Chiefs at Seahawks - Special Take

I just had to pound out another take for a very specific reason that I will address in just a moment.

But first things first that are just as relevant, and I think worth mentioning regarding the Chiefs.

I saw a graphic on my social media that was quite sobering. It was simply this.

The Chiefs played one of the worst NFL games Sunday in the Super Bowl era.

Just from a game stat standpoint. I don't remember them all, but, to wit:

No drives into the red zone. No touchdowns. Multiple missed field goals. Interception. Fumble (recovered). No sacks. Multiple penalties. No back or receiver with 100 yards. Quarterback with worst possible QB rating. What was it, I believe six qualified 3rd-&-longs by the opponent's offense, all converted.

There were more, I believe, and a couple of these are items I myself just remember -- that all together was an effort in abject futility that had never been accomplished in the Super Bowl era. Watching our effort out there Sunday night, it was start-to-finish exasperation -- I didn't know, however, it would qualify as being this bad.

The main reason I wanted to make this post was to emphasize a point I have made several times before, with an extra recommendation for any reader who cares to help make the case.

Please go to this article and read it, carefully -- an excellent take from fine social researcher Debra Soh. She is now committed to unraveling the hellscape that is online sports gambling, a practice which is official sanctioned by the big-time professional sports leagues, especially the NFL.

Of course you know I have written like crazy about it in this sports blog effort, but sadly, not many read my humble Chiefs blog. Much sadder is that no one seems to care to do anything about stopping this madness, and it isn't just because it is getting harder and harder to really trust the integrity of the games.

It is simply because the sports leagues and everyone involved with them -- making millions of dollars from the interest they want to generate from young people betting on everything -- 

Is killing those young people.

"Oh now don't be so melodramatic. It is no big deal. It is harmless fun."

Know what I say to that? Well, it'd be a really bad word followed by "...that."

It is folly to say crap like that about this, it really is. It is the worst idiocy and it is so horrifically sorry that so many do this gambling stuff, and then tell me to back off. Of course that sentiment keeps people from seeking to stop it, even working hard toward that end.

I could give a rats nard about the sports aspect of any of this, I already know it isn't wholly on the up and up. I also know if they made the strictest law against it all some gambling interest will still find a way to continue to exploit people in these ways. 

I will still like my Chiefs and hope they win so I can have a good thrill for a couple hours on a Sunday. It is just that the SPORTS is what is a huge part of encouraging it, and the leagues' OFFICIAL PARTNER OF X, Y, Z BETTING PLATFORM is about as wickedly brazen as you can get.

Doesn't matter how many young lives are wrecked, just so we can squeeze every dime from whatever interest we can extract by virtue of the enterprise, it makes it perfectly fine. As long as we have the warning about gambling problems at the bottom of the screen in each ad we post, it's all good.

What evil.

I did peek at a bit of the baseball World Series this year, and I have not watched anything baseball for years and years. (Full disclosure: this is with the exception of a few times I have caught things like this on someone else's TV at a home I'm visiting or some instance like that.)

Anyway, it is like I've been Rip Van Winkle, asleep for years and years and I am waking up to this, now a wretched bastardization of anything that is truly baseball. I could cite a dozen different travesties. But one of them was looking on the TV during a pitch and seeing the graphically placed ad on the backstop fence right behind the batter, catcher, and umpire. They showed a number of different ads, but this one was the worst. It was

"[One of those online gambling sites]" and right next to it was the slogan, something like, "You can now bet on everything."

Everything.

It was something like that, very concise about betting on anything, anywhere you are, right there on the app on your phone.

Right there behind the live televised action of the game.

Blows my mind.

Blows my mind that this many people are just that... well, more unsavory words I can think of.

Yeah, that Chiefs game Sunday night? Maybe I shouldn't be paying any attention to any of it. I love Patrick Mahomes, he's wonderful, he's made the Chiefs at least right now the team of the 2020s -- how delightful is that. I revel in watching him play and do daring feats of football greatness.

But he schlurped Sunday night, and yes, much of that was he got no help from receivers who were just miserable and an offensive line that was beyond offensive.

But you know? What a metaphor for the actual machinery of the whole professional sports enterprise. Outside it is like whitewashed tombs but inside it is full of dead men's bones -- to quote The Living Word. (Oh, and the Chiefs were wearing their all-white uniforms Sunday. Whaddya know...)

I can't disparage only my Chiefs, but let's be honest, they're part of all of them being in on it. That hurts, it does.

I'd like to think this'll all change. I guess I can hope for that. As it is, I limit my Chiefs attention to just those games, for now anyway (simply because it may indeed be way less if nothing changes), and I pay no attention at all to any other sports, at least I am successful most times not to.

Maybe more need to...

Once again, Debra Soh's article is here. Get to it, please, and maybe say something about it to someone.

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The photo was by David Gray at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Seahawks - Week 7 - Record: 5-1

Sometimes when you play a game against an opponent who has, literally, the very best player in the NFL at a given position, it is very likely you are going to witness a game when said player just plays even better than their typical very best.

That player is wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba. 

Just watching him tonight make mincemeat of our defensive backfield... just watching a work of art, really... You just have to give him credit, as well as their fine quarterback for brilliantly feeding him all night long.

The Seahawks defense was also exceptional, so there is that. They get the credit too, just got to take our lumps sometimes.

That's really it. There are a lot of other things that could be said about this game, and I'm sure it will be said somewhere somehow, certainly. Not going to get into all of it, but some of it may be along the lines of...

Our should-be top receiver, Xavier Worthy, is indeed super duper super duper fast. But let's face it, he is just not a very good NFL wide receiver.

I think the calls for Harrison Butker's head will get louder. He missed two field goal attempts he's always used to making, and it cost us big-time tonight, really keeping us from at least being in this game, having a chance.

Our O-line just did not play well. There is indeed the very troubling Josh Simmons situation, and everyone is wondering about what is going on with his health and even his commitment after some kind of incident in the meeting room this week. Tonight, not having the people you need up there to make running lanes and provide pass protection showed up in the ugliest colors.

I have to say our offensive game plan, whatever it was from whichever coach there is, was abominable. Yes the Seahawks defense was stifling, so it was a challenge. But every Chiefs play looked like a Chinese fire drill out there.

If we want a chance to actually compete against playoff-caliber competition in January, we have a lot of work to do after tonight's pathetic effort.

I cannot neglect to add this stat just shown on the TV screen. In the Mahomes era there has never been a game, ever, regular season or playoffs, when the team has not had a red zone possession. Except for tonight.

::Sigh::

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Chargers at Chiefs - Week 6 - Record: 5-0

Might be the same refrain every single game.

Give the rock to Kenneth.

Our fine new running back went over 100 on the ground and scored the only two touchdowns of the day. Gotta give him that. Wow, again, how awesome is it to have him back there.

Thing is, ugh, our offensive performance left much to be desired. Patrick was just off, even throwing a very ill-advised interception in their end zone. It was, however, very nice to see some key plays made by Jalen Royals, Cyrus Allen, and Andrew Armstrong. We'll need those guys to keep it up to keep our wide receiver corps serviceable, hopefully even better than that. And as our main target Xavier Worthy made some very worthy snags.

We definitely won this on the backs of our defensive effort. The Chargers only mustered three field goals. Shout out to Nick Bolton and just how dominant he is in the middle of the field.

Thing is, that officiating. Yes, we're up by 16 with a minute left, and the Chargers quickly get into the red zone. They start going backwards and we finally close them out, but......

How are you roughing the passer on 4th-&-22? This is just ridiculous. Just cheesy calls against our team. Chris Jones barely touched their QB around the neck, and yet they do have to make it much more exceptionally proficient against our team -- that's the narrative. Earlier in the game we had another roughing the passer call against on Ashton Gillotte in yet another thoroughly cheesy interpretation. Okay, enough of that. I promised, sorry.

Our defense was otherwise super stout today, against an admittedly weakened Chargers. George Karlaftis alone batted down three Justin Herbert passes. Their QB was harassed by our D-line all day long. Can't complain.

We're 5-0 and, huh, next week we're off to play Kenneth's old team, the Seattle Seahawks. That'll be a very interesting game to see, and it'll be the Sunday Night Football primetime game!

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The posted photograph is from Sam Lutz at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Chiefs Bye Week Take

Got a bye week this week, earliest of them this season. Good time though to continue working out what we'll do with our wide receiver situation. Many are enamored with the idea that we'll get Tyreek back. Ehh, maybe. I think we should just bring up Andrew Armstrong, see what he's got, and work Jalen Royals, Cyrus Allen, and Brashard Smith into the mix much more.

Meanwhile, a lot of talk is about the officiating, especially since a couple of officials were disciplined for belligerently mixing it up a bit with some players. Huh, I wonder if it is getting under their skin a bit from the pressure they have to get every single call exactly correct -- or, huh, the Scorecasting expectations that things go the way the NFLers want them to go.

Putting the Scorecasting intimation aside for now, the news article mentions that the number of penalties assessed so far this year is inordinately high. Naturally that could be simply because players are just committing more fouls. There is the idea, however, that refs are just calling too many things that really shouldn't be called, and they're under duress for not calling things everyone is screaming they should call.

Ha, Chiefs fans know all about that. I'd committed this blogging year to not say anything about the reffing as I have in the past, however justified my grievances have been. But, well, I'm going to break that rule now and mention that at least half-a-dozen times in this past Raiders game the Chiefs were jobbed on non-calls, I mean really obvious non-calls you'd see if you looked at the film -- holding and PIs are the main culprits. As much as the Raiders had a terrific game plan against us and they played a fine football game, the Chiefs still should've won by two touchdowns.

But yeah, every fan of every team has their issues with the officiating, I get it.

I can't help but emphasize that there are two terrific ways to make this better, just make it so the pressure is off the on-field officials and we can be sure the calls are as correct as they can be. I've shared both of them a number of times before in this blog effort, but, well, I'm just a podunk little blogger guy. It'd be nice if someone got the memo not just because I'm sharing it but because it is the truth. Sorry, it is. To wit:

Number one, get two officials in the booth, looking at monitors of every play throughout the game, right there at the stadium not just in New York somewhere, each one looking at all the angles of every play in real time, and having original play-officiating authority -- meaning they can make a call right away and make it stick just like the on-field referee. I do believe that on-field guy should indeed have the final final say, but this would go a long way to ensuring the calls are good and the on-field officials are not so pressured to make one call or another that'll just affect them emotionally when everyone wants to kill them.

Number two gets at the kinds of calls that are the ones that are most troublesome. The procedure calls and personal foul calls are generally not that much of a problem -- even the holding calls from linemen are for-the-most part pretty well adjudicated. Yeah there are times when we scream about a lineman holding our guy and they don't call it or our guy didn't and they call it. But you know? I've realized most times they do get those right, let's just face it, and those calls are really not the ones that so dramatically affect outcomes. It's not perfect, but all OLs are holding all time anyway, and it does relatively even out.

The ones that do affect outcomes, big-time? And the ones they eff up all the time? You know what they are.

Pass interference and defensive holding calls and non-calls.

Not going to get into the ugly details because we all know them. I will emphatically repeat the solution, and I know some may not like it, but hear me out, and I do hope whatever NFL officially official officianados out there will seriously consider it. It is, very simply:

No touching at all by receiver or defender as receivers run their routes.

Thuh end.

Is this simply too hard to legislate and then enforce on the field?

Please. Just nothing, no touching grabbing reaching jostling AT ALL.

I know it may be considered draconian, but trust me, it'll work. 

Yes, if a player even touches another player he is covering or being covered by: penalty. If they both do it, off-setting and replay the down. I do concede any patently incidental contact or instances when one player very accidentally bumps into another player -- those instances when a player has position and is run into -- these things may be adjudicated appropriately, yes, with the help of those monitor watching officials.

Bottom line is it categorically gets rid of the entire interpretation nature of those calls, which is simply too difficult to assess with plays happening so fast and officials' observation skills simply not so attuned to be able to make critical judgments in those instances. This solves that problem.

I do know people will screech What if it happens all the time? That means MORE penalties and we want fewer! And how many offsetting penalties and replaying down after down after down must we endure?!

I get it, all understandable concerns, but after a while, the players will get it and simply do good route running and play good pass defense. That's what we want to see. As it is there're far too many PI and DH calls and right now it's killing the game and wrecking the refs. Also I believe when there are so many called penalties the officials may be unwittingly thinking we'd better hold back because there are just too many of these happening right now, and then they don't make the calls they should be making! (Do Chiefs fans know about that...)

Oh but what if games are 78-74 with all the scoring from easier passing games?

Ummm, that kind of makes my point. And why do games have to be that high scoring if defenses actually do a good job of defending passes? Wow, what a concept!

Once again, if a defender is not going after the ball and he even remotely touches the defender in the activity of not---going---after---the---ball---itself, then it is a PI. If a receiver reaches his arms out for even the teensiest of contact with a defender as he goes into his route, it is a penalty. If that ball is arriving to the receiver and both players are jostling each other... IT --- IS --- A PENALTY.

Will there still be interpretations about which player impeded the other one more -- in a sense just so we're not getting off-setting penalties all the time? Yes, but I think real impeding force will be much easier to detect with this rule in place.

I am certain that after a while the players will get it, and they will start working to be really good passing game football players, and the best part is we don't have to deal with all the insanity of screeching about the calls we should get but don't and the calls we don't get but should and all the penalties one way or the other and the emotional roller coaster ride we all have to endure from all this nonsense.

There. Now go tell everyone else especially those who run this thing, because, um, yeah, otherwise it'll just be more of the same. 

Yet, again, yeah, if the NFLers are still getting what they want no matter how destructive it is to competitive integrity, well, then, yeah...

Nothing will get done.

Or some other dumb idea will come down the way, and, well, that's the NFL for you.

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The photograph was by David Gray at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Raiders - Week 4 - Record: 4-0

They have got to do more to prevent the insane tackles that absolutely wreck players' limbs. I do know they are trying, and they have done a lot to protect the NFL's assets -- and sorry I don't mean to make it clinical. I do believe they consider them human beings and are doing things to keep the hits from being wickedly injurious. Early in the game the Chiefs' Nohl Williams got a very justified "defenseless receiver" hit call against him, and I'm fully behind those things.

The NFL has indeed done well to make the hip tackles illegal, but I don't think they call them enough. They did, however, call the penalty against a Raiders player when Tyquan Thornton, who'd been having a phenomenal game and had just caught a dandy long pass from Patrick, was hip dropped just short of the goal line and... sure enough...

Had his ankle gruesomely wrecked.

That's all that matters, really. Just that Tyquan will be better, soon, just to be healthy and good even if he doesn't play another down of NFL football.

But I will add that it seems the injuries are piling up a bit too much. I don't really watch much of any other NFL things, but what little I see it seems this player or that player is just getting taken out of games for long periods of time. Sure injuries have been a reality in the NFL, but I wonder. Maybe, maybe not. Are there more? Are the players so skilled and conditioned that, while they may be better at withstanding the punishing hits, are still more susceptible to the ones that damage limbs?

We ended up pulling this one out, but it was way too close, and way too stressful towards the end of the game. The Raiders are now a genuinely good team, with what looks to be a genuinely good coaching situation.

Along with Tyquan, Kenneth Walker was amazing today. Those two guys scored two touchdowns apiece. There is this thing and that thing that needs improvement, definitely, and I could riff on all that, but for now, I'm just spent. Yeah, that sounds waaay too stupid because I wasn't out there slogging through this game like our Chiefs were, but well, next week is a bye week and I may have time to write a bit more.

Nice that we're one of the few undefeateds, but still, the price of Tyquan is just really very not-good.

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The photo is from Kyle Rivas at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Dolphins - Week 3 - Record: 3-0

Well that was ugly. We should have dominated in this game, but, well, Any Given Sunday.

Give the Dolphins credit, they played well considering they lost their fine running back to an injury early, and they lost their backup later when he was doing well in his place. They did as much as they needed to do to slow our offense and make plays against our defense to be in this one for most of the game.

We got a couple of early touchdowns from Kenneth Walker, but they stuffed him for much of the rest of the game. Our defense did just enough to keep the Dolphins from doing any damage, they were always playing from behind but proudly close enough throughout.

We had too many dropped passes, on both offense and defense. One of the drops was Rashee allowing the ball to bounce off his hands up into the hands of their guy. They didn't get points from that turnover, but we also didn't get the points we should have gotten in continuing that drive. Our D dropped a couple of easy picks that would've represented more of the capacity we should have had stopping them.

We also had too many dumb penalties. And I do concede, they were all pretty-much legit. One was early, a ding-dong holding call when we had the Dolphins at 3rd-&-18. 3rd-&-18. That is a major fine for somebody in the kangaroo court. They went on to score their only touchdown.

Even though we beat a team we should've had no trouble with, there'll definitely be some heavy-duty assessments of what happened.

Our pass rush was not good, but got a little better later as the game wore on, so that was okay -- Karlaftis got a nice pick off a Jones tip to seal it late. Our receiving core needs to get better separation to help out Patrick, but they did make some key catches when we needed it. Yet still, where is Xavier Worthy? Why isn't he getting untracked? His vanishing act is getting to be more and more discouraging.

And let's hope Patrick is healthy -- he got hammered after completing a pass from the middle of the end zone, so bad they called a roughing the passer penalty for dropping the body on the guy -- also very legit even though some will say it isn't! Errgh.

He stayed in the game and seemed to be okay, but we'll have to see how he is this week.

As it is we're off to a very nice start this season.

Next week we're at the Raiders, a team that itself has started well this year.

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

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Colts at Chiefs - Week 2 - Record: 2-0

Every time we play the Colts, it is a slog. There've been only two games that I really know about, in my immediate memory, that we handled the Colts well. One was that second Monday Night Football game ever in 1970, when the then World Champion Chiefs blasted the eventual World Champion Colts team that year. The other was our handling of the Colts in that 2018 divisional playoff game when Patrick just made sure we were not going to lose to this team in the playoffs again.

Otherwise we've either been shocked losing to them (how we all want to forget all those playoff losses to this team) or they've given us the worst time. We did win last year for our last win of the season, but it was at home and we barely did, in OT. Other losses I remember are our first loss of our 2019 Super Bowl winning year, that one on Sunday night, remember that one? Also at home? Uggh.

How about in the agony dome in Indianapolis? Another recent Super Bowl winning year for us a few years ago featured a very silly early loss when Chris Jones mouthed off something, no one knows what, yet we got seriously penalized and the Colts went on to win in part because of that incident.

How many more instances must we endure in dealing with this Colts insanity?

Right now I'm writing this with us up 27-20 and having to rassle too much with this thing. There are six minutes left in the game and just now our pass rush is all over their QB Daniel Jones, and he still completes the pass. Too insane. Annnd, now they score the touchdown to tie it.

I know NFL teams, all of them, really, are good enough that the veritable reality is indeed Any Given Sunday. I know.

But this Colts things is just exasperating because more than half the time we are just a better team than they are, and, and... seems every single game...

In fact a number of times the officiating is messing with us again. It is indeed helping keep them in the game. The Colts offensive lineman was holding our guy on one key play in that last drive, very obviously. No call. Meanwhile on our last drive working it working it working it to try to get that touchdown to give us more breathing room, our tackle Kahlil Benson was called for a hold which plainly wasn't. It didn't look good, but it wasn't a hold. We only got a field goal.

To be fair, I will say that earlier in the game Kristian Fulton was called for a pass interference when he barely grabbed the receiver's jersey. But you know. That was indeed a PI! I agree! Good call! I'm not going to be unfair or inaccurate in my assessment. Thing is, earlier Fulton was called for a PI that wasn't! This is the kind of stuff that keeps this Colts team in this game. They are just making the charmed plays.

But yeah, that is NFL football.

More of the Colts weirdness, just now on 3rd down the second string cornerback just barely got his hand in the way of Mahomes' super-nice pass to Rice which would have been a 1st down. He can't handle it. With three minutes left we must punt instead of move a bit further down the field at least kick the go-ahead field goal.

We are playing well enough to have 27 points so far. We are making some fine plays, I could list them.

But one of the key not-good things is, whereas last week against the Broncos Mahomes was way more over center to take advantage of Kenneth Walker's talents, tonight he was over center not even half the time -- mostly shotgun. This just stunts our running game and our ability to use play action. And because of this I just believe we really should have at least another touchdown score in our favor.

Right now at the two-minute warning the Colts are at midfield, and if they get a bit more yardage and run clock, they'll just bang through the game-winning field goal. Sorry, it just should not have gotten to this point.

Earlier we had one touchdown drive that was amazing, the one that finished with Worthy's TD catch. I mean it was wonderful, mixing it up, running unique plays, keeping the D on its heels. It was nice to see us matriculate the ball so easily, so nice to see Eric administer the offensive attack like that -- we never saw anything like that last year. We just need to do that more often over the course of the season, we should be fine.

Okay on 3rd-&-4 our pass rush got to Jones. They punted. Still 27-27 with 22 seconds left...

Now OT. Should have never come to this...

We start with the ball, yet sure enough, Mahomes not over center hands the ball to Walker, and he goes nowhere. Then he is over center and tries to pass, and gets sacked.

Except an amazing catch on a deep pass to Thornton saves us on 3rd-&-long. Right after the catch he gets clobbered. Goodness. Thornton has been really clutch for us tonight.

We get the ball in the red zone, but Patrick right now just threw the ball in the dirt. He has done that a number of times in this game. I think he just needs more time to get into his rhythm. He is definitely showing he's got it, don't get me wrong. When he can make a play, he's been at his amazing best. Tonight when he's passing comfortably, straight up, not so much pressure, he is making laser beam throws.

As it is we have to kick a field goal. There is that. But this team should be scoring touchdowns. Standard procedure tonight: One play we do exceptionally well, then other plays in the mix are just duds.

We get the field goal to go up 30-27, but the Colts get the ball.

Okay, now a crazy play. The Colts receiver makes a deep-pass catch, he goes down, then gets up again and gets the ball punched out and the Chiefs recover the fumble. If that holds we win.

The question is, is he ruled down by contact because of the bare touch by a Chiefs defender.

Right now as I write this they are reviewing it, yet the television official says the barely barest of bare touches means he is down before he gets up to then fumble.

Yepp. Down by contact, Colts 1st down at about the 20. It is this insane Colts thing. Yet again again again...

But yeah, as ludicrously silly is this yet again going against the Chiefs in Colts games, the official made the right call. I promised I wouldn't get as much into the officiating stuff this year, not that anything shared before is invalid at all, still... so, I won't write any more about any of this, so yeah.

They get the game-tying field goal, and with three minutes left in OT, Patrick does get the ball back. All we need is a field goal and we can finally sock this thing away.

After the modest kick return:

Play One. Walker with good yardage.

Play Two. Walker for the first down.

Play Three. Walker again for decent yardage.

Play Four. Mahomes looks to pass, must scramble right and gets a few yards. 3rd-&-1.

Play Five. Yes! Patrick over center! Play action! Float pass to Walker in the left flat and he runs to the 20.

Play Six. Walker for a couple.

Play Seven. Butker in for the field goal. He gets it.

We win.

Going to bed right now.

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The photograph is by Sam Lutz at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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