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

The story of this game is actually a contrast of opening days. There was the Falcons' opening day when the Atlanta fans could open their Christmas gift, Matt Ryan, and watch him torch their opponent to inaugurate his progress to Super Bowl calibur QB.

Then there was the Chiefs' opening day. Our third year guy Brodie Croyle gets his chance to develop a bit more through this team's rebuilding efforts, but on the other side of the ball Tom Brady gets his knee twisted in a pile-up sidelining him for the rest of the year. As everyone's attention rains down upon this catastrophe, the Chiefs pathetic offensive line allows a Patriot pass rusher to blast through untouched with one objective in mind, defend the honor of Tom Brady and by default, the entire NFL.

Said pass rusher flies in to sack Croyle, but vengeance is not so easily tamed. He gives Croyle the extra fierce and quite unnecessary body-slam to the turf, putting him out indefinitely with a shoulder contusion. Mission accomplished. If the Patriots must suffer (and today they lost their first game in umpteen times stopping their record winning streak), then the Chiefs should suffer too.

Problem.

The Chiefs are not the Patriots. Their guy goes down and the world has a fit. Our guy goes down and no one notices, or they say nothing because to admit "he deserved it" is a bit rude. Their team will still be great. The Chiefs can only be far worse.

From that comes the second problem, and this is the disease that has infected all of modern major professional team sports.

I happened to come across this story from Newsweek elucidating what's really at stake in these games. Because the Chiefs are the guilty ones for murdering the golden goose, there is no way they can effectively defend themselves against their prosecution. Helped along by an enraged Patriots team, we are doomed to a season, if not many seasons to come, of abject ineptitude.

This certainly makes it seem that I'm saying Brodie Croyle was our savior. I am not. Not even in the teensiest way am I an apologist for Brodie Croyle. Nor am I saying the Patriots are to blame for our woeful condition.

This whole Chiefs team is awful. I do love our boys, but let's be honest. There are ten college defenses out there that would stuff our offense with the OL we have. And I don't even want to put all the blame on them. I thought our young defense would be way better than it is.

The issue is that Croyle should've been allowed his full chance to try. He still may make it out there sometime this season, but his absence for these few games just puts a huge wrench in anything the Chiefs can do that's remotely decent.

That's the contrast between QB's today. Their future guy, Matt Ryan, played wonderfully, while our fill-in guy, Tyler Thigpen, well, just played.

Next week I'll share more about quarterbacks and why they are so important. As for today, it is disheartening to see that even though Croyle has proved nothing yet, our team shouldn't have to be shamed by an NFL and an NFL fandom that seems to think the "bottom line" shouldn't be so desecrated.