Seahawks at Chiefs - Week 8 - Record: 4-3

What is this with the heart attack games? At one point we're ready to go up 30-14 with a chip-shot field goal, and the next thing you know their guy is running back the fumbled snap for a touchdown to get them right back in it.

Again, the question was, could we finish? I paid close attention to the defensive series we had after that ten point swing. Those series:

1st: We stuff their running game again, and they go three-and-out. Awright. On the day they got 47 yards rushing. Pretty good.

2nd: We stop them on third down, but a defensive holding call gives them a new set of downs. They then connect on a long TD pass play. Ergh.

3rd: This last Seattle shot comes right after we get a clutch score with the help of a 51 yard strike from Huard to Kennison and a two-point conversion catch by Gonzalez. There's an interception and fumble by Jared Allen in there that involves a referee review, but after a couple of modest Seattle gains we eventually stop them on 4th down.

Even though it was a heart attack game, you've got to think these crazy things have to keep us keyed. I'd like to think that we're going good establishing that capacity to finish, even as we've allowed these teams to get back in it as we have each of the past two weeks.

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

I must say that it was extraordinarily thrilling to see Lawrence Tynes kick that 53 yarder with six seconds left to win it. Especially after a false start penalty just before took it out five more yards. And even more especially after watching Damon Huard lead the drive, connecting on some clutch passes to get us in field goal range.

But it should never have come down to that. Tynes himself atoned for a missed PAT earlier, and I thought, hmm, he missed the PAT on the third TD we made in last year's Chargers game at Arrowhead. This time it almost came back to kill us.

We also had a 20-3 lead at that point, with our defense playing great again. Ah but the Chargers are a good team, and they took it to us in the second half.

I must say that I was pleased to see us really use Tony Gonzalez much more. The guy is an phenomenal weapon if we just use him. I also think the defense can be very good, and I believe some of what we gave up was a result of that youthful exuberance that can hurt you.

I'm still concerned about the O-line. There were just too many times it didn't protect Huard and didn't get Johnson loose. Should I complain? Huard did have the clutch last minute drive and Johnson did rush for over a hundred on the day.

Needless to say we are also playing some of the best teams in the NFL right out of the gate. We get Seattle next week. While it was far too close than it should have been, we still got a win against one of them today and that's what we'll need to do if we expect to contend.

Chiefs at Steelers - Week 6 - Record: 2-3

I really hate it when the NFL makes a new rule in the middle of the season. This past week they declared that the home team could put 14 men on the field and the visiting team could have only 8. No wonder we couldn't move the ball and they did whatever they wanted on offense.

Wait, you mean there was no such rule change? Oh, that's embarrassing. From what I saw, I thought that had to be why we got utterly shellacked.

Seriously, at its best, we just were the wrong dumb animal on the wrong truck route. It didn't matter who the Steelers were playing, they'd played relatively poorly all year and were at home-- anyone would've been made roadkill yesterday.

At its worst, the answers to the key Chiefs questions were, for today anyway, a resounding "No." The questions:

1. Will our offensive line hold up? Needless to say we couldn't do a damn thing on offense. Larry Johnson got diddly running the football. I'm sorry, but at this point I just don't think that's because Pittsburgh's defense is so good, which it is of course. It has a lot to do with the O-line not having people like Willie Roaf up there. To our credit we were down 31-0 before we breathed, so why try to get much yardage on the ground at that point?

2. Will our defense continue to play as well? Um. Yeah, well... I now just wonder if the Denver game was an aberration. Take that out and the game against the weak 49ers and our defense has given up a few TD's, short or long field. Pittsburgh simply drenched us.

One cool thing about this game was something my wife told me about today. I had turned off the game at the half because I just couldn't take it any more-- that and because my son's flag football game was starting. But today she said that she'd seen a highlight clip of Troy Polamalu running with the ball and being taken down from behind-- by his hair.

I'm sorry but that is great. I have no problem with Polamalu being a terrific player. But he looks like a goof out there. Say "Who's got the ring," say "Who's the All-Pro making a gazillion times what you'll ever make" as much as you want. The guy looks silly with his hair flying all around like that. So when our guy tackled him with the hair, well, Troy, tough darts. Put your hair in a bun already.

I took a peak at the game play-by-play, and I noted that Larry Johnson made the tackle and then he got an unsportsmanlike penalty. Now, was it for tackling by the hair? If afterwards he'd taunted him or kicked him or something, then yeah, that's fine, he should get the penalty. But was it for the hair? If it was, then that is inexcusable, especially when other players have practically ripped our guys' heads off and gotten the comparative slap-on-the-wrist. Really, if you are going to have your hair flying around, just like an arm or a leg waiting to be grabbed, then what's the issue? But then I just don't know what happened.

Finally, I just have to add, that I only wish the Chiefs could have the up-and-down system the Steelers have, through-and-through a fantastic organization. I don't for a second want to demean the Chiefs organization. But I just see the difference. You could see it on the field.

The key is that the Steelers finish. They just don't have the best players in the world, but at least they finish. Sure enough on the field yesterday I saw too much of the 2005 Chiefs, running around like keystone cops, overpursuing, missing tackles.

I only say this to tip my hat to the Steelers, and also to hope that our problem, really, was just that we drove a thousand miles-per-hour into a buzz saw yesterday. It'd be nice if all these games against the best teams in the AFC (San Diego next week-- whew!) will make us a better team.

And that we'll know how to finish.

Chiefs at Cardinals - Week 5 - Record: 2-2

When are these defenses going to stop trying to take our best guys' heads off? The NFL has all kinds of penalties to protect people, why aren't they applying them on our behalf? First Trent Green, now Larry Johnson.

Let me say that I didn't see yesterday's game, because my 10 year-old son's flag football game was scheduled at exactly the same time as the Chiefs game. I did note just before I left that we'd quickly put ourselves in a 14-0 hole. I came back and saw that we'd won 23-20! (It was a good day all around, my son's team won 26-25.)

Anyway, I looked over the game stats and saw that Johnson had a 78 yard pass reception, and that in the last drive before the game-winning FG, we'd gone 85 yards in 5 plays, something like that. Had to have been there. Turns out one of my students today (all of them know I'm a maniacal Chiefs fan) tells me that an Arizona defender grabbed Johnson's mask and almost took his head off. That to me is just one thing that can't be tolerated-- some day a player is going to be made a quadriplegic. Any flagrant face-masker has got to be fined, suspended-- in fact there also ought to be a "break-away foul," much like the in NBA when you get the basket and the ball. How about we get the touchdown?

Now I don't really know, I didn't see the play. I'd like to think that whatever the case, we'd be fired up a bit more, teach them not to disrespect us out on the field.

As we go through the season I'm looking for the answers to those three key questions. I'm passing for now on the "keeping our noses clean" item because I'm just not paying any attention to the police blotter stuff--again, I only watch or listen to the game when it is on. That's why this blog is the "Chiefs Game Today."

But the other two:

- The O-line. The not-so-good was that Larry Johnson got only 36 yards rushing. Hmm. But the good is that it looked like Huard was protected decently. He had an okay day passing and was only sacked a couple of times.

- The Dee. We gave up those first two early TD's when the Cardinals had a short field, one on a good kick return and the other on a QB fumble. After that we thoroughly shut the Cardinals down. Still, in four games we've only allowed a single long TD drive, that one to Cincinnati. Is this for real? We'll still have to see. A better test is next week against Pittsburgh.

49ers at Chiefs - Week 4 - Record: 1-2

This is one of those games in which the more you dominate the more unfulfilled you feel because you know that last week you lost a really really really stupid game that you now so know you should have really really really won.

I don't think there was any question that Herm Edwards heard it from everyone about what a chintzy game he coached last week. Now yes, the Niners are not the Broncos, but he finally put it in fifth gear and let our boys play.

Damon Huard had a spectacular game. In the first half he was something like 13 for 15 with two touchdowns before he let the running game take more of the load to put it away. Dustin Colquitt, yes, the punter!-- had another terrific game, getting a 59 yarder off late. Dante Hall ran a punt back for a TD, ahhh, it felt like the glory days of 2003. And our defense was phenomenal again. Is this for real? Is our defense really this good?

All this with Larry Johnson having a way sub-par game. He got off a nifty 28 yard run when it was all but over to get over 100 for the day, but again, the main reason for concern is our offensive line. Can it get us where we want to go?

Also disturbing was hearing about Jared Allen's DUI arrest. All kinds of arguments can be made for why he should or should not be in there playing. Whatever the case, this just can't help our cause.

So yeah, after three games, among the key questions is not, believe it or not, when Trent Green will return. We just want him to be really really really healthy. They are (a) Will our defense continue to be as good? (b) Will our OL get any better? and (c) (Erghh...) Can we keep our noses clean?