it. We are all the Chiefs fans at the Cowboys stadium who loudly booed when Jaylen Watson was called for pass interference when it was obviously offensive, and they could all see the proof on the Jumbotron replay in bright living color right above their heads? 

They could change all the rules in the books, but if the NFLers keep effing with the Chiefs and no one calls them out on it, none of this will matter.

Since I like my Chiefs and like rooting for them and do think there are some things they could to improve as a team -- assuming for the sake of argument that next year everything will much more on the up-and-up, here are the important team things that must happen, again, in order of importance.

2. Expect that Brett Veach will get his mojo back and make excellent moves in the draft and player market. Let's face it, this was not a good year for him. He did do decently drafting in April, but we have to wait and see how these guys turn out.

Thing is, he signed a running back, Elijah Mitchell, that was worthless, he never played. Last year he traded for a good pass rusher, Joshua Uche, who was never used -- turns out I saw he had a fine year with whatever other team he played for this season. Why does it seem he gets players we just don't use? To his credit in the draft this year he got somebody who looks terrific, Brashard Smith -- but we hardly played him! That's on the coaching staff I believe, more on that in the next item.

The most significant Veach failure was the very absence this year of his first-round pick three years ago, Felix Anudike-Uzomah. Our pass rush was abysmal this year, yet it would have been much better if we had a stud edge rusher FAU was supposed to be. Now I believe he was injured or something, but I've heard nothing about him filling that need when healthy.

It just seems everyone is resigned to this being a failed pick, and, well, can you say Breeland Speaks? Brett has absolutely got to get the draft right, and this year instead of reaching for an FAU (and please, didn't we all know it was reach in 2023?), at his pick -- at what, number 9 or 10 this year? -- he has simply got to pick the best player available no matter what. Don't look at need, just get the best players we can put on the field. The only exceptions are quarterback, kicker, and punter. 

Everything else is fair game. I prefer defense, but again --

Just -- get -- the -- best -- player -- on -- the -- board.

Brett is good enough to work around all that.

3. Get new coaching blood. I know a lot of people are calling for a new offensive coordinator, and while Andy Reid is one of the absolute greats, really, it is on him the pathetic play-calling that happened overall this season. I mean, it was gross watching the vanilla plays the Chiefs ran this year, time and time and time again. Uggh. You can blame Matt Nagy all you want, but this is on Reid.

So yes, in the back of my mind, I'm looking for us to move on and get a new, dynamic, exciting head coach in the Sean McVay mold, to be honest with you.

An example of the Reid inadequacy this year is what happened with Xavier Worthy. Two plays in this past Broncos game epitomized Reid's failure -- and yes you could say it is on the receivers coach or someone like that, but please, ultimately, with Worthy's consistent failures to get untracked this year, this is purely on Reid to make sure the best of this receiver is on the field, I'm sorry.

Play One: Our QB Chris Oladokun made a fine play to escape the rush and find Worthy in the left flat. Worthy caught it for what I believe was a first down, but, well, his right foot was way out of bounds. Sideline awareness has been a bit of an issue with him, but after this long as a professional football player making a million dollars a year with nothing to do at work from 8 to 5 but make sure you are catching balls in-bounds? How is this still an issue?

Sorry, that is on Andy Reid.

Play Two: Shortly after that, Oladokun threw a long pass intended for Worthy that fell incomplete, it was long. But looking at the replay it really did look like a good throw that Worthy simply did not catch up to. Also in the replay it just seemed like Worthy didn't go full speed on his post route. This made me think.

Why?

Really, here's a dude who set the record for speed at the NFL combine two years ago. It is surely why the Chiefs drafted him, that's great!

But then, my thinking: if this guy is The Flash in football shoes, why isn't he just running past people? Why doesn't he just sprint to the post and let our QB drop the ball in his hands as he flies past defenders who will never keep up? And if defenders have to play so deep to adjust to that speed why aren't we easily matriculating the ball down the field with underneath stuff all the time? I think I saw Worthy had one touchdown catch this year.

This is totally inexcusable.

I simply cannot see how this isn't a major failure of the Andy Reid coaching program this year. Major.

Of course, I can't not add that to Worthy's credit, and to Reid's, when Xavier is unjustly mugged like he was in the Chargers game, it makes the whole speed advantage much more difficult. But then, for the 57th time: See Item No. 1 above.

4. Get a new very very very good running back. Nothing against Kareem Hunt or Isiah Pacheco. I think they'd have done better if our offensive wasn't so racked by injuries. But we do really need that Priest Holmes in the backfield -- I know, tall order, but if we can get that guy to take some of the load off, Patrick would be unstoppable.

By the way, real quick, the drafting of Clyde Edwards-Helaire was definitely not a poor pick, and I add this remark for obvious reasons -- so many think it was. It wasn't, by far. CEH showed flashes of brilliance, and did have a number of fine runs and terrific plays. He wasn't great, agreed, but that shouldn't take away what we should be thinking about his contribution. I do believe the main reasons his career got so derailed was the personal emotional issues he had to deal with, and the coaching approach that I truly consider did not get the very best from him that they could.

5. Get a new very very very good pass rusher, but then I've already addressed this, and why again the FAU failure was so devastating to our cause this season. 

6. Trust that a new season will have much less affliction from the Four Horsemen. Again, has there ever been a season when those guys -- Penalties, Turnovers, Injuries, and Poor Calls -- just murdered us in such massively gruesome ways? For some reason just about every one of those were just so costly this season. Yes, we had been very blessed in the past several years not to have them be so damaging. I almost thought they'd gone away for good by virtue of the excellence we enjoyed on the field, but, well, then there was this year.

7. Finally, mention must be made of the Arrowhead Stadium situation. I've seen mostly negative reviews about the decision to build the latest "state-of-the-art" stadium in Kansas. I kind of concur. Arrowhead is an iconic stadium, and while the plus is it is indeed 53 years old -- hard to believe -- and a new STATE-OF-THE-ART stadium is exciting... I mean... This is Arrowhead.

This is not to mention how much Missourians simply do not like Kansas, and feel betrayed by the Chiefs. I don't think it is that big a deal because the local Chiefs fan base is seven states wide, globally it is even wider. They're still playing in the Kansas City metro area, that's great.

The main thing with this is was there any kind of corrupt bargains that were just not made with the greatest of integrity? I already have the consideration that there is so much in all of this that is so filled with not-the-nicest compromises, but, well, I'm not going to go there. I've already written at length about the dangers of the whole official gambling association. Thing is, ultimately, how much does any of the not-so-nice things that happen off the field impact Chiefs success?

Will lame-duck Arrowhead play over the next five years impede our ability to win? I'm not sure. I don't think so, but it is sad to think any kind of new stadium will just not have that very unique and extraordinarily delightful character of our Arrowhead. There has always been that comforting tie to a past that, while full of painfully difficult on-the-field years before the Mahomes era, was about integrity and industry and community. 

Sunday we have a meaningless game with no postseason action to follow for the first time since I believe 2012. I do hope we are playing our youngsters a lot, all of them, the Jalen Royals and Brashard Smiths and all those guys. I've seen a few things that tell us the Chiefs are not, and if so, I believe is a reason to again reconsider our commitment to Andy Reid, I'm sorry.

I'll make a few remarks at that time. Still, no matter what...

Go Chiefs!

___

Broncos at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 6-10

Starting to pound this out here after Butker just tied the game, 13-13, with a nice 40-something-long field goal. About 10 minutes left in the game, something like that.

As we all know the Broncos are working towards the No. 1 seed in the AFC, while the Chiefs are playing for pride.

So far, however, the Broncos have been showing why they have been doing so well this year. Their offense is getting huge chunk yards on 1st down, sustaining long drives to get their three scores. The Chiefs have been staying in it, really, by the skin of their teeth. Our defense is bending with this Broncos offense, but not letting them get untracked.

Our third string quarterback, Chris Oladokun, has actually played very well considering. The Broncos have a top class defense, and Oladokun has had his share of plays when he's looked overwhelmed. But to his credit he's hung in there, and actually made a couple Mahomes-esque type plays. Very fun.

Well, after a surprise Christmas visit from neighbors, it is now the two-minute warning.

Annnd, sure enough, with the Broncos at a 4th-&-2 on the Chiefs 11-yard line, score still 13-13, the Broncos try to draw them off-sides, and sure enough, Chris Jones bites. On the first penalty the Chiefs had all night. 

Denver scores the touchdown a couple plays later.

That was the game right there. 

That was a picture of the Chiefs miserable season right there.

So yeah, there it is. My blog post for this one. There a dozen things I've thought about saying here, but, well, as I often do with these kinds of things, I just want to leave this behind.

Maybe more of a take on what the Chiefs need for next year, next week.

Merry Christmas to all, nonetheless!

___

Chiefs at Titans - Week 15 - Record: 6-9

Amazing that we are dispatched so early in the season. It is so unusual! The time of this playoff contention elimination is so pronounced -- in the fourth-to-last-game. That is really early for this team. You do recognize that the earliest the Chiefs have had their season end every single season over the past seven years is in overtime in the AFC Championship Game.

The earliest.

Every year for the last seven.

Some teams regularly have their seasons end by Week 10.

So yeah, for all those who are moaning the Chiefs dynasty is over, ::pshaw:: Patrick will be back for more when he returns, and if we never win another playoff game the Chiefs have already had a major dynasty. Savor it for now, for sure. Always.

Thing is when Patrick returns... will the NFLers and its pounded-into-the-pro-football-psyche Narrative let him go off. Let him go off and do what he does best, play unprecedented-quality football and win Super Bowls.

I just don't know, really.

Really...

It is very much about the integrity of the game. I've written here over and over and over again, I like my Chiefs and will always cheer them on. It is fun to watch them play hard, and most times win. I am amazed what they've done in light of what they are up against. 

I say this because this year has clearly done more to get me to dial back my consideration of this thing American Professional Football. 

I happened to see this piece in the news, the government issuing a new warning against the now rampant gambling craze marauding through everything. Yeah, sorry, but these gambling entities' liability goes far beyond the silly little warning notice they put at the bottom of every print or broadcast advertisement they bilge.

We don't really need a government warning to tell us how evil this whole gambling thing is. That hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars are spent on these gambling things is abominable. So very sadly this says much more about the people engaged in this stuff than the ugly NFLer wager-embracing seduction of those people.

And I'm no less guilty.

I watch it. I listen to it. I pay rapt attention to my team even enduring all the wretched alcohol & insurance commercials and racialist sloganeering and official gambling site promotions and whatever other shameful thing they promote -- much of it directed at young people who are lost and lonely and despairing because they are not finding meaning in life beyond the compelling but ultimately benighted stories the now-AI-smothered Hollywood (of which the NFL is a vibrant part) splashes in front of their faces.

Really...

As for this week's game, crazy: it has been eleven years since I've blogged about a meaningless regular season game that doesn't involve anticipation of postseason action. It was way back in 2014. And that year we missed the playoffs on the second-to-last game of the season. That year we started 7-3, then the wheels fell off. Funny we would have still made the playoffs had the officials not made a terrifically boneheaded call favoring the Cardinals costing us that game late in the season. That year also featured that wonderful Monday night game early in the season when we pasted the Tom Brady-led Patriots.

And that year we still had a winning season, finishing 9-7. So yeah, in the Andy Reid era we had a winning season every single year, that has indeed been a splendid part of the Dynasty.

Thing is, speaking of the Titans, the team we played today, that 2014 season also featured an opening day trouncing at the hands of the Titans. I mean we got beat, bad, 26-10. You could even say we lost our shot at the playoffs that year because of that loss, because one more win for a 10-6 record would have qualified us. But it didn't seem to be an issue then because it was the very first game of the season. We didn't think anything of it, it was just one loss.

The reason I mention how brutal this loss was and reasonably the one loss that cost us was the Titans that year won only one more game, and that game they barely won by two points. Meaning they beat us in that opener by 16 points, and lost to everyone else except one other team they squeaked past to win.

It is just right now a really really really good feeling that for so long, all these years of "The Mahomes Era," we have never really had to agonize over those typically stultifyingly stupid things that had always afflicted the Chiefs. 

So very sweet it has been. Ahhh...

Oh, yeah, this game. Um, yeah. Why I shared that part about the Titans game from 2014? Well, this Titans team came into this Chiefs game with a 2-13 record.

And, well...

Our second-string QB went down with a knee injury early, so we had to go with our third string guy, who himself had to work behind a patchwork offensive line. Our defense started the game playing well, but the demoralization just had to have set in. We were also without key defensive guys like Leo Chenel and Trent McDuffie.

With nothing to play for it was just a practice game, really -- see what the guys we put out there can do.

The bad? Our streak of winning seasons under Andy Reid is over.

The good? We angle for a higher draft pick next April.

Hey -- dynasty establishment, Patrick coming back stronger than ever next year, high draft pick...

Some nice hopeful things.

___

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.

__