The AFL Teams Doing Nothing in the Super Bowl Yet Again
Two notable things have happened this year in the world of NFL football. One is something that has been going on all year long--the 50-year commemoration since the AFL began. All right, way to go, yeah-heh, love the old AFL and all that cool high-octane offense stuff, yay AFL! This is not to mention that Chiefs main guy Lamar Hunt started the whole thing. Awright!
The second thing happened yesterday.
When the New York Jets lost to the Indianapolis Colts, my main thought was, "Hmm, that's the NFL's revenge right there." What I was referring to was the exact same match-up in Super Bowl III, the one in which the upstart Jets and their Joe Namath swagger defeated the powerful Baltimore Colts, a game widely considered the seminal game in NFL history. The idea: The AFL showed it could play with the big boys.
Then I thought about it. Have you thought about it? Has anyone thought about it?
That second thing: Yet again an AFL team has failed to get into the Super Bowl.
Yes, I used the words "yet again." This year's match-up will feature the very-much-not-old-AFL Colts versus the always NFL-NFC Saints.
I thought about it for a while, and I did the mental gymnastics to go back and look at all those good ol' AFL teams and their success in Super Bowls past. I discovered something pretty amazing. In Super Bowls, AFL teams have actually, really, truly, splendiferously
Sucked.
So I took the time to really do the math. And here it is, with each AFL team featured in an order with some semblence of meaning. You'll see it as we go. (Simple point of fact: by AFL, I mean the American Football League teams, most of them starting out in 1960 with two more added later in the decade. The league was absorbed into the NFL in 1970 with all of them becoming the AFC with the addition of three old-NFL teams. The NFC consisted of all the other teams and both conferences together became the NFL.)
10. Chargers. Super Bowl record: 0-1. In the one Super Bowl they got into they got crushed by the 49ers. Countless times they've had fine teams, but each and every time stumbled in the playoffs.
9. Titans/Oilers. 0-1. The Oilers had the first two AFL titles but, alas, the Super Bowl was not played back then. Since then the team, like the Chargers, had fine teams but just couldn't get into the big game at all. (Do you think of that complete collapse against the eventual Super Bowl participants, the Bills, in like, 92 or 93? I always do.) The Titans made it in 2000 only to have Kevin Dyson come up an inch short of the goal line giving the Rams the win.
8. Bengals. 0-2. The only post-season success the Bengals have ever really had was in three of their many AFL/AFC years. One of them was a one-win-but-then-out, the other two they went the distance, right into the big game, only to face the 49ers each time. Each game was relatively close, but the Niners prevailed both times.
7. Bills. 0-4. Four straight trips to the Super Bowl, four straight defeats. The first was that narrow loss to the Giants on the Scott Norwood last-second FG miss, but the next three were utter debacles at the hands of the Redskins and Cowboys.
6. Jets. 1-0. Oooo! Wow! Jets legitimize the AFL! Wowwie wow-wow! But, that was way way way back in 1969, it was their only appearance ever. That's, oh, lessee, 40 years ago.
5. Chiefs. 1-1. The Chiefs win over the heavily favored Vikings the very next year was just as important as the Jets win because it proved it was not a fluke. In fact to the not-surprise of those who knew, the Chiefs were an exceptionally good team, and coach Hank Stram's game plan in the big game was one of the most ingenious ever. But as has been attested to in this blog, the Chiefs have pretty much shlurped ever since, at least as far as doing anything Super Bowl-wise.
4. Dolphins. 2-3. Yes, that's right, a 2-3 record. You'da thought that with the Dolphins so dominant in the early 70's they'da had 57 straight Super Bowl victories. But the year right after their undefeated season they beat the Vikings for a two-fer, and then after that, nada. Even Dan Marino's team got into only one, and in that one they got clobbered by those 49ers.
3. Raiders. 3-2. This team could easily be considered the best among the AFL teams in Super Bowl play. Their three wins were all convincing efforts, but the last of those was 26 years ago. (And, it really should be noted that the two Raiders losses were themselves convincing. This team has never been in a close Super Bowl contest.)
2. Broncos. 2-4. Put here at number two because their Super Bowl wins were some of the more recent among the AFLers. We still can't forget that the four losses that occurred before them were all some of the most embarrassing shellackings in Super Bowl history. Indeed the last of those four was a 55-10 slaughterhouse special at the hands of those, yet again, 49ers--the most lopsided loss ever in the history of the event.
1. Patriots. 3-3. Listed here as first because they've had the most recent wins among AFLers, three of four from 2002 to 2005. But before that, they too were generally pathetic up until they got there for the first time in 1986 whereupon, yes, they got mauled by the Bears in the second most lopsided score ever in a Super Bowl. While taking nothing away from the fine play of this team during their Super Bowl run, they did win each of those early 00's games, each one of them, by only a field goal. And need we say anything about the one game just a couple of years ago which they were supposed to win more than any other in Super Bowl history, the one in which they went in undefeated and then let the Giants squeak away with the win?
Now, is this pathetic or what? Really, look upon the horror, if you dare...
An overall 12-21 record in Super Bowls for this bunch encompassing the entirety of all of the 43 Super Bowls played so far (with no chance this year to improve on even that putridity). Only two of the ten have a winning record (the Jets and Raiders), six have a losing record. (Hey, at least the Chiefs are even. Whee.)
AFLers have a miserable five wins since the Raiders won in 1984. Just so you know, that's 26 years in all-- only five wins. And those by only two of the ten. Right after that 1984 win, by the way, AFL teams went on an eleven-game losing streak. Eleven straight, all lost by not just AFC teams but Ay-eff-ehl teams, every one of the them, six different teams in all.
And how about this one: If we say, for these purposes, a blowout is any victory of 13 or more points. Sure there could be argument about what really makes a blowout, but 13 would qualify as a good whupping. There have been 15 such losses by AFL teams, to only six of AFL teams over NFL/NFC teams. That means for every one time an AFL team really put it to their Super Bowl opponent, there have been three times that an AFL team has been blasted.
Wow. This is just amazing, the irony of all the celebrating about the AFL's beginning and all, and we're in the Super Bowl week with not an AFL team to be found. How about this thing called "The Super Bowl," the very term itself coined by none other than AFL founder Lamar Hunt.
All this tells me is that an AFL team is really really due to kick some Super Bowl butt, like, oh...
Hey! The Kansas City Chiefs! They're one of those teams! It's gotta be them!
Next year, it's the Revenge of the AFL! It can only be the Chiefs! The spirit of Lamar Hunt lives on!
Awright!
_
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Chiefs Doing Nothing in the Post-Season Yet Again
This blog is wholly about addressing games the Kansas City Chiefs play and only those games. I do nothing but look at the games. With some few exceptions (like this one) I make only one post a week--the one regarding what happened in the game of the day.
But since this is playoff time and I should be writing about our Chiefs playoff games (but am not, thank you Carl Peterson) I wanted to blog a bit about the very sad history of Chiefs playoff activity. I have no delusions that this may be considered one great big whining session, but oh well. For one, it's my blog, and for two, I know the Chiefs must win games with wise front office decisions, deft tactical leadership, and plain flat-out on-the-field excellence.
But if luck is a component in the mix, then over the many years the Chiefs have had very little of it.
So you may call it what you want, but henceforth this shall officially be my year-end bitch session, and I've got the statistical goods to back it up.
For one thing, I updated the latest Kansas City playoff drought numbers, a statistical nightmare I put together and posted on my blog at the end of last year. This year it was no better. There it is, KC's football and baseball teams still sucking and reaching a 40-year combined team playoff drought. It is updated right up to the present moment with today's NFL playoff action included. Annnnd, there we are there at the top, us Kansas Citians. Next up is Cincy at 33. Then Houston at 22. Then Detroit at 21.
Everyone else, every single stinkin' other city--20 of the 24 in all-- with a playoff drought fully half of Kansas City's, or less.
See, I happen to be kind of a Royals fan, too, and it was as if the sports gods watched Bret Saberhagen leap for joy putting away the last Cardinals batter in Game 7 of the 1985 World Series and said, "This just cannot be. The Royals winning the championship? Especially after a gift call from an umpire the day before and all the things we did to hose them through the 70's no matter how good they were? We'll never let that happen again."
Now I don't attribute the Royals suckitude since then solely to supernatural forces. It has a ton to do with the fact that major league baseball itself knows it would die should anything like the sustained success that the teeny tiny market Royals had through the 70's happen again. I made some notes in a post from last year about how exactly it is that the Royals cannot win, and it is here (right after last year's playoff drought list).
But let's talk Chiefs futility.
One thing I did was get a feel of how the team did versus the key teams they must do well against, namely those teams in the rest of the AFC West, the Broncos, the Chargers, and the Raiders. Indeed since this is the 50th anniversary of the AFL, it is worth a look at this classic divisional set-up and how things have gone through the five decades.
First, let's look at division titles. The Raiders have 16, the Chargers 15, the Broncos 10, and the Chiefs 6. (The Dallas Texans don't count because that's not Kansas City, and the Seattle Seahawks had a few in there when they were in the AFC West.) Then I looked at how many playoff games were won after winning a division title. Here's that list: the Raiders 18, the Broncos 13, the Chargers 9, and the Chiefs 3.
Now, just look at that. Fifty years, and a puny 6 division titles for the Chiefs. FIFTY YEARS OF AFL/AFC EXISTITUDE, and a pitifully putrid 3 playoff victories coming off a division title.
Now yes, the Chiefs did win a few playoff games as a wild-card, and yes they did win the Super Bowl coming out of being a wild-card in 1969. For that I am bountifully grateful that we had such a phenomenally great team like Hank Stram's Chiefs and we could blow away teams as a great team like that should. At least for that one beautiful, glorious, splendidly marvelous year.
But again, the sports gods...
"What? The Chiefs? They can't win anymore, they're in such a teeny tiny market, and they didn't really deserve it because they didn't even win their division, so we'll just have to hose them for the rest of eternity..."
So then, what about the whole divisional title thing? Just FYI, here are those titles, and here are those playoff wins. Don't worry, it won't take up much blog space--whew, good thing... The titles: 66, 71, 93, 95, 97, and 03. The wins: against Buffalo in 66, against Pittsburgh and then right after that against Houston in 93.
Thaht's it. Thah end.
In only two years of the entirety of this 50-year thing we're all celebrating right now, two of fifty, a whopping four percent of the time did we have a year in which we won our division then went on to win at least one playoff game. There it is, those years again: 1966 and 1993.
You'da thought we'da had more in that 90's decade, but lest you forget that once we breathed playoff air we choked nearly every time. We now have the current on-going record for consecutive playoff losses. Yes, uh-huh. We do. When I saw that stat just after the Colts loss after the 06 season I was stunned. Thinking back to that glorious win over the Oilers in January of 94 I just never woulda thought. But yep, right there, the Chiefs have a record six-game playoff losing streak and counting, meaning if they get in again and lose, then they'll be the sole holders of that distinction. (Seattle had six in a row a while back until they won, and Dallas also shared the record but their six game streak ended last week when they beat Philly. For the record, those six in the Chiefs ledger: Buf 93 season, Mia 94, Ind 95, Den 97, Ind 03, Ind 06.)
I still shake my head.
But wait. There's more.
Just this week I thought, hmm, on this year of the 50th anniversary of AFL/AFC wonderfulness--the whole of which commenced, I might add, by the intrepid catalysm of Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt--I would look at total playoff victories through the fifty by all the original AFL teams. Total, meaning all of them, all wild-card, divisional, conference, Super Bowl, all of it. Well, let's look at that shall we, and for our weaker Chiefs fan brethren, you may want to look away.
Here's the list.
1. Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders (25)
2. Boston/New England Patriots (21)
3. Denver Broncos (17)
4. Buffalo Bills (14)
4. Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans (14)
6. Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers (10)
7. New York Titans/Jets (10)
8. Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs (8)
You must note that the Chiefs-not-Texans have only had seven playoff wins in the fifty years. And to think that there have been times when I've actually been kind of sad the Raiders have themselves sucked so thoroughly these past several years (BTW, this year they set an NFL record for seven straight seasons with at least 11 losses--are you sad?), or even thought those who thought the Chiefs should not have beaten the Raiders in the 1969 conference championship game might have a point. Or that since we've pretty much had our way with them for some time (for practically all of the 90's and most of the 00's) that somehow it is their turn...
Somebody, please whack me in the head with a two-by-four, I give you permission.
What really makes me crazy is that I look at all of this just knowing in the very depths of my soul that we are so, so due for at least a teeny tiny bit of success, yet I also know that the sports gods will just do something to hose us and of course, yes, this is precisely why I spend zero time looking at any Chiefs item outside of actual gametime. I only end up going and getting my hopes up and then another Christmas Day 1971 happens. Or a Lin Elliot bricking three FG attempts happens. Or an Elvis Grbac thoroughly ignoring his outlet back for an easy game-winning TD happens. Or a young Peyton Manning converting on 57 third-downs happens.
I dunno. Sure this blog post is just one massive vent. At this point it's really all I have. Until next September when I can see if Scott Pioli has put together a team that can actually do great things for a long, long period of time. See if Todd Haley has taken those parts and assembled them deftly. For everything I have in me as a Chiefs fan I wholly expect them to, I really do.
So until September when maybe, just maybe the Kansas City Chiefs can begin to be the dominant team of the second half of the AFL/AFC Century.
_
This blog is wholly about addressing games the Kansas City Chiefs play and only those games. I do nothing but look at the games. With some few exceptions (like this one) I make only one post a week--the one regarding what happened in the game of the day.
But since this is playoff time and I should be writing about our Chiefs playoff games (but am not, thank you Carl Peterson) I wanted to blog a bit about the very sad history of Chiefs playoff activity. I have no delusions that this may be considered one great big whining session, but oh well. For one, it's my blog, and for two, I know the Chiefs must win games with wise front office decisions, deft tactical leadership, and plain flat-out on-the-field excellence.
But if luck is a component in the mix, then over the many years the Chiefs have had very little of it.
So you may call it what you want, but henceforth this shall officially be my year-end bitch session, and I've got the statistical goods to back it up.
For one thing, I updated the latest Kansas City playoff drought numbers, a statistical nightmare I put together and posted on my blog at the end of last year. This year it was no better. There it is, KC's football and baseball teams still sucking and reaching a 40-year combined team playoff drought. It is updated right up to the present moment with today's NFL playoff action included. Annnnd, there we are there at the top, us Kansas Citians. Next up is Cincy at 33. Then Houston at 22. Then Detroit at 21.
Everyone else, every single stinkin' other city--20 of the 24 in all-- with a playoff drought fully half of Kansas City's, or less.
See, I happen to be kind of a Royals fan, too, and it was as if the sports gods watched Bret Saberhagen leap for joy putting away the last Cardinals batter in Game 7 of the 1985 World Series and said, "This just cannot be. The Royals winning the championship? Especially after a gift call from an umpire the day before and all the things we did to hose them through the 70's no matter how good they were? We'll never let that happen again."
Now I don't attribute the Royals suckitude since then solely to supernatural forces. It has a ton to do with the fact that major league baseball itself knows it would die should anything like the sustained success that the teeny tiny market Royals had through the 70's happen again. I made some notes in a post from last year about how exactly it is that the Royals cannot win, and it is here (right after last year's playoff drought list).
But let's talk Chiefs futility.
One thing I did was get a feel of how the team did versus the key teams they must do well against, namely those teams in the rest of the AFC West, the Broncos, the Chargers, and the Raiders. Indeed since this is the 50th anniversary of the AFL, it is worth a look at this classic divisional set-up and how things have gone through the five decades.
First, let's look at division titles. The Raiders have 16, the Chargers 15, the Broncos 10, and the Chiefs 6. (The Dallas Texans don't count because that's not Kansas City, and the Seattle Seahawks had a few in there when they were in the AFC West.) Then I looked at how many playoff games were won after winning a division title. Here's that list: the Raiders 18, the Broncos 13, the Chargers 9, and the Chiefs 3.
Now, just look at that. Fifty years, and a puny 6 division titles for the Chiefs. FIFTY YEARS OF AFL/AFC EXISTITUDE, and a pitifully putrid 3 playoff victories coming off a division title.
Now yes, the Chiefs did win a few playoff games as a wild-card, and yes they did win the Super Bowl coming out of being a wild-card in 1969. For that I am bountifully grateful that we had such a phenomenally great team like Hank Stram's Chiefs and we could blow away teams as a great team like that should. At least for that one beautiful, glorious, splendidly marvelous year.
But again, the sports gods...
"What? The Chiefs? They can't win anymore, they're in such a teeny tiny market, and they didn't really deserve it because they didn't even win their division, so we'll just have to hose them for the rest of eternity..."
So then, what about the whole divisional title thing? Just FYI, here are those titles, and here are those playoff wins. Don't worry, it won't take up much blog space--whew, good thing... The titles: 66, 71, 93, 95, 97, and 03. The wins: against Buffalo in 66, against Pittsburgh and then right after that against Houston in 93.
Thaht's it. Thah end.
In only two years of the entirety of this 50-year thing we're all celebrating right now, two of fifty, a whopping four percent of the time did we have a year in which we won our division then went on to win at least one playoff game. There it is, those years again: 1966 and 1993.
You'da thought we'da had more in that 90's decade, but lest you forget that once we breathed playoff air we choked nearly every time. We now have the current on-going record for consecutive playoff losses. Yes, uh-huh. We do. When I saw that stat just after the Colts loss after the 06 season I was stunned. Thinking back to that glorious win over the Oilers in January of 94 I just never woulda thought. But yep, right there, the Chiefs have a record six-game playoff losing streak and counting, meaning if they get in again and lose, then they'll be the sole holders of that distinction. (Seattle had six in a row a while back until they won, and Dallas also shared the record but their six game streak ended last week when they beat Philly. For the record, those six in the Chiefs ledger: Buf 93 season, Mia 94, Ind 95, Den 97, Ind 03, Ind 06.)
I still shake my head.
But wait. There's more.
Just this week I thought, hmm, on this year of the 50th anniversary of AFL/AFC wonderfulness--the whole of which commenced, I might add, by the intrepid catalysm of Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt--I would look at total playoff victories through the fifty by all the original AFL teams. Total, meaning all of them, all wild-card, divisional, conference, Super Bowl, all of it. Well, let's look at that shall we, and for our weaker Chiefs fan brethren, you may want to look away.
Here's the list.
1. Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders (25)
2. Boston/New England Patriots (21)
3. Denver Broncos (17)
4. Buffalo Bills (14)
4. Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans (14)
6. Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers (10)
7. New York Titans/Jets (10)
8. Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs (8)
You must note that the Chiefs-not-Texans have only had seven playoff wins in the fifty years. And to think that there have been times when I've actually been kind of sad the Raiders have themselves sucked so thoroughly these past several years (BTW, this year they set an NFL record for seven straight seasons with at least 11 losses--are you sad?), or even thought those who thought the Chiefs should not have beaten the Raiders in the 1969 conference championship game might have a point. Or that since we've pretty much had our way with them for some time (for practically all of the 90's and most of the 00's) that somehow it is their turn...
Somebody, please whack me in the head with a two-by-four, I give you permission.
What really makes me crazy is that I look at all of this just knowing in the very depths of my soul that we are so, so due for at least a teeny tiny bit of success, yet I also know that the sports gods will just do something to hose us and of course, yes, this is precisely why I spend zero time looking at any Chiefs item outside of actual gametime. I only end up going and getting my hopes up and then another Christmas Day 1971 happens. Or a Lin Elliot bricking three FG attempts happens. Or an Elvis Grbac thoroughly ignoring his outlet back for an easy game-winning TD happens. Or a young Peyton Manning converting on 57 third-downs happens.
I dunno. Sure this blog post is just one massive vent. At this point it's really all I have. Until next September when I can see if Scott Pioli has put together a team that can actually do great things for a long, long period of time. See if Todd Haley has taken those parts and assembled them deftly. For everything I have in me as a Chiefs fan I wholly expect them to, I really do.
So until September when maybe, just maybe the Kansas City Chiefs can begin to be the dominant team of the second half of the AFL/AFC Century.
_
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Chiefs at Broncos - Week 17 - Record: 4-12
Can you believe it? In Denver, meaningless game for us, do-or-die-and-need-help meaningful for them, and we come in there
And pummel them.
Jamaal Charles has officially made us completely forget Larry Johnson. He zoomed off for 259, not only the highest rushing total in Chiefs history but one of the top performances by anyone in NFL history. Derrick Johnson, our stunningly athletic one-time star defender-- this year just floating around here and there-- goes to the bank twice with interception returns.
This game was sweet from the beginning because for once, for once it looked like we were all about getting the job done from play one. When I watched the very first play from scrimmage I could swear I was looking at that beautiful Steve DeBerg play-action --remember that?-- sure enough it was Matt Cassel using Charles to draw up the defense then firing a perfect strike to Terrance Copper for 50. Bam. Then another BAM. Bam, bam and in four plays we got a touchdown, amazingly, the first one all season from the first offensive drive of a game.
We got the job done.
We cannot lose sight of the fact that a single game does not a team make. Okay, sober time now, we're now officially in the off-season so let's be candid. This has been the worst period of play the Kansas City Chiefs have ever endured. Worse than those miserable mid-70's years, worse than the lean John Mackovic years (he never had a team with fewer than six wins), even worse than the ridiculously awful Frank Gansz years (even he managed to get four wins in each of his years). Since that glorious last day of 2006 when we miraculously shot into the playoffs, we've played a total of 48 regular season games and have won ten of them. Do the math. That's 38 big huge smackin' losses.
You'd think that with all of this we'd have a losing franchise record, but we actually have a winning record overall (385-358-12). There are a couple of reasons for this. One, the Chiefs were bad-ass good in the 60's and 90's. Yes, all around the mediocrity in our history, we had those two wonderful decades. And two, the Chiefs were never really very bad in any year. I know that's hard to believe even with our beloved Frank Gansz in the mix there, but it is interesting that in our worst years we've only been very average, never a 1-15 record or even anything close to it outside of 2008. That's nothing to cheer about, yes, but still...
This is why I bring up this last spate of Chiefs play--these past three years of horror. Taken together they indeed represent the worst times the Chiefs have ever experienced. Last year we set a record for least number of sacks. This year (for all intents and purposes because it isn't an official record, but close enough) we settled in with the teams who had record dropped passes, around 50 on the season. Our defense was ranked dead last in the NFL. And what cannot be quantified is our abject failure to get any meaningful push on either side of the ball-- arguably the most important part of the game.
But, ain't no way I'm ending the last blog entry of the season that way. I only do so to amplify the stakes here. The fact is, there is that hope.
And it is very real.
I'm not just whistling in the dark. There are some very positive things going on. Two plays in particular that just made me proud to be a Chiefs fan, because they just did so well blocking. Jamaal Charles' first touchdown was just a five-yard scamper, but the blocking made me think about what we had in 2003 when Priest Holmes so splendidly danced through the line. And the first of Derrick Johnson's interceptions was taken back with the help of phenomenal blocking by his defensive cohorts.
With all the accolades I have to mention our kickers, yes our kickers. Ryan Succop tied a record for FG percentage by a rookie--how awesome it was to see him bang through just about every shot he had. And Dustin Colquitt nearly got to a record for most punts inside the 20 in a season. That is great.
Today the Chiefs were gelling and making things happen as a team--oh how sweet...getting the job done. That this happened there in Denver, our first win there since 2000, extraordinarily sweet. We put up a whoppin' 44 there today, the most in their yard since 1966. Sweet sweet sweet. This game was a complete and utter joy to behold.
Now it's on to April and the beacoup load of draft picks to keep building on this. What a fantastic way to go into the offseason. Oh please know this is by no means the best it can be...
I eagerly await the the last game of the regular season when it is way way better than this, when we actually move on to the playoffs.
If we can build on this, and there is every reason to believe we can, it'll happen.
I confess, I confess with an overflow of the most heartbreaking memories that there have been many times when things looked bright for us, and later things went very, very badly. I so very well know this may be one of those times. Many of the pieces are indeed in place, particularly in the front office, that make the hope real, and while sometime later it could all end very badly yet again, I can only close this season with the thought--especially after this final game of '09--
That at least there is that very bright hope for now.
It is very good indeed.
_
Can you believe it? In Denver, meaningless game for us, do-or-die-and-need-help meaningful for them, and we come in there
And pummel them.
Jamaal Charles has officially made us completely forget Larry Johnson. He zoomed off for 259, not only the highest rushing total in Chiefs history but one of the top performances by anyone in NFL history. Derrick Johnson, our stunningly athletic one-time star defender-- this year just floating around here and there-- goes to the bank twice with interception returns.
This game was sweet from the beginning because for once, for once it looked like we were all about getting the job done from play one. When I watched the very first play from scrimmage I could swear I was looking at that beautiful Steve DeBerg play-action --remember that?-- sure enough it was Matt Cassel using Charles to draw up the defense then firing a perfect strike to Terrance Copper for 50. Bam. Then another BAM. Bam, bam and in four plays we got a touchdown, amazingly, the first one all season from the first offensive drive of a game.
We got the job done.
We cannot lose sight of the fact that a single game does not a team make. Okay, sober time now, we're now officially in the off-season so let's be candid. This has been the worst period of play the Kansas City Chiefs have ever endured. Worse than those miserable mid-70's years, worse than the lean John Mackovic years (he never had a team with fewer than six wins), even worse than the ridiculously awful Frank Gansz years (even he managed to get four wins in each of his years). Since that glorious last day of 2006 when we miraculously shot into the playoffs, we've played a total of 48 regular season games and have won ten of them. Do the math. That's 38 big huge smackin' losses.
You'd think that with all of this we'd have a losing franchise record, but we actually have a winning record overall (385-358-12). There are a couple of reasons for this. One, the Chiefs were bad-ass good in the 60's and 90's. Yes, all around the mediocrity in our history, we had those two wonderful decades. And two, the Chiefs were never really very bad in any year. I know that's hard to believe even with our beloved Frank Gansz in the mix there, but it is interesting that in our worst years we've only been very average, never a 1-15 record or even anything close to it outside of 2008. That's nothing to cheer about, yes, but still...
This is why I bring up this last spate of Chiefs play--these past three years of horror. Taken together they indeed represent the worst times the Chiefs have ever experienced. Last year we set a record for least number of sacks. This year (for all intents and purposes because it isn't an official record, but close enough) we settled in with the teams who had record dropped passes, around 50 on the season. Our defense was ranked dead last in the NFL. And what cannot be quantified is our abject failure to get any meaningful push on either side of the ball-- arguably the most important part of the game.
But, ain't no way I'm ending the last blog entry of the season that way. I only do so to amplify the stakes here. The fact is, there is that hope.
And it is very real.
I'm not just whistling in the dark. There are some very positive things going on. Two plays in particular that just made me proud to be a Chiefs fan, because they just did so well blocking. Jamaal Charles' first touchdown was just a five-yard scamper, but the blocking made me think about what we had in 2003 when Priest Holmes so splendidly danced through the line. And the first of Derrick Johnson's interceptions was taken back with the help of phenomenal blocking by his defensive cohorts.
With all the accolades I have to mention our kickers, yes our kickers. Ryan Succop tied a record for FG percentage by a rookie--how awesome it was to see him bang through just about every shot he had. And Dustin Colquitt nearly got to a record for most punts inside the 20 in a season. That is great.
Today the Chiefs were gelling and making things happen as a team--oh how sweet...getting the job done. That this happened there in Denver, our first win there since 2000, extraordinarily sweet. We put up a whoppin' 44 there today, the most in their yard since 1966. Sweet sweet sweet. This game was a complete and utter joy to behold.
Now it's on to April and the beacoup load of draft picks to keep building on this. What a fantastic way to go into the offseason. Oh please know this is by no means the best it can be...
I eagerly await the the last game of the regular season when it is way way better than this, when we actually move on to the playoffs.
If we can build on this, and there is every reason to believe we can, it'll happen.
I confess, I confess with an overflow of the most heartbreaking memories that there have been many times when things looked bright for us, and later things went very, very badly. I so very well know this may be one of those times. Many of the pieces are indeed in place, particularly in the front office, that make the hope real, and while sometime later it could all end very badly yet again, I can only close this season with the thought--especially after this final game of '09--
That at least there is that very bright hope for now.
It is very good indeed.
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