Chiefs 2005 Season - The Spaghetti Western Take

I don't know anything about the Chiefs except what I see and hear during the three hours they play on Sunday. I read no sports page, I watch no sports news, I visit no sports website-- for any sports of anything. So in my year-end assessment, I have no knowledge of draft, trade, or retirement moves, which is not necessarily a good thing, but I also have no conception of what media Monday-morning pundits are saying, and that is necessarily a good thing. I will admit that for this post I did take a peek at the Chiefs roster, only to note how many years certain players have been on the team, because that bit of information is instrumental for my take here.

The Good. Our youth. We have some pretty decent young players that showed tremendous promise this year. Most times Kawika Mitchell and Derrick Johnson were terrific on defense. If they can just learn to tackle all the time they'd be great. It is obvious Jared Allen is a keeper but only if he behaves. Sammy Parker looked helpless out there in the first few games but came around and really shined a number of times. And of course Larry Johnson is nothing less than spectacular. The only real disappointment in the youngins department was punter Dustin Colquitt. When you draft a punter as high as third, you'd better see him make booming punts on at least a semi-regular basis. Really, he barely made it to mediocre, but maybe that's just because he was a rookie. He'll get a few more chances.

The Bad. Our age. Let's face it. We're ancient. Notice how short the "our youth" paragraph was just now? Let's start with the key to our game, the O-line, and it doesn't look pretty. Brian Waters and John Welbourn are mid-career vets, but the others damn-near senior citizens. Get ready to weep. Future Hall-of-Famers Will Shields and Willie Roaf were both playing in their 13th years. Roaf's return to the line sparked a great run for us-- I think we went 5-2 after he came back-- but there were still a couple of times when he got burnt badly. Trent Green is really pushing it at 12 years. Eddie Kennison, 10 years. Tony Gonzalez, 9 years. (As good as these guys are.) Our defensive backfield did fine with the additions of Sammy Knight and Patrick Surtain, but even those guys are getting up there. The only major player on the team who's in the middle of his service, right where he can be great (if he isn't already), is Dante Hall.

The Ugly. Our focus. Look at this team: 10-6. Ten-and-six record for cryin' out loud, and no playoff spot. This has happened to only one other team since 1991 (Miami two years ago). Certainly this was because there were six teams that just had better records in the AFC this year, but the fact is in a couple of those losses, when it came down to being clutch, we beat ourselves. The turning point in the season? That fumble just before the end of the half when we were really taking it to the Cowboys. We were about to go up 21-10, but instead they run the fumble back a long way, and then bop right in for a touchdown and we're down 17-14 just like that. Thing is, we still should have won, up 28-24, when a foolish holding penalty against us on a Cowboy 4th down for what should have been effectively the last play of the game gave them new life to score the go-ahead touchdown. Those kind of mistakes at just the wrong times betrayed what a fine team this was, but also demonstrated that you've got to be on top of it all mentally for the full 60 minutes of gametime. And that non-tackling thing? It's not that we can't tackle. It's that we overpursued and we ran around them and we bounced against them and they zipped on by. This is a problem of focus, not inability. In some ways, that made this season that much more frustrating.

I'd love to have a Dick Vermeil clone coaching us next year, but some part of me felt that too much of the Vermeil tenderness kept these guys from really keeping that focus. Let's hope for someone with the Vermeil heart, but with an added Lombardi boot so some of these guys can get kicked in the butt sometimes.